A couple years ago I wrote post here called Brand Judo (or, find your inner lemon) that was subsequently fashioned into an article for Entrepreneur.com.

In it, I described how the Japanese martial art of Judo—characterized by the principle of turning an opponent’s attack back against them—can be applied by marketers to help flip negative perceptions into positive (and memorable!) brand stories. The classic Volkswagen “Lemon” campaign is a prime example.

After writing the post, one thing became apparent. Brand judo by big brands is rare. It takes a lot of courage for a brand to step out in the open, face its flaws head on, and then work to bend those flaws into a favorable story.

Late last week, a video from Microsoft quickly made the rounds through our digital media team. The video, entitled “Do you know this guy?” depicts a young guy at a computer registering his hate for Internet Explorer every way possible: commenting on tech site reviews, posting on Facebook, tweeting, etc. But after a series of rapid-fire exchanges with Microsoft’s social media accounts (hitting back with new features / capabilities), the guy begins to change his tune.

Sort of.

In the end he tweets:

IE sucks… less.

The screen then reads:

Progress.
Comebacks come in many shapes and sizes.

The video is part of a larger campaign called The Browser You Love to Hate.

Pretty bold. What big brand product has been beaten up more than Internet Exploder? It’s the veritable punching bag of the browser world. (Rightly so.)

But rather than continuing to fight IE’s negative perceptions, Microsoft has chosen to embrace them—and now owns them. And while it certainly won’t turn IE’s critics around overnight—there’s more than a few in this building—it did make us all laugh.

Which is to say that by making light of itself, and accepting our attacks in a positive way, Microsoft may have softened us up a bit…

Not a bad strategy in a fight.

I was talking to a client recently about requirements for a website. They’re a small, mission-driven organization seeking to engage and develop their community.

We talked initially about a basic news feed, a place for photos and stories, and descriptions of opportunities for involvement.

Limited resources (both financial and human.) Basic requirements. Simple project. Pretty straightforward.

Right? Right?!?

I’m definitely not singling this client out,  because what happened next happens all the time:

What about a…
Could we have a…
I’ve heard there’s a way to…

And that’s when it came out. Out of nowhere, I responded:

We need to be really careful here; what’s happening now is a bit like browsing the grocery store on an empty stomach.

It’s understandable.

Compelling websites and cool interactive functionality surround us when we spend time online. It all looks so easy and intuitive. And when your organization is lagging behind the web curve—or lacking a real presence entirely—there’s going to be a hunger to go big. However, as anyone who’s ever worked on a web project knows, the real work begins once the site is launched. And over-reaching can result in biting off much more than you can chew.

Checkout shock

Over-reaching with features and functions can end up costing more time and money than you’re prepared to invest. When a web project begins, the process is anchored by an underlying sense of project scope and, ideally, a baseline sense of the required features and functions. Once those features / functions are refined and solidified, additions will almost certainly impact the project bottom line—either in terms of schedule and / or cost.

There’s a ripple effect that results from even the (seemingly) simplest of changes. Adjustments to features / functions require adjustments to prototypes which require adjustments to design, front-end html / theming and CMS development. Refinements to functionality are perfectly normal during testing and prototyping, but adding features—beyond a certain point—can be a dangerous, slippery slope.

More than you can chew

Of perhaps even greater concern is the potential for over-spending to create a website you can’t maintain on your own. Dynamic content strategies sound great, but they require significant writing and editorial talent to feed and curate. Large imagery carousels certainly look cool, but they require photography and graphic design chops to produce imagery that meets quality standards (sub-par carousel graphics can quickly undermine an otherwise beautiful website). User commenting / interaction (usually) requires moderation, Twitter integrations require someone to Tweet, custom page-types / CMS configurations require increased in-house technical capabilities to manage the site going forward… and so on.

Shop smart

Our job as consultants is to collaborate with clients to specify website requirements that meet goals, address real user needs, and provide the most bang for the client’s buck. Ranking desired features and functions in terms of how well they meet those criteria, along with how complicated they are to implement, can help rationalize the process. If a particular feature ranks low on the goals / user needs scale, and high on the complexity scale, move it off the table. Exercises of this nature help focus website specifications on real needs, not on one’s hunger for (perceived) “cool.”

In advance of these exercises, just like when shopping, it’s important to plan ahead.

Know your appetite

Before embarking on a web project, be sure you have a keen sense of your in-house writing, editorial, design, and technology capabilities. Given your assessment, how much ongoing website management can your team realistically stomach? Unless you plan on adding additional resources, this set of capabilities (along with timeline and budget of course!) provides the initial framework within which you can begin outlining desired features and functions.

Avoid “blue sky” wish list sessions. Always set some real criteria first.

Know who’s coming to dinner

Websites should never be defined solely by you (or your consultant) in a conference room. While proper discovery and testing phases will certainly involve real-life users, it’s important to come into the project with a basic set of user needs to help guide your thinking.

What are the questions people answering your phones hear all the time? Do you have volunteers? What do they hear? Are there particular online services your constituencies are asking for? Understanding what visitors think, feel, and (should) do when they arrive at your website is an important part of developing a user-focused presence. Your consultants can help, but there’s nothing stopping you from doing a little homework to help you get properly triangulated ahead of time.

Simply put, the intersection of user needs and your organizational goals / resources / capabilities should frame your website’s functionality.

And know you can always shop again, later…

Finally, know there’s always room to grow.

Unfortunately, there remains a pervasive sense that once websites are launched, that’s that… the site is done. Not true. This isn’t your annual report going off to the printer.

Be comfortable with the notion of walking before you run. When they are properly defined and developed, websites are scalable. Functionality can be added. If you’re feeling woefully out of date and starving for a new website, focus on getting caught up before charging blindly into the future.

Maintaining a modern website takes work—more work than you might think. Your goal should be to operate within your means, and scale your website and capabilities in tandem.

In the end, a little planning can go along way towards getting your organization in the right mindset for a web project. Knowing your capabilities and remaining focused on real goals and user needs will make for a more efficient process, and a more effective end result.

Your organization, and your dinner guests, will thank you.

Ok. Starving. Off to Foodies…

We’ve all been there.

You’ve considered all the requirements, spent quality time with your whiteboard, consulted with your colleagues, even muttered to yourself while walking the dog. It’s time to conquer a particularly thorny area of a client’s new website. You develop a prototype, and over the following days, weeks, and months, you poke it, prod it, tear it down, and build it back up… only to very closely resemble the prototype you developed in the first place!

When working with clients on complicated areas of a new website—whether it a be a multifaceted product table for a financial services company or an index of programs and departments for a major university—we start by developing an initial approach the client can take around the block a few times. And more often than not, we end up right where we started.

It may sound like a waste of time, but it isn’t. This process enables the client to “try on” different permutations of their site–and exploring what doesn’t work is just as important as learning what does.

Critical to a successful website project is ensuring the process remain collaborative, interactive, and efficient. ProtoShare, as a cloud-based prototyping tool, allows clients to experience their prototype at a high-enough fidelity to draw real conclusions: “reviewer mode” allows clients (and test users) to initiate conversations about particular elements of the prototype, and the “multiple design” feature makes it easy to archive previous iterations. Ending where you started is just a click away.

In the end, this process gives my clients what they need to move ahead with confidence. And with a tool like ProtoShare, people like us can remain efficient (and calm!) as we circle the solution with our clients.

Lessons learned from the client perspective—our friends at Chorus America share lessons learned during a major website project.

In the fall of 2010, we were lucky enough to be selected by Chorus America—the national service organization for choruses, choral leaders, and singers—to collaborate with them on a complete overhaul of their website. For non-profit membership organizations, websites are crucial. Not only must they communicate value, drive earned and contributed revenue, and market programs and services—they’re also often a primary means of delivering programs and services to the field. We’ve had plenty of experience over the years collaborating with non-profit cultural groups and membership organizations (including Chorus America’s peer in the orchestra world, the League of American Orchestras), and felt confident we were an excellent fit for the project.

We learned many things over the ensuing year, but what really sticks out is how excellent a fit the client was for this project. The team at Chorus America was prepared, hands-on, and ready to roll from the get-go. They understood that a project of this stature requires engagement at the highest levels of their organization, and that they would be partners in crafting the strategy and vision for the new site. Perhaps most importantly, they dug in and took ownership of their content.

Fast forward to earlier this year and the launch of the new Chorus America website. We’re certainly proud of the strategy, information architecture, design, and development work that ultimately led to their new website—one that places Chorus America’s value front and center, and dynamically connects individuals in the field with the information they need to do their jobs, further their careers, and advance their organizations.

But so much of the credit must go to the team at Chorus America, and we encourage anyone considering a major website project to read their story: Once Upon a Website (How Building a Website Can Transform an Organization) shares lessons learned from Chorus America’s point of view. It’s an excellent, honest piece.

Fit matters. And success always takes two.

I operate in two worlds. By day (and often into early evening) I craft brand-focused communication programs for a variety of mission-driven organizations. By night (and often into early morning) I write, perform and record with a band as part of Boston’s vibrant independent music scene.

There’s always been a synergy between the two, as I often draw on my marketing and branding experiences while managing promotions for my bands. The last year or so, however, I’ve noticed the tables have turned a bit.

Nowadays, however, I find myself bringing my DIY music marketing experiences to bear on my branding projects at Sametz. Music blogs focused on independent artists have become an excellent source for current thinking on building connections in our increasingly noisy, fragmented world.

With limited resources, independent bands must make the most of every opportunity. At the same time, they’re less encumbered by red-tape and drawn-out decision making processes, and more willing to take calculated risks. As a result, musicians and bands are out in front of many mainstream marketers. Consider…

One step beyond…

Bands understand from the get-go that their music effects different people in different ways, and often fulfills a variety of needs beyond the simple “entertainment” a particular genre offers.

Bands purposefully promote the social aspect of their music: the emotions it triggers; its power to inform and educate; its ability to conjure memories; and so on. Businesses should take a similar approach. While they are undoubtedly important, take a step beyond your core value proposition to see what surrounds it. Your constituents aren’t monolithic, after all, and neither are you.

People are people…

Artists have always understood that personal connections drive success. Putting on a great show is important, but it means nothing if you aren’t building personal connections in the process. And playing a show is often the easy part; it’s the time before and after the set spent hanging with the club staff, the sound person, other bands––and the audience––that really makes a difference.

Organizations should follow suit; people aren’t likely to become loyal to your brand unless they have a (positive!) sense of the people behind it.

I want my ____ TV…

Successful bands understand their role as mini-media companies. Via websites, photostreams, Twitter, blogs, video channels and other social media outposts, bands produce a mosaic of content with a particular voice––one that people find valuable and regularly worth tuning in to.

Businesses must understand that on the Web, entertainment and commerce are quickly becoming one and the same. The ability to engage is more important to brand-building and the bottom line than anything you can say about the “speeds and feeds” of your programs, products, or services.

It takes two to make a thing go right…

Bands are always collaborating: sharing audiences, leveraging resources, and cross-pollinating ideas. Whether they’re working with an engineer, a producer, a  club owner, or other musicians, artists are constantly moving and existing outside their immediate orbit.

As a result, bands (independent, working bands anyway) rarely become isolated. They are in constant touch with what’s happening creatively around them. Business should look for opportunities to work outside of thier comfort zone; to experience new ideas and new ways of doing business.

Here, there, and everywhere…

Bands have always understood that it’s far better to be discovered by fans than forced upon audiences. When a listener “discovers” a band, they feel a sense of ownership which soon breeds feelings of loyalty and advocacy. By being everywhere it matters to be––from social media sites, to blogs, to internet radio, to soundtracks of all kinds, and beyond––bands strive to be visible enough to “get found.”

Marketers, of course, now call this “inbound marketing”… but bands have been doing it for years.

Looking for cues to help craft your inbound digital marketing strategy? Instead of reading xyz marketing blog, take a few minutes to study how your favorite artist (or the local band you keep hearing about) is using their website as the hub of a broader inbound strategy.

Independent artists aren’t so “starving” anymore. Many are savvy marketers who could teach us a thing or two about communicating effectively in our complex world. And chances are, someone you know or someone within your organization is a working, independent musician.

Learn from them… and then, please, buy a CD.

What do you think? What else can brands learn from bands?

I live out of my Victorinox messenger bag.

Me and my Victorinox have walked every corner of this city. It’s been with me on planes, trains and automobiles to New York, Nashville, Atlanta, Denver, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Petersburg, and halfway around the world to Melbourne, Australia.

And then, last week, while crossing Tremont Street here in the South End, one of the metal rings that connects the shoulder strap to the bag gave way. The 1/4 inch metal had completely severed! My bag fell to the ground, its contents strewn about in the middle of the street. Fudge.

Sitting in my office an hour later the realization began to set in. How the hell am I going to operate without my bag? I logged on to the Victorinox website looking for repair info and quickly found a service phone number.

Great! I just need my receipt and registration card, right?

That night I turned my apartment upside down… to no avail. I’d since purchased a Victorinox wheeled garment bag, and of course I was able to find that documentation right away. But the documentation for my messenger bag––the bag that I’ve traveled around the world with for 6 years––was nowhere to be found.

So I did what anybody preparing to go toe-to-toe with a customer service department would do––I prepared for battle.

The next morning I called the customer service number. I pressed 5 for repairs and took a deep breath––ready to hold, and readied for battle.

But the line immediately rang. What, no 8-minute hold?

And then a woman answered the phone. A real person! Seriously? One level in on the phone tree and I get a real person with no wait?!? Are you kidding me?!?

Then she asked how she could help.

Hi… uh… my bag broke..
Been a customer for years…
I don’t have a receipt…
But I do have a different receipt…

Thankfully, she cut off my stammering,

CS: Sir, let me give you an address to send the bag to and we’ll fix it if we can, otherwise, we’ll replace it…

Me: I don’t have a receipt or my registration info…

CS: That’s okay, we just need to verify it’s a Victorinox bag and we’ll take care of it…

At that moment I moved from being a loyal Victorinox customer, to being a brand advocate.

I had purchased, and been very happy with, two Victorinox products. After burning through a bag a year until I bought one of their products, I didn’t hesitate to make them my luggage brand of choice.

I was loyal… but it wasn’t really something I talked about to others.

Until that moment of advocacy occurred.

People’s relationships with brands exist on a continuum from awareness to advocacy (in the non-profit world, “support” and advocacy go hand in hand):

Awareness > Comprehension > Participation > Loyalty > Advocacy

You can’t skip a step, and brand-focused communications (while critical) can’t do it all. Successful brands must live their values, too.

A that moment, when the quality of interaction equaled the quality of the product, I was instantly converted into a Victorinox brand advocate.

I had graduated from loyalty.

Brands need to remember that every communication––and every interaction––either contributes to a compelling, valued brand mosaic, or not.

The Victorinox brand is built on the notions of quality, durability, and precision. Lucky for me, those ideas permeate more than their products. They’re ethos the whole company embodies (that was some high-quality, high-precision service after all).

In the end, Victorinox was good to me, and I’m now compelled to return the favor.

Does your brand foster an environment for advocacy?

Have you experienced such a moment yourself?

Storytelling has been with us since our earliest days. And while methods have changed over time, the power of a good story endures.

Why?

As a means of engendering common beliefs; exploring our fears; gathering context from history; celebrating prosperity, beauty and love… well, storytelling just works.

Stories move us, shape our beliefs, and carry our history forward ––and most importantly, they’re easy to share, and they stick.

As referenced by Roger Sametz in his seminal Storytelling through design article for the Design Management Institute, storytelling expert Stephen Denning¹ tells us:

Storytelling is natural and easy and entertaining and energizing. Stories help us to understand complexity. Stories can enhance or change perceptions. Stories are easy to remember…and engage our feelings…Storytelling enables individuals to see themselves in a different light, and accordingly take decisions, and change their behavior in accordance with these new perceptions, insights, and identities.

This is why storytelling is so critical to brand building. After all, thoughtfully planned, well executed, brand-focused communications should ultimately work to influence thinking and behavior––in your favor.

With the proliferation of social media platforms, and the emerging practice of intentional content strategy, it’s apparent the power of a good story is more relevant than ever. The “hows” of delivering stories through myriad communication channels is a post for another day, though.

For now, let’s concentrate on how to collect and refine your brand stories.

Engage and mine

Brand-building is the responsibility of your entire organization. The marketing group might set the strategy (in concert with overarching business goals, of course), but branding is everyone’s job––from volunteers and customer service reps all the way up to the board of directors. And those two polar extremes are often where the best stories can be found.

Engage your board members and volunteers by asking them to tell a story about your organization that exemplifies their reason for being involved.

Engage costumer service representatives and ask them what they’re hearing on the front lines. Chances are they know things you don’t!

Collect story ideas, gather the contact information of everyone involved, follow up, and fill in the details using the template below.

Make it sing

To make a story “sticky”, you need a structure and a hook. And if it’s going to help build your brand, your organization’s role in the story must be explicit.

Here’s a basic template I’ve used with a number of clients to help organizations develop a library of effective, brand-building stories.

Title

• What would you name the story if you were making a movie of it?
• Pull the reader in; think evocative and emotional as well as literal.

Subhead

• Convey progress / transition; the value [your organization] added.
• Speak to interaction between customer and [your organization].

Situation

• Who was benefiting from [your organization] in this story?
• What were they out to achieve? What are they passionate about?
• Contextualize, if appropriate, within their broader life and experience.
• Did they pursue other avenues of help / assistance first?

Enter [your organization]

• Explain [your organization's] entry into this person’s life.
• What role did [your organization] play?
• Which product / program / service came into play?
• Who from [your organization] participated?
• What about [your organization's] role was innovative?
• Any breakthroughs as a result?

Progress and benefits

• Explain the key benefit / value delivered by [your organization].
• Explain the transition / progress experienced by this person.

Results

• How is the person “different” at the end of the story?
• Is the story ongoing?
• What are the expected (future) results and benefits?

For written stories, work in quotes wherever possible. Or adapt this outline into a script, and document your stories via short conversational videos. Do whatever works best, given your established communications strategy.

Most organizations have an untapped wealth of brand stories at their fingertips. A little digging, follow-up, and editing / shaping can go a long way.

Do you know your brand stories? And could you be telling them more effectively?

1. Stephen Denning, The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations (Boston: Butterworth-Heinmemann, 2001), p. xv.

Have you ever thought of your brand that way?

Think about it…

Independent media channels provide a distinct voice, and view the world through a particular lens not shared by others. Independent media channels engender trust and loyalty, giving audiences reasons to connect above and beyond particular programs.

Your brand can––and should––do the same!

You’re a content publisher, after all. Your brand––by way of your website, blog, e-newsletter, Twitter stream, YouTube channel, and Facebook wall––provides a mosaic of content that audiences (ideally!) find engaging, useful, and worth talking about to others.

And out there on the inter-webs, information disseminated solely in support of commerce doesn’t cut it. You have to engage and hold your audience’s attention. In fact, your ability to engage––to spur people to respond in some way and come back for more––is more important to brand-building and your bottom line than most anything you say about your programs, products, or services.

Why? The web has rolled content, commerce, and entertainment into one. Going forward, successful brands––for profit, non-profit, retail and B2B alike––will be those whose audiences view them as an independent media channel… providing a differentiated mosaic of content that engages, entertains, and encourages action.

Is your channel coming in clear? Does your mosaic of content reflect a greater “picture” of your brand people can understand and connect with?

Some tips:

Define your voice

If your brand was an independent media channel, what would you call it? What would its tagline be? While you might not put it out there for the world to see, a concise notion of your identity will help guide your content decisions: who are you… and what are you trying to say?

This is where your content strategy comes in. What are the “story lines” that you can credibly advance about your brand––and that people will tune in to? Where is the content coming from? Who’s in charge? Do you have an editor in chief?

Draft an architecture

Knowing what you want to say, and where, means creating a digital content architecture. What platforms are you going to use? Who are the target audiences for each? What messages make sense, given audience / platform combinations? What is your metric for engagement and response? Answer all these questions, and you’re well on your way to creating an effective structure for your “programming.”

Bring ‘em home

Far flung outposts on YouTube and Facebook are great for meeting people where conversations are starting, but your website needs to be at the core of your digital media strategy. Drive people to the place you can most effectively communicate “one-on-one”, and find out who they are––and how you can help.

Know your stats

How are people responding to your content? What messages hold their attention the longest, and keep them coming back for more? Where do they stick––and where do they “bounce”? By keeping a close eye on your stats and analytics, you can tell where things are working, and where they’re falling flat. And there’s no sense in experimenting if you can’t gauge the success of your experiment.

People want more than the latest information on your new widget. They want to connect with you and with others, and be both informed and entertained. You need to keep their attention, foster deeper connections, and move them to take action. If your channel isn’t doing all those things, you’re not taking full advantage.

So, what’s on?!? You have a voice, use it!