Be objective

Would you make a TV ad without having a clear objective?

Of course you wouldn’t.

 I don’t know anyone who spends money on a marketing campaign without knowing why you and what aiming to achieve. Sometimes I might quibble about the robustness of the measures of success and the extent to which these measures are aligned with the strategy and broader objectives of the business but in the main most marketing teams have some form of idea of why they are doing what they are doing.

It might be to build brand awareness and brand preference.

Or to drive sales.

Or to recruit new customers.

Sometimes it might just be to inspire and engage colleagues.

No matter there is a purpose behind the activity.

And yet often I see marketers who have no clear idea why they want to be on Facebook or have a Twitter feed. It is as if when it comes to social media we lose sight of the need to have purpose, an objective, a reason for doing what we are doing.

Some businesses however will measure their presence by the number of followers or friends they might have.

Is this valid? What is the value of a friend or a follower? Does anyone know? Does anyone care? Has anyone done the analysis on this?

Remember in the early days Hitler had millions of followers, Jesus had 12. Numbers can be misleading.

And if you are The Acme Screw Company, why would anyone want to be your friend or follow you. And I think there is nothing worse for any brand if it has a low number of friends or followers. What does that say?

So instead of just trying to amass as many Facebook Friends or Followers as possible, let me suggest that any brand’s social media activity should set out with a more clear purpose and role.

Maybe it’s to provide an enhanced customer service. Travel businesses for examples use their Twitter feed to provide a steady stream of updated information on travel conditions, delays and the like.

Maybe it’s to use social media to reach out and engage with key influencers as part of an enhanced PR approach. Not all Friends and Followers are equal and as marketers we should not be chasing everyone but influencers and building a social media approach around these people. These are the ones who will re-tweet, endorse and otherwise build engagement with your brand. I am convinced that many brands will be really disappointed when they see what percentage of their followers or friends are genuinely influential.

Or maybe your social media presence can be used to support your brand campaign and encourage customers and prospects to participate in the campaign through a competition, a cause or to build participation in the brand story and its characters. And thereby extend the reach of the TV ad spot and maybe even build up a database of prospects and customers. Few brands and few ad campaigns are strong enough to carry this off to good effect however.

I don’t mind brands being hugely social but we do need to be objective about this and have a meaningful commercial objective about why.

As someone once said ‘social media is like parenthood-you can read all the books you like but until you have a child, you just won’t get it’.

All I ask that we stay objective.

In God we trust

Over the last few weeks I have been involved in a couple of discussions about trust. 

Not surprisingly a lot of businesses have trust in their values and have aspirations to be a ‘trusted adviser’, ‘a most trusted brand’ or ‘a partner you can trust’.

Now I always think that trust is something you earn and never claim. Instinctively when someone says ‘trust me’, you know not to.

But more fundamentally what is trust and how does one earn it?

And when you ask that question few can answer.

To quote the famous American Supreme Court Judge when asked to define hard core pornography, ‘it is hard to define but I will know it when I see it’.

So is it possible to define trust?

A wise man once introduced me to the Trust Equation and I think that anyone wanting to be a trusted brand should consider their performance on the dimensions of this Equation as set out below:

T= (Ex+R+Em)/S

Where

T=Trust

Ex=Expertise, a high level of subject matter knowledge and expertise

R=Reliability, the brand/business/individuals do exactly what it promises to do every time

Em=Empathy, the ability to relate to people, to understand and share their emotions

S=self-interest, a perception that the brand/business/individual is acting out of their own self-interest will seriously undermine trust.

In short trust can only be earned by performing consistently to a high standard on the attributes of expertise, reliability and empathy, and by minimising the extent to which the brand or the business  and its people is seen to be acting in their own self-interest.

When you put it like this it is easy and pretty straightforward to understand what we mean by trust. Of course saying it and understanding what it means is one thing. Putting such understanding into action is altogether another kettle of fish.

But here’s an idea to consider.

If your brand or your business has the T word in its values, its mission statement or it vision, remove it.

And instead replace it with the attributes of the Trust Equation.

Make your values more about being empathetic, reliable, expert and acting in the customers’ interest not ours. In other words earn trust through behaviours, don’t just claim it.

And while we are at it, values should have a pain attached. They must stress and stretch the organisation otherwise what is the point.

Nothing is to be gained by just having values that talk about empathy, expertise, et al. Name any business that wouldn’t want to be empathetic, expert and reliable.

Try having a value that talks about showing real understanding how our customers feel; doing what we say we are going to do every time; showing real subject matter expertise; and doing the right things for our customers even when it costs us money.

Now I think we’re talking.

Now we have values with bite, with meaning, with edge. Now we can be a trusted brand.

The Scottish Question

It was once said that the Schleswig Holstein question, a great 19^th century diplomatic puzzle, was only understood by three people-one who was dead, one who was mad, and the third who had forgotten it.

Now we have the Scottish question and as a marketer with the odd bit of Scottish blood in me I find it fascinating. Hopefully I am not the mad one.

I am of course referring to the stramash over the wording of the Scottish Referendum question.

For those less interested in the ins and outs of Scottish politics, the original question to be asked was ‘do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?’  After a bit of a row this was changed to ‘should Scotland be an independent country?’ 

Not much difference you might agree.

However the way the original question was asked is yet another interesting example of a nudge which might have left people free to choose whatever answer they like but the choice architecture in the wording of the question provided a wee nudge in a certain direction. And not surprisingly might have nudged a small number of people to vote for independence. And in the world of nudges small incremental gains count.

But in this instance the choice architecture was spotted and stopped but this is going on all around this and this thinking can benefit marketers, if not Scottish politicians.

Many of the decisions we make as we go about our daily lives are intuitive requiring little or no thought. We are on automatic pilot. And when we operate in this mode our decisions are not thought through, not reflective and in many instances done out of habit. Think about how we drive.

And even when we are in fully reflective mode we look for shortcuts. Basically although our brain is a wonderful instrument we are lazy. For most of the time we just can’t be bothered to process all the information out there to make the best decision and to act in our best interests.

When this arises we are vulnerable to being nudged. And in so many ways.

This is what those framing the original question were trying to do.

There will be people out there unwilling or unable to process the debate. For these people the wording implied that someone else had made the decision that independence was a good thing and you were just being asked to agree with this hypothesis. There was also a hint that this was the norm and we all want to feel part of the herd, don’t we?

But the nudge was spotted and a nudge free question substituted though this will probably be the first of many nudges on this issue.

In many areas the ordinary consumer is a novice interacting in a world inhabited by experienced professionals. Their lack of experience, imperfect knowledge and inadequate feedback means they want and often need help and support. By organising the context in which the decision is made we as marketers can more consciously help the consumer make decisions. We can become a choice architect, simplifying the choice architecture we give our consumers and customers, and nudging them in the direction of one choice over another.

And remember there is no such thing as a neutral design. Anywhere decisions are being made there will be biases.

Now we marketers either knowingly or unknowingly apply choice design principles all the time-‘8 out of 10 cats prefer’; the use of celebrity and expert endorsements in ads; product  placements in store;  store design; menu design; and so on.

But marketers can and should do more than just sell stuff. We can help people change behaviours in their and society’s interests; we often want them to switch channels; or we can design a helpful customer experience and customer journey. In all these instances and many more the principles of choice design can apply.

The Scots might not have been able to architect their question as well as they might have hoped but there is plenty of scope for the rest of us to do so.

This is the age of the train

When you think of railways in this country, having a reputation for great customer service is not necessarily the first thing you might associate with them.

But for me one of the UK’s finest exponents of a customer service that exudes humanity, warmth and helpfulness can be found working for one of our many rail companies.

It is often said that no one gets up and comes to work to give bad customer service, though as I get older I begin increasingly to doubt this saying. It is just the resources, the systems, the leadership and other infrastructure issues far too often get in the way of people giving the standard of customer care and service that they would aspire to give. Accepting that in some businesses and for some people the standard of service to which they aspire is exceedingly low, no matter the claim that the business puts customers first.

However the person who is the subject of these musings is capable of rising above all this and no matter the issues and the extent to which a whole host of factors get in the way of a top class level of service being delivered, is unfailingly polite, helpful, diligent, reliable and totally 100% customer centric. Here the customer does come first even if a few rules have to be quietly bent to make sure they do and even if they don’t deserve to come first (and at times I am ashamed to say I have fallen into this category).

I once asked about the attitude and approach to customer service. It was simple.

‘’I just imagine that everyone I meet has VIP stamped on their forehead and I treat them like a VIP’’.

Management consultants working in this area will come up with PowerPoint upon PowerPoint detailing their approach to customer service management but I doubt they can come up with anything better.

And so every day myself and all the other customers are treated as a VIPs.

I am met at the station with a warm greeting; I am called Sir until my name is learnt and then I become Mr and eventually we graduate to Christian names; nothing is ever too much trouble, I am never made to feel a bother or stupid; and extraordinary requests not covered by the rule book are treated with a graciousness that is uncommon and dealt with through the application of common sense. You never get the sense of a jobsworth or a box ticker or a slavish follower of rules.

The impact of such a devotion to customer service excellence is noticeable by its rarity.

Indeed it is so noticeable that I am delighted to announce that all these efforts were rewarded by an MBE in this year’s New Year’s Honours List. Brilliant.

For me this is a master class in customer service and I would urge all rail staff and anyone else looking to deliver great customer service at all moments of truth to get down to my local rail station and see excellence in action.

Judy MBE, I salute you.