I was brought up short in the supermarket the other day by a bag of pretzels, which is not typically on my radar.  Last time I had a pretzel probably was some time in 1978.

But this bag of pretzels intrigued.  Yes, it had snappy packaging, done up in colors to attract the eye.   What was more intriguing, however – and more important in convincing me to stop for a closer look, was the product’s prominent positioning. 

The first word that caught my eye was “UNIQUE” – equal in weight to the product’s name: Splits.  A banner at the top of the bag proclaimed “The Original Split-Open Pretzel.” 

Since I’d never heard of a split-open pretzel and had no idea whether being split-open was a marketable pretzel attribute, I read on.  Further down the package, three prominent arrows pointed to a big pretzel, along with a few short lines of text for each benefit:

It’s abundantly clear from their key message that Unique Splits Pretzel Bakery of Reading, PA has decided that slightly bulging surfaces, grooves and tiny pockets of air buried in their pretzel would make them more crunchy and appealing.   True or not, they got my attention!  And the taste test later at home convinced me that they had a good pretzel, although the added value of the benefits they cited were lost on me, although I’m ready to admit that a pretzel aficionado may have picked up on them immediately.

The benefits don’t stop there.  The Splits package also proclaims that their product has more flavor, fewer ingredients (no sugars, malts, preservatives, colors, trans fats) … and smarter baking.

“The Spannuth Family started baking hard and soft pretzels back in the late 1800s,”according to their Web site and a blurb on the back of the package.  “The demand for our hard pretzels increased rapidly because of our ‘Unique’ baking process” that allowed the raw pretzel to “burst open,” creating bubbles and crevices that are “crispy, yet crunchy, and filled with flavor.”  Which is why they started calling them “Splits”. 

Splits come in multitudinous varieties, too: multi-grain, extra dark, unsalted, chocolate covered (yum!) and my future favorite, Bacon Cheddar Flavor Shocked “Shells” (they’re hollow, which makes them more like a potato chip than a pretzel).

If the pretzel itself isn’t the non plus ultra of pretzels (at least for me), the company’s positioning and benefits presentation -- their product story -- is close to perfect and certainly approach “UNIQUE”.  

TakeAway:  Don’t be hesitant about stepping forward with your product benefits – especially if they clearly set your offering apart from competitors. 

Content © 2015 by Brian E. Faulkner   

“PTI has such an awesome hometown feel to it,” writes a passenger from Chicago.  “It is so simple and straightforward.  No hassle, just a bunch of common sense - the way it should be!”

“Piedmont Triad International Airport is an awesome little airport!” writes another passenger. “And while it does not have the breadth of dining and shopping options of other airports, it has its own small airport charm!”

 “It’s ‘Home Sweet Home’,” says a third, “compared to huge, chaotic airports.”

All is not perfection at PTIA – some passengers do have minor gripes.  But for a smaller airport caught between two much larger ones, the good news is very good indeed.

The tagline says it all.  Fly easy.  Fly PTI.  

TakeAway:  Communicate your competitive advantage based on what your most satisfied customers have to say about your product or service.  Because that’s the truth!

Content © by Brian E. Faulkner

Tags:  PTIA, Piedmont Triad International Airport, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, Starbucks, GSO, CLT, RDU, American / U.S. Airways, Delta, United, Frontier, Allegiant, aerotropolis, Honda Jet, TIMCO, Cessna Aircraft, GE Aviation, FedEx, B/E Aerospace, Guilford Community College, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Yelp.com

Brian Faulkner is a content writer and Key Message expert.  He helps clients come up with words to set their businesses, brands and products apart and attract the customers they want most.  His strategic insights, and the words that go with them, have made a significant, often immediate difference for client companies over many years.  His "sweet spot" is smaller to moderate sized consumer products, retail, service and manufacturing companies that may have struggled to find just the right words to position their business, brands or products to competitive advantage:

>  blogs to establish you as the thought leader / authority in your business category
>  case stories that communicate your sales successes and invite prospect inquiry
>  testimonials that showcase customer / client satisfaction in 1-2 short sentences
>  positioning statements to guide business development & marketing
>  landing page copy to set your business or brand apart in a compelling way
>  tagline development to attract the interest of your most qualified prospects

Brian also is a three-time Emmy award-winning Public Television writer / narrator.  He is principal writer and narrator of UNC-TV’s popular "Our State" magazine series, on the air since 2003.  His distinctive sound has been heard on many hundreds of radio spots and client videos since the 1970s.  People say he has a “Mercedes voice” and sounds a bit like Charles Kuralt, which Brian considers a welcome ... but happy ... illusion.

Is the Aflac Duck still a marketing asset, or has the brand icon become so silly that he deflects attention from the company’s message?

I loved the Duck at first.   His arrival back in 2000 was a hoot.  You’ve got to hand that to talking ducks, especially ones that can almost pronounce the company name.  He was fresh, he was cute.  He quacked me up -- and was destined for advertising stardom.

But has he finally lost his duck go-power?   Partially.

The Duck reminds me of Joe Namath, the New York Jets star quarterback who Hanes Hosiery hired to do a TV spot for a new product called Beautymist 40 years ago.   

The camera panned along a pair of slender legs sheathed in the product while a perky woman who sounded like she was about to break into laughter talked about how Beautymist makes any legs look like a million dollars.  Then we see it’s really Joe.  The commercial was hugely successful.   Recall was out of this world – for Joe Namath.   Hardly anybody remembered the product.  

It’s astonishing how little product positioning Aflac appears to have included in their spots over the years, as if curiosity alone will drive prospects to inquire -- even though the Duck supposedly has been quacking about product since 2009.  A strategically focused, well-stated tagline could have knocked it out of the park for Aflac and put a productive coda on the Duck’s antics long ago.   Viewers would have “got” Aflac’s strong benefits and unique distribution channel (although many people probably Googled the name and figured that out for themselves).

In a recent MediaPost article, columnist Steve Smith seems to disagree with me -- I think. 

He cites a TV spot about quick claim resolution in which the Duck “highlights the competency of the brand by contrasting it with the duck’s ineptitude in all other endeavors.”  In other words, the Duck acts the fool to introduce an Aflac product feature, like “a near-silent comedian trading on a string of sight gags.” 

Smith then recommends “leveraging the duck more effectively” on Vine and Instagram.  In other words, export the silliness to social media where it can be broken into bits and enjoyed ad nauseum.  Thus, the writer (who also is a digital media critic and a columnist for Mobile Marketing Daily) presumes that the Duck remains effective in a slapstick, “idiot savant” sort of way. 

There clearly is a market for silliness or there wouldn’t be so many cat videos on YouTube.  But as a brand spokes-icon, the Duck seems to have lost his way.  He’s gotten sillier and sillier, taking more and more attention away from the product in a situation where the brand desperately needs to communicate a key message.  The Duck’s original mission was elegantly simple: create awareness of the brand name.  But now it seems that he has almost become the message.

The Duck is no more Aflac’s message than Joe Namath was Beautymist’s message, although the Duck and the brand are now practically indistinguishable.  His function should be to lay out the welcome mat for the message but not overwhelm it.  He should make his entrance, do his bit and exit stage right.

Even so, the Duck clearly has produced results for Aflac – in a let’s “run the damned idea into the ground until every blessed soul in America is familiar with an otherwise obscure personal insurance product” sort of way, as Smith puts it.  “Sometimes frequency trumps creative cleverness,” he concludes -- although the Energizer Bunny might not agree.

But think how much more effective (and less dependent on frequency) Aflac's advertising would have been had the Duck set the stage for a powerful tagline that amplified their brand message and prompted even more qualified prospects to inquire about their product.  

“It all seems to be a slightly tortured road to underscore the brand’s point,” Smith writes, commenting on the most recent Aflac spot, in which the character does poorly at Yoga.  I couldn’t agree more.  But then he stretches that point by suggesting that the Duck’s antics force the viewer to “make some sense of the online slapstick and engage more deeply in order to make the tiny logical hop to the brand message.”

I don't quite buy that.  Aflac needs to crank the Duck back and focus more on brand positioning and product benefits.

TakeAway:  Clever is never enough.

Content © by Brian E. Faulkner

Tags:  tagline, key message, Aflac, Aflac Duck, Hanes Hosiery, Beautymist, Joe Namath, Energizer Bunny, YouTube, cat videos

Brian Faulkner is a content writer and Key Message expert.  He helps clients come up with words to set their businesses, brands and products apart and attract the customers they want most.  His strategic insights, and the words that go with them, have made a significant, often immediate difference for client companies over many years.  His "sweet spot" is smaller to moderate sized consumer products, retail, service and manufacturing companies that may have struggled to find just the right words to position their business, brands or products to competitive advantage:

>  blogs to establish you as the thought leader / authority in your business category
>  case stories that communicate your sales successes and invite prospect inquiry
>  testimonials that showcase customer / client satisfaction in 1-2 short sentences
>  positioning statements to guide business development & marketing
>  landing page copy to set your business or brand apart in a compelling way
>  tagline development to attract the interest of your most qualified prospects

Brian also is a three-time Emmy award-winning Public Television writer / narrator.  He is principal writer and narrator of UNC-TV’s popular "Our State" magazine series, on the air since 2003.  His distinctive sound has been heard on many hundreds of radio spots and client videos since the 1970s.  People say he has a “Mercedes voice” and sounds a bit like Charles Kuralt, which Brian considers a welcome ... but happy ... illusion.

Read the other day about Microsoft’s new retail store opening at New Jersey’s Garden State Plaza.  Like happens during the opening of new Apple stores, people lined up to be first on the scene – some even camping out in front of the place overnight.  

What attracted these ersatz Microsoft aficionados?

Was it Microsoft’s new Surface 3 tablet, nicknamed the laptop killer?  Surface is a powerful and versatile piece of gear for sure – and one I’ve thought seriously about buying.  But with only a 2% share of the tablet market, which is dominated by Apple’s iPad, it hardly has the makings of a tech celebrity.  

Or was it something else that attracted folks?  Could it have been a performance by rapper Macklemore and pal Ryan Lewis?   Could it have been the DJ on hand spinning the hits?  Or the prizes?  Or the million dollars worth of product donated to local charities?

It had to be the Surface!   Or the slick new Microsoft store!   Maybe even the magnetic attraction of the Microsoft name!

Now here’s a real surprise:  It probably was all those things.  

Microsoft gets credit for ginning up a successful event, but they’ve also upped the ante lately among tech buyers for having become “more trusted and essential across multiple generations,” according to Tracy Stokes of Forrester Research, as reported earlier this year by GeekWire.  “The very ubiquity that perhaps renders it uncool turns out to also be its strength,” he says in the article (Study Shows Microsoft Outpacing Apple in Battle for Tech Consumer Mindshare), in which Forrester called the company a “trailblazer” in building its consumer brand. 

Yes, Microsoft seems guilty of cranking up some artificial cool for their new store, the latest of 90 Microsoft retail outlets in operation – compared to around 250 U.S. stores for Apple and many more overseas.  But at the same time, the Microsoft brand seems to have risen to greater prominence recently than I’d ever imagined –  edging ever closer to cool, at least compared to the stodgy old Microsoft that’s been living inside my head.

Frankly, I thought the cool train had left the station for Microsoft and even snickered a bit to think that Microsoft had to resort to paying entertainers to draw a crowd.  I was mostly wrong. 

“An increased tablet presence would add to Microsoft's hip brand factor,” claimed the CNBC article about the store opening, “which often can be associated with Microsoft Xboxes.”

Despite this potential – and despite the accolades that have come Microsoft’s way recently (http://www.geekwire.com/2014/study-microsoft-outpaces-apple-battle-mindshare/), consider how the company describes itself in the “boilerplate” copy at the bottom of their press releases.  This example is from publicity announcing the launch of Microsoft retail stores for the 2012 Christmas selling season: 

The worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.   I’d call that “corporate relaxed.”

In contrast, here’s Apple’s boilerplate: 

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software.  Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store.  Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.  

Apple's boilerplate is much longer, but it’s also filled to overflowing with what I call Marketable Truth©.

Time and again Apple has rocked the world with its innovative products.  And while many Windows-based devices may be equally as capable (in a different way), Apple has owned the mindshare with their Macs, iPhones and iPads.  But that’s changing … which is increasingly good news for Microsoft.

The truth is out there.  Now all they’ve got to do is claim it.

TakeAway:   When cool comes your way, communicate it for all you’re worth – in the context of product benefits, of course.

Tags:  Microsoft, Surface, Surface 3, Windows, Apple, Apple store, iPad, Mac, iPhone

Content © by Brian E. Faulkner.   Marketable Truth © by Brian E. Faulkner

Brian Faulkner is a Key Message expert.  He helps clients come up with words to set their businesses, brands and products apart and attract the customers they want most.  His strategic insights, and the words that go with them, have made a significant, often immediate difference for client companies over many years.  He thrives on strategic communication problem solving, complex subjects, new ideas, concepts-as-products, challenging marketing situations and demanding deadlines.  His "sweet spot" is smaller to moderate sized consumer products, retail, service and manufacturing companies that may have struggled to find just the right words to position their business, brands or products to competitive advantage.

Brian also is a three-time Emmy award winning Public Television writer and narrator of UNC-TV’s popular Our State magazine series, on the air since 2003.  

This morning, an article about The 7 Bad Habits of Entrepreneurs popped up on LinkedIn, authored by one of my LinkedIn connections.   The headline caught my eye, and the content sounded familiar.  I’d read it before.

Four days ago, essentially the same piece had dropped into my email in-box – with a slightly different headline: The 7 Bad Habits That Will Hurt Your Voice Over Career.  Author and voice over artist Dan Hurst had adapted Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to his own purposes, and it had caught my attention twice in less than a week.   http://danhurst.com/posts/7-bad-habits-of-struggling-entrepreneurs

Dan and I seem to have two things in common:

1.  We are both voice over artists with tons of experience (one of only a few hats I wear comfortably).

2.  We both understand the need to communicate competitive advantage in a clear and compelling way – which requires an unusual degree of self-awareness (most often learned by thrashing your way down that hard road people talk about all the time) and brutal objectivity.  It seems especially true of lone-wolf types like consultants and voice over artists but likely rings equally true in your business as well.

“It’s important to see yourself for what you really are,” writes Hurst, “but that needs to be tempered by really understanding how your clients view you.  The right voice is like choosing the right oil color for a painting. Ok, fine.  You’ve got the right color, but it’s more about what you do with that color that counts.”

In the consulting business (in positioning any business or product for that matter), it’s imperative to understand how you make a difference to customers and clients.  Why should they want to inquire about your services or buy what you’re selling?   Can you express that in a very few words -- a convincing tagline?

On the consulting side of my business, I am a Key Messaging Expert.  I help clients come up with words to Attract The Customers You Want Most.   In voice overs, I am The Natural Choice known for my “Mercedes delivery.”  Dan Hurst is One of America’s Most Experienced Bi-Lingual Voice Over Talents whose English and Spanish voice overs are “smooth and powerful.” 

In assessing what I call the Marketable Truth© of your business, brand or product (even if your business is just you), it’s critical to know what standard you’re comparing yourself to.  Dan puts it perfectly:  It’s all about “knowing the difference between good, better and great.  Good is based on the market standard.  One isn’t even competitive until one is good.  Better is stepping beyond good to get noticed.  But great is what the client chooses.”

All too many marketers (not limited to voice talents and consultants by any means) are content with communicating “pieces and parts” – we do this or we sell that -- without reference to the benefits they bring to a world that’s all too willing to reward mediocre positioning with mediocre results. 

“I don’t want to hire someone that ‘can do’ something,” Dan Hurst concludes.  “I want to hire someone who excels … who owns the element that I’m looking for.”

TakeAway:  Don’t be content with selling GOOD.  Or even BETTER.   Sell GREAT!    And communicate your greatness in terms that make a big difference for your customers or clients.

Marketable Truth and content © by Brian Faulkner.

Tags:  7 Habits, Steven Covey, Dan Hurst, Mercedes

Brian Faulkner is a Key Message expert.  He helps clients come up with words to set their businesses, brands and products apart and attract the customers they want most.  His strategic insights, and the words that go with them, have made a significant, often immediate difference for client companies over many years.  He thrives on strategic communication problem solving, complex subjects, new ideas, concepts-as-products, challenging marketing situations and demanding deadlines.  His "sweet spot" is smaller to moderate sized consumer products, retail, service and manufacturing companies that may have struggled to find just the right words to position their business, brands or products to competitive advantage.

Brian also is a three-time Emmy award winning Public Television writer and narrator of UNC-TV’s popular Our State magazine series, on the air since 2003.
His distinctive voice overs have been heard on many hundreds of radio spots and client projects since way back in 1966.  People say he sounds a bit like Charles Kuralt, which Brian considers a welcome but happy illusion.

www.faulknerproducerservices.com

 

Winston-Salem, North Carolina is appealing to its citizens to help them come up with a new tagline, a key message that will carry their city further into the 21st century.  (http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/o-winston-salem-needs-a-slogan/article_6202db24-e22a-5cce-8dcb-61515dca2112.html )

Early on, Winston-Salem was known as Camel City (hard to imagine, eh?).  Later, it was The World’s Tobacco Metropolis (1932).  Other attempts that didn’t focus on the business of its famous namesake have included The City of Historic Charm and Thriving Industry and The City of Culture, History and Industry.  More recently, Winston-Salem was City of the Arts (later expanded to City of the Arts & Innovation) and O! Winston-Salem, Now That’s Living.  The only good thing about O! Winston-Salem, which reportedly cost city fathers $65,000, was that it quickly faded away after some well-deserved snickering.   The City of Arts and Innovation is appealing but too narrowly focused.*

So now Winston-Salem has thrown up its hands and asked the folks who live there to come up with something.  Good idea!  And since my family and I have lived in the city twice over the years and reside today in its western suburbs, here’s my 2-cents worth on developing a tagline for Winston-Salem -- or any city, for that matter:

Most critically, an effective -- and enduring -- tagline must answer a strategic question.  And strategic questions about a city must be asked from the perspective of its many constituents, which include people looking on the city both from the outside and the inside: natives, newcomers, those considering a move to town, recent graduates, young families, singles of all ages, retired folks, etc.  Your average citizen, the business community, businesses looking to relocate, the local CVB and Chamber of Commerce, other non-profits and people interested in the arts, dining and entertainment, education, sports and religion all must fit comfortably under the new tagline.  

Here are key questions to ask of a city and its people during tagline deliberations:

·      Why should I want to live here – or raise my family here?
·      How is “my” city different from other cities of similar or different size?
·      Why should I want to locate my business here?
·      How does this city answer these questions today?
·      How will it answer them in the future; what is its vision (dream with a goal)?

These qualities help create an effective tagline – in rough order of priority:

·      declares clear strategic space (as exclusive as possible)
·      is authentic (grounded in Marketable Truth©)
·      is meaningful  (speaks directly to people’s needs and wants)
·      is compelling (engages mind and heart)
·      is simple  (uses as few words as possible)
·      is visual  (attracts eye and ear)
·      is memorable (sometimes even in a bold or controversial way
·      is not distractingly clever or cute

I believe that taglines should make clear, unambiguous benefits statements.   Unfortunately, most of them don’t.  Even some clever, memorable ones.

 “Virginia is for Lovers” sounds great but says little.   It’s a great campaign theme but not effective strategic positioning for the long run.   Same for the “Big Apple” – although after spending gazillions on promotion, now even a rock is aware of The Big Apple.   However, does the tagline make you think about wanting to live there?  Or move your business to New York City?   There’s a big difference between awareness and preference.

So, what is so unique and compelling about Winston-Salem, North Carolina that people who hear about it will want to check it out?   Some tagline building blocks, Winston-Salem superlatives, as I see them:

·      not too big, not too small  (5th largest city in N.C.)
·      pleasant topography  (rolling hills with lots of trees – very green)
·      easy to get around (short commutes, minimal traffic hassles)
·      well-established, walkable neighborhoods – plus new developments in and out of town
·      four balanced seasons (moderate winters, good rain, fabulous autumn colors)
·      a great place for home and family
·      a value-priced, stable real estate market
·      a rich sense of history and place, since 1766 (Old Salem historic district, Moravian heritage)
·      a healthy mix of natives and newcomers
·      a largely conservative political base with a forward looking, can-do business approach
·      a strong work ethic in a right-to-work state, from traditional manufacturing to high tech
·      a leading teaching hospital and research center affiliated with Wake Forest University
·      a second well-regarded hospital (Forsyth Medical Center) and associated Novant practices
·      a reputation for innovation and business incubation (Winston-Salem Research Park)
·      headquarters for the nation’s 12th largest bank (BB&T)
·      headquarters for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, HanesBrands and Sara Lee Hosiery
·      the mini-Empire State Building (old RJR headquarters used as a model for the NYC skyscraper)
·      in-town Smith Reynolds airport (INT) for convenient executive travel
·      nearby Triad International Airport (GSO), with its growing aviation hub (Timco, HondaJet)
·      intersection of two interstate highways, I-74 and I-40 (two others close by)
·      less than two hours to Raleigh and Charlotte, six to Atlanta and D.C.
·      around four hours to NC and SC beaches, including North Carolina’s Outer Banks
·      less than one hour to the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, about 2 hours to Asheville
·      other High Country attractions close by, including golf, skiing, arts & crafts
·      many Yadkin Valley wineries a half hour or so west
·      a variety of educational choices (among them, Wake Forest University, Salem College, WSSU)
·      other universities close by (Appalachian State, UNCG, NCCU, High Point University)
·      Forsyth Technical Community College and community colleges in nearby Guilford County
·      a well-supported arts community  (fine arts & performing arts, Arts Council since 1949)
·      a well-established downtown arts district with inviting restaurants, bars, galleries and shops
·      Winston-Salem Symphony (stirring performances since 1946)
·      University of North Carolina School of the Arts – known for performance excellence worldwide
·      River Run International Film Festival at UNCSA (its 16th season at UNCSA’s Film School)
·      the enormously successful National Black Theater Festival, every two years
·      a thriving music scene (all genres)
·      a strong statewide Public Television network  (UNC-TV)
·      the Winston-Salem Open Tennis Tournament and Winston-Salem Cycling Classic
·      Winston-Salem Dash Class A Carolina League baseball (Chicago White Sox) and its new ballpark
·      a large variety of shopping, hotels, dining options
·      many houses of worship, from small country churches to large congregations
·      Moravian cookies, Texas Pete hot sauce and KrispyKreme donuts!

Others may quarrel with my choices or descriptions (and perhaps toss in some negatives), but the task is clear: to assess Winston-Salem strengths and develop a tagline unique to this city.  The process is part strategic discipline, part creative spark.  And the tagline that emerges will not be expected to attract everybody, only those for whom Winston-Salem is “just right.”   

Here’s one that rings my bell (among five choices I'd winnowed it down to):

Winston-Salem:  America’s Almost Perfect Small City.                  
Good Living.  Great Business.  Come See For Yourself.

Winston-Salem can’t claim to be America's perfect small city; that would be entirely too brash and not in keeping with the deeply imbedded character of this town.  And besides, if it did, hundreds of other cities of similar (or smaller) size surely would leap to make the same claim!  However, Winston-Salem can claim to be America’s almost perfect small city with considerable confidence, as it totes up its many strengths and works toward balancing the needs of all its citizens. 

You also can argue that that Winston-Salem is not a small city.   But “medium sized” doesn’t sound right.  People (or businesses) who move here likely will be attracted to the ease and comfort of a smaller city, one with clear metro cues and a sane, livable setting.   In that light, Winston-Salem delivers. 

And that’s the bold tagline truth.

  * The city appears to have re-adopted The City of Arts and Innovation after a majority of citizens who
     submitted tagline suggestions favored it (and many thought it had been Winston-Salem's tagline all along.

TakeAway:  Assess your strengths carefully, whether selling a product, city or state.   Then create a tagline that’s set apart, grounded in reality, attracts attention and makes people want what you’ve got.     
 
Tags:  tagline, taglines, effective taglines, tagline development, create a tagline, key message, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, City of the Arts, vision

Text and images © Brian E. Faulkner except where noted.

Brian Faulkner is a Key Message expert.  He helps clients come up with words to set their businesses, brands and products apart and attract the customers they want most.  His strategic insights, and the words that go with them, have made a significant, often immediate difference for client companies.  He thrives on strategic communication problem solving, complex subjects, new ideas, concepts-as-products, challenging marketing situations and demanding deadlines.  His "sweet spot" is smaller to moderate sized consumer products, retail, service and manufacturing companies that may have struggled to find just the right words to position their business, brands or products to competitive advantage.

Brian also is a three-time Emmy award winning Public Television writer and narrator of UNC-TV’s popular Our State magazine series, on the air since 2003. 

A guy from GoDaddy called me today.  That’s never happened before.   At first, I was suspicious.  What is he trying to sell?   Nothing, as it turned out, other than to offer help in renewing (or not renewing) three Web domains I have registered with them.  A helpful and altogether thoughtful gesture, I must admit – especially for a small change customer like me.

Heretofore, I’d not been all that impressed with GoDaddy.  

As an occasional user over the years, whether to add, renew or cancel a domain name, I have found their site uninviting, difficult to navigate and tricked out with product offers I didn’t need – and often didn’t even understand.  They assumed I had a degree of technical knowledge, which I do not.  To me a computer is an appliance, a tool:  turn the thing on, start working on my thing and that’s as far as I care to go.  Which is pretty much what I told Adam when he called.

We had a positive discussion.  As if Adam had any power to change things, I suggested that GoDaddy needed to reboot their marketing after having cranked up their visibility with the famously controversial GoDaddy Girls.  It’s time to position themselves more effectively to the vast, largely unaddressed portion of their potential market:  people like me, who would almost rather undergo a root canal than struggle with a tech-belabored Web site.  He said they were working on that, thanks to their relatively new CEO, Blake Irving.  

What actually IS GoDaddy? I wondered.   And what is Blake Irving up to?

A little wandering around on GoDaddy’s pleasantly refreshed, more accessible site revealed Web site building options, email services and online bookkeeping products in addition to domain registration.  There’s a new service called GetFound, which helps spread clients’ basic information across the Web and makes it easier for people to find them.  And now, WordPress blog hosting and management, which especially caught my eye as a blogger thinking about a hosting change. 

Comments posted to Blake’s Blog lauded GoDaddy's customer service (Adam is a terrific example, and they’re said to have 3,500 people just like him engaged in “customer care”).  And Wikipedia reveals the company to be staffed by true-believers with shared values, which makes them rightfully particular about who they host. 

So what would you do if given the opportunity to help elevate Go Daddy’s marketing?  

My first task would be to develop and launch a more strategically differentiated message.  I would answer the question, “What does GoDaddy do and how does it benefit me?” while maintaining their enviable 80% aided, 50% unaided brand awareness with ad buys during the Super Bowl, NASCAR races and other high visibility events.    I’d present some grounded-in-reality customer success stories that present tangible benefits to the great bulk of prospective customers who have yet to “tune in” to GoDaddy's wavelength or who have been put off by the tone of their advertising.  

After writing the previous paragraph, a modicum of online sleuthing showed me that GoDaddy already has shifted in that direction.  See their Super Bowl spot about the woman who quit her day job to start a puppet making business here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf0vzLgF-OI .      

And according to the blogged transcript of a GeekWire Summit discussion he participated in last year in Seattle, ( http://blakesblog.com/?p=223 ) Blake Irving is a man with a plan that rings my bell and clearly should ring the bell of tomorrow’s GoDaddy customers.

The basis of GoDaddy’s move into the future is a 32-page strategic document that includes a “bigger than life” vision of “radically shifting the global economy toward small business.”  He described their target market as “1-5 people trying to turn themselves into a real business” and talked about changing the world for them.   In a more recent online article, the GoDaddy leader noted that 75% of U.S. businesses are sole proprietorships.  So the opportunity to add more paying customers to the 12-million-plus they already have is huge.

“Changing the world for small business” is a great example of a compelling Key Message that's extracted from a larger strategic document and used to communicate to the prospect base about -- and rally company culture around -- what now is possible. 

“We’re in a deep transformation of the company,” the GoDaddy CEO said.  “Who we serve, how we serve them, how we position ourselves, how our employees feel about themselves, about serving those little guys, is really different.  Our mission in the company is we help small business kick ass.

“It’s a quest, not a company.  Everybody’s leaning into this thing …”

Irving finished his GeekWire conversation by challenging the audience (and me) to check out the company’s Kick Ass Manifesto video online.  I did.  You should, too (see it below).  The only thing missing is that daring but powerful potential tagline:  We Help Small Business Kick Ass.

I deeply abhor edginess for edginess sake because so much of it is in-your-face tasteless, smug and self-serving, so I would pause when considering whether to include “Kick Ass” in my tagline -- and who knows how it will translate internationally.   But those six words are true.   “Kick Ass” will require some elaboration, but so do oft-used positioning words like “leader” and “world class.”   A less dramatic way of saying the same thing might be:

       GoDaddy Helps Small Businesses Build Their Dreams (incorporating their recent ad theme). 

I like taglines that make a bold statement and communicate Marketable Truth© -- in any language.  So, either way, I say go for it GoDaddy! 

TakeAway:  Develop a meaningful strategic vision that points your business toward the future.  Then extract a compelling Key Message from it that charges your team with purpose and makes the customers or clients you want most want to do business with you.    

Content and images © by Brian E. Faulkner unless otherwise noted.  All rights reserved.  

Tags:  Go Daddy, GoDaddy marketing, Blake Irving, WordPress, customer service, brand awareness, GeekWire, small business, vision, strategic vision, powerful tagline, taglines, Kick Ass Manifesto, Manifesto of Kick Ass

Brian Faulkner is a Key Message expert.  He helps clients come up with words to set their businesses, brands and products apart and attract the customers they want most.  His strategic insights, and the words that go with them, have made a significant, often immediate difference for client companies.  He thrives on strategic communication problem solving, complex subjects, new ideas, concepts-as-products, challenging marketing situations and demanding deadlines.  His "sweet spot" is smaller to moderate sized consumer products, retail, service and manufacturing companies that may have
struggled to find just the right words to position their business, brands or products to competitive advantage.

Brian also is a three-time Emmy award winning Public Television writer and narrator of UNC-TV’s popular Our State magazine series, on the air since 2003.  

There’s a lesson for small business marketers in the process Netflix used in deciding whether to produce “House of Cards.”   According to an article in the New York Times, it was clear that Netflix had a hit on their hands before shooting the first frame.  A more traditional media company would have invested in a pilot and tested it with focus groups before committing to a series.   Instead, tapping data from their 33-million worldwide subscribers, Netflix gauged audience preferences for director David Fincher, name-brand star Kevin Spacey and the British version of “House of Cards”, pointing toward the series’ success in advance.  (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/business/media/for-house-of-cards-using-big-data-to-guarantee-its-popularity.html?_r=2& )

The potential takeaway here for small businesses is Think first, do later, a discipline readily applied to any communication project.  Think first means asking strategic questions before moving forward with “creative”. 


·      Who will be reading or viewing your ad, brochure, video, etc. – and why?

·      What headline will most attract the eye and make people want to read more?

·      What information will pique their interest and engage their mind early in the first paragraph?

·      How will your product or service be positioned to their advantage?

·      What is unique or revolutionary about it?

·      How does it differ from prospect expectations – or competitors’ offerings?

·      How will your Key Message change people’s thinking about your product or service?

·      What action do you want readers or viewers to take – now or later?

Years ago, I collaborated with the president of an international consumer products company on a speech he was to give before a large group.  I don’t even recall the subject (assignments for this client typically were concerned with strategic visioning or the future).  What I DO recall, however, is finally realizing that out of that huge audience, he only wanted to influence a small handful of key people – inspire them to think a certain way and do certain things.  Armed with that information, I was able to not only hit help him the mark, but harvest tons of extra goodwill from the rest of his audience, many of whom took the time to ask for copies of my client’s speech.   

I have used the think first, do later concept a lot since then, primarily to slow down and focus clients who said they wanted this or that kind of communication project done but really hadn’t thought much about how they wanted people to feel, think or act when they viewed their ad, read their brochure or listened to their sales presentation.  It's like saying “We need a web site,” without having thought much beyond the notion that “We need a web site.”    You see the results all over the Internet: creatively attractive but strategically impotent web sites whose creators clearly have failed to ask the important questions up front.   You see the same thing in politics, where strategic questions with myriad long-term implications don’t seem to have been asked (or are ignored to serve ideological ends).    

But that’s a whole other story …

TakeAway:   Ask strategic, customer-centric questions before working on “creative.”  Build the answers into your content.      © Brian E. Faulkner

For related perspective, see http://www.brianefaulkner.com/key-message.html

Any ad that gets people talking (or emailing or Tweeting) is a home run, especially if the ad’s vibe is overwhelmingly positive.  Case in point?   The mesmerizing Interstate Batteries commercial now running on TV -- you know, the one showing an old, grime-covered car deep in the woods, its ancient AM radio gamely playing on for lo these many years.   

As the camera dollies across the scene and then zooms slowly in to the brightly lit radio dial, an infectious big band tune reminiscent of Birth of the Blues plays out (we are led to believe) through the car's tinny speaker.  A battery and tagline appear on the screen: 

“No Battery Lasts Longer.  Introducing the new AGM.”

We are not told what AGM stands for, only that the battery lasts for a very long time.  No voice-over is spoken, nor does any need to be.  The quietly effective spot with only a dozen words of text tells a memorable story: that Interstate Batteries are “outrageously dependable.” 

"We’re always looking for ways to make our brand promise come to life in a meaningful way,” noted Tyler Reeves, Interstate’s director of marketing, strategy and innovation in a Media Daily story about the company’s television advertising just over a year ago.  Their latest spot seems to do just that because it’s being talked about.  If they keep launching creative this effective -- and with such a compelling benefits story, more people are sure to end up asking their auto repair retailer for Interstate batteries when the old one in their much newer car calls it a day.      

Finally, a great deal of speculation is afoot online about the make and year of the car in the TV spot.   After careful analysis, born of having owned and driven cars of this vintage, I was absolutely certain it was an early '50s Ford – most likely a ’51 because of the shape of the hood.  Alas, Interstate says it was a ’54 Ford Mainline they found in a junkyard.   I was close, but you know what they say about that!

Takeaway:  A strong key message needs strong creative to build awareness AND move the needle.