Branding integrates public affairs, media relations, reputation management and marketing, so “you can do nothing better than create a great brand that shows value and creates and emotional resonance with its customers,” according to branding expert Jack Trytten, who addressed the January meeting of the Publicity Club of Chicago. Trytten was joined by Kristine Pasto, director of marketing and brand steward for Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), who accepted PCC’s first-ever Brand Builder Award.
Following are highlights of the meeting.
Jack Trytten
Trytten, author of “The Failure of Marketing,” specializes in marketing strategy and brand development. He gained his insights via his undergraduate and graduate work with psychology, cognitive neuroscientists, psychologists and psychiatrists, as well as through his agency work at BBDS and McCann Erickson and as president of Insight Direction, his consulting company. It’s here that he has developed successful products for companies like Amoco, Schlage Lock, Ingersoll Rand, Wells Lamont and Kraft.
A devotee of Peter Drucker, widely considered to be the father of “modern management,” Trytten advocated that marketers, especially PR people, must rethink the approach to market success. “You should be concentrating on gaining new customers, not on sales,” he said. “When you gain customers, you generate sales. You need to understand your customers and make sure that what you have offers a maximum value to them, then create your product that way, creating value.”
“Many marketing professionals are bottom-line oriented and don’t want to get into the psychology behind marketing,” he continued. “That psychology is an integral part of the marketing process. Understanding the psychology behind the marketing of a product or service can mean life or death for an organization.”
Trytten noted that brands live in the minds of consumers, who may forget them if not reminded, or if they are damaged. “Cutting resources can impact the brand; once the brand promise is diminished, it is nearly impossible to patch it over,” he said.
He illustrated his point by talking about AdAge Columnist Bob Garfield, who was disgruntled with Comcast and wrote a series of columns suggesting “Comcast must die.” One of his complaints was that since cable service is tied to the Internet, television service and phone, if cable goes down, there is no access to the home phone to call and complain. “The Internet has changed the dynamics of the world. Customers talk to each other, which can quickly spread negative news,” Trytten explained, adding that Garfield’s anti-Comcast campaign evolved into www.comcastmustdie.com, which morphed into four additional like sites. A feeding frenzy evolved that still has not been quelled.
Another example is Dell computer, which had the lion’s share of the computer market during the 1990s, earning its place through exceptional customer service. In fact, Dell sales matched IBM’s. When founder Michael Dell left the company, the new administration cut customer service and converted it into a profit center, pushing tech support to the Web and charging a fee in order to obtain support.
When Michael Dell returned in 2003, he noted an abundance of complaints about his company on the Web. Turning to his PR and marketing people, he directed them to monitor these chat rooms and find out how this happened. A month later, he reconvened the group to discuss the customer complaints. He asked his team not to dismiss these sites, but, instead, redirect these complaints to Dell’s own Web site. The message was that Dell is listening and should be considered the solution to solving customer complaints. This tactic helped to turn the company around, even though Dell never regained its 1999 level of success. This proved that “a brand lie takes a lot to get back.” Trytten said. “You need to know the brand promise. If you cut that brand promise, you cut yourselves.”
Trytten urges that all brand promises must resonate well into the future; sustainability is key.
Kristine Pasto
IIT received PCC’s first Brand Builder Award for the way the university skillfully integrated PR into a major brand repositioning. Accepting the award was Pasto, who has been at IIT since October 2006 and played a key role in the research, ideation, planning and execution of the IIT brand launch in April 2007. The goal of the campaign, which was created after eight months of intensive research, was to bolster the levels of institutional awareness in the Chicago area and continue to create a unique brand identity that serves as a focal point from which to deliver IIT’s new brand promise.
Research started by engaging more than 20 alumni, students, faculty, parents, prospective students, staff and trustees. The process continued to spread through the university via street banners, benches, bus panels, billboards along expressways and train platforms, and a radio campaign called “Spelling Bee,” featured on Chicago’s major radio stations. All the stories must reinforce the message in order to offer sustainability.
Capitalizing on the schools acronym, IIT, the campaign positioned the university with four pillars:
· The curiosIITy of an academic experience grounded in engineering, science and technology;
· The tenacIITy of exceptional students with an intense work ethic;
· The ingenuIITy of innovation of entrepreneurship; and
· The total experience of Chicago cIITy life.
These words define the brand promise, resonate with the target audience, eliminate name confusion in the marketplace and are words that only IIT can own, explained Pasto.
To quote Kristin Zhivago, editor of the Marketing Technology newsletter editor, “The simple truth about branding [is] a brand is not an icon, a slogan or a mission statement. It is a promise your organization can keep.”