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Lucy Nixon

Lucy Nixon

The Ultimate Brand Champion – Hugh Hefner of Playboy

playboyThe Playboy brand is one of the most recognized brands in the world, and since it debuted over half a century ago, one man has championed and protected that brand — Hugh Hefner.  In fact, Hefner believed so whole-heartedly in the brand promise that Playboy offered to consumers that he intentionally became the physical embodiment of the Playboy brand.  He reinvented his own image multiple times in order to live the Playboy brand promise, and consumers believed him.

The fundamental lesson to learn from Playboy and Hugh Hefner is that every brand should have a dedicated, passionate brand champion and guardian behind it.  That person should believe in the brand, advocate it, educate others about it, and protect it at all costs.

Does your brand have such a person behind it?  If not, you’re missing an important piece of the branding puzzle.

Other brand champion role models exist, such as Steve Jobs of Apple and J.K. Rowling for her Harry Potter brand.  However, the longevity of Hugh Hefner’s role as brand champion for the Playboy brand is unprecedented.  It could be argued that without his relentless advocacy and protection, the Playboy brand would have faded years ago.  Even today, while the Playboy company struggles to remain solvent, the Playboy brand remains one of the most recognized brands in the world.  That means, the Playboy brand still has incredible value, but since brand value is intangible, I have to wonder if that’s enough.

I explore Hugh Hefner’s role as the ultimate brand champion in my book, Building Brand Value the Playboy Way, and I discuss J.K. Rowling’s role as brand champion and brand guardian in Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon.  Both stories are incredibly educational and inspirational, and if you don’t know how these two people affected the success of the brands they advocate, I highly recommend that you take the time to read their stories.  They provide lessons that every brand manager and marketer can learn from and apply to their own brand strategies.

You can read more about brand champions in these articles on Corporate Eye:

Who do you think is the ultimate brand champion?

Image: Flickr

The February Wrap-up

Kitchen Counter

Continuing the 2010 tradition, some updates and short takes for last month:

Following up on the meeting detailed in Confused about .jobs Job Boards? . . . reports (sort of) about the event were summarized by John Zappe in this post on ere.net.   It certainly doesn’t clear anything up, but if by chance you’ve followed the saga thus far, it’s a must read.

If you are new to the topic, however, you can just jump directly to the Recently Breaking News.  In the nick of time for this wrap-up, Zappe posted an update that reveals a new turn of events.  To wit:  Direct Employers has taken down all the controversial .jobs sites (which were in beta but scheduled to launch this month) for “enhancements.”

There’s more detail, and more back story.  But that’s the gist of it.

Also out recently is this AP story, which presents a sunnier version of the .jobs story, largely in the context of profiling Bill Warren.   Reading all these items together, it’s tempting to think there has been a collision of good intentions, ambitious goals, poor communications, questionable decisions, and changing times. But of course it’s the outcome that will ultimately define “what happened.”

In the meantime, here’s one more thought about Employment Happiness.  It’s assumed today that there’s a quantifiable value to having happy employees:  lower turnover, better employer brand, higher productivity, etc.  But that’s a relatively recent point of view.  Were the people making Model Ts happy in the workplace?  The gray-flannel-suited men of mid-century Manhattan?  The drug-enabled workaholics of the zoom-zoom 80s?

It’s arguable that corporate America as we know it was built by unhappy people—and since things haven’t been going too well in the economy since the idea of worker happiness became popular . . . maybe there’s food for thought.

This last item is a bit out of order, since posts about the new Fortune 100 Best Places to Work list will be coming up in March.  But I wanted to get in a couple of small discoveries from the list that didn’t fit into the future posts:

  • The law firm of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has instituted a non-partner track, offering long-term opportunities for lawyers who don’t want to work 100+ hours a week on their way to the partner suite.  Now that’s a good idea.
  • Six of the 100 companies on the list were touted as having “no lay-offs, ever.”  But Mercedes Benz was the only one where voluntary pay-cuts for CEO and execs were mentioned among the cost-saving measures.

Don’t forget:  In the U.S., Employee Recognition Day is the first Friday of March.  Check out some good recognition ideas for that day or any other.


(Many thanks to rvacapinta for sharing the kitchen counter still life.  You can see a fabulous Friday Night Dinner unfold on his Flickr page—highlighted by an entrée of seared scallops with a cauliflower purée in a walnut vinaigrette with orange caramelized chicory.)

The Death of the Hummer Brand

hummerUnless a buyer steps up to the plate very soon, General Motors plans to retire the Hummer brand.  Given the fact that the Hummer brand has been ranked as the brand with the least value by consumers, is anyone really surprised?  The bigger surprise would be seeing this brand rise again.  Instead, sales dropped to just 325 units in December 2009 — down by 85% from December 2008.

The death of the Hummer brand can be partially attributed to poor strategic planning and a lack of basic foresight into consumer behavior and the cyclical nature of not just marketing, but of world history.  Symbols of excess typically lead fleeting lives.  Society embraces them and eventually turns their backs on them.  It’s not a new phenomenon.  Add in the negative perceptions of the Hummer brand related to the environment (those things use A LOT of gas) and struggling economies, and the brand was positioned for failure.  But again, foresight and an acceptance of the fact that the good times could not last forever at the executive level could have made the difference between death and life for the Hummer brand in the long term.

The most interesting question right now is not just what company might be capable of saving the Hummer brand but what company would actually want to save it.  This is a brand whose reputation has been tarnished on many levels.  Could that negative perception be turned around? Is there a white knight out there for Hummer?

What do you think?  Is there still value in the Hummer brand?  Take the poll below and share your opinion. If you can’t view the poll below, you can follow this link to do so.

 

Image: Flickr

Three Keys to Creating a Great Candidate Experience


Black Hole

A Closer Look at the Candidate Experience drew a comment from Gerry Crispin (one of the masterminds at CareerXroads) that has made me give a little more thought to this topic.  His point:

Firms will increasingly be able to measure the link from an improved candidate experience to higher engagement as employee and (surprise) better company performance.  Then we’ll see some light escaping the black hole.

This is really important.  If companies recognize a significant business (i.e., dollar) value in treating candidates decently, they will be more likely to make an effort in this direction.  So establishing the link between a great applicant/candidate experience and great employee performance can help put this topic on the corporate radar.

It might also be helpful to super-simplify the steps required for process improvement .  There can be a lot of touchpoints and moving parts involved in the candidate experience—but there are really only three rules for making the experience great.

  1. Communicate
  2. Communicate
  3. Communicate

Can’t get much simpler than that.  But as always, the challenge is in the details . . .

First, communicate on the corporate Careers site.  Really communicate.  Go beyond PR fluff and pretty pictures–include substantive information, and plenty of it.  Be transparent.  (This 2009 post on transparency is worth revisiting.)  And make social media communications meaningful, instead of just trolling for passive candidates.

Second, communicate with every single applicant.  Every  one.  Consistently and sincerely.  Impossible?  No!  Even if the communication is just an automated email, it can be nicely worded and can even be informative and helpful to the candidate.  Above all—try to close every candidate interaction with a communication:  an acknowledgement (“thanks for applying”), an update (“we’ll be scheduling interviews later this month”), a kindly rejection (“we really appreciate your application, but”), an interview invitation (“we look forward to meeting you”), a courtesy note (“thanks so much for your time to interview”), a sincere rejection (“although we really enjoyed meeting you”), or an offer (“we are so excited”).

And third . . . communicate during the interview itself, and during other personal interactions.  Whoever talks with the candidate should have something to say–they should be knowledgeable about the position and about the company and about the candidate.  (Reading the resume before meeting the candidate should be a minimum requirement.)

That may sound like a lot of “extra” work—but for many companies, it may be mainly a shift of priorities.  Once they start looking at the process from a human connection perspective, there may be a lot of obvious opportunities to tweak for improvement.

More ideas: Interesting background view from  Paul Dodd and Sarah Welstead at head2head.  A Gen Y take from blogger/strategist Sarah White.  A good example from Best Buy Canada Ltd.  And a thoughtful prediction from Claudia Faust at Improved Experience.

Sustainable Business | Still A Long Way To Go

Long Way To GoSchool.  Everyone has their own memories of school, how well they did or didn’t do, and why.

I’ve recently been talking to my eldest about school.  He’s at the end of primary school (year 6) and I was attempting to explain how important it is to take full advantage of your years in school for your future life and prospects.

The chat was successful and we now recognise that a lot of effort is required from both of us over many years before he matures into the job-wielding adult of our dreams and aspirations.

All of which sprung to mind as I looked over a list of the 859 companies kicked out of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) at the start of this month: a lot more time and effort is required, by all parties concerned.
[Read more…] about Sustainable Business | Still A Long Way To Go

The Value of Earned Media Should Not be Ignored

emarketer_social_media_advertising_spending_2008-2011Through the social Web, brands have more opportunities to earn media mentions from both traditional online publishers and new social Web publishers such as bloggers, Twitter users, Facebook users, and more.  In fact, according to a study by eMarketer, social media advertising is expected to reach nearly $3 billion by 2011, which demonstrates the intense focus companies are giving it as part of their overall marketing strategies.

There is a reason why earned media is so powerful, and it’s rooted in trust.  Consumers are more likely to act when marketing messages come from sources they trust.  When consumers hear positive reviews about products via a Facebook friend, they trust the authenticity of that review more than they trust an ad on TV or on a billboard.  It’s a fact that researchers have proven time and again, and it’s the reason why companies invest large sums of money into building word-of-mouth through social media marketing.

A study by Nielsen Online conducted in July 2009 offers an excellent breakdown of consumers’ feelings toward different types of advertising and marketing tactics.  Consumers were asked to rate each marketing tactic presented in the study survey by stating whether they trusted each.  The percentage of respondents who stated they either “completely” or “somewhat” trusted a tactic presented to them are shown below:

  • Recommendations from people I know: 92%
  • Consumer opinions posted online: 72%
  • Editorial content such as a newspaper article: 70%
  • Brand Web sites: 69%
  • Emails I signed up for: 67%
  • Ads in newspapers: 66%
  • Brand sponsorships: 62%
  • Ads in magazines: 62%
  • Ads on TV: 61%
  • Ads on radio: 61%
  • Ads before movies: 53%
  • Billboards and outdoor advertising: 53%
  • Ads served on search engine results: 37%
  • Online video ads: 33%
  • Online banner ads: 24%
  • Text ads on a mobile phone: 18%

Given the results above, it would seem that shifting a portion of your marketing budget to tactics that boost earned media would be a wise decision.  However, how much of the $3 billion that companies plan to spend on social media advertising will actually go to marketing activities that increase earned media?  Earned media is hard to track, and companies like to take the safe route and invest in tactics they can analyze for months.  Without hard numbers, many companies find themselves at an impasse — completely unable to make a decision.

Until hard metrics can routinely be applied to earned media results, the bulk of the marketing budget will continue to go into more traditional online advertising tactics such as banner and text ads.  Not that there is anything wrong with those tactics.  They still work quite well, but the allure of earned media is hard to resist.  What do you think?

Read more about branding and trust in these articles here on Corporate Eye:

Image: eMarketer