Small Brands..Big Ideas

A brand is not a graphic, or an image, or a statement …it’s an idea …that can include all of these things and more. It creates a perception or an emotional response, about a person, product, service or company. The reason we know a brand is an idea is because we can observe and sometimes even measure the “affect” a brand has on people, in the immediate emotional response that a brand will generate.

I often use examples like “John Deere” or “MacDonald’s” to illustrate this emotional response. These two company brands are rooted in a person’s name, yet, it is not the person or some related memory of the person that is generated when we think of these names. It is the sum total of our perceptions of these brands, their history, culture and products that drive our emotional response and impose a narrative about the brand.

While a known brand produces an immediate emotional response… that response is largely the result of a brands narrative. How long has it remained in our consciousness? How has the brand evolved historically?  Has a recent event impacted our perception of the brand, negatively of positively? How has the brand been portrayed in media? What kind of social responsibility do we attribute to this brand?  What virtues or flaws do we attribute to the brand?

We express our emotional response in a heartbeat... and the sum or all our exposure to that brand is expressed in in that moment of recognition. Our perceptions can run the complete gamut of emotions, ranging from honest, cynical, trustworthy, bold, global ….to deceitful, uncaring, methodical and unsophisticated. The greater our exposure to a brand the greater the sum of our experiences upon which we respond to a brand. This emotional response is well described in “Blink”, the Malcolm Gladwell book about “The Power of Thinking without Thinking”.

The word brand, more often than not today, enters our consciousness in the context of popular culture and is also considered the domain of corporate culture. As a result the term has little currency with smaller audiences or in non-mainstream situations. This is why the term “brand” is not well understood by small businesses. Small brands tend to have small exposure and small audiences …for small business this does not appear to be a sound investment strategy, since most small businesses have limited funds and a shorter window on their Return on Investment (ROI). Let’s face it …if a preponderance of your audience does not know who you are - there will be little if any emotional response to your brand and as a result little appetite for investing in long term strategies.    

So what about  your brand if you are a small business, only a small audience know who you are and you often do not have the history or financial ability to create awareness of your brand for larger audiences. What do you do? This is where great creative and unexpected exposure of your brand (social networks or events) coupled with a long term marketing strategy can have a significant impact, in creating a brand and awareness around that brand. Brand awareness and the emotional response are different brand characteristics. Awareness speaks to audience recognition and the emotional response determines how we feel about a brand.

If you want to grow your small business you need both the short term plan - and, a long term plan that grows audience/customers and create a [positive narrative about your brand. If you don’t plan you will have no control, over what your brand represents. Remember that most large companies or organizations started as small enterprises!

The great thing about a long term brand strategy is that it does not necessarily demand significant investment initially.  A brand awareness program that invests a modest amount each year in marketing and social networks consistently over time can grow a brand and its audience.  A brand strategy can only be effective if you have a plan and you stick to it. Kind of like Morgan Freeman describing archaeology in movie, “The Shawshank Redemption”…it’s the study of time and pressure.

One of the important influencing factors in managing your brand is control over the narrative about your brand, through great creative – making your brand memorable though unusual promotions, decidedly different partnerships in the community, creative sponsorships, creative ads, character driven social media programs will help grow audiences (keep in mind the word audiences equate to customers in this equation). Each step ads to the brand and that brand must be directed by a long term plan. The plan helps describe what your brand represents to audiences. The plan will help define how your brand is perceived …ultimately transferring to your products a feeling of warmth, excitement, reliability, economy, etc. - the list is as long as the list of human emotions and often combines many different emotions to create a strong brand.  

Building A Sound E-Learning Strategy

I guess it is not surprising that companies and organizations simply throw up their hands and choose E-Learning that is free or low cost and generally not very effective. They have been forced by government regulations to comply with such mandated training as Health & Safety, Accessibility (AODA) Privacy and more. Most organizations have not seen the writing on the wall yet...that training, will become increasingly important to their survival.

Getting mandatory training at a low cost makes good business sense today, especially when you consider the limited likelihood of government regulators knocking on your door to check up on you or the fact that the recent recession has created a labour glut with many university skilled workers available at low wages.

The lack of learning strategy within most organizations  has reinforced  the lack of importance that training has in North American businesses. Managers and employees don't really have a vested interest in training until it is something that effects their livelihood (from an employee point of view), or it represents unacceptable risk (from an employers point of view).  As long as the information is accurate, who cares if employees and employers actually understand the concepts and can put them into action. The reasons for poor training implementation and support range from, "I can get that for free on the interment" to "I don't understand the Technology" or "lets do a webinar."

Training and in particular E-Learning in the coming years will be a clear point of differentiation for successful companies who build a long term strategy  that values knowledge and learning. New skills, upgrading existing skills, alternate skills and compliance training will all become an important part of a more flexible and diverse workforce for any company.

A well trained workforce will have to be cost effective as a result of a more transient workforce. Cost and demands of training workers will increase with greater staff turnover. Looming shortages in skilled workers, increasingly complex skills sets and greater  knowledge requirements for technology solutions will place great demands on worker skills. This along with an aging population to service will create increasing shortages in skilled labour.

An organization's  success will be measured by its ability to adapt, grow and learn in a rapidly changing free-market economy. Employing an "early days" sound learning strategy will add to the value of an organization and allow it to outperform its competitors.

What does a sound learning strategy look like today? It will take the form of "baby steps", or pilot projects where companies and organizations identify key topics that require rapid learning, complex learning or flexible learning to respond to changing client demands. Developing a pilot project based on an identified need and seeking turn-key solutions will allow organizations to test their learning and grow that solution over time to address its ongoing needs. It also involves  the learners who will play an important role in shaping the strategy with their feedback.

Many organizations today, because of their lack of understanding of E-Learning, are seeking a "technology" solution rather than a "content" solution. Its my opinion that E-Learning technology, as it stands, is reasonably mature from a technical stand point since most companies providing such services are large and well equipped to develop the required technology and tools sets. What is lacking for the most important part ...a focus on content  and ensuring that what is being taught..is what's being learned! This demands a very different skill set that most organizations  do not understand, a media savvy production partner that has an in-depth understanding of the technology wrapper for E-Learning, and who can consult on a wide range of E-Learning strategy issues..

PDFs, web sites, webinars, online videos and simple E-Learning content are generally ineffective as primary content in E Learning because they approach learning in a traditional way and seek to use linear media. An E- Learning strategy must build its content from the ground up. It may use existing media and content  under the guidance of a subject matter expert but whether its blended learning or self paced learning a sound strategy seeks to take advantage of the best that E-Learning has to offer.