MarketingProfs Know-How Exchange : The ONE & ONLY ( (( DEREMIAH, *CPE )) )......Now Can YOU BRAND YOU Effectively?

Completely Powerless Executives
Commitment Produces Excitement


This is a hard one as branding is not our focus, but let me try this.

I once worked for a company in the transportation industry. Through a series of events I met a customer (through one of my better distributors) who unleashed on me all his hatred toward my company.

He told me of how my company could have retained his business if we would only have offered to pay for an inconvenience WE created for him. The cost might have been $25 maximum. When he threatened to take his business elsewhere the "customer relations" person commented "you'll be back". (I hope you're all fuming as I was!) 15 years later as I met him, he had not come back...and was now the president of this very successful company.

A sincere personal apology was just the first step in this 14 month process of winning back his business. (I knew from the distributor how much he was spending with my competitor). Invariably when I would visit the distributor they'd be on the phone with him and I'd ask to talk with him...not about my company, but about his company.

This was probably 12 years ago but I can still remember a conversation we had (he called me directly while on the road after he had begun using us again) in which he told me, specifically, that he would spend more money to do business with me (he gave me a dollar amount which isn't as important as the fact that it equated to about 22%) because he knew that if there was a problem, I ...emphasis on I...would take care of it.

Our company had been losing market share steadily over the previous 2 1/2 years. Eventually we regained top position in the market and pushed out several competitors....not that were already there, but new entrants who wanted to capitalize on the growing marketplace.

Not sure if this fits with any of those 3 or not.

Thanks again!

Michael

C.) Saving a brand that was about to go down the drain

We had always marketed our different products separately which was very successful. All of a sudden someone decided to market all of the products together as a bundled service under one brand. HUGE mistake. Profits went down and people were confused. Looking at past graphs and profits we wondered what we did different. Changes in flow lines? No! Changes in pricing? NO! It just didn't add up. I must admit, I got on the bandwagon for a bit, until clients started asking what happened to ----------. Then it hit us. We caused this chaos! Updating the logo's a bit still keeping the same look and theme, and marketing the products separately again did the trick. We had no idea that this change would cause such a problem. Huge BRANDING MISTAKE!

It will never happen again, I'll tell you. Thanks Deremiah! Fun Questions!!!

Promo Chic

Hi Deremiah,

CPE = Creative Professional Endurance

A.) improving a brand

My success is putting brands in commercials. When I was doing the Mercedes commercials they wanted caucasian so I had an open call for them at the airport. I interviewed about 80 people for spokeswoman and they hired ethnic. Once the commercials aired the stats went up and opened up a new demographic. They hired this lady again to work in more spots.

I am successful at rehabilitating artists and businesses to where they are getting great products.

Hi Michael,

Thanks! good word content on the *CPE.

And yes your story has *BA..."Brand Appeal". Pay ATTENTION FOLKS...notice Michael is illustrating something else that's almost instinct in our "Hustle YO Momma Society"......In the "Hustle YO Momma Society" people don't have time to:

1.) Show *GC...Geniune CARE
2.) Show *AF...Apology FACTOR
3.) Show *LOVE...Loud Outrageous Visual Exuberance

Great illustration of "SAVING A BRAND" from disaster. But more importantly your keen sense of knowing what to do next shows you have the most AMAZING----(( ( *CPE )) ) ability=Customer PASSION Evangelism appeal.

Keep up the great work Michael. You got it now take it to the WORLD...One customer-at-a-time.

Your Servant,

Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

Caring Promotes Exuberance

Customer Persuasion Enthusiast

My story of Creating a Brand from Scratch:

In the last couple of years, I've helped my client, OneSource Services, Inc. develop their GreenSweep brand. They are an $800 million janitorial and landscaping company, and this is their new green cleaning program. This was purely a marketing-driven product development project, so we did everything from naming the brand to creating training materials for janitors and labels for their eco-friendly cleaning products.

OneSource has a small marketing communications department who doesn't believe in using big agencies. So basically, the team that developed and implemented this highly successful brand was: a local boutique agency, 2 OneSource marketing people and me. GreenSweep has exceeded sales goals by 250% and the marketing materials just won several awards, including one in the prestigious IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) Gold Quill program. Plus, GreenSweep is a socially responsible service and hit the market before the huge push for "green" began.

You can see get a feel for the branding on their web site http://www.one-source.com but the print materials and ads were even better. We mostly took an educational approach so that potential customers could understand the real benefits of "going green."

If anyone has any questions about the process, excitement and success of starting this brand from scratch, please email me. See my profile for my address.

Another great question, Deremiah, CPE

thanks,
karen

Hi Promochic,

Come back here...you forgot to give me what powerful branding words you could put into *CPE...that was your invitation to offer the story!

And yes your story has *SAB..."SAVE A BRAND" appeal. Pay ATTENTION FOLKS...notice Promochic's story and what we can learn from *BF...I call it

"BUNDLE FEVER"

the new Spike Lee movie on what happens to organizations that have "BUNDLE FEVER"...I hope you don't have "BUNDLE FEVER".

"BUNDLE FEVER" illustrates another fine example of what we have too much of in this "Hustle YO Momma Society"......In the "Hustle YO Momma Society" people don't have time to:

1.) Think *CFOC...Concern For Our Customers
2.) Think *TPA...Two Products Ahead...get Ben Mack's book
3.) Think *LWPP...Like We're Playing Poker

Great illustration that prevented a major disaster. But more importantly Promochic you have a keen sense of knowing what to do next and that shows you have the most AMAZING----(( ( *CPE )) ) ability=Customer PASSION Evangelism appeal.

Excellent input Promochic, I didn't know you had such a Beautiful Mind. So now that you've been blessed by one of the Kings of the *CPE world go now and take it to the WORLD...One Customer-at-a-time and build your *BUC = BRAND-U-Corporate world.

I LOVE pleasing customers just like you. "IT's SO EXHILARATING!!!

Your Servant,

Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

Caring Promotes Exuberance

Hey there Kathysmithcasting,

you've got Creative Professional Endurance. Good content on the *CPE, and you make others look good.

And yes your story has *IA..."Intuitive Appeal". Pay ATTENTION FOLKS...notice Kathysmithcasting and what we can learn from *KI...I call it

"KEEN INSIGHT"

"KEEN INSIGHT" illustrates another fine example of what we have Oh! too little of in our "Hustle YO Momma Society"......In the "Hustle YO Momma Society" people don't have time to:

1.) SEE *The Future of What Could Be...*TFWCB
2.) SEE *From The Inside Out...*FTIO

GREAT illustration it's all about what we ---SEE---. Can you see what I see and if you can you can see where I'm going. But more importantly Kathysmithcasting you have an awesome intuitive sense and I NOW Crown you the most AMAZING----(( ( *CPE )) ) =Customer PASSION Evangelist with Super Natural Intutive Emotional Ability. Wow!

Excellent input Kathysmithcasting, I didn't know you had such a Beautiful Mind. So now that you've been blessed by one of the Kings of the *CPE world go now and take it to the WORLD...One Customer-at-a-time and build your *BUC = BRAND-U-Corporate world.

I LOVE pleasing customers just like you. "IT's SO EXUBERATING!!!

Your Servant,

Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

Caring Promotes Exuberance

Hey there Proeditor,

between you and Kathysmithcasting I must also say you've got *WA=Weave Ability! The ability to Weave your story and content into a nice promotion piece about yourself and companies. Now that's what this whole question is about. Do you have the ability to effectively BRAND-U with a story that illustrates what you've done for your customer.

In Ben Mack's new book "Think TWO PRODUCTS Ahead" and I'm tellin' you guys if you haven't got the book you're missing a lot of new ideas about BRANDING and you're also willfully avoiding the opportunity to grow as Ben DE-Bunks a lot of BRANDING MYTHS... I like Ben he's "MACK-A-Licious" you can read about him at http://deremiahcpe.blogspot.com/2007/03/ben-mack-licious-think-againthink.h...

Proeditor, you are a Customer Persuasion Enthusiast. Good content on the *CPE, and you've got WEAVE

W-ise
E-vangelistic
A-mazing
V-ivacious
E-nthusiasm


And yes your story has *WA..."Weave Appeal". Pay ATTENTION FOLKS...notice Proeditor and what we can learn from *BFS...I call it

"BUILDING FROM SCRATCH

"BUILDING FROM SCRATCH" illustrates the strength great organizations like one source have. And in this generation it's like Dinosaurs...near extinction in our "Hustle YO Momma Society"......In the "Hustle YO Momma Society" people don't have time to:

1.) Create *Bottom Down Approaches...*BDA
2.) Create *Out of Your Selves Experiences...*OYSE
3.) Create *Enthusiastic Determinable Growth Excitement...*EDGE

Wow! illustration with good story edge it's all about what we can create. Tapping into the creative history of our greatest thinkers like Edison, Einstein, P.T. Barnum, Franklin and George Washington Carver. Can you get off your butt for a moment and think with your HEAD, create with your HEART and convince your MIND to go after it *HHM. But more importantly Proeditor you have an awesome Genesis Creative sensitivity and I NOW Crown you the most SUCCESSFUL START----(( ( *CPE )) ) =Customer PASSION Evangelist with Super Natural Creative Insight-Ability. NOW!

Superb Proeditor, You're a Beautiful Mind! So now that you've been blessed by one of the Kings of the *CPE world go now and take it to the WORLD...One Customer-at-a-time and build your *BUC = BRAND-U-Corporate world.

I LOVE the way you do what you do because no-one can do it like you because you do it so WELL. "IT's SO EXUBERATING!!!

Your Servant,

Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

Caring Promotes Exuberance

Deremiah,

Confidence, Professionalism, Excellence

Classic Proven Excellence

Continuous Passionate Effort

Improving a brand - many instances of taking a slogan, URL, tagline or other branding items (business cards, logos, etc.) and renaming it, changing colors or styles, and retooling it to be more precise or effective for the message that needed to be conveyed.

Steve

Hey, i'll be offline Fri - Sunday, But I'd still like to play if you would consider giving us a little time on monday to catch up or assign some extra credit.

I'll start with more words of wisdom in honor of Martin Luthor King Jr. - "The time is always right to do what is right." - MLK

CPE - Competent Professional Execution

CPE - Conceptualize, Plan, Execute

CPE - Create, Postulate, Evaluate

There's nothing like doing right things right.

Improving a brand - kinda

I have had the opportunity to work with a wonderful brand of 3D glasses called Holiday Specs - www.holidayspecs.com - they are novelty eyeglasses made for viewing Christmas lights - the optics in the lenses actually bend the light to form wonderful holiday images like snowmen, snowflakes, santa, etc...

When I joined the company the glasses were sold at retail inabout 1000 stores. It was a great product with a high profit margin, so why were there so few stores and no major chains selling the product?

When I asked the prospects why they said no and even asked current customers why anyone would say no... I shut up and listened and found out that although the product was great and offered a high margin, the display was a nightmare to assemble and most people assembeled it incorrectly.

I simplified the design and assembly of the display and in many cases we preassemble the display so all the retailer has to do is open the shipping box and hang the display and start selling. As a bonus the actual cost of the display went from $15.00 to less than $5.00.

In 2005 we were in 3000 stores and last year we were in over 8,000 stores and are on track to double that this year - just by listening to the customer and delivering a great product (I made no changes to the brand) in a way that was easy for them to use, display and focus on what they do best as merchants and not display engineers. The average store sells 330 units - customers actually call giggling to reorder because they can't believe their customers buy so many of the funny 3D glasses.

Maybe I should have said Constantly Pay (Attention with your) Ears

PS American Paper Optics is happy to send samples upon request. just go to www.3dglassesonline.com and ask.

Sorry Deremiah,
I did not fully answer the question. To answer and finish the question properly I must add my CPE:
Creating Promotional Excitement

Thanks again for the qreat questions!

Promo Chic

CPE

Cerebration Produces Effulgence
Cognoscenti Proscribe Epigonism
Concinnity Provides Emolument

BRAND REVIVAL
One of our clients, a market leader, was losing market share due to the "genericization" of one of their brands. Sonotube was becoming the generic term for any round paper tube in which concrete could be poured to form a column.

The brand name was also being mutated by the client to describe new products: SonoSquare (for square columns), SonoVoid, etc.

Our solution was to eliminate the mutated names and recover the identity of the brand separate from the product by naming the products Sonotube Round, Sonotube Square, Sonotube Void, etc. so when a contractor asked for "sonotubes" the question "what type" was necessary. The parent company name (Sonoco) was also minimized on the package (the product IS the package) and we made the Sonotube brand name large enough to be visible all across the construction site. We also developed the tagline "Stand Strong" -- a phrase that not only described the product's attributes, but with which concrete workers, architects and contractors could all identify.

A 2-part, 3-audience direct mail program (that used the actual product as a shipping container) plus the elimination of many private labeling agreements, coupled with a distinctive name and logo for their new "Rain Guard" waterproofing properties, gave the client a 10-point jump in market share within 6 months.

BARQ
SELMARQ Brands' Best Friend

Deremiah,

I have been following this amazing journey & felt compelled to participate. I am and always have been somewhat of a rebel so here is my answer to Part 1:

CREATE PURSUE EVALUATE ---> which is in the order that you specified, however in life we must sometimes
CHANGE PRECONCEIVED ENIGMAS to accomplish our goals, so my real response would be to reverse the order...
EVALUATE PURSUE CREATE.


As for Part 2:
I have created a brand from scratch. I’m a home builder turned software developer, through a series of events, beginning with the turmoil I had to live through every day managing my construction business. My desk was covered with a montage of crumpled receipts riddled with post-it-notes doodled in some indistinguishable hieroglyphics and I realized that if I wanted to improve my efficiency and remain competitive, a little technological help was in order.

Frustrated by elusive and unaffordable software solutions, I decided that the end to my problems would be the start of my new venture. Hence the conception of GC.1.0, a PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE application geared to affordably resolve the many issues frustrated contractors like myself experience, while managing their businesses.

The result was an application so effective that I think the tool belt should be retrofitted to accommodate this cd, as I believe it to be “The builder’s ultimate power tool!”

As in life, I try to constantly keep moving forward by listening and learning. CPE - EPC - EVALUATE PURSUE CREATE

Thank you for the challenge. I have truly enjoyed the questions and the incredible answers,

Myron

Can I just use Steve's CPE?

Confidence, Professionalism, Excellence

I like that a lot.

Because I've been consulting so long, I've had a number of opportunities to improve, create and save brands across many categories ... and it's hard to pick just one example that makes me proud of what I've been able to do.

Perhaps the one that has had the greatest impact on the (commercial) market is Stainmaster certified carpet, a brand we created for DuPont. Nylon carpet fiber was a mature business for them, and they hadn't really viewed it as a consumer product ... just a commodity nylon that was sold to carpet mills so they could manufacture carpet.

We embarked on a year-long project to understand consumer attitudes, awareness, habits, practices, values, beliefs and unmet needs. Then we reviewed the technical expertise within DuPont that might improve nylon carpet fiber. And we developed a plan to introduce a revolutionary product in that industry.

It was Stainmaster, and it was a huge success for our client.

Of course, we didn't do it alone. There was a team of people at DuPont, its advertising agency and other outside resources. Our role was the strategic leadership of that team and coming up with the idea and marketing plan that made the product the success that it has been.

I'm really proud of what we did, and of the contribution that the effort made not only to DuPont (and its shareholders), but also to millions of consumers who benefit to this day from a superior product in their homes.

Addendum:

To quote Ricky Nelson:

CPE
Can't Please Everyone

Others:
Changing People's Etiquette
Coruscate Positive Energy



BARQ
SELMARQ Brands' Best Friend

Hi Deremiah,

Enjoying these questions and the fresh approach.

For CPE:

compelling potentiality evangelist
compelling possibilities emissary

commander plentiful effects
commander possibility expectations

chief possibility eagle
chief promise evangelist

charismatic prosperity educator
charismatic possibilities emissary

catalytic possibilities expectations
catalytic potential evangelist

congruent promise expectations
congruent potential educator

confluence plentiful expectations
confluence potentiality emissary

copious prosperity emissary
copious possibilities expectations

crescendo potential effects
crescendo possibilities emissary

creative professional expectations
creative paradigm emissary


Originator of dozens of original brand names and brand repositioning strategies. Currently working on Qobi.Mobi(TM), Mobile Financial Information Services.

Hope this helps,

Steve

Conceive, Plan, Execute
Cultivating Prospect Expectations
Creating Prospect Excitement
Creating Profitable Enterprises
Coaching Professional Enterprises
Coaching par excellence
Counselling Produces Excellence

C words: Customer, Committed, Creating , Cultivating, Counselling, convincing, celebrating
P words: Potential, Profitable, Prospect, Plan, Planning, Professional, Production, Possibilities
E words: Evaluation, Examine, Expert, Empathy, Enterprises, Eloquence, Effectiveness

(I'm just a telemarketing guy, not a branding guy - and so sorry, I can't tell you a story of how I created or rescued a brand)

Hi all!

Must say that Deremiah promotes the internal message very well. Reading between the lines, my take on all of these questions is that we need to look beyond the surface not only for our clients but for ourselves as well.

CPE

Constructing Professional Exuberance
Creating Personal Excellence
Continuous Positive Energy

How have I recreated a brand?

Regardless of where I have worked in the past, I have more often than not been the one who gets the "difficult" clients.

By the time they find their way to me they are REALLY pissed off and ready to take their business elsewhere. I can't profess that I have saved the day in every situation however my past record is pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

The secret? It's usually quite simple.

Hear them. Don't just listen and follow company protocol - hear what they are saying and also what they are not saying. Empathize and go outside the box per say in an effort to truly resolve the issue at hand.

At times a little difficult to do when someone is screaming at you yet a sense of humor and a thick skin can often take care of that.

When it doesn't... fume internally over the high horse jerk and tell all of your friends why people suck. (Jokes).

Not sure if this constitutes rebranding but when you are able to salvage a relationship in a positive manner, you quite often gain yourself a customer for life.

Great questions Deremiah! ;D

Dear Deremiah

As my core business is meant to be CRM, but has ended up as PRM (Prospect relationship management) and my new business is SPM or Sales Performance Management (Sales Forecasting and Activity Analysis and Optimisation) I thought that my own CPE would be “Customer Performance Excellence”. It defines what we will try to do for our customers – to allow them to become excellent in all aspects of their sales and marketing performance.

As for building a brand, one of my favourite success stories was with my first employer, Kane May Measuring Instruments. I was hired by them as a technical sales trainee, their first graduate on the sales team, so I got my ass kicked by a tough old-school sales manager. He kicked it hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to allow me to succeed! Kane May had a splendid range of portable hand-held instruments, mainly measuring temperature, but we were not the top brand. That belonged to our larger competitor, Comark.

In 1982 our new managing director took the risky step of introducing a new instrument into our range, a combustion analyser which is used to tune a commercial or industrial boiler, making it more efficient and saving money on the fuel bill. We were unknown in this area which was dominated by giants like Honeywell, Westinghouse and Neotronics which competed with long established wet-chemical analysis kits. To sell in this arena, we needed to understand the cost benefit arguments and the technology, which encompassed combustion engineering, chemistry, electrochemical cell technology as well as our established understanding of thermometry. It was an order of magnitude more complex than the areas we had been accustomed to and the value of a sale was 5 to 10 times our existing levels.

Starting as a field sales engineer, my BSc allowed me to assimilate the technology of the sales argument faster than anyone else. Realising that the cost would make this item a budgetary item rather than an impulse purchase, I realised that I would need to play a longer sales game than usual, so I sold to next years budget, rather than trying to close a sale on the day. That was hard in a company which scored us on the “Close on the day” rate. I was successful at a sales level such that in 1983 I outsold the rest of the UK sales force put together (10 talented people) in my own territory of Scotland. As a consequence, I was promoted to be the combustion manager to head up the sales and marketing of this new product for the entire company, globally.

I realised that we needed to invent an entirely new way of conveying the cost benefit arguments and that we needed to break down the technology barriers which prevented our sales people and our distributors from succeeding with combustion analyser sales as they did with temperature measurement. I also needed to overcome the resistance from the user community to “New Technology” which they engineers either mistrusted or saw as a threat to their vested interests.

I put together novel presentations which combined technical explanations of what we were doing with practical examples of the user benefits. I produced cost benefit presentations for the CFO’s who would have to sign off the orders and I recruited boiler service engineers to be passionate evangelists about a new way for them to enhance the professionalism of their roles. I wrote endless articles for the industrial, technical and financial press, emphasising the benefits as they accrued to different sectors of industry and to different professions and I set out to gently demolish the perception that the “Old Way” was the best way by comparing like with like – even mildly poking fun at established Luddite practices. Just as I had persuaded the company to let me play the long game on my own territory, I persuaded them that we would gain our results in a year, rather than the usual 2 months and boy did we succeed.

Within 18 months we had overtaken all the competition, coming from nowhere. Some of our old adversaries threw in the towel and became our customers – we could build better combustion analysers than they could and sell them to them at an attractive enough margin to make it pointless them doing it themselves. We even concluded a part-build deal with the People’s Republic of China!

It was a wonderful formative experience to be allowed to look at the whole of a sales and marketing problem and bring a solution to the market, satisfying the company, our sales people, our distributors and thousands of customers. I got made marketing manager as a result. The irony of the situation was that we made so much money from combustion analysers that we were able to buy our thermometry brand leader, Comark. What was really ironic was that later, the old man recognised the strength of the Comark name and brand and changed the main company’s operating name to Comark, hiving off the combustion analyser business into his own private company, Kane International. Comark is one of my clients today and Kane International is still a brand leader in combustion.

Best wishes and good luck on your inspirational journey.

Steve Alker
Unimax Solutions

Hey guys,

great input here. I've been real busy talking to some of you guys via email and telephone. THANKS everyone for such geniune input.

To all the Steve's great input...Steve, Stevea, Steve Byrne. Good input from the Steve's including a lot of detail from Stevea. Steve Byrne you've just snapped with all the input you're offering on the new *CPE's branding opportunities.

Great Brand YOU concepts BarQ and Goodman. Love the detail and the story appeal you've added to my post.

Your Servant,

Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

Caring Promotes Exuberance

Hi Telemoxie,

forgot to say excellent on the labeling of the *CPE stuff. What a way to brand your ability to add value throgh name creation. Keep up the good work and you too hotbuttons. Nice way to get your point across.

Anyone else please feel free to add to the post and drop something unique, tell your branding story or add your try to the *CPE branding effort.

Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant,

Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

Caring Promotes Exuberance

Hello,

I did not ready everyones postings so I may be duplicating ideas...


CPE :
The CHALLENGE “communicate unlimited possibilities”

In Chaos Potential Exists
Create Potential Everywhere

Compassion Produces Excellence
Creativity, Passion, Experiance

Constantly Promote Entropy
Compassion, Passion, Empathy

Create Passion Externally

Good Luck,
Jo

This might best describe the purpose of this series of questions:

CPE: Cozening Professional Efficacy

;-)

BARQ

Hi you,

YEZ!! YOU MOST CERTAINLY HAVE...

you have become a member of:

"THE ONE & ONLY CLUB".

Starting tomorrow for the next 10 days you will have the amazing opportunity of a life time...This will be a one time ONLY deal. I will make my email account on my profile available to you. What can you do with my email account? You can have Free access to us building a stronger relationship and even participating in the "THE ONE & ONLY CLUB".

Well thanks everybody for your special time and your GREAT energy. Is there anything else I can do for YOU?

Your Servant,

Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passionate Evangelist)

*Caring Promotes Exuberance!