Uniqueness Through Intelligent Branding
By: T.J. Tedesco
For: High Volume Printing
Published: October, 2000

What do these companies have in common? FedEx, Domino’s Pizza, General Electric, IBM, Dell, McDonalds and Coke? They’ve all successfully branded their businesses and stand for something unique in the eyes of millions of people. Are there lessons that we, toiling in the printing industry, can learn from the big guys? You bet!

Let’s look at Coke first. What are they selling? Sugared water? Get out of here. They’re selling a brand and an image. They’re selling membership into the Coke buying community. They’re selling refreshment and the real thing. OK, I’ll admit it – I’m not sure I can tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi. But, I drink Coke nonetheless. Not Pepsi, Sprite or even Diet Coke. Why?

I never thought much about my relationship with this essentially useless beverage until I read The End of Marketing As We Know It by Ex-Coke marketing guru, Sergio Zyman. Mr. Zyman got me thinking about why I’ve asked for Coke for decades, even though I don’t like the product very much. After thinking about it for a while, I’ve surmised that at a subconscious level, I just don’t want to be part of the Pepsi Generation. On a scale of one-to-ten, the importance of soft drinks in my life rates about a zero. But, from a marketing perspective, unimportant decisions like these, multiplied by hundreds of millions of people, make a huge difference to the bottom lines of companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi Co.

How about another industry rapidly slipping into commodity status – computer hardware? Seven years ago, I was a loyal Gateway customer and by that time had purchased three of their computers. I was happy with the company until their service level deteriorated to the point that they stopped answering their technical help telephone line. It got so bad that Gateway would put you on hold for half an hour and then ask you to leave a message. They would call you days later and be surprised that you’ve not only worked around the problem, but have even forgotten what it was. One thing transcends centuries though: I haven’t forgotten their once lousy service.

At that time, rapidly ascending Dell Computer’s marketplace promise was corporate-style service even for the little guy. I switched. Four laptops and two desktops later, I’m still a Dell loyalist. As far as I’m concerned, the pricing differences are immaterial and the products indistinguishable. But, for seven years, Dell has picked up their phone lines and offers me reasonable technical advice. By now, Gateway probably has fixed their service problems, but I don’t care. Dell’s consistently good service gives them first rights to my wallet.

How about you and your printing company? Is your quality any better than the other guys’? If it is, does anyone really care? Let me guess – sometimes your prices are a little high and sometimes they’re a little low. Does this make the difference to your customers? No? What about service? How do you respond when there’s a problem? Do you point the finger, or take care of it? Today, business has to feel right and be comfortable. You have to provide more solutions than problems. Your customers have more substantial things to worry about than the printing they buy. Make their lives easy and give them a good night’s sleep. Issues like these should be cornerstones of your marketplace promise and branding effort. Remember: If it feels like you’re selling on price, you are.

Here are some words of advice: Get your internal house in order. Run a clean shop. Say what you do and do what you say. Enough said: Let’s move on to the nuts and bolts of branding.

The Six Steps For Brand Creation

1) USP. USP. USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Every company has a USP; sometimes called SOB (Statement Of Benefits). Your USP needs to be a crystal clear definition of what you do best and why you’re unique in your marketplace. It states why you are in business. The average print advertisement has six-tenths of a second to capture a reader’s attention, so brevity is a virtue. Consider two of the best USPs in Corporate America, as determined by a Harvard University study completed in the early 1990s. Tied for first place were a pizza company and a delivery company. At that time, Domino’s Pizza promised fresh, hot pizza in 30 minutes or less. Equally compelling, Federal Express promised to absolutely, positively get your package there overnight. (There isn’t always a fairytale ending. For different reasons, both companies have since changed their USPs, and the results have been far short of spectacular.)

2) Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. When creating brand awareness, consistency is everything. No matter which promotional vehicles you choose, everything you do should share a common “look.” To build a brand, your look must have more than just a snappy logo. The positioning of graphic elements, the writing style and cadence, the typefaces and logo must be consistent from piece to piece. This holds true for advertising, letterhead, business cards, note cards, advertising specialty items, labels, boxes, invoices … everything.

3) Promote. Promote. Promote. Advertising is big business and depending on how you count it, annually contributes well over $100 billion to the US Gross Domestic Product. Brand creation cannot be done by word of mouth alone. Everywhere, brand stewards and PR mavens are hard at work. Are yours? Yes, word of mouth advertising is a powerful driver of new business in the graphic arts industry, but there is so much more that you can do to promote the best brand out there – you. No matter how long you’ve been in business, it’s best to promote your brand as aggressively as possible.

4) Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Stick with your promotional efforts over the long run and experiment with a variety of marketing vehicles. In general, if you’re tapping new markets, emphasize “shotgun” advertising and public relations work. If you know exactly which companies you need to influence, then choose “rifle” vehicles such as direct mail, customer nurture programs and sales calls.

5) Track. Track. Track. If you don’t track your branding efforts, you might as well save time and simply flush your hard earned cash down the toilet. Whenever you get a call from a new company, make sure you know the reason why you got it. Regardless of who handles new inquiries at your company, arm them with WTC (Why They Called) forms. The best WTCs have three short sections:

a. Contact information (name, address, etc.)
b. Checkboxes for how they heard of you (ad, mailing, article, referral, telemarketer, search engine, etc.)
c. Recommended follow-up activities.

If the bulk of your new inquiries are generated from your marketing efforts and they’re the kind of leads you need to grow your business, then you’re on to something. If you’re only getting leads from your salespeople and referrals, your operations may be OK, but your lead generation and brand building efforts are likely insufficient.

6) Tweak. Tweak. Tweak. As time passes, things change. What once worked so well may not after technology gains occur or other companies enter your sandbox. When this happens, tweak what your brand stands for. For example, do you remember that once upon a time, Arm & Hammer baking soda was something that you cooked with? Now, you put it in your refrigerator for odor removal, brush your teeth with it and even flush it down the drain. Talk about brilliant market expansion for such a simple product. As an industry, we should be ashamed of ourselves for crying in our cornflakes about the commoditization of our still lustrous industry.

1999 was a banner year for printing consolidation. Even though the pace of acquisitions has slowed in 2000, consolidation has left an indelible mark on us. Some consolidators have chosen to create mega-brands while others have maintained a patchwork quilt of individual ones. Regardless of approach, all consolidators should be focusing on “cross selling” between units. Conversely, non-consolidated companies should consider incorporating “independence” into their USPs. While the long-term effect of consolidation-mania is years away from being known, one thing is clear – every company should rethink its brand positioning anew.

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Although they do so much of it for their customers, ironically, many printing companies haven’t even paid lip service to their own branding efforts. Why is branding such a big deal in mainstream Corporate America? Because it works. The images we create directly affect the profits we make. Let’s learn from the big guys and brand our way to marketplace success.

T.J. Tedesco is a “hands-on” marketing, sales, coaching and training consultant to the post press industry. He is the author of Binding, Finishing & Mailing: The Final Word, and Win Top-of-Mind Positioning, both published by GATFPress and available at Amazon.com. T.J. can be reached at (301) 294-9900 or tj@growsales.com.