There's a Map for That

The standard agency creative development process involves identifying a significant consumer insight, turning that insight into a relevant, credible claim and bringing the claim to life in a compelling and memorable way. Verizon’s insight was that a smartphone is only as capable as the network it runs on, and its claim was that its network has more coverage than AT&T’s. DirecTV’s insight was that consumers in this category are value-driven, and its claim was that it provides more channels for less money.

Both campaigns are from major agencies: McCann Worldgroup for Verizon and Deutsch for DirecTV. But while Verizon’s commercials make their point in a clever and engaging way, DirecTV’s spots are uninvolving and numbingly literal. One creative team was able to make the jump from Apple’s “There’s an app for that” to Verizon’s network coverage map to “There’s a map for that” while the other creative team got only as far as an old game show. In fact, one wonders whether DirecTV even bothered trying to be creative, or whether they thought that being literal was the best way to reach their audience.

Creativity is a particular challenge in online marketing. In Zavee’s Google advertising we have a very limited space in which to induce users to click, and every word is analyzed and evaluated. If we weren’t highly literal our ads might not even appear where we want them. Within the Zavee site and this blog, we try to use keywords that will improve our rankings in searches. Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization are absolutely vital to Zavee’s marketing plan, but they don’t result in much creativity. In fact, it sometimes feels like we are writing for Google, not for our audience.

One online medium where creativity doesn’t have to be sacrificed for effectiveness is YouTube. Many marketers have figured out how to create videos that pull the audience in, expose them to the marketer’s brand and get them talking about it with others. And some of the best YouTube videos are produced by consumers, not the marketer. Look for Zavee to make greater use of this medium in the near future.

The Zavee takeaway:

• Competition should make marketers more creative, not less.
• SEO and SEM present challenges to creativity, but they aren’t the only online media.
• YouTube is one online medium that rewards creativity.

One of the recent changes to Facebook has been a great expansion of the “Like” concept which, among other things, replaces the “Fan” concept.  Yelp and other social networks have followed suit.  At least for now, Zavee is still inviting shoppers to become “Fans” of merchants they haven’t yet shopped at and not just “Like” them.  Why?  Because we think that, on some perhaps subtle level, being a “Fan” implies a higher degree of emotional engagement than merely “Liking” someone or something.  How substantial is that difference? It’s hard to tell.  If you follow sports you might agree that there is a difference between liking a team and being a fan.  If you follow the New York Mets or the Miami Dolphins you almost certainly do.  At Zavee we are considering changing the “Fan” concept to something completely different – something that retains a high level of engagement but provides greater flexibility.  More news to follow on that new feature.

One thing we didn’t think about when we were debating “Fan” versus “Like” was whether a lower level of engagement might make it easier for users to be less than candid about what they say they “Like”.  Would people really do this?  And why?

Starbucks Barista Badge from Foursquare (via pbende)

Like much about social media, behavioral targeting presents legitimate privacy issues, and they need to be worked out. However, if advertisers lose faith in the accuracy of consumers’ self-descriptions the effectiveness of social media for marketers is likely to decrease. For small marketers who are drawn to social media marketing by, among other things, its low cost and high effectiveness, this could be a very unfortunate result.

It’s probably true, as Scoble says, that advertisers have ways to verify, at least in part, the accuracy of the things we claim we like.  But the deeper point is that the value of social media as a communications tool for users in the network depends in large part on the credibility of other users.  A user who creates a false or misleading social persona may only lose personal credibility within the network, but if enough users do the same thing the credibility of the network as a whole may suffer. A recent paper about dating sites reports that deception in profiles is rampant. The paper suggests that one reason is that users understand what makes them desirable to potential mates, and create profiles to reflect those expectations. Dating sites like to advertise their successes, but they may have become just one more system to game.

Whether Zavee stays with “Fan”, changes to “Like” or goes in a different direction altogether, the principal means by which Zavee shoppers communicate the quality of their shopping experience is by writing reviews. It takes more effort (and commitment) to write a review than to click on a button, but that very fact gives proportionately more weight to the reviews and less to a simple “Fan” designation. One safeguard we put in place expressly to improve the accuracy, timeliness and fairness of reviews is for the system to accept a review of a merchant only if the reviewer has made a Zavee purchase at that merchant within 30 days.

We hope that social networks and their users develop means to limit the influence of false social personsas, not to protect advertisers but to protect the networks themselves and to permit them to continue to deliver valuable, relevant experiences to their users.

The Zavee takeaway:

• Once it becomes trivially easy to create a social persona, that persona may itself become trivial. The problem is that those personas are taken seriously, both by advertisers and by other users.
• It’s natural to present ourselves as we’d like to be seen, but invented personas can make the the network as a whole less valuable to users who rely on other users for timely and accurate information and opinions.
• Local businesses will suffer disproportionately if social media marketing loses credibility, because it’s a particularly attractive tool for them in an environment where conventional alternatives aren’t nearly as cost-effective.

Taglines act as a shorthand for communication about a business and its products (or a product). There is only so much a tagline can do without smart strategic thinking and powerful creative execution around it. And, of course, it has to be true to the product and the brand. BMW‘s “Ultimate driving machine” tagline has retained its power for 35 years not just because it promises exactly the experience that its buyers want, but because the company and its products deliver.

35 years and counting

I think of taglines as existing on a spectrum between purely product-oriented messages and purely brand-oriented messages. Messages about your product involve what it does and the benefits it provides. Think of Miller Lite‘s “Tastes great, less filling.” Messages about your brand involve what your company is and what it stands for. IBM’s “Building a smarter planet” is mostly if not entirely about the brand; if you weren’t familiar with the company you couldn’t tell what IBM actually does. Snapple‘s tagline, “Made from the best stuff on Earth”, combines a message about the product with a message about Snapple’s corporate values. Creating a tagline that is right for your company should involve a careful and candid analysis of how both kinds of messages fit into your overall consumer value proposition.

Two things to bear in mind when thinking about taglines are positioning within your space and differentiation vs. similarly positioned competitors. Positioning is about the different high-level choices that you make about how you want consumers see your business. The matrix of choices is different in every category and every business in the category occupies a unique point on this matrix – even when there are only limited functional differences among different companies’ products. In fact, the fewer the differences between competing products, the more important positioning can become. Car insurance is a prime example. At one end of the spectrum there are value-positioned companies like Geico with product-focused taglines (“15 minutes can save you 15% or more …”) and at the other there are premium-positioned companies like Allstate whose messages evoke more of a brand than a product promise (“Are you in good hands?”).

However, multiple businesses within a category may position themselves similarly. When this happens, businesses may try to differentiate themselves on the strength of their creative, and the tagline can be part of that. Charles Schwab‘s “Talk to Chuck” campaign is a novel approach to communicating a client-focused positioning. A more strategic approach, however, is to try to find something differentiating in either the brand or the product that had not previously been taken advantage of. A well-known example in the very crowded breakfast cereal category is Wheaties, which used its heritage with athletes to differentiate itself as “The breakfast of champions.”

Small businesses are frequently advised to focus on product benefits when creating a tagline. Is this good advice or is it too limiting? I think all businesses should use the same process: analyze your product and your brand to determine what is credible, compelling and differentiating; understand your positioning choices; and be aware of what your competitors’ messaging is. Consider Avis. Back in the 1960s, Avis was an upstart compared to industry leader Hertz. It couldn’t compete on the basis of its rental fleet, prices, or number of rental locations. Instead, Avis embraced its positioning as a challenger in a way that also communicated a key brand attribute: commitment to customer service. The Avis tagline was an instant classic: “We try harder.”

What about our tagline? Once, when we were asking ourselves what we wanted Zavee to be, someone put three words on the whiteboard: Simple. Local. Social. Ease of use, focus on local communities, and social networking are key features of our platform and we wanted to make sure that everyone at Zavee kept them top of mind. Making those three words our tagline was almost automatic. Why didn’t we focus on brand messages? In one sense, we did: our commitment to helping local communities become stronger is our most important brand attribute. But in another sense, we don’t think open social networks like Zavee really can (or should try to) create a brand other than organically through its members. I don’t see much brand communication from either Facebook or Twitter and I think they have the right approach.

The Zavee takeaway:

• A tagline is only a tagline. It isn’t your entire marketing campaign.
• Understand what sets your product and your brand apart. Understand the same things about your competitors.
• Positioning involves making difficult choices but it’s the only way to truly differentiate yourself. Focus on the differentiators when you are looking for your tagline. It’s in there somewhere.

Foursquare @SXSW

Location-based social networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla make use of the GPS capabilities of smartphones to let users communicate in real time not just what they are doing, as with Twitter, but where they are. They are growing rapidly, and for businesses they are well worth checking out.

Both networks are about two years old but have entered the mainstream only recently. Users of Foursquare “check in” at different locations to tell their friends where they are and what they are doing. Foursquare also has an element of game play that lets users collect “badges” for certain activities, such as earning a “barista” badge for checking into five Starbucks. Foursquare has a large user base that skews young and lives in cities, and has attracted a certain amount of backlash (note: strong language at link), although it has its defenders. Gowalla doesn’t depend quite as much on its game mechanics, but supports media files, such as photos, and claims to be looking for a broader (and perhaps older) demographic.

Businesses seem to have less of a “wait and see” attitude toward location-based social networks than they did toward Facebook and Twitter. It may be that, having been through this before with other Social Media outlets they simply need less persuading when it comes to location-based networks. It may also be that the business case for location-based networks is more obvious than with, say, Twitter. Another possibility is that the networks themselves have become business-friendly faster. Foursquare already has the ability to serve merchant offers based on location, although it is still refining its analytics dashboard. In any event, marketers are not sitting on the sidelines. Recently, Pepsico announced a “geo-based loyalty program” in partnership with Foursquare that will reward consumers who check in via iPhone at businesses that serve Pepsi products. The History Channel also is using Foursquare to promote its show, “America, The Story of Us.”

Do networks like Foursquare and Gowalla have relevance for small businesses? We think they do. Even basic data on who has visited a business, how frequently, etc. adds to the merchant’s knowledge of the customer base. Serving offers and other content to those customers has obvious benefits, although it still isn’t clear how the merchant can get a full picture of the return on investment from that content (merchants will know how many people used (and, presumably, saw) the offer, but won’t necessarily know how many of those transactions were made by customers who would have purchased anyway). Checking in to a business from a location-based network also can provide extended word of mouth for the merchant. It’s going to take time to figure out how to use these services for business, but that was true with Facebook and Twitter. And, as with Facebook and Twitter, there is a lot of potential and no real downside for businesses that experiment.

At Zavee we are currently exploring the fit with location-based networks, but we fully anticipate using this technology to add value to the Zavee experience for both merchants and shoppers. With both cash back offers by merchants and reviews by shoppers, Zavee provides a great deal of content whose value can only be enhanced by becoming location-aware.

The Zavee takeaway:

• You heard it about Facebook, you heard it about Twitter. Well, location-based social networks aren’t fads either.
• Businesses have wised up and caught up, and are right on the heels of consumers in discovering how to make these services useful, relevant and rewarding.
• If you were sitting on the sidelines while Facebook and Twitter were becoming huge, don’t let it happen again!

The Greater Delray Beach (FL) Chamber of Commerce has been kind enough to ask me to speak about how businesses can use Twitter – and why they should. My presentation, which is part of a “Tech Talk and Coffee” about Social Media for Business, is scheduled for Tuesday, May 18 at 7:30am. Other speakers will cover Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. The session is open to the public as well as to Chamber members and every local business should find it useful, even businesses that haven’t considered adding Social Media to their marketing mix.

By now most people have heard of Twitter. Oprah uses it. So does the White House. It’s a free micro-blogging service that lets users publish short notes (called “tweets”) of up to 140 characters in real time. There are smartphone applications for Twitter, so it is a fully mobile service. Users can “follow” other users and see their tweets in their Twitter stream. Following and being followed is how users build a community on Twitter. Users also can search by keywords or topics to find relevant tweets. Users can reply to tweets, forward (“retweet”) them, and include links to web sites or other media. Engaging in these conversations is a good way to attract followers.

Broadly speaking, there are at least four ways businesses can use Twitter.

Listening Post. Twitter’s most significant benefit to business is its immediacy. When US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in January 2009 there were posts, including photos, on Twitter within minutes. If you want to know what your customers, competitors, vendors, etc. are thinking right now, Twitter is a great way to find out. Listening on Twitter is also a great source of ideas and information. Using Twitter’s search functions can widen any business’ horizons.

Brand Builder. Tweeting regularly with timely, relevant information creates interest in you and your brand. This works best when most of the tweets are on a subject that relates to your business but does not overtly promote the business itself. For example, if your restaurant wants to be known for its fresh produce, you could tweet about sustainable farming, its local purveyors, and even the weather. You will attract followers on Twitter who might become customers themselves or retweet your posts to others. Media outlets have become big Twitter users and you could find your restaurant covered in the newspaper just by using Twitter adeptly.

Lead Generator. Twitter lets users form, and join, communities. Twitter’s search functions make it easy to identify other users with similar interests or in similar businesses. Mutual following puts a business’ tweets in its followers’ streams and vice versa. You can get leads from Twitter communities built on common interests both by reading relevant tweets and simply by asking for help.

Help Desk. Twitter is an outstanding platform for providing customer service. Responding in near real time to a tweet that asks for assistance – or jumping in to solve a problem you see on a tweet from a customer even if it isn’t directed to you – not only helps your customer, it helps cement (or improve) your reputation as a business that cares about its customers. One of the earliest business adopters of Twitter was Comcast, a company not known for the quality of its customer service. Comcast now has a full-time staff that monitors Twitter for customer complaints and responds almost immediately. When you ask your customers to follow you on Twitter you are not just gaining access to them, you are providing access to yourself. Since all of your followers will see these interactions the potential benefits of using Twitter to help your customers quickly are huge.

At Zavee we try to use Twitter for all of these functions, and we continue to learn as we go. Here are a few suggestions for getting started with Twitter:

• If you don’t feel comfortable putting your business name out there right away, start with a personal Twitter account.
• Listen first, then start asking questions, make suggestions, and in no time you will be part of the action.
• Pass along stuff, including links and retweets, that’s timely, relevant and interesting, but don’t overdo it. Original material is more useful and will result in more followers.
• Most important of all, be yourself.

That’s almost a rhetorical question, because there many marketing research techniques available; Bill skewers discusses them in his post. Bill’s really fascinating question is, “How can we re-engineer our methods of collecting attitudinal data from consumers?” Bill proposes some ways in which Social Media can be part of the answer, and I’d like to suggest some others.

Some very quick background: Researchers use both quantitative and qualitative measures to figure out what consumers want and what makes them buy. Quantitative tools, such as telephone surveys, use statistical principles to draw inferences about a large group from the responses of a random sample of that group. However, they are subject to all sorts of bias (usually unintentional) that can affect the validity of the data. Online surveys are particularly tricky, since their self-selected sampling can never be truly random, which means they aren’t as quantitative as they might appear.

Qualitative tools, such as focus groups, don’t provide the comfort of statistics, but instead are intended to produce insights by probing more deeply into the motivations of consumers. This can get marketers to think in new and different directions. Although our experience with focus groups and other qualitative tools was very successful, they can be compromised by the small number of participants, the group leader’s personality, bias and skill, and by personalities within the group. Whether quantitative or qualitative, however, the data never “speaks for itself.” It’s always subject to interpretation, and sometimes to wishful thinking and oversimplification.

Social Media opens up a world of possibilities for marketing researchers, agencies and marketers. Several characteristics of Social Media tools make them ideal for provoking creative thinking and producing insight:

1. Penetration. Although it is not equally dispersed across age, education and income cohorts, access to Social Media is extensive and growing, even among older consumers.
2. Speed. Social Media can be used quickly – almost in real time on mobile devices.
3. Opt-in. Social Media is inherently permission-based. This may not make it easier to find a random sample for an online survey, but it does make it easier to find consumers who will share their opinions, insights and experiences because they want to rather than because – as in the case of focus groups – they are being paid and fed.
4. Location-based. Social Media is increasingly being integrated with location-based applications. Location is a variable that does not exist for most focus groups, which usually take place in dedicated facilities.
5. Interactivity. Social Media is … social. The interactions among participants in a focus group frequently are the most valuable part of the group. Social Media facilitates similar interactions on a vast scale.

How could researchers leverage these attributes? Here are a couple of ideas, all of which are qualitative in nature:

• Discussions on Facebook pages. Marketers could start conversations on issues that range from very concrete questions, such as opinions on new packaging ideas, to strategic issues such as potential line extensions. Consumers also would be able to launch their own discussions, which the company could either moderate or simply monitor.
• Scheduled conversations on Twitter. Marketers could use Twitter as an extension of the conventional focus group. Many more voices could be heard over the same period of time than with a typical group.
• Location-based feedback. Suppose a large restaurant chain wanted a snapshot of server performance during the lunch rush, or a retailer wanted to evaluate restocking at every mall-based store. Consumers could check in at each location and provide real time feedback, including photos and video. This would provide data from a much larger, more varied and possibly more knowledgeable group than mystery shoppers, at a fraction of the cost.
• Consumer-generated video. Focus groups rarely depart from a conversational model. But it might be very useful for consumers to shoot videos in response to specific solicitations by the marketer. “Make your own commercial” campaigns are a start in this direction, although to be valuable the campaign should encourage consumers not to be constrained by the company’s current marketing.
• Meetups/Tweetups. Marketers could use Social Media as the nexus for live meetings with consumers. Moderators could ask questions of the group, which could be responded to with live Tweets.

I am sure that others can come up with further – and doubtless better – ideas. These techniques are likely to be low in cost, but they definitely have some kinks or at least raise some issues. For one thing, all research involving Social Media takes place in the open. This is not always a problem but if keeping the subject of the research away from competitors is a priority, the research is not a good candidate for Social Media. Second, there is no way to control – or even verify – the composition of the participants. A marketer who wants specific cohorts represented in a focus group will not be satisfied with Twitter-based groups. However, this lack of control doesn’t have to be a bad thing, if it’s dealt with creatively. For example, a marketer of adult diapers might be tempted to decide against using a Twitter-based focus group because Twitter users are too young; but men in their 20s may have valuable insights into a product that is marketed to women over 60. They have grandparents, after all, and their perspective on their grandparents’ experience with the product might be very valuable.

The discussion above involves using Social Media qualitatively. However, it may be possible to use Social Media for quantitative purposes. According to the Los Angeles Times, a team of researchers at HP Labs has developed a computational model that uses the volume of tweets about a movie and their overall sentiment about the film to predict its box office performance over its first two weeks of release better than any other standard measure. The rationale for this result is completely beyond me, but if the methodology stands up, and the results can be replicated in other areas, we may have to rethink what we mean when we say we are looking for statistically significant results.

The Zavee takeaway:

• Marketing research is both art and science, and it influences decisions that affect all of us.
• Social Media is expanding the range of marketing research techniques, usually while reducing costs.
• If you think marketing research might be right for your business but the expense has kept you away, try to find a research firm that uses Social Media. You might have to make some compromises on methodology, but you may learn a lot more than you expect.

A recent survey found that women increasingly are shopping for clothing online. How does that news help local merchants? A whopping 84 percent of those who reported taking their business away from bricks and mortar stores did so because of poor customer service. And customer service is where local merchants have an advantage over larger competitors. Owners and managers of local businesses usually are closer to the customer, and are often the first to hear about issues or concerns. They have the ability to react to customer needs and even break (or change) the rules if circumstance dictate.

Chanel Boutique on Wicklow Street (via chacrebleu)

One thing local merchants can do to exploit their natural advantages is to adopt a “boutique” mentality. One big difference between boutiques and other stores is their focus on providing a unique, personalized experience, not just selling a product. Customers often respond favorably to that experience, not just by paying extra for it once, but by becoming loyal customers and by sharing their experiences with their social circle. The combination of premium pricing, repeat business and word of mouth is exactly what local businesses want to achieve.
The boutique mentality isn’t limited to retail. There are boutique hotels, boutique wineries, even boutique auto mechanics – a really good one services my race car. Most boutiques are small, but they are defined by service, not size. A small retailer that doesn’t provide a unique experience to every customer isn’t a boutique; it’s just small.

Part of the boutique experience is the sense that the relationship with the customer doesn’t end with the sale. Whether it’s as simple as a follow-up phone call or as elaborate as a series of surprise gifts, boutiques understand that continuing to engage after the sale helps create customers who are not just loyal, but vocal.

The best boutiques thrive on data. Knowing and catering to customer preferences is the hallmark of the successful boutique, especially boutique hotels. But hotels aren’t the only boutiques that have access to data about their customers. With tools like Zavee, almost any business can learn who their best customers are, how much they spend and how frequently.

It may take some effort to fit the boutique mentality into a business that doesn’t already have it. It certainly takes commitment to make it work, because it requires a focus on the customer that isn’t second nature for every merchant. And it sometimes requires some investment, especially for businesses that are new to managing customer data. But it may be just what a merchant needs to compete in difficult times.

The Zavee takeaway:

• A business that wants to charge more, generate repeat business and earn referrals from vocally loyal customers should think and act like a boutique.
• Boutiques are customer-focused before, during and after the sale, and rely on data to understand customer preferences.
• The boutique mentality can be applied to businesses in virtually every category; it just takes commitment and creativity.

The Washington Post (via Dion Hinchcliffe)

The article cites Nielsen data that 70% of Internet users trust online recommendations and reviews (we cited the same study here), and quotes a Boston University professor as to why: “[C]onnecting with other consumers is more helpful [than traditional ad messages]. It’s more fun. Consumers love to interact.” The article also reports that digital word-of-mouth marketing is expected to top $3 billion a year by 2013.
The article describes at some length how marketers and agencies are using Social Media tools to influence customer perceptions, including by sponsoring posts and tweets. This is a controversial subject that has been discussed extensively online, including by us. Sponsorship raises issues about the nature of Social Media, including whether media such as Twitter will eventually become less effective if sponsored tweets become more prevalent.

Sponsorship also inevitably raises the issue of disclosure: when and how prominently to disclose, and whether even full disclosure can prevent consumers from losing trust in the communication and, by extension, in the marketer itself. All of the agencies mentioned in the story claim that they fully disclose any sponsorship, either with a hashtag such as “#ad” or some other signifier such as “(sponsored)”.

Interestingly, however, the Post reporter seems openly skeptical about whether the average user understands that these communications are sponsored. A writer for Time voices similar concerns. This is a perspective that we all would do well to keep in mind. Much of the online commentary about sponsored tweets and posts seems to focus on issues other than whether the consumer comprehends the disclosure. If it’s true that casual users might actually be misled (as opposed to merely annoyed) by sponsored tweets and posts, marketers should be extra cautious before launching a Social Media campaign that involves sponsored communications.

The Zavee takeaway:

• It’s official: Social Media Marketing has arrived.
• Users trust online recommendations and reviews. Let’s keep it that way.
• Sponsored tweets and posts raise a lot of issues. If the risk of misleading consumers is one of them, it’s time to think twice about the tactic.

Juliet argues to her unseen Romeo that names themselves have no meaning:

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet ….

Romeo and Juliet (via HL42)

But Juliet was mistaken. Montague and Capulet are brands, as surely as if they were Coke and Pepsi. And like Coke and Pepsi they have brand equities, which are the attributes (values, personality, meaning, etc.) that are the essence of the brand, and brand promises, which is what the brand will do for its audience. (Part of the tragedy of the play is that both families have the same brand equities – pointless jealousy and excessive self-regard – and the same brand promise – the destruction of the other).

Brands communicate their equities and promises in many ways, from their logo to their tag line. Their names can have branding value, too. Many brands have names that describe their business. This naming strategy has several advantages, not least that it makes it easy for consumers to understand what the brand is and does. It also frees up marketing resources to communicate brand messages rather than focus on the basics of the business.

The problem with descriptive names, however, is that similar businesses can use similarly descriptive names. At best descriptive names risk diluting a brand’s uniqueness (unless it has a unique description) and at worst they can lead to consumer confusion. Also, descriptive names tend not to be memorable and, inherently, they do not do much to convey brand messages. We should not forget, however, that many of the world’s strongest and best-known brand names, from IBM to UPS, are (or began as) descriptive.

The other end of the naming spectrum is often referred to as “evocative” names. As the term suggests, these names are meant to evoke a response that relates to the brand’s positioning. There are many ways to do this, which makes naming something of a black art. Names can consist of real or invented words, with real or invented spelling; words from modern or classical languages; single or compound words; and so on. Some names try to embody the entire brand while others focus on one key aspect of the positioning, such as the consumer experience. In addition to their messaging component, names have to be easy to read and say and have a look and sound that is appropriate to the brand.

Evocative names are the flip side of descriptive names: they are unique and can be memorable, but it takes more resources to communicate what the brand is and does as well as the essential brand messages. However, once that is accomplished the name is more likely to remain in the audience’s consciousness and be associated with the desired brand positioning. Many newer brands, from Amazon to Google to Yahoo, have evocative names, but this naming strategy is far from an online-only phenomenon. Several companies have used evocative names as part of a re-branding strategy, such as Altria (ex-Phillip Morris), Tenet (ex-National Medical Enterprises) and Accenture (ex-Andersen Consulting).

Why did we choose an evocative rather than a descriptive naming strategy? And how did we come up with Zavee? Our company was originally called Charge Rewards, which is still the name of our holding company. That name accurately describes one important element of our business – a rewards program that uses registered credit/debit cards – but was unsatisfactory for several reasons. First, it says nothing about social shopping, online marketing or social giving, all of which are elements of our business that are both very significant and highly differentiating. Second, it might be difficult to protect against another registered-card loyalty program that wanted to use a similar name. Third, it simply isn’t very memorable or exciting.

We wanted our new name to be unusual and memorable, and suggest in some way what we were trying to accomplish. We weren’t convinced that any descriptive name could easily encompass our business, and we didn’t want our name either to limit us (like Charge Rewards did) or confuse our audiences. We worked with two agencies to develop a new name, briefing their teams with both a description of our business and a statement of our brand positioning. They came up with literally scores of possibilities, which we discussed and analyzed before coming up with three finalists. We ultimately decided on Zavee. One of the things that sold us on the name was the way it embodies a key brand promise. Our platform helps merchants market smarter; helps consumers shop smarter; and helps causes raise funds smarter. That focus on making communities smarter led one of our agencies to the notion of “savvy”, which they transformed into the more unique, interesting and memorable “Zavee”.

The Zavee takeaway:

• Juliet’s wrong. Names matter.
• Descriptive names are generally more intuitive for the consumer and less expensive to market, but less memorable, harder to protect and less valuable to the brand.
• Evocative names are generally less intuitive for the consumer and more expensive to market, but more memorable, easier to protect and more valuable to the brand.

• Retaining existing customers costs far less than acquiring new ones
• When competing for customers, businesses often have to choose between offering more value (e.g., by improving service) or cutting prices
• A good customer experience makes future purchases more likely, while a bad experience does the opposite

These posts focused mainly on larger companies, many of which have downsized their customer service staffs. There are anecdotal indications, if nothing else, that customer service has suffered as a result.

On the other hand, some larger companies are maintaining or even improving customer service. We think that these companies will be well positioned after the economy recovers because they will have generated loyalty and improved the value of their brand at a time when some of their competitors were cutting service or hiding from customers. Some are using technology: Comcast and Best Buy are by now well known as pioneers in the use of Twitter to learn about and respond to customer care issues. Other companies, such as Southwest Airlines, maintain high levels of customer satisfaction by making service part of the organization’s DNA (although no one is perfect). And I have had at least one potentially negative experience with a rental car company turn positive simply because a well-trained senior manager was on the scene and jumped in with the right approach and a fair solution.

Smaller companies have both a harder and an easier time maintaining customer service in a recession. Harder, because increasing expenses during a time of weak revenues may be difficult to swallow. Easier, because the cost-benefit analysis is much clearer. Some large companies may believe they can afford to exchange so much in sales for so much in customer service expense, but most small companies don’t think that way. Although there certainly are exceptions, most small companies realize that they can’t afford to give up sales to save money. They also realize that good service builds repeat business and long-term loyalty. Finally, they should also realize that customers talk – which means that good customer service can generate referrals: the least expensive but most reliable way to acquire new customers. The good news for small companies is that maintaining and improving customer service doesn’t have to be expensive. Here are some low-cost approaches to customer service that businesses can start now and keep in place even after the economy improves:

• Listen to your customers. There are many ways to listen: you can use applications like Facebook and Twitter; you can send surveys to customers by email; you can call them on the phone; and you can chat with them at the point of sale. As long as you are sincere and open you will learn a lot about what you are doing right and how you might improve.
• Empower your associates. Your customer-facing employees should be encouraged to engage with customers at every point of contact and empowered to offer solutions to at least some concerns or complaints. Anything that can’t be handled at their level should be referred to the appropriate person and dealt with promptly.
• Use technology wisely. At Zavee, we use a third-party application called Zendesk to help us manage customer service. Clicking on a “Help” link from anywhere on the Zavee site opens our Member Services page, from which anyone (even non-members) can read our content, engage with others in a forum or contact us with a question, comment or complaint. This system creates a numbered “ticket” for every interaction, which is automatically flagged for followup by Zavee but also gives the user a way to follow up with us. It turns everyone in our organization into a customer service agent, because we never know in advance who will be the best person to handle the next ticket that comes in.
• Don’t go it alone. In addition to blogs and other online resources, local chambers of commerce are a great source of information from businesses like yours in your own market. If you are located in South Florida, we invite you to join Zavee. Our marketing tools help merchants understand their customers better and our networking tools improve their ability to communicate with and learn from customers.

The Zavee takeaway:

• If you think the recession is time to double down on customer service, you’re right. If you think it’s time to cut back, think again.
• It may be easier for you to provide excellent service than a larger competitor, because you are closer to the customer. That’s a key point of differentiation – make the most of it.
• Customers talk. Make sure they have only good things to say about you.
• Don’t stop once the economy improves.

Update (2/18/10): “Poor Customer Service Costs Companies $83 Billion Annually” provides a useful summary of an impressive global research report (pdf) on the high cost of poor customer service.