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Feb 26th, 2010 by Paul Louzado

MENA Private Equity focus: Unlocking the value of portfolio companies through strategic brand solutions

The rise of Private Equity (PE) in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region over the last four years has been nothing short of meteoric. By the end of 2008, there were more than 120 private equity houses present in the region having raised a combined $21 billion in total assets under management.

How quickly the world changes in 12 short months. The number of deals closed by MENA funds in the first nine months of 2009 fell by 65 percent to 12, coupled with a 75 percent fall in investments to $359 million compared to the same period in the year before. Industry observers estimate that there are now less than 40 PE houses remaining after a year that has witnessed the first contraction in the region’s total GDP in more than two decades¹.

But from the wreckage of the last year new opportunities are emerging. In this weakened economy, an increasing number of companies are looking to either prune their portfolios to raise cash or exit non-core businesses. Conditions are ripe for players with aggressive ambitions to strengthen their market share or make cross-region consolidation plays. Industry analysts predict there will be an estimated $5-6 billion in new capital flowing into the region during the next four years², and that cash will be looking for strong investment partners that can deliver solid returns.

Private equity’s entry into the MENA region was propelled by a period of unprecedented growth. As with any fast moving market, deal volume was the name of the game which naturally led to an emphasis on the acquisition side of the investment process. Any operational improvement activity within portfolio companies was primarily limited to financial restructuring and management transfer. However, in the current economic climate the market has changed, and correspondingly, so have the tactics of the leading PE players. Many firms are using the slowdown in deal activity to take the time to deepen their due diligence process and generally become more active in the operational aspects of value creation within their portfolio companies.

While it is heartening to observe this positive and much needed trend, we still frequently observe a neglected area—branding. It appears that when PE firms are considering the many potential improvement activities available within the value chain of a portfolio company, branding is often either ignored or relegated to a list of marketing to-do’s. It should be a priority action.

An intelligently aligned brand strategy will directly and positively impact financial returns. It is both a driver of operational change and a critical success factor in enhancing brand equity and elevating investments.

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Jan 25th, 2010 by Richard Pasqua

Yes, there’s an App for that, but is it right for the brand?

I’ve been diving deeper into mobile design and mobile brand strategy for clients and recently published my first iPhone app. I learned a lot about the mobile industry along the way—the technologies involved, new design standards, and now, mobile marketing. One thing has become very evident—and perhaps it doesn’t take a digital brand specialist to see it—most brands are making the same mistakes with apps that we all made with early websites.

We all rush to add a new platform without understanding how it works and what it means to our brands. As in the early ‘90s when every company raced to build a website because everyone else did, companies now race to publish mobile applications. And the same problems the industry had back then persist today with mobile.

Back in the ‘90s most websites weren’t websites as we know them today but more like brochures full of corporate information. Websites have come a long way since then, and now many of them are sophisticated web applications that have become branded software products unto themselves. Companies have learned to leverage their brands online in more intelligent ways.

Now we’re facing the same challenge with mobile.

Companies need to understand how mobile will best benefit their brand and what kind of technologies to invest in. Right now the most excitement is around apps, and with over 10k iPhone apps submitted to iTunes every day and over 3 billion (yes billion with a “B”) paid and free apps downloaded so far, it’s clear that building apps is a big, serious business.

According to Pinch Media, however, most mobile app usage drops off to nothing within one month, and many apps get deleted altogether. Mobile desktop space is prime real estate and with the right approach, a well crafted mobile app can function as a small part of a brand that becomes an integral part of a person’s daily life. But it has to stay on the users’ desktop to get the job done and to stay on the desktop; it’s got to be well planned.

Mobile devices have become the “Swiss Army Knives of the digital generation.” They go with us everywhere, they remind us of what we need to do, they get us where we need to go (most of the time), connect us to friends and family, and supply us with endless amounts of entertainment. Branded apps that figure out ways to add similar functionality—a bite-sized, anytime, anywhere extension of the desktop experience—have a good chance of staking a claim on a user’s personal real estate (i.e., their mobile desktop).

Brands like Wired Product Reviews and NPR News are both great examples. Their mobile apps offer rich media content broken out into manageable pieces for different mobile devices. Essentially they’ve made their brand and content modular by repackaging it into discrete mobile apps. Tracking how mobile users consume media allows them to effectively port content out to this new platform and create an ongoing relationship through it. They’ve learned that tiny pieces of personal real estate can become a daily point of contact between brand and user.

Applications like Oakley Surf Report and REI Ski Report apps may not be used every day (unless you’re very lucky), but they’ve become a trusted source of information for iPhone users gearing up for outdoor adventures. These apps are great examples of how physical products/brands extend themselves in the mobile world. They may not be on the first or even the second page of a user’s desktop, but they still have a secure spot.

Of course, apps can also deliver clever, emotional brand connections that are meant to be fleeting or tied to a seasonal campaign or launch. In the world of luxury brands, some excellent examples come to mind. Bell&Ross has an iPhone app that allows users to try on their watches (virtually). Customers can select a watch from several models and colors, then hold their iPhone to their wrist, and check out the watch face details and the sweeping movement of the second hand. They might be done with the app once they’re done shopping for a new watch, but there’s no arguing the impact this app has on the Bell&Ross customer.

Mercedes Benz offers an iPhone app that creates the experience of the new C63 AMG. Users can watch videos, check out detailed specs, and peruse the AMG sound library where they can hear the cars, ignitions, engine revs and even a high-speed drive-by. And, once they’ve finished shopping, they’re likely done with the app but in that brief window of time, they’re probably opening it up several times a day as they think about their purchase decision.

Realistically, an app with a brief life span but high rate of daily usage is just as impactful as one that stays on the desktop and gets used once or twice a week—maybe even more.

Point being, when thinking about wading into this new space, it’s important to consider how to make a connection with it. This isn’t a banner ad or even a microsite. And it’s not —and should never be—a website. It’s a whole new way of interacting with the audience and if done right, the benefits will be huge. There are plenty of excellent examples out there—it just takes wading through a sea of poorly conceived ones to get to them or wait to hear about them from a friend.

Like other new industries, there is always excitement and a rush to be first to market, but it pays to listen to your brand followers and develop mobile products that fit their lives and go beyond the novel flavor of the week. For most brands right now, their apps are generating a lot of initial PR and not much else. The few that are doing their homework are successfully taking claim on users’ personal real estate—and are definitely the ones to watch.

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tags: whitepapers

Nov 20th, 2009 by Tom Blackett

The Evolution of the Customer Experience in Financial Services

This white paper is based on comments made by Tom Blackett, Non-Executive Chairman, Siegel+Gale UK, for the Financial Services Forum on October 13, 2009.

Blackett discussed how to make the customer experience count, opening with thoughts on the long road the financial services industry has taken toward competitiveness and the acknowledgement that customers really matter. Blackett later addressed the concept of ‘touch points’–specifically the experience customers have at these touch points and how they affect brand loyalty and customers’ willingness to recommend products or service to others. He concluded with an introduction to simplicity – arguing that the more accessible companies make things like statements, application forms, customer agreements and contracts, the more likely they’ll have happy and trusting customers.

Click here to view the white paper.

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Aug 6th, 2008 by Rolf Wulfsberg

Touch Point Management: Prioritizing the Investment Opportunities

Any company today that practices brand management understands the importance of its touch points with its customers and prospects. As Dr. Paul Temporal puts it:

"Brand management is, at its simplest, managing the consumer experience by managing all the interactions (touch points) that any current or potential customer has with your brand. It is about those "moments of truth" that we all know too well can make us happy or frustrated." (1)

Try searching "touch points" on Google. You should get over 1.4 million results. Refine the search to "managing touch points." You still get over 400,000 results. The fact is, touch point management is a critical issue to companies.

If you read these articles on managing touch points, you likely will be given the advice that one should initially identify those interactions that make the most difference—that is, you should prioritize the touch points. For example, in advising on how to manage digital touch points, Patrick Fleck offers a 10-point action plan with the following as points 4 and 5:

4. "Assess risk. Classify each touch-point by level of business risk. Identify and quantify, if possible, the revenue volume associated with each touch-point. In other words, measure what is at stake at each digital touch-point. Don’t forget intangibles—like brand.

5. Prioritize. Beginning with the highest risk touch-points, perform customer research as necessary to clearly identify customer goals and needs." (2)

This is very sound advice, but it is easier said than done. How do you determine the business risk associated with a specific touch point?

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Aug 4th, 2008 by Rolf Wulfsberg

Fact-Based Branding in Today’s Marketplace

Arguably, the most important aspects of a brand positioning are that it be relevant and credible. While ad agencies talk about "finding the white space" and "breaking through the clutter," if that unique message doesn’t matter to buyers, or if they do not believe it is true, the brand strategy will fail.

To understand what is relevant to a brand’s target audience(s), we must understand how decision makers make brand choices. The figure below depicts the brand decision process. (Note: This gating process applies to almost any type of decision.) While the specific value structures that are used by decision makers in various buying environments may differ significantly (e.g., the scientist purchasing a mass spectrometer versus a teenager purchasing a DVD), all decision makers utilize a remarkably consistent process.

The decision-making process

Gate 1: Awareness
Gate 1 is basic awareness of the brand. It addresses the question, "Has the buyer heard of you?" If the decision maker has never heard of your brand, it plays no role in the selection. This doesn’t mean your brand won’t be purchased. Your brand may be white-labeled or an invisible "ingredient" element that is not customer facing. Business-to-business brands often play this role and debate whether there would be a return on investment (ROI) in becoming a "household" name (e.g., BASF’s mass advertising campaign several years ago to make consumers aware that "we don’t make many of the things you use; we make many of the things you use better"). Or you may produce a classic commodity product (e.g., nails at the local hardware store) that one purchases just because it is what the local hardware store carries. I am a do-it-yourselfer at home, yet I could not tell you who manufactures the nails in my workshop if my life depended on it. Or, one may simply purchase your unknown brand because of the product’s appearance and/or its packaging at the point of purchase.

Lack of awareness simply means that the buyer is neither seeking your brand nor giving you an advantage because he/she has heard of you. Research consistently shows that consumers are more likely to purchase a product from a company they have heard of compared to the same product from a company they have not heard of, even if they know almost nothing about the first company other than its name.

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Jul 23rd, 2008 by Jeff Lapatine

The Power of Power Company Names

Leaving my house this morning, I spotted a truck pulling out from the local power company facility. The truck read National Grid.

I thought, wow, National Grid is a powerful name. It sounds like this is the company that controls the national power grid…the company that pulls the switch and turns the lights on for the whole nation. Of course it doesn’t, but the name sort of captures this image.

So how do you come by a name like this?

Essentially, there are four kinds of names for trademark purposes–generic, descriptive, suggestive, and fanciful.

THERE IS A BREED OF STRONG NAMES THAT IS SOMEWHAT DESCRIPTIVE AND SUGGESTIVE AT THE SAME TIME, AND SEEMS TO CAPTURE THE BEST OF BOTH.

A generic name would be Energy Company. Many companies in the field use this term to define themselves (we’re an energy company). Sometimes, this is known as the industry-standard name.

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tags: naming, whitepapers

Jul 22nd, 2008 by Matt Huss

Five Ideas for Using Brand to Drive Guest Loyalty

Introduction
Customer loyalty continues to be a hot topic among marketing professionals. Much of this discussion centers around getting customers to recommend your product–in your case, a hotel–to someone else.

The question is: Why should a guest recommend your hotel? Why should they want to come back? How do you create fresh and engaging ways to make a guest stay special? After all, service and accommodations at your hotel should not only be high quality, they should be distinctive and memorable.

The answer: think brand. A clear, compelling brand represents a rich, proprietary source for creating a distinctive guest experience and for making guests want to come back.

HOTELS SHOULD USE THEIR BRAND AS A PLATFORM FOR CREATING FRESH, DISTINCTIVE WAYS OF CREATING A PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCE THAT MAKES EACH GUEST FEEL SPECIAL.

Here are five ideas for using brand to drive guest loyalty.

Idea #1: Think outside the cookie
How can you make your hotels stand out from the competition…and from one another?

That’s yours, this is mine. In the ever-expanding world of hotel chains, it’s getting harder and harder to distinguish one hotel from the next. Sure, there’s the sign and the name, and, oh yes, the occasional baked good for each guest, but is that all that separates one hotel from the next?

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May 22nd, 2008 by Michelle Stuffman

Aligning the Health Care Organization to Keep Your Brand Promises

Health care organizations are increasingly developing consumer-focused brand identities. While there is a solid business case for this shift, it’s simply not enough to develop a positioning that evokes high-level emotional themes. Your positioning must be a promise. Defining a promise that is distinct from competitors is challenging enough, but the bigger challenge is to consistently deliver on it. Aligning promise and delivery in health care is a complex and delicate exercise because when a health care company fails to keep its promise—nearly always related to a consumer’s well-being—the consumer tends to take it very personally.

ACCORDING TO A 2006 STUDY PUBLISHED IN THE JOURNAL OF BRAND MANAGEMENT, ORGANIZATIONS CAN LOSE UP TO 40% OF THEIR MARKETING INVESTMENT WHEN EMPLOYEES DO NOT DELIVER ON THE ORGANIZATION’S PROMISES. — Journal of Brand Management, 14, 2006

Consider the recent case of a large, national insurance provider, whose promise is articulated through a symbolic service mark that dramatically illustrated a link to wellness and a caring organizational approach. The company declined a request by a 17-year-old leukemia patient for a liver transplant, because the procedure was deemed experimental. The attending physicians disagreed, which led the family to believe that the insurance company wanted to sidestep responsibility in an effort to control costs. Not surprisingly, this action was interpreted to be the antithesis of the brand’s promise, and this incensed consumers and stimulated unwanted media attention. While it is likely that the incident was based on valid business decision systems, the viability of the brand was compromised by the disconnect in promise and practice. It’s possible that the controversy could have been averted if those who were empowered to make these decisions had the proper tools and information to behave and communicate in a "branded" way.

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May 22nd, 2008 by Siegel Gale

A Pit Stop Approach To Brand Implementation

There is a new catch phrase emerging in the corporate world: "How can we change the tires while the car is moving?"

BY TACTICALLY EVALUATING THE ROLE OF YOUR TOUCH POINTS IN THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, YOU CAN ENSURE THAT EVERY ACTION TAKEN IS BUILDING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE.

We seldom heard this question until recently, but now our clients in the C-suite are asking it frequently. The question brings to life the difficulty of executing change in a demanding business environment where performance and results cannot be compromised. Brand strategy once lived in the realm of the long-term investment: Developing and implementing brand programs might cost a lot of time and money in the short-term, but would yield long-term gains. But in more challenging economic times, the focus must be on short-term results—the car HAS to keep moving, now more than ever.

The problem with the dilemma posed by the "changing the tires while the car is moving" metaphor is that it is based on an outdated notion of the change management process, which has been described as "Unfreezing, Changing, and Refreezing." (Fred Nickols, Change Management 101: A Primer.) The common conception of change management is that a company starts in a stable place, loosens up to prepare for change, implements change, and then stabilizes within a new paradigm.

A more contemporary view of change management suggests that change must occur constantly and in smaller increments for organizations to survive and thrive. Seth Godin suggests that organizations should consider an evolutionary model of change. "Evolution— defined as inheritable modifications over many generations—is the most powerful tool we have for dealing with change." (Fast Company, December 19, 2007) "It is our fear of changing a winning strategy and our reliance on command-and-control tactics that make us miserable—not change. Change doesn’t have to be the enemy. We start bypassing our fear of change by constantly training people to make small changes."

If your brand is not delivering real business value to the organization, you should not be afraid that change will require you to sacrifice business performance in the short-term. Whether you need to develop and deliver on a new brand promise and identity that is more relevant to customers, or whether you simply need to optimize your brand throughout the customer experience, taking a pit stop approach to change will yield results now and in the future.

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Apr 9th, 2008 by Irene Etzkorn

What Do the Candidates’ Speeches Reveal?

Analyzing campaign speeches of three presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain, reveals interesting stylistic differences and some commonalities.

ALL THREE CANDIDATES ARE CAREFUL TO AVOID THE GOBBLEDYGOOK THAT SO OFTEN CREEPS INTO POLITICAL DIALOGUE. THEY USE ACTIVE RATHER THAN PASSIVE SENTENCE CONSTRUCTIONS.

Clinton uses the greatest number of "humanizing" words in her speeches. References to "heart" and "voice" recur throughout her speeches in passages, such as "I come tonight with a very, very full heart," "I found my own voice," and "…we all spoke from our hearts." The "voice" metaphor morphs into "people who whisper to me" and "I will bring the voices of the American people back to the White House." At one point, she even says, "It’s enough to make you want to burst out in song."

McCain also injects a human element with frequent references to "eight years among friends" and "…never just fair-weather friends." Obama refers to people themselves, frequently mentioning his extended family, including his father, mother, wife, daughters, and even grandfather in one speech.

The notion of duty comes through clearly in McCain’s word selection. Phrases such as "an obligation…which I will faithfully discharge" is in the speech he gave after winning the South Carolina primary along with "…sublime honor that has been the treasure of my life." McCain’s speeches invoke the twin notions of responsibility and public service.

Obama is inclined to use the pronoun, "we" rather than "I." Clinton and McCain use "I" quite regularly, imparting a sense of the president as an individual rather than an office.

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