Editor's note: This is part two. Here's a link to the first half of this article.
The way to stop wasting your marketing dollars is told in a special report from Business Week that came out last month entitled, “ A practical Guide to Branding.” The sub-head reads, “Define your brand identity—your product's "personality"—before you spend a dime on advertising or marketing.” The opportunity for most of us is to make our very first step as business owners to develop our brands. The article goes on to highlight this through three main points:
1. Studies show that companies who market their products or services without first establishing their brand identities are not likely to achieve return on investment.
2. If you're spending money to advertise and market without being connected to a brand position, you might as well pile the money up and burn it.
3. Branding is about getting your prospects to perceive you as the only solution to their problem.
The question then becomes, “How do I develop a powerful brand that creates the perception behind my company’s offerings that I am the only choice for prospects.” This is where the large Fortune 500 companies start out right…they know their customer inside and out. They know their customer better than their competition, how the product or service fits into their lives, what trends effect purchase decisions and how to apply those learning’s into a balanced brand promise that connects both rationally and emotionally with prospects. Sounds simple enough.
It is actually quite simple to stay in touch with your customers. And that can happen in part through the ongoing sales and service process, but that only scratches the surface. There is just no replacement for direct one-to-one conversations, which is why phone interviews are my most often used brand research tool.
The following are tips on how best to interview your customers or prospects to unlock the secrets of what will really motivate them to buy from your company. If you accomplish this, then all the marketing dollars you spend to drive qualified leads will have a much greater degree of success. It is the most important first step that you can take as a marketer of your company.
How to Interview a Customer for Branding Insights
It is important to remember that people aren’t always very good at articulating what they are thinking or feeling. So it is crucial to make sure that you think about three things as you prepare to conduct your interviews:
1. Ask the same kind of question from different points-of-view.
a. This allows people to answer the questions in a different way, getting more feedback than you normally would get from one straightforward question and answer.
2. Think of ways that you can give examples which will allow interviewees to better articulate feelings.
a. One of the most powerful areas that you will want to uncover is the emotional connection people have to your brand. Rational reasons get you on the consideration list, where emotional reasons are usually the reason why one brand is selected over another.
3. Talk to your most loyal clients. And if you are just starting out, talk to prospects that you think embody what will be your core customer group.
a. Loyal clients are the ones that stay with you over time, provide the most stable income, are willing to pay more for your service and can be your greatest advocates. In essence you want to create more of them by understanding their thoughts and feelings about why they are loyal to you. Only then can you try to emulate that in marketing and other customer relationships.
What Questions Should I Ask In An Interview?
There are ten categories of questions that you will want to cover in your interview. Each relates to a very different set of insights.
1. Reasons to Purchase – Ask people very directly why they actually bought. What triggered the purchase and what was the most important reason why they thought it was a good purchase decision.
2. Benefit Categories – Ask how they benefit from the product or service. You will find that people naturally start talking about very rational benefits (saves money, more durable, easier to use, etc.). These are very important to know, but it is equally if not more important to know the emotional benefits delivered. This is where you might have to give some examples (trust, fear, safety, pleasure, confidence, security, etc.).
3. Emotional Triggers – This is where we want to know how important the emotional connections are to them and their lives. I often ask people to rate the importance of this product in their daily lives, their retirement planning, their ability to be productive, etc. I have them answer on a scale of 1 to 10, and then ask and probe why. This gives them a great way to project about the true emotional connections to the brand.
4. Unmet Needs – This is an area that usually comes at the beginning of the interviews. I may ask about what set of events or inputs led up to making a purchase decision. This gives you a great background into what true needs or desires are and how the purchase decisions form.
5. Pont-of-Difference – This is to establish what makes you different from your competition. You have to understand how others think you compare in order to relevantly differentiate your company.
6. Areas of Strength –I usually start out by saying that every company is good at many things or else they would have gone out of business a long time ago. That is a great lead-in to ask what your company does well.
7. Loyalty Stimulus - I usually say to interviewees that they have been selected to interview because they are a loyal customer. And then I ask them if they agree. Most always they say yes since they were hand selected. I than ask for them to articulate what it is about the company that heightens their sense of loyalty.
8. Points of Weakness – After discussing strengths, you can ask if there are areas where the company could improve in order to serve you better.
9. New Opportunities – This is a time to ask if they see any new opportunity for the company to address a new idea.
10. Anything Else – There is always an opportunity to give the interviewee a chance to say something about the company that has not already been covered. This open-ended approach can reveal some very interesting insights.
Once you have the answers to all of the above, the road to a powerful brand promise (see Part 1 of this article for important information on building a brand promise) becomes a much clearer path.
Want to Learn More About Creating Your Own Brand?
I'm co-hosting a Biznik workshop on Do-It-Yourself Branding and creating a Compelling Story with Pamela Ziemann on Monday the 28th of July at 4pm.
Guaranteed, you will leave this event with practical knowledge, tools and the start of your unique story which will help you attract more leads and convert more sales. If you don't agree, we'll gladly refund your money. The cost is $12.
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