brandknewmag.com
10
What makes you so special?
What makes your brand unique and better than the
competition is the compounded totality of many little things.
That means you can’t just consider the attention given to
producing an outstanding service or product--you also have
to think about how the sales force and support team treats its
customers and how the receptionist answers the phone.
The Jawbone UP24 fitness tracking device is a good
example. After diligently tracking my sleep, workout regime,
and diet, I became properly addicted to the wristband and
to its accompanying iOS app. When the band suddenly
stopped working, after three months, I flew into a minor
panic. All my data (and exercise momentum) would be lost, I
worried. But Jawbone turned out to have an excellent support
system. They troubleshot the problem with me seamlessly,
on email and over the phone. They used human beings,
not robots. I followed the progress of my issue via a concise
thread on their support ticketing system. After they quickly
exhausted all possible solutions and saw that the device
was still malfunctioning, they shipped me a replacement
band immediately. I became loyal to the brand thanks to
the humane and efficient treatment I received. The extra
attention taken by Jawbone to make sure that their staff was
professional and courteous--while making sure that I never
got lost in a maze of telephone drones or automated emails-made a huge difference.
certain resistance, and so on.
For those who remember, think about the perfect resistance
and muted click of the Hewlett-Packard scientific calculator
buttons, compared to their competitors Casio and Texas
Instruments. The latter two companies clearly hadn’t spent a
lot of energy thinking about what it would feel like to press
down the keys. And it made a difference.
Advertising and branding should be thought of in the same
way. Yes, the big idea is important, but success hinges on
its execution, consistency, and attention to each and every
word. Do define the brand with succinct messaging, but also
trust that consumers will recognize the collective positive
attributes of the brand rather than just its tagline. Make sure
your communications are well crafted and recognizable. All
touch points need to be carefully considered, down to every
HTML email campaign.
Apple and Crate & Barrel stand out as excellent examples
of how to design the perfect email. Google’s emails, on the
other hand, lack consistency and seem rather haphazardly
generated. Emails from Apple and Crate & Barrel are
advantageously laid out, with beau ѥ