The world is experiencing its worst ever economic crisis. Corporate scandals, massive rescue plans and millions of people being laid off have been making news headlines.
At the same time, a few companies are doing better than ever, fuelled by the power of their brands. These will emerge even stronger, carried through bad times by armies of fans, loyal beyond reason.
Do these companies share a secret?
According to Euro RSCG KL Head of Planning, Francois de Riviere, there are six principles which successful companies share.
In a downturn, don’t cut prices, add value
It is a fact that Orange, Apple and Innocent Drinks are doing better than others. The fact that they are linked in one way or another to fruits might not be a coincidence. It takes some out-of-the-box thinking to name a computer company Apple instead of International Business Machines, a Telco Orange rather than Singtel, a fruit drink company Innocent Drinks versus Fruit Tree.
The market share, sales and share value of these three companies in three completely different categories are doing far better than their direct competitors.
Innocent Drinks is the fastest growing fruit drinks company in the UK. Not only is it a brand that creates near too perfection, all natural smoothies, they also have a unique way to engage customers in a witty, smart, honest and transparent manner. Coke has kept its recipe secret for more than a century, but Innocent Drinks gives away its smoothies recipes in its hilarious website, allowing customers to recreate the brand experience at home, extending the brand franchise far beyond a supermarket shelf.
Pret a Manger, the incredibly famous premium fast food company does the same and gives away its sandwich recipes on its recyclable paper bags.
That “the customer is always right” becomes stronger in a downturn
Companies that out-perform their peers know their customers better. They do not research their target audience. Instead they actively listen and try to understand the 10% of their customers that actively provoke change. At EURORSCG, we call them Prosumers. They break and make brands, passing trends to their social networks. They are more active, more social, more Internet savvy than the masses. They typically do things before the others and create followers. Usual tracking methodologies are unable to create conversations with these people. In the late 90s, Levis’ actively recruited panels of DJs, designers, students and bar tenders to understand the youth culture and turn the tide on a twenty years old erosion of their brand equity. The brand had built its success connecting with the parents of the new generation and was aging as fast as its initial customers. Out-of-the-box research, using immersion techniques in bars , pubs, and clubs, living and breathing youth lifestyle rather than listening to consumers in the confines of research companies facilities led Levis’ to re-invent their business from a cultural, product, marketing and communication perspective.
In a downturn, be personal
In difficult times consumers tend to get back to solid, protective social structures. They turn to their family and friends and favour dinners at home rather than going out. They turn to whatever might look familiar, caring and trustworthy. They value anything that makes them feel better and brings peace-of-mind. They like to be called by their name and value the personal touch.
First Direct bank in the UK is an amazing organisation. Although they have no physical contact with their customers, they have managed to bring a truly personal touch through all their touch points with customers, whether it is through their caring call centres or through their no-nonsense website. From the virtual forest that shows how many trees are getting planted when clients decide to avoid paper statements to simple, honest clients testimonials, First Direct makes its customers feel good, feel that the bank actively listens to them, probably better than many brick and mortar financial institutions.
In a downturn, turn your staff into believers
Religions have churches, mosques and temples where their beliefs and morale are repeated every week to masses of believers. Companies usually have pantries.
Orange has been more successful than any other Telco brand in Europe for the last five years. Built upon the shambles of France Telecom, the aging, dysfunctional state owned Telecom Company, Orange has managed to turn the tide and become a leading, out-of-the-box thinking mobile provider.
What they did was to turn a pyramidal, hierarchical, frustrating organisation into a group of people who live and breathe their brand every single day at work.
Orange brought hope, transparency, respect and positive thinking to the organisation. Orange turned workers into brand fans, truly convinced that Orange is the best working place in the world.
Orange listened to its staff, then made change visible and made sure staff’s contribution would be recognised and valued. Orange made sure staff suggestions would make their way to the top and gave its staff the freedom to do something amazing. Orange made sure the brand would start with its staff and that everyone at Orange would become a brand ambassador.
With an army of evangelists at hand, making Orange a human brand became a peaceful crusade.
In a downturn, customer satisfaction isn’t enough, create customer surprise
Can we really satisfy ourselves with customer satisfaction? Powerful brands have been successful by creating customer surprise.
Apple‘s founder and guru Steve Jobs calls himself a man obsessed with user experience. And he’s right as technology is as good as the usage experience it can provide. Apple laptop’s design includes things such as retro lit keyboards because some customers use their machines in the dark. They also have magnetic power cables because it has happened to many people that these cables get entangled with so many wires that the plug breaks off.
Beyond technical features, Apple has also acknowledged that most of us are computer idiots. Most computer companies would tell you to do the effort to understand all this technical jargon. Apple created Apple stores that don’t sell but give advice. Apple Geniuses are people who can simply help the average consumer deal with his machine, just simply, and for free. Isn’t that surprising?
In a downturn, get help from customers to accomplish your goals
Joe Rospars who led the digital arm of Barak Obama’s campaign said that the point isn’t for people to come to your site and do cool stuff. Instead it’s to help you accomplish your core goals.
For Obama, digital was at the core since the beginning. Using the entire arsenal of social networking from Facebook to Twitter, My Space or YouTube, Obama’s team made it look easy and that quickly became apparent when his challengers rushed out me-too efforts that looked amateurish in comparison.
What Obama’s digital team did was to use the right channels for the right goals, starting with a 13.5 million e-mail database. The next thing was to provide people with the tools to create their own things, initiatives or groups.
The result was a staggering $500 million from 3 million donors, most of them below $100.
Obama’s digital team made online the central nervous system for their campaign.
So being smart in tough times means asking consumers for help.
Co-designing products and services with customers is a real killer idea.
By Francois de-Riviere, Head of Strategic Planning, Euro RSCG RSCG Kuala Lumpur