I read a great blog from Maz Iqbal today about customer-centricity vs. product-centricity and want to expand on his thoughts a bit in the context of brand.

‘Product-centricity’ is when the company’s primary focus is on the product—making it better, producing it more efficiently and selling more of it. ‘Customer-centricity,’ on the other hand, is when the company’s primary focus is on the customer’s experience—creating the best experience at whatever cost, with the goal of creating a customer relationship that lasts.

While you may say these aren’t mutually exclusive, it turns out…they may be. What I mean is, they each require a different leadership mindset (and, frankly, it’s rare to possess both). Customer-centric leaders consistently use the brand promise as a guide to ensure that it is kept at every customer touch point, making compromises in profits where necessary to uphold that promise. These are leaders that choose to:

a) Invest in customer service over
b) Outsourcing it

a) Invest in customer experience design over
b) Product design

a) Invest in building up and supporting their employees over
b) Status quo management

Unfortunately, there are relatively few brands out there doing this today. But, the movement is afoot. Because, in this digital age where customers define how products are used and what brands mean for them, the experience is king. So why not make it a brand-defining experience? Brand-defining experiences are experiences that demonstrates your brand promise in a way that emphasizes your distinct value, or values, as the case may be…

–Jen Travis

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Just caught wind of kulula.co via this snopes.com article. What a hoot! This regional airline out of South Africa makes a bold promise and a big splash with their visual brand. From airplanes with engaging designs to their on-time performance website page (5 years worth of stats) to their coordinated travel options that get you from your door to your destination spot and back again, this company sets clear expectations for its customers (known as “jetsetters,” if you join their loyalty program).

Kulula’s mission is around “safety first,” ease of planning and travelling at “the easiest price,” “no bullshit” (their own term – really!) and having fun. They seem to be pulling all of this off nicely. Their challenge will be to keep it up and not let the brand slip into boring. Can they create new designs when they buy new planes? Will they meet their on-schedule goals? Will employees continue to provide a fun experience even as people get accustomed to their approach?

What does it for me is that this company has tapped into the way we consumers want to be treated and engaged, with honesty and a sense of humor—and as long as they stay on top of that, they’ll be in great shape.

Any other examples out there of companies taking a more down-to-earth approach to meet customers where they are? Please share!

Beth Woolley

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Several years ago, I worked as a reporter for a public radio station in the Midwest. One day, while reporting a story about an emerging hi-tech company, I had a revelation about how companies think about themselves. While visiting the company to conduct interviews, I was struck first by the building itself.  The facility was big and spacious with high ceilings and lots of natural light.  There was a slide you could take from the second floor to the first, if you were feeling too whimsical to use the stairs.  There were wonderful paintings and sculptures throughout the facility. They had a restaurant (with a trained chef) on site, as well as a massage therapist and a hair dresser.  A dry cleaner stopped by daily to pick up and drop off laundry, and I was told that a nurse regularly visited the business in case anyone was feeling ill.

The skeptic in me thought, “Yeah… they have to provide all those services because they expect their employees to slave away 20 hours a day. They’re probably miserable.”

Once I started to conduct interviews, I was stunned by the positive attitude shared by employees and owners alike.   From the receptionist who greeted me to the CEO, everyone referred to the same basic ideas about what made their company successful and what they enjoyed about working there.  They all talked about the open culture, the mutual respect coworkers had for each other’s abilities, and the oddly plucky nature of how the company planned to grow. It was a disconcerting experience for me and at the time I wasn’t quite sure why.

Flash forward several years. I am no longer a reporter, although I haven’t lost my journalistic curiosity.  The question of how an organization creates and conveys its culture to all its stakeholders has continued to be a fascinating subject. So, it was a pleasant surprise to find myself doing some work for Parker LePla where they have made an art form out of coaxing the companies into identifying and implementing on what I now know is called Brand.

When the players at Parker LePla first described how they help companies identify and build their brands, the skeptic in me thought, “Yeah, right. How can outsiders tell insiders what their company is all about?”

Yesterday, I got a glimpse of how they do it.  I watched as five members of Parker LePla’s (now referred to PLP-ites) firm discussed their collective understanding of what they learned about a client through a series of interviews and surveys.  The group was quickly able to agree on five core themes that everyone within the organization expressed.  The PLP-ites then worked together to write a statement that not only expresses those themes but also contextualized them in terms of the client’s larger business environment.

I don’t recall any Kool-Aid being served at yesterday’s meeting, but I must have had a sip of something good.  It was amazing to hear how the PLP-ites riffed off of each other’s ideas as they worked toward the common goal of finding the appropriate expression of the client’s brand.

Now, I have no idea how the client will feel about the result of the work I witnessed, and I’m not just saying this because I’m hoping that my work with PLP continues, but it was really exciting to realize that an organization’s culture – any organization – can be discovered, analyzed and verbalized with the right set of objective minds working on discovering it.  For the firm that that thoroughly knows its brand, the benefits are tremendous – both internally and externally.  That is what I witnessed years ago when I interviewed people at that Midwestern hi-tech firm.  The company still exists, by the way. And continues to grow and develop and maintain its plucky culture.

-Shula Neuman

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An epiphany is a sudden insight into reality—something you might have known all along, but simply didn’t see. It’s the big “aha!” moment clients have as a result of our work. One of our recent clients described it as, “Wow. It’s the first time I’m hearing it, but it’s like I’ve lived this all my life.”

How does the branding process uncover epiphanies?

Companies get entrenched in their thinking. They lose outsider perspective as cultural norms and groupthink take hold.

Branding, when you start with external research, brings in a new perspective about your organization’s value. There are all sorts of barriers keeping your brand from being its best: an organization’s bureaucracy, negative cultural norms, lack of focus. There’s something very elegant in how we help organizations make simple shifts to set them free.

That’s my favorite part about this job. Lifting the veil and delivering the epiphany to help organizations say, “Wow! That makes sense. A lot of sense.”

- Bianca Abate

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The brand that’s made me the happiest this year is Wolfgang’s Vault. I go there on a regular basis, often on Friday afternoons when I’m finishing up administrative tasks and need some ear candy. The more I listen, the more often I return. I’ve heard concerts by artists I wish I’d gone to and concerts from the same tours I saw “back in the day” by artists that hadn’t made it big yet. I started going to the site a couple of years ago to relive some great musical moments in my life—but now I’m getting much more.

I love that the Vault has branched out to newer artists and more recent concerts. Their A to Z list of performers is huge and inclusive, so I can experiment. There are artist interviews as well as concerts. There are lots of free downloads as well as ones you have to pay for. Plus concert listings in my area.

The website has improved steadily. It’s become increasingly easy to use and what Wolfgang’s Vault is adding, I’m enjoying. I must be in their target demographic—they’re hitting me in my soft spot and I love it!

What’s the brand lesson? Do one thing really well and build from there. Innovate around what you know and give your customers and fans an easy path to follow as you lead the way. If the substance is there and you demonstrate that you’re listening, you’ll keep your die-hards and win new ones.

Have a great 2010!

Beth Woolley

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Starbucks has built its brand on its ability to deliver a consistent customer experience. When you ask someone what they love about Starbucks, it’s always the same answer—“I know what to expect.”

Why then would a company with such a recognized brand promise veer away from the very thing customers value?

With its recent decision to open “locally-branded” coffee shops, Starbucks has completely abandoned its brand (and received much public criticism for the move). Aside from the fact that the new stores will not be named “Starbucks,” they bear almost no resemblance to the brand experience we’re all used to. Instead, they’ve taken on a Bohemian coffee-shop look and feel, adding alcohol to the menu and showcasing local artists from musicians to poets. To me, the move seems very off-brand and inauthentic—especially when you hear stories that Starbucks sent its employees to neighboring coffee hangouts, like Victrola, to jot down ideas and thoughts in notebooks labeled “observations.”

What are your thoughts on Starbucks’s new strategy? Do you agree with Adam Hanft of Fast Company (and me) that this is a poor and off-brand decision? Or do you, like John Moore of Brand Autopsy, believe it’s a brilliant learning opportunity to help Starbucks put its brand back on track?

-Hiley Spaet

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Sign up to attend PLP’s upcoming webcast on July 16th at 3:00 PM Pacific. Principal Briana Marrah will be hosting the webcast to discuss “Your brand booster: how to leverage every customer experience.”

Visit the BrightTalk website to sign up by clicking here.

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Check out Lynn’s presentation from the Ordnance Survey’s Location Conference!

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