Meet the brand...

It seems that lately I am being approached by many people who are asking a similar question, “How did you do it?”.  Obviously I write this blog so that I can share what I have learned which also means that people can dip into what they think is relevant for them whenever they choose.

My initial reaction when people ask “how did you do it?” Is that it wasn’t ‘I’ … it was ‘we’. I have been fortunate that I have surrounded myself with great people all completely passionate about our vision and committed to what we are doing.

If I was to take ownership for one thing … it would be that I did bring to the start up RedBalloon a corporate background in marketing. When I started the business I was completely passionate about building a brand online. Which was no insignificant task back in 2001 because the internet was in it’s infancy. My marketing background had taught me that to create a brand is to build relationships – and being online we didn’t have the opportunity to meet our customers in person..  So in response to the question “How to build a brand online?” I responded for The Australian newspaper with these three lessons:

1. Don’t hide. It is like any other relationship – people want to get to know you. When I am buying online I like to know who is behind the business – I cannot stand those ‘about us’ pages that say nebulous things like “we are the greatest solutions provider blah blah blah”. Many years ago in the early days I had a woman phone saying I’m just about to make a purchase on your web site – “how do I know you are real?” I responded” I’m the CEO” and she retorted “But you might be the janitor for all I know”. The irony of course was that I was the janitor too.

The principles behind building a strong and enduring brand remain the same whether online or offline. It’s all about building great relationships – with your customers, your suppliers, your clients and especially your employees as they’re the greatest brand ambassadors you have! Shared experiences create and strengthen relationships.

2. People create brands – brand reputation is about who you associate with. Online it is important to hang out with a good crowd. It is important to know who , how and where any links or advertising might appear. Brand association is critical online – in exactly the same way as a retail store – you want to know who your neighbors are. It is the same online.

3. Brands are built in the hearts of our customers and employees through the relationships they have with that organisation. Every touch point adds or detracts from that relationship, because a brand is not advertising, but how people experience and feel about an organisation. It is the people they meet, the stories they hear, what they see on social network sites that form opinions about a business. People question if they can trust or believe the story. And it is no different in building an employer brand.

You have to listen to your customers, clients and employees so you can deliver a positive experience every time they engage with your brand.  At RedBalloon we also know that a high level of customer service starts with happy employees who are more willing to go the extra mile to ensure a positive customer experience every time, and that’s why our company values are fundamental to everything we do. Each and every “RedBallooner” lives the values of integrity, generosity, leadership, having sense of humour and fun, and probably most poignant given our growth and position in the Australian gifting landscape, being a little dog with a big dog personality!

This is why employees are the new customers. Each employee has a voice (and could be a personal publisher). As such it is up to leadership teams to stay vigilant and committed to the employee experience – because that will mirror the customer experience, and ultimately the brand itself.

So the reality is that building a brand online follows similar principles to building a brand offline – it is all about relationships.

Friday was a day for many celebrations – our April Fools day tradition continued with some really ‘special experiences’ that only a ‘fool’ would not take up. Well done marketing team… love your work.

RedBallooners Celebrate 1,000,000 good times and counting

And at 11.22 on 1 April the scoreboard clicked over to 1,000,000. We are half way to our BHAG of 2 million people by 2015. It was fabulous to bring the team together for an impromptu celebration.

It was truly humbling to be a part of the Qantas eXcel awards celebration at hanger 96 at Mascot airport under the wing of a very large 747-400. Whilst I was personally involved in the selection of the ‘peoples choice’ winners- there were more than 700 people at the party – and it is an amazing thing to know that each of the winners there had received a RedBalloon voucher at some stage through 2010 (in recognition of their achievement). How delightful to listen to customers about the experiences they went on or are planning to do.

And in between all that I attempted to study for the AICD exam and put together an argument for the assignment.

This Week

Monday: Study & phone hook up briefing for Boot Camp presentation

Tuesday: Monthly Company Meeting and board meeting

Wednesday: Interview with Anthill, boardroom lunch at Taylor’s wines and AICD exam

Thursday: Presentation by Lowy Institute and then I’ll present at Kochies Business Builders Bootcamp

Friday: More Boot Camp and finish AICD assignment.

Reading: AICD Company Director Course Notes

This week I was at the AICD course and one of the female participants said she was desperate to get a new handbag and wallet as hers were ‘falling apart’. I was going to the top of Collins street anyway so we went together. This woman told me she wanted a Gucci handbag and matching wallet, because ‘they last’.

We were both completely underwhelmed by the brand experience. The attendants were wearing ill-fitting brown uniforms that looked terrible (and they had wires hanging out of their ears – the effect was to make them look like security guards – not women of style selling to women of style.

My friend selected a wallet, and the sales assistant said ‘you don’t want that one it has been on display’ I will get you a new one in the box.  My friend opened the new box, the wallet looked the same, but she then opened the actual wallet only to discover it had a different internal design. She was a little put out, said she wanted the original style she selected. There wasn’t a ‘new one in stock’. They could put one aside in another store and she could go there… (My friend’s time is scarce) she said – can’t you have it delivered to me…’No’… so my friend said can’t you sell me the display one (implying with a small discount)… the sales assistant’s English was not good – and she did not understand the subtly of what my friend was saying.  My friend ended up leaving without a wallet.

She did however purchase a handbag. When we arrived at the course the very next morning – this woman held up her bag (I thought so I could admire it.) Alas no – the handle had broken. (Ironic given she only purchased at Gucci because she thought the bags lasted).

My friend called and asked the Gucci store to deliver a replacement bag to our location. That would not be possible, as the bag might have to go for ‘repair’. By this time my friend was exasperated. I heard her say ‘So you mean I have to come all the way back to the top of Collins street – this is actually your problem yet I have to do the running around to fix it’.

At the time she was on the phone I was flicking through the beautiful Fin. Review Magazine fashion edition – and noted the very expensive Gucci ad, which promised ‘glamour & luxury’ and implied customer experience. My friend just rolled her eyes when I showed her it.

We traipsed back to the top of Collins Street. When we entered the store a shop assistant instantly stated ‘a repair is it?’ As though this happens a lot. My friend stated her case in no uncertain terms, this was a new bag and she was not going to settle for a repair (quite frankly I think she would rather a full refund and never to return to the store – except she then would have wasted more time looking for another bag… and a wallet that she still did not have.)

This was my first (and only) shopping experience at Gucci – and it was not even my purchase. If these luxury goods businesses have such high margin’s I wonder how much training their staff receive. My friend would have received far better service if she had purchased online. Traditional retailers need to consider carefully why people choose to purchase in a store.  Perhaps it is so that they as a consumer feel that they have ‘touched the brand’ or been a part of something, felt glamorous for a few moments.

Anyway we get to vote with our feet. But these ‘old’ businesses need to get over themselves and come into the new world where the customer does have a choice – we want to be part of a brand experience when we visit a retailer.

Simson Family Holiday

I have had a few weeks off with the family.  A complete break it is important to recharge. I’m back and ready for another big year at RedBalloon… I have had  a quick look at the diary and I see that I will be quite busy….

This Week

Monday: Interview with The Age  – and reconnecting with everyone in our one on ones

Tuesday: Speaking engagements for Dell and another for Deloitte… then a photo shoot with Pete for Latte Magazine

(I notice that my episode of Secret Millionaire will replay at 7.30pm Tuesday on Gem free to air channel – I blogged about the filming in late 2009)

Wednesday: Celebrating Australia day on the Harbor with friends

Thursday: Judging session for Qantas eXcel peoples choice awards

Friday: Meetings in Melbourne (and the Australian Open men’s final on Sunday)

Wonderful RedBalloon suppliers like Radical Race Cars

It is the festive season – so obviously at this time of year you think ‘who has helped me this year?’ Clearly no business can operate without it’s supply community. Our fabulous suppliers who deliver on our brand promise everyday are critical to our success.

Great supplier relationships can make the strategic difference to a business. I remember when I was at Ansett Airlines – many suppliers had to wait for months to be paid, yet were asked to perform beyond expectations at short notice without proper briefs… contrast that to when I moved to Apple. Apple treated it’s suppliers as if they were part of the team – inviting them to strategy days, and including them in social activities. Suppliers to Apple willingly gave discretionary effort… All of this was last century though.

Fast forward to now – and I am constantly being asked about these discount offer sites – all take offs of the US concept Groupon – so far I have counted more than 12 operating in the Australian market alone.  If they are providing an offer a day – that is more than 4000 offers in a year. Is the supply base big enough?

Naturally there will be some consolidation as the market chooses which ones it trusts – some with survive, merge, or disband. Each of these organization understands that they are only as good as their last offer. I have heard that they  have teams of people on the phone looking for deals from suppliers – telemarketers offering suppliers big things and thousands of new customers.

The offer however, needs to work for both parties interests – and I have heard some horrendous stories from suppliers about how they were sent customers, but were paid a tiny fraction of what was promised. Even worse I’ve heard of suppliers who had offers promoted and they did not even know about them…. But the discount site did not have to fulfill because the ‘required’ number was not reached, or worse the discount site claims that the ‘offer was pulled’ by the supplier – damaging the suppliers brand.

I wonder if Australia is big enough for so many ‘offers’ – after all, all businesses must deliver profitable business – otherwise demise is imminent.

My theory has always been that suppliers are critical to RedBalloon’s success and the execution of our brand promise… they are the partners in our success – and they as a result must win hand down too.

Gift Cards now in Coles, Woolworths and Australia Post & NZ Post

Giftbox range

Over the past five years this sense of purpose has driven much of our innovation in our Corporate team, our gift card offering through retailers (including Coles just announced which takes us to about 3000 retail outlets), our gift box range – which means great experiences can be delivered to the recipient.

When we say the ‘gifting in Australia’ this includes rural Australia – and in many regional towns there simply is not the supply of experiences that we have in the city – so we have to send experiences to them – from international beer tastings to astrology readings…

Gift Packs in Myer, Target, Dymocks & Big W (nationally)

Last year we saw our innovation into retail – with Myer, Big W and Target taking our gift packs, which include gift cards in a gift box with a catalog of experiences.

m.redballoon.com.au - for mobile devices

We need to be wherever gifting decisions take place, which is why I’m excited to see that our site optimised for iPhone and other mobile devices has shipped.

Browse M.redballoon.com.au on your iPhone or mobile device and you’ll go to a version of our website especially for mobile browsing.  It has quite a nifty ‘refine’ function that makes searching by location, price and gift especially easy. Congratulations to Peter, Khoa, Alex, Roneel, Joel and the team at Nomad for making this happen.

We learned that lesson the hard way – years ago when RedBalloon used to put the persons first name in the header of our email campaigns. That was too intimate – because we might write ‘Jane, what are you giving your mother for Christmas.’ Only to get a very terse response – ‘if you knew me well enough you would know that my mother passed away last Christmas.’

This lesson has progressed with us at RedBalloon into social media – though of course we have not got it perfect – who does. Social media is definitely not about perfection – it is about being real.

We covered five main ideas that we covered:

1. The emotional power of response: Social media isn’t about just having a presence, it’s about using the platform to talk to actively engage and talk to consumers. Don’t underestimate the power of a personal response!

RedBalloon found that whilst it is a marketing tool – it is not a ‘push device’ like other media – for the first time in history we have a chance to really listen – in real time, to pose a thought or idea and demonstrate the we are just a bunch of people that have all come together with a collective idea of ‘changing gifting in Australia forever’.  A conversation is born.  We also get RedBallooners speaking as individuals to interact as much as possible, and when they comment it helps create a REALLY personal response.

2. It hurts, but prioritise engagement over reach: ‘When it comes to social media communities, size isn’t everything – I’d rather have 100 highly engaged fans on a Facebook page who actually share and discuss content than 1,000,000 fans who aren’t active at all.’ According to Graeme Boyd  Consultant Community Manager / XBOX EMEA

There was some debate about this – I was quite envious of the shear quantity of fans that Hamish and Andy have – but the reason it works is still the same for us – they are doing the work and really responding to their ‘fans’ – The business we are in lends itself to sharing experiences online – it is our job to facilitate it.

3. Start with an insight, not a media plan: DON’T adhere to the ‘Dude we should do philosophy’ – i.e. ‘Dude we should do Facebook, dude we should do Twitter etc’. Identify the key insight first, considering who it’s relevant for and where they spend their time doing what, before deciding on platform/media.

In the early days of RedBalloon social media we ran a poll on our home page asking which platforms our customers used the most. We also paid close attention to the level of engagement we got on different platforms and focused our efforts accordingly. There’s no point blasting away on a platform when no one who cares is going to hear or interact with you.

4. Be prolific rather than precious: Success in social media is about relinquishing control – letting people dictate the ebb and flow of a given initiative. Things happen fast on these platforms and you have to be ready and willing to get stuck in and talk to consumers – not waste time agonizing over every last irrelevant detail.

Real world communities are not predictable, they are not formulaic, so your approach to social media cannot be either. So for us it’s more about being dynamically engaging – become relevant by giving the community what they want and remain relevant by being flexible enough to realize when the way they want to interact with you has evolved. We are always testing and posting different conversation starters or announcements, but not at such a prolific level that we are bombarding feeds like the annoying person who continues to talk over the top of you while you’re trying to have a conversation with your mate. It’s a delicate balance. And sometimes our content doesn’t always hit the mark. Over time on facebook for example, we’ve gauged engagement via likes and comments on our various topics. Sometimes it’s the least likely topics that get the most interaction… topics that may never have been tried had we been too precious about before posting.

5. Look at what it does and ONLY then use it: Social media is only tricky if you try to retro-fit or shoehorn existing campaigns/strategies. It can be a simple as working out what people use a given platform for and building a campaign around THAT. It’s why previous example of Best Buy’s Twelpforce works so well.

We started off with a social media strategy, outlining different approaches for each platform. However once we embarked on the journey we found that the social spaces took on a life of their own. The direction changed a little, and this was all dictated by the user. People behave differently on Twitter than on Facebook, so you need to tailor your approach to fit in with this.

Since our earliest days, word of mouth worked best. The impact of RedBalloon experiences is often such that they not only make a lasting impression on the individual, but they also often evoke rich stories that we share with our family and friends. Social media has always been about conversation and inter-personal connection. So the fit for us was natural. Our social media strategy became merely a platform, a facilitator, of the stories that we already knew were being shared both outside and inside this space.

So at the start our approach was simply to get to know our community, share funny posts and communicate as RedBallooners with names – building a connection. Since then, we’ve built a community where members actively share their stories (good and bad), whether it be on facebook or twitter. Having said this, we’ve learned that our approach must be tailored slightly to the specific channel. We learned early on that behavior was slightly different on twitter than facebook. On twitter the format is much more instantaneous and often one-to-one, whereas facebook is much more conducive to a longer chain of interactions across many more individuals.

I enjoyed being on the panel with Andy Ridley – Earth Hour, Simon T Small on Jetstar, Emily Rayner Austereo – and our chair person Gual Barwell from Contagious Magazine

Here’s some food for thought based on this slide from Cliff Rosenberg at Linkedin:

‘Even if you don’t understand the concept of social media, you need to fully understand that you, as a company are no longer in control of what’s being said about you.’

(In fact you never were in control– it’s just that these conversations about your brand used to happen late at night in small groups with people drinking red wine – now people can publish anything anytime – and do.)

‘You need to understand that your public relations team can no longer control (or influence) what people say about you in the press’. (I’m not sure if they ever have been able to control what the media says – however there are now far more sources of information about organizations… there is no ‘company’ line anymore.)

We must give up the notion of controlling the message – to embracing the idea of authenticity and transparency. We can only influence the product experience, make sure we understand the customer experience and know what we stand for. Operate consistently based on values – and deliver on the vision. If people believe in what we are doing – they  and others will want to be a part of it – and the story may travel.

I think this 4 minute video is well worth a watch. Is Social Media a fad? I know that it might not be the destination – but twitter et al is all part of the journey.