When thinking of what makes a great friend, trust and honesty often comes as top attributes.
They are essential elements in any fruitful and long-lasting relationship with other people.

A great brand is like a great friend, wherefore trust and honesty also are key ingredients in the build-up a strong and successful brand. A brand is built upon experiences and expectations in the mind of a person. The brand promise is the central point where a brand will make it or break it.

Promises are easy to make but the essential thing is if the promise is kept. A good friend that doesn’t keep his promises will sooner or later be replaced by somebody else.
The same goes with brands.
To build trust, satisfaction and customer loyalty, a brand has to deliver upon its promises. A customer might forget you once for a broken promise or expectations that was not fulfilled, but rarely twice.

The advice is simple. Under-Promise. Over-Deliver.
By giving your customers a little bit more than they expect you will not only ensure them memorable experiences but they will also become loyal brand ambassadors that talks fondly about your brand. That will build invaluable trust and commitment.

A company with high brand trust and customer loyalty is Starbucks. Starbucks use a motto of "Surprise and Delight" to win and retain its customers. This means both an unwavering commitment to a consistently great customer experience as well as giving customers free coffee on their birthdays, fun free applications or to offer a complimentary sandwich when the favourite one was finished. Small gestures that makes a customer feel special creates memorable moments and a trusted brand relationship.

Lets take a look at some ways of how you can "Under-Promise and Over-Deliver" or "Surprise and Delight" customers.
Or simply, how to WOW them!

1. Freebies. No need to go for the big things, simple gestures and small gifts also works well. The key that is should be unexpected.
2. A personal check-in. A personal email or call to a customer after the purchase, just to check that everything is ok. Or sending birthday cards to customers and congratulate them on their big day, a voucher can be added as well.
3. Rewards. Create a loyalty clubs with interesting rewards that encourage repurchase.
4. Bring a friend promotions. Design attractive 2-for-1 offers where customers can use your services or products together with their friends.
5. Events. Sponsor events where your customers can attend for free to see their favourite artists.
6. Compassionate service. Show sincere care and attention to customers and their issues, no matter how small it might seem.
7. 100% customer satisfaction. If a customer is not happy, make sure that your staff is empowered to do whatever they can to make them happy again, on the spot.
8. Handwritten Thank You note. A personalized and handwritten thank you note to customers after a purchase, an experience, a complaint or a visit to your store is a powerful tool to create brand trust.

A customers brand trust is not created overnight but through many interactions with a brand over a longer period of time. Make sure your brand promise is always kept and that those interactions are filled with satisfaction, surprise and delight. You will then become a trusted brand, like a great friend.

Innovation is a buzzword of today but also an important driver when building of a powerful brand. To avoid getting trapped in the sea of sameness and instead occupy a unique positioning in the mind of customers, a brand need to think and behave differently. That commands courage and a focus on innovation.

Innovation refers to both significant and incremental changes to products, processes or services and the goal of innovation is to solve a problem, improve the existing offer or cover a gap in the market. It is also a well-known fact that innovation and creativity contributes to economic growth. It is therefore not a surprise that a majority of today's companies and CEO's ranks innovation as more important than ever.

Diverse research and rankings of "most innovative companies" frequently have large corporates and technology companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook in the top. No doubt they have all contributed with significant changes to their industries and the world. But innovation means more than just heavy R&D spending and launching a constant flow of new products.

Innovation is about the people, culture and processes in a company. You need to have an environment that inspires people to think, behave and do things differently. Commitment from top management is an important factor for innovation success. Having a leader with bold visions that encourages innovation - like Kun Hee Lee for Samsung or Richard Branson for Virgin - will nurture and inspire the entire organization.

Innovation is also about finding ways to make the world a bit better tomorrow than it is today. Sadly this is something that can get lost when a company becomes too big. Fortunately there are many smaller and medium-sized companies that are veritably inventive and furthermore contribute to make the world a better place. Brands like Patagonia, Solvatten, Landwasher, Square, Revolution Foods, Coursera, Seechange Health, Recyclebank and Össur, just to mention a few. These brands are not only doing good, they are also making significant money.

Do you want to make your brand and organization more innovative? Here are some food for thought.
Start by reviewing your long-term vision and strategic plan. Is it inspiring and bold, does it focus on innovation and change? If not, it is worth spending time to rewrite it and launch internally. Make sure that your vision is exciting and understood by all your people.

What about your leadership and culture? Do you have outstanding, inspiring leaders that encourage people to discover new things and learn from their mistakes? Is your culture dynamic, driven by curiosity and courage? If not, making an overview of your brand values, cultivating your leadership talent and conducting an internal brand engagement program across the entire organization will get you on the right path.

Do you genuinely know your customers? Is customer insights a top priority in your organization and do your employees spend time in the real world together with real customers, envisaging what they truly believe in and aspire for? Today it is not sufficient to congregate extensive amounts of market data or to have an intense media presence. You have to spend quality time interacting with your customers, on their conditions and preferred domains to genuinely understand them and be ahead of the game.

What about your internal working processes? Do they support creativity and novel ideas or are they unduly bureaucratic and static? If the latter is valid, it is time to design some changes and develop advanced processes, tools and principles that will enable efficiency, employee engagement and innovation. Disruption, chaos and lateral thinking are useful tools to challenge old habits and create a cutting edge philosophy.

Is your brand making the world a better place? Does your brand exemplify products and services that truly improve people's lives, health and happiness as well as contributing to a more sustainable environment? Do you have incredibly loyal and satisfied customers? If yes, congratulations! If no, it is time to think about how your brand can do things differently to become a good corporate citizen and make the world a better place. Customers are becoming increasingly demanding, derisive and knowledgeable when it comes to brands and their impact on the world. Building their trust and affection is therefore essential for your long-term success.

The above actions are integral steps you can take to become a more innovative brand and organization.
Yes, it will require considerably time and effort, but if you aim to create a truly thriving brand, it will undeniably be worth it.

 
What distinguish two brands where one is successful and the other one is not? Brand passion. 

Passion adds value to a brand and brands that are seen as passionate seems to have stronger relationships with their customers. Passionate users are also the best brand advocates. Company founders who can transform their passion into their brands are more likely to create successful brands.  However, a strong brand passion is not enough. The passion needs to be channelled into brand strategies, marketing plans and actions. But a customer will be able to spot the difference between a true passion brand and one that is just successfully marketed.

Last year I did a survey among entrepreneurs from different countries where one of the purposes was to understand what are the key drivers for them to start their own company and build a brand. It turned out that passion and realizing dreams were the strongest drivers for the majority of entrepreneurs, independently of their background and experiences. 

If we take a look at some big brands like Apple, Ben & Jerry, Starbucks, Virgin and some smaller ones like Patagonia, Six Senses and Jamie Oliver. What they all have in common are passionate founders.

The founder’s passion ranges from coffee and innovative technology to food and environment.
Those brands also have passionate brand advocates. This is the best recipe for genuine brand success.

Does your company have brand passion?

Image sources: Apple, Virgin, Starbucks, Ben & Jerry

Yahoo has recently unveiled their new logo after a 30-day campaign during which a variation of the logo was presented each day on the company web site, then the final candidate was launched.

The new logo has been designed by CEO Marissa Mayer and a team of internal designers during one weekend in summer. The background due to Mayer:  “We knew we wanted a logo that reflected Yahoo – whimsical, yet sophisticated.  Modern and fresh, with a nod to our history.  Having a human touch, personal.  Proud.”

OLD LOGO

NEW LOGO

The revamp is the first major identity change in Yahoo’s 18-year history and this could have been a great opportunity to signal a positive change for the company. Instead the designers have left more or less all major elements of the logo intact except for the font where the elaboration has been focused. Unfortunately the new logo does not really fit Mayers brief as it feels more engineered, structured and boring than fresh and modern. More business-like than whimsical and personal. The new font also makes it look more like a brand in the beauty sector than a proud internet brand. Out of the 30-day campaign I believe there were several options that suited the brief better than the final one.

The feedback from the public has so far been mainly negative where a majority prefers the old logo. That can be due to the fact that most customers don’t like changes. However, don't forget the disastrous feedback that GAP, Tropicana and British Airways faced from their customers when conducting big rebranding projects. This lead them to change back their identities causing big costs and embarrassment.

Branding is an important strategic discipline and a rebranding is a big operation for any brand. A new logo should be a core element of a professionally planned brand launch consisting of a new brand strategy, new vision, new brand positioning, new customer promise etc. Yahoo should therefore have focused their efforts on defining a strong brand foundation including the elements just mentioned, then using good creative design to conceptualize the brand strategy into a visual identity where the logo is a main expression. Just re-designing the old logo makes this look more like a cosmetic overhaul than a much needed signal of strategic brand change.

In the highly competitive arena where Yahoo is playing, they need to be able to tell customers why they should choose Yahoo and what makes Yahoo different.
A "new" logo is not enough.

Etihad's new brand campaign

The phrase " The world is our home and  you are our guest" is catchy in a sense that might provocate more established aviation companies, where focus lies on customers and less on guests. The purpose is to make a bold brand statement and tell the world a brand story. However, the question is what value will this add to the Etihad brand and how does this make Etihad different from its competitors? The future will tell whether going global will infuse even more fierce competition at home with older sister Emirates.