*Building Real Brand Loyalty: Steve McKee of BusinessWeek.com makes the point that if a company strives to achieve share of heart among its customers, it will end up with share
of wallet as well, but the reverse may not always be true. So how do you establish a lasting relationship with your customers that will reinforce the brand? Here are five ideas to
keep in mind.
-
Roots of loyalty: People are naturally loyal to various different kinds of groups. Build on the natural loyalty that comes from providing good service, rather than
trying to "buy" loyalty by focusing too much on behavior.
-
Appealing to the heart: Loyalty comes from emotion, rather than a rationale. We empathize with organizations that appear vulnerable, willing to expose themselves and take a
risk. Companies like Nike, Target, and Starbucks have built such brands.
-
Patience: It takes time for love to grow in business, too. Regardless of physical value, a brand like American Express comes with a certain statement, an emotional cachet
it has built over the years (at least with the older generations).
-
Relationships are reciprocal: Trust develops only with mutual disclosure of information and protection of it. It is possible to have too much information, to be too
personal. No one needs a birthday card from their airline, no matter how loyal they are.
-
More than numbers: Just because something is hard to empirically measure doesn't mean it's not working. While important, behavior can be overemphasized. Focus on the "why"
of behavior rather than the "what."
Source: BusinessWeek.com
*Best of the Best: On July 24, PRSourceCode announced the results of its second annual "Top Tech Communicators" study, which surveyed more than 300 IT journalists in order to
identify the top five large, mid-sized and small PR agencies serving the IT industry, as well as the top 15 corporate PR departments. Here are the big winners:
Large Agencies:
1. Weber Shandwick*
2. Waggener Edstrom Worldwide*
3. O'Keeffe & Company*
4. Bite Communications
5. Schwartz Communications
Mid-sized Agencies:
1. Horn Group*
2. Sterling Communications
3. VOCE Communications
4. Calysto Communications
5. OutCast Communications*
Small Agencies:
1. LaunchSquad*
2. Amendola Communications
3. Tech Image
4. Springboard Public Relations
5. JPR Communications
Top Corporate PR Departments:
1. IBM
2. Sun Microsystems
3. HP
4. Microsoft
5. Ingram Micro
6. EMC
7. Accenture
8. Cisco Systems
9. Symantec
10. Lenovo
*These firms have been ranked as "best of the best" for the second consecutive year.
Source: PRSourceCode "Top Tech Communicators" study
*Top Five Web Site Mistakes:
1. Planning the Web site's look before figuring out what you want to achieve. Instead, put strategy before design, and keep your goals in mind when planning artwork.
2. Organizing your site around what's familiar for your company - The customers' convenience comes first, not yours, so put yourself in their shoes. Translate jargon, and
provide a variety of ways to access information.
3. Getting carried away with the latest bells and whistles - Balance interesting design elements with practicality, keeping load time and ease of use in mind. Sometimes simpler
is better.
4. Cutting it too close - Companies often underestimate the time it takes to properly prepare all the elements of a web site, so make sure you budget enough time and
resources.
5. Launching on a Friday - Let's face it, something always goes wrong, so launch at the beginning of the week, when you'll be around to handle unexpected developments.
Source: http://blogs.business2.com/utilitybelt/2007/07/instant-?messagi.html