Recent findings in experimental social psychology have demonstrated the existence of “implicit biases”—attitudes and stereotypes that we are neither aware of nor necessarily endorse. This concept is increasingly being used to analyze the sufficiency of companies’ workplace policies.
What marketers need to know this week: The number of consumers who prefer to watch TV shows on TV is dropping, nearly one third of U.S. consumers aren’t on social media, the drug PSA remake with a much different message, and more.
Voice technology has made great leaps in the past few years. Speech recognition error rates are approaching human levels, and machine learning continues to improve the ability to understand the nuances of natural language such as meaning or intent. Last year, 20% of Google’s mobile search queries were voice queries. While Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon dominate with widely used assistant, Facebook and Samsung as well as a handful of other brands are exploring how to incorporate voice into their customer experience.
Voice represents a logical next step in the evolution of how we interact with information. It’s more natural than using a touchpad or keyboard, takes less brain power, and creates even more opportunity for tech to move further into the background where it doesn’t require precious attention. And it’s quickly getting to a place where it will deliver what consumers want most from it: A fully integrated experience that connects their platforms and devices with a layer of context and a smarter assistant that incorporates preferences and behaviors to get predictive.
The broadest application for voice tech with consumers will continue to be realized through digital assistants, primarily through smartphones and home devices. The more a voice assistant can connect with the user’s personal data, the better it will be at layering personal context and making recommendations. According to a report compiled by JWT 60% of smartphone users agree that “if voice assistants could understand me properly and speak back to me as well as a human can, I’d use them all the time.”
But traditional SEO approaches will need to be changed. We neither want to hear 10+ answers to our question, nor would we be too keen on having a sponsored answer precede the answer we really want. One idea posited by JWT suggests an affiliate model might be viable wherein brands pay to be accessible to voice assistants. Another possibility is developing algorithms that understand the decision criteria used by voice assistants, but they may include social data like endorsements, ratings, reviews in how they determine results.
As we saw at CES and SXSW this year, it seems Amazon is licensing Alexa into everything from speakers to toys. As voice-tech becomes more pervasive, it will also grow in demand. All brands should be constantly evaluating ways to remove friction (or adding smart friction) from their customer experience. There may be several touchpoints where voice could be useful.
Retail and hospitality brands might look for ways to incorporate Alexa into physical spaces like lobbies or dressing rooms where customers may have focused needs. Brands with more specific requirements might look at developing their own custom voice solution. A fast food restaurant chain may improve drive-thru accuracy and ordering by using voice-tech customized to the way their customers talk, and in the process harvest heaps of raw data for analysis.
Incorporating more voice as a workable interface will be a profound change for consumers and brands, but privacy will continue to be a major concern in this space. Sensational news stories about digital assistants recording and storing everything they “hear” contributes to already heightened fears and mistrust. A large privacy scandal with one of the tech giants could render a major setback.
While this continues to mature, brands should be mindful to think human first. Most importantly, the application of technology should make lives easier and give us back time. Joseph Evans, senior research analyst at Enders Analysis assures, “Web browsing isn’t going to go away, apps aren’t going to go away, … video on demand isn’t going to go away, … but voice interactions will be one channel. A lot of this stuff will move to being called up by voice.” Which leads us to yet another question marketers must answer…how will your brand tap into this?
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Any fan of “Breaking Bad” knows that Jonathan Banks plays the ultimate fixer. That made Banks the perfect choice to play the salty sage teaching the next generation of DIYers to do right by their cars in a new campaign from Fram Group and its Midwest-based creative agency Laughlin Constable.
The new campaign seizes on the insight that Millennials who change their own oil often look past perhaps the most important part – the oil filter. And with oil filters, there’s a cheap way and a right way. Enter “Frampa,” a crusty elder who helps the younger generation buy the right oil filter, the FRAM oil filter, for their cars.
“People used to learn about changing their oil from someone more experienced, like a father or an uncle. Those older guys historically reached for the FRAM filter. But the current generation hasn’t been taught the value of using the right filter and they reach for the cheap one,” says FRAM Brand Manager Brian Kelley. “So we wanted to introduce the kind of mentor who people would trust to help them do the whole job right.”
The character was perfectly embodied by Banks, famous for his work on “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” long before he agreed to the campaign. “Jonathan Banks was choice one, two and three for Frampa,” says Dan Fietsam, Chief Creative Officer at Laughlin Constable. “Our team loved the juxtaposition of a seasoned advisor who’s long on wisdom and short on BS. This man does not suffer fools.
Communicating sometimes with grunts and groans and an exceptionally tight hand grip, Banks guides a series of novice DIYers. “Your engine will thank me. Now you can get back to your robot music,” Banks says as he tosses the car keys back to a startled looking twenty-something. “They’re not Robots, they’re Swedish,” the younger man says.
The campaign consists of four spots, all filmed in Los Angeles on location in automotive stores and home garages. They were directed by Ric Cantor, best known for his humorous anti-texting spot for the New Zealand Transport Agency.
CREATIVE CREDITS:
FRAM Group
Brand Manager – Brian Kelley
Laughlin Constable
CEO, President – Mat Lignel
Chief Creative Officer – Dan Fietsam
Chief Strategy Officer – Mark Carlson
Executive Vice President, Account Services – Renee Haber
Vice President, Media – Emily Harley
Creative Director – Jon Laughlin
Senior Art Director – Dan Koel
Copywriter – Matt Portman
Vice President, Senior Producer – Phil Smith
Group Account Director – Denise Joseph
Account Manager – Lainie Rotenberg
Senior Integration Manager – Mike Murray
Digital Strategist – Dominic Pellitteri
Senior Social Strategist – Lauren Mahomes
Production Company – Hungry Man
Director – Ric Cantor
Production Company Producer – James Kadonoff
Editorial Company – Hive
Editor – Lauren Brandoff
Motion Graphics Artist – Margaret O’Brien
Music House & Audio Mix – Mix Kitchen/Chicago
Composer – Craig J. Snider
Engineer – Sam Fishkin
Color – Nolo Digital Film/Chicago
Colorist – Mike Matusek
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The third day of TED brought a slew of powerhouse talks — and one vibrant debate. Photo: Marla Aufmuth / TED
On day three of TED2017, we got an exploration of the mind, new ideas on climate change and thoughts on how our world is hyper global and at the same time hyper local. Below, some highlights.
Perception is a hallucination. Surprise! In Session 4, Anil Seth made a convincing case that we’re hallucinating all the time. In a delightfully disorienting talk, he explained how our minds are constantly making “best guesses” between sensory signals and prior experiences, then updating with new information. “It’s just that when we agree about our hallucinations, that’s what we call ‘reality,’” he said.
Redefining home around core values. Devita Davison, dismayed by the fact that many Detroiters live closer to a fast food restaurant than a supermarket, walked us through some organizations promoting urban agriculture in the city, to ensure that everyone has access to healthy food. Grace Kim sung the praises of co-housing, a system where neighbors share spaces and lives. This fights back against isolation, and creates neighborhoods founded on mutual care, she said. Then in one of the most powerful talks of the day, Luma Mufleh, a Jordanian immigrant of Syrian descent, shared how she became a soccer coach for young refugees in Atlanta after running across a group of kids playing barefoot, with rocks as goals. She formed a team that supports players from war-torn nations, affirming their basic humanity as they make new homes. “What I get to see every day is their hope, resilience, determination, love of life and appreciation for being able to rebuild their lives,” she said.
A live experiment. Dan Ariely and Mariano Sigman woke us up this morning by having us participate in an impromptu experiment. They asked us consider two morally ambiguous scenarios — then discuss them in random groups. They suspect that conversation might have effect on how people think about these kinds of questions. While their research won’t be available for a bit, they wanted us to do this to make a key point: “Experiments are an admission of how little we know.”
Daan Roosegaarde shows a ring made from the waste of Beijing smog. Photo: Bret Hartman / TED
The smog ring and “yes, but” chair. Daan Roosegaarde made a smog vacuum that cleans local parks in Beijing — then turns the waste into diamond-like rings. In an ode to hope and creativity in a session with sobering warnings on climate change, he said, “If we implement that kind of thinking, there’s a whole new world to be explored.” For anyone opposed, he had a surprise: a chair with voice recognition software that shocks anyone who says, “yes, but….” Because it’s a phrase guilty of killing many a good idea too soon.
In algorithms we shouldn’t trust. “Algorithms are opinions embedded in code,” warned Cathy O’Neil in a blistering talk. We accept algorithms as truth — even when we have no idea what they’re based on. And that’s a big problem, since they’re determining who gets released from prison, who loses their job and so much more. It’s a fascinating call to demand transparency in algorithms.
Geoengineering — yay or nay? TED attendees got a front-row seat for a debate on geoengineering. Danny Hillis proposed that we explore solar geoengineering to mitigate against rising global temperatures. He explained that, as agents of climate change, humans are already geoengineering. Climate scientist Kate Marvel stepped onstage to voice her concerns, saying, “I feel like what you are proposing is involving all of us as your human subjects, and I’m not sure I consent to that.” Tim Kruger introduced a process to break down limestone into lime and CO2 — the CO2 can be stored underground, while the lime can be used in seawater to counter ocean acidification. Finally Al Gore expressed skepticism. “We have to stop the pattern of behavior that’s creating this crisis,” he said. Despite these different takes, one message was clear: We need scientific research if we are to stand a chance.
Hard things? You can prepare for them. Anika Paulson found that a funny thing prepared her to weather the transition from high school to college — the fact that she’d been studying music theory. Neuroscientist Lisa Genova dropped the unsettling news that the plaque buildup in the brain believed to cause Alzheimer’s disease begins as early as age 40 — but that we can make ourselves more resilient to its effects by learning new things. And meteorologist David Titley pointed to the military adage that the time to prepare is before a crisis — and asked us to think this way about climate change, as rising sea levels mean that even small storms can devastate.
By Patrick R. Dailey, Ph.D. Present-day corporate directors are being equipped by governance educators, driven by regulators, and pressured by activists to be more actively engaged in pursuing their fiduciary and governance responsibilities. They are encouraged not to be simply fiduciary custodians of the interests of shareholders but active leaders with specialized knowledge of risks […]
In the first part of this two-part series, I talked about brand cultures that focus on performance, those that are restless for change, freeform cultures and those that learn fast and continue to evolve. Understanding the type of branded culture you are trying to change is critical, because no culture is serendipitous. It evolves from the mindsets, habits and viewpoints of those who made it the way it is. Equally, change will be dictated by the willingness of those involved to change.
I’ve always argued that changing a culture requires working with its pervading biases to the greatest extent possible. If you are looking to change or adjust a performance culture, for example, work with the competitiveness that is inherent in that culture rather than trying to work against it. So much cultural transformation fails I believe because those seeking to change a culture try to impose an ideology that simply doesn’t align with the dominant characteristics. Some will say that is what cultural transformation is: taking a brand’s culture, breaking it down and rebuilding it. I beg to differ, and the failure rates around corporate cultural change would suggest that, at the very least, a different approach is well worth considering.
With that in mind, here are four more of eight different brand cultures I’ve encountered and some thoughts on what it takes to successfully achieve enduring change in each of these environments.
5. Purpose Culture – driven by a need to change the world. Dominant once in challenger brands and ethical brands, but increasingly becoming mainstream as corporate brands catch onto the galvanizing power of focusing their people on a big idea. These cultures are highly motivated because they have a clear ‘wrong’ that they are intent on righting. You’ll find these brand cultures across many sectors, particularly those where the mainstream incumbents are seen as out of step or in areas where there are opportunities to fly the flag for democratizing access. Three things can do serious harm to a branded culture that is purpose driven. It becomes too successful for its own good, and therefore loses much of the energy and ambition that powered it. It can become so absorbed in what it is doing that it loses the plot competitively. Or people within the organization can decide to over-share their evangelism, lecturing those that they see as disagreeing with them or who they regard as obstructive, including the brand’s own customers. In their book On Purpose, Shaun Smith and Andy Milligan share the story, for example, of Virgin Atlantic firing 13 crew members after they posted rude comments about passengers. The great strength of purpose-driven brand cultures – their impatience for change – is also their potential weakness unless handled well. Refocusing is best achieved by a shift in target, preferably to something even bigger and more ambitious, leveraging off a sentiment that ‘our work here is done’.
6. Start Up Brand Culture – the culture that defines the brand. There’s a romance and defiance to the best start-ups that most CMOs would love to bottle. To me, that aspect of a brand culture is seldom the issue. The small number of people, the huge workloads, the odds against success, the pressures of investors and the belief that they have something that will change the world combine to give those start-ups that make it the gumption and vision to pull together as a team. Where things become difficult is when the growth sets in. As the brand incorporates more systems and processes, perhaps increases its footprint and learns the meaning of success, hesitation becomes more normal. The impulsive early days are replaced by broader and slower decision making, the rise of silos, politicization and a tendency to take less risk. All of this can combine to make the brand culture more obstructive, less enjoyable and less motivated. The key with any start-up as it grows up is to insist that the characteristics that built the company stay with the brand; and that it embraces those defining tenets to address its growing problems, rather than abandoning them in order to grow. That may sound relatively straight-forward, but in reality it’s difficult because it requires those coming aboard to ‘learn’ what the brand was while adding to what the brand is. I’m always bemused by the fact that start-up brands seem too eager to abandon their history as they grow while established brands don’t seem eager enough. Two questions I like to ask of start-up brands that are evolving to the next phase in their culture are these: What motivated you to start in the first place? And where do you continue to put all that energy?
7. Personality-Powered Culture – shaped by the style, manner and priorities of a leader. These people exert such an influence over their organizations that they drive and shape the entire culture. This can be a hugely positive force for good – think Walt Disney or Coco Chanel. But when a brand revolves so much around one person and the brand they envisage, it can, in the wrong hands, stifle innovation and change. People and their visions underpin some of the most powerful brand stories. Great brands leverage the charisma and vision of these leaders to hold the brand together, but continuing to interpret the founder’s vision or that of a great leader after they have left is something many cultures grapple with. Too often, they lapse into preservation – failing to change because of a reluctance to move on from what has been a tradition for too long. The secret to driving such a culture forward is not dissimilar to that of the start-up brands given above. It’s about holding the organization accountable to what made the brand famous and continuing to evolve how the culture works and thinks. There was a great piece by James Allen and Christopher Zook last year in which they talked about the need for organizations to keep their founder spirit. To do that, more brands need to disperse that thinking beyond their leadership and into the very marrow of their culture so that everyone feels encouraged and motivated to think like an entrepreneur.
8. Lean Culture – these are brands that need to keep pushing down costs in order to thrive. Often they are in sectors characterized by high volumes and low margins, such as wholesalers, big box retail and many intermediaries for example. There’s a tendency to see such brand cultures as people-unfriendly. Brands such as WalMart have taken a lot of flak over the years for the demands they make on staff and suppliers alike because of their propensity for driving out cost anywhere they can. But brands like Costco have also shown that lean cultures can be effective and humane. It all comes down to where you put your priorities. Lean brand cultures that see people as costs will look to automate and standardize in order to hit their bottom lines. Lean brand cultures that see people as assets will look to do the exact opposite: treat their people as a resource for extracting more value out of how the business works. Happiness, motivation and support may seem like fluffy qualities in sectors where price and margin dominate so many of the conversations, but the secret to making these cultures work is recognizing that change from within rather than from above will be most successful. I’m a huge advocate for little changes when looking to move lean cultures – because the cumulative effect of so many tweaks can be significant and people feel like they have control and that they are bringing the change about themselves. But there’s a flip side to this success as well: getting everyone to understand and embrace the pricing, and encouraging a straight-shooting culture where no-one is scared to tell the truth. When people feel they have a future, but they also know what the business needs to achieve in order for there to be a future, it quickly generates a powerful sense of ownership.
Perhaps some of you will be thinking that your culture has elements of several of these cultural types, and therefore it’s hard to pinpoint where you should focus in order to achieve meaningful change. My recommendation is that you look for two things: the characteristics of your culture that drive the greatest and most successful change; and those that hold the brand back and prevent it achieving its potential. If you can, draw on the first to address the second.
The Blake Project Can Help: Please email us for more about our brand culture expertise.
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Past ANA Multicultural Excellence Award nominees and winners share some of their best habits and tips for success.
It can be said that good brands are well known, but great brands are well loved. The love affair between customers and their brands, as with any relationship, takes work. Great brands don’t merely talk the talk when it comes to their unique customer-centric mindset. They walk the walk by the effort and sacrifice they do, corporately, “to keep it real” for the customer.
Earlier on Branding Strategy Insider, we looked at how brands like Delta and Campbell Soup were showing how they could relate to their customer’s reality by telling their stories through some very creative and engaging marketing campaigns. But what’s important to remember is that as clever and well-produced as these campaigns are, they are simply an accurate reflection of the brand’s attitude of care and respect for its customer.
Virtually all successful brands employ some combination of best practices to care for their customers, such as customer hotlines, live chats, blog posts, online reviews, social media and relationship management. Great brands go further, incorporating traditions, practices and rituals that pursue customer affection while keeping the main tenants of the brand alive and well.
During my work on the Home Depot account, I learned a valuable lesson from this big box brand in this regard. For instance, Home Depot requires all its non-store associates to spend a couple of weeks “wearing the orange apron” serving customers in one of their 2,275+ stores. It doesn’t matter if you’re a top executive or an assistant’s assistant in their home office in Atlanta, you wear the apron and you serve the customer. In so doing, you experience Home Depot for the first time from the brand’s perspective–to give you a greater appreciation of the customer’s perspective.
Attend any company meeting and you’ll understand why this practice is so powerful—an auditorium filled with loud brand-passionate orange apron-clad believers ready to do what it takes to keep their chain #1 and their customers happy.
There are other corporate cultural imprints, such as referring to their home office the “Store Support Center” (again, putting the emphasis on serving others) rather than “headquarters.” And inside this massive complex, you’ll find an exhibit dedicated to the Home Depot story and experience, as impressive as anything you would walk through in a large, metropolitan science and industry museum.
These and other practices are designed to inculcate and keep alive the brand’s culture, passed on from the founders, of customer service, passion, and can-do attitude with each of the 385,000+ associates that wear the Home Depot apron.
As the brand continues to grow and become more successful, keeping the passion and connection alive between its roots and its branches becomes an increasing challenge. Success can actually become the enemy of brands for a variety of reasons:
Home Depot experienced such a challenge a few years ago, precipitated by a leadership change, and as a result, its reputation for customer service was called into question. With another regime change, however, customer service was again given priority and, post-recession, the brand has continued to thrive.
Of course, Home Depot is not alone in the pursuit of keeping itself real for the customer. Great examples abound with great brands:
When brands meet customers where they’re at, and work uniquely and diligently for their business, their hearts and their loyalty will follow. Great brands go the extra mile and are not only well known, but well loved.
Don’t Let The Future Leave Your Brand Behind. Join Us At The Un-Conference – Marketing’s Only Problem Solving Event. May 1st – 3rd, 2017 West Hollywood, California
The Blake Project Can Help: Accelerate Brand Growth Through Powerful Emotional Connections
Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Licensing and Brand Education
FREE Publications And Resources For Marketers
By Katie Paine Buying influence is nothing new. In the old days, we called paid influencer marketing “paid testimonials.” But today, with the explosive influence of YouTube, it can be a guy in a garage, or a drunk actress in a kitchen. As major brands get burned by some of these “influencers,” we wonder how […]
*reSET is the only Connecticut organization to receive the U.S. Small Business Administration for the Growth Accelerator Competition Award, announced by President Obama on August 4th, 2015.
