A couple of days ago, the Wall Street Journal heralded the death of an era with this headline “Extinction Threatens Yellow-Pages Publishers.” There was a time, and not so long ago, when I could only get a phone rep for my yellow page ad revisions, since my few hundred dollars a month didn’t warrant a live person coming to my place of business. The demand for yellow page space was at a premium, and services from lawyers to plumbers jammed the books with full page ads. But those days are gone and it might not be long before the companies that publish them are gone as well.

So what happened?

What happened is what happens every day in business and life, things change. But what’s critical here is our response to change. And our response depends on our identity.

The yellow page companies thought they were in the publication business. Even in the WSJ article they are referred to as “publishers.” But they were never in the publishing business. Sure, they printed millions upon millions of books, and distributed them to millions upon millions of homes. But that was their delivery method, not their core value.

They were really a search engine. They connected people to resources.

Think about it. People now use Google to do many of the same things that they used to do with the yellow pages. The need has not changed, (and they rarely do,) just the form of their delivery. And here is where many, many companies get confused. They believe they are in the business of the product or service they provide, when the product or service is just a means to an end. Who ever really wanted a five inch thick book in on their dining room table?

The same thing can be said for typewriters, and encyclopedias, and film cameras. The needs are still there but the delivery methods have changed. Yet when you ask most business owners what business they are in, they answer by identifying with some delivery system.

“We’re in the software business.”

“We’re in the construction industry.”

“We’re in telecommunications field.”

Do consumers really want software? Or construction? Or telecommunication?

Of course not!

They want the end benefit of that those services provide. As obvious as this may seem, it’s amazing how many times we identify and attach ourselves to the current delivery system of the benefits we provide our clients. If instead, we identified ourselves by the end benefit, we would feel less threatened, and respond more proactively, when the delivery methods change.

I used to believe I provided clients with names, tag lines and logos. Now I realize I provide them with clarity — clarity about who they are and what they truly provide. And that clarity might take the form of brilliant names or brilliant insights. It might take the form of a clearer picture of who they are and who they serve. The need for names comes and goes, but the need for clarity remains consistent. Who doesn’t want to be clear?

So what are you really selling? Yellow pages or the ability to connect people? Typewriters or the ability to store thoughts and ideas? Encylopedias or a source for current knowledge?  What is your true benefit and how aligned are you with this attribute? It may seem like a trivial distinction, but it can have a tremendous impact in terms of your future relevance.

Research it for yourself, industries are constantly changing. Just look it up in any good encyclopedia… if you can find one.

The amazing story just broke today that “astronomers at NASA and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used direct-imaging techniques to capture pictures of newly discovered planets orbiting stars outside our solar system.” The names of these new found cosmic neighbors?

HF8799b

HF8799c

HF8799d

These are not to be confused with the mother star they circle… HF8799. (And people thought Sarah Palin had naming issues.) It’s not bad enough that beloved Pluto got booted from our solar system’s list of the planetary elite. But now these distant alphanumeric newcomers are pulling rank on our former ninth planet? If they deserve planetary status, then don’t they also deserve good names?

Since they are a mere 130 light years from earth, in the constellation Pegasus, and seven to ten times the mass of Jupiter, why not brand them by size…

PegaMinor

PegaMajor

PegaMonster

Even Dr. Suess was able to come up with Cat A, B and C. So why can’t NASA have a good trio of planetary brands? They could use legacy names such as…

Planets Armstrong, Shepard, and Glenn.

Or celebrity names…

Peter. Paul. Mary.

Moon. Unit. Zappa.

They could get Disney sponsorship money by naming them Planets Heuy, Dewey and Louie. Or by referring to them collectively as The Disney Worlds. Planet Hollywood could sponsor one of them by calling it… well you get the idea.

So help our left minded team in Houston come up with some right brain ideas for these future travel destinations. Post your suggestions for these three planet names, and the winner will receive a handsome Tungsten Branding coffee mug and possible interplanetary immortality. I can’t promise that NASA will launch these new brand names, but it’s worth a try.

Tungsten Branding recently completed a product naming assignment for Cerona Networks, a provider of spectrally efficient satellite network solutions. That is to say they know how to connect a lot of people, quickly and effectively. Their new two-way satellite system allows “communications on the move,” something vitally important to first responders and military personnel.

The goal was to capture a sense of the product’s attributes in the name itself. It’s ability to operate “down range” in real time, combined with it’s ability to function “on the run,” made Range Runner a natural fit. The new name not only provides memorable alliteration with the two “R”s, it also conveys mobility and responsiveness. And to cap it off, the matching .com was available as well (and for anyone trying to find available urls, you know what a challenge that can be.)

For naming solutions that move you forward, just flip our switch!

If there ever was a year for change, this is it. Changes in the stock market, the housing market, the elections, etc. etc. And it doesn’t stop there. Consumers are also changing the way they connect. It used to be that the company/advertiser could dictate the message and conversation by buying up the major media. If you are 45+ (no need to self identify!) you might even remember when ABC, NBC, and CBS were the three dominant players. You simply crafted your :30 ad and ran it across the three networks and Bam! your message was out there.

Not anymore.

We now have 500 plus cable channels, TiVo, YouTube, iPhones, MySpace, DVDs, video games, and on and on it goes. So the power has shifted from the advertiser to the consumer. Seth Godin covered this well in his ground breaking book Permission Marketing. In his latest book Tribes, Seth speaks to the importance of building a following, a community of loyalists. There no easier way to do that than through the emerging web 2.0 community.

The mere thought of all this connecting may make some business owners lightheaded. It can seem all too technical, time consuming and overwhelming. But with a little investment of time and energy, you can start to effectively build an integrated fan base of enthusiastic followers (followers in the good sense.) So it’s not just about writing a newsletter. Or sending out a post card to a customer base. It’s about interacting, listening and responding to your customers. It’s about creating a dialog vs. an advertisement. Here are a few places to start…

Company Blog

Yes you need to have a company blog. No, it’s not just a hype thing. Blogs are eagerly gobbled up by Google. And if the blog headlines are posted on your home page, it provides fresh content to an otherwise stale, static page. It also shows a human side to your company. It allows readers to get a sense of your views and perspectives on your industry. And you can effectively position yourself as a thought leader, someone the media and others will turn to for insight and direction. Your web hosting company can set up your blog, or you can use free sites such as Word Press or Blogger. Also, one of our clients, Angela at OneLily, does a great job of creating professional looking blog sites. So you have lots of options.

Facebook, LinkedIn

These are sites that allow you to put up a profile page and connect with clients, customers, friends and vendors. It’s a great way to stay in touch and receive updates, request information or get referrals. This falls in line with Seth’s Tribes theory.

Twitter

Twitter is all the latest rage because it provides real time information about your activities. It’s sometimes referred to as “microblogging” since it only allows 140 characters. With Twitter you can inform your “followers” about events, activities, updates, and current happenings in your company, as well as personal insights and perspectives. (In case you are already on Twitter, you can follow me at http://Twitter.com/PhillipDavis)

Putting it all together

Having a coherent strategy, one where all your social media sites are integrated and cross connected, is the simplest and most effective way to go. It also helps you to speak with a clear, unified voice rather than posting all over the internet. A visibility or social media expert can help you with this. A good one for this is Nancy Marmolejo from Viva Visibility. 

This all assumes you already have crafted a clear, concise and compelling brand message. (If not, that’s where we come in) Saying a lot of nothing all over the web won’t get you too far. But if you have relevant, useful insights to share, web 2.0/social media sites can provide an avenue to connect with potential new customers. And that’s a bright idea!

For years I’ve looked for ways to provide big corporate branding expertise to smaller companies, entrepreneurs, start ups, consultants and solo-preneurs. After all, many of them face the same challenges of defining themselves, finding their unique marketing position, and creating a clear, compelling message that resonates with their core customer. Now that expertise is within reach!

I’ve teamed up with Marnie Pehrson, president of IdeaMarketers.com, to provide a four week course on small business branding. In this teleseminar, both Marnie and I will walk participants through a step-by-step process for identifying, articulating and showcasing your brand message. You will be able to network with other business owners and share ideas, insights and “ah-has!” that happen along the way. And we’re hoping for a lot of “ah-has!”

It’s been my experience that clarity is the highest attribute of any brand. Clarity is what allows us to see, to vision, to look ahead and make decisions easily and effortlessly. The clearer we get on what “makes us tick” and gets us up in the morning, the more we can communicate that same energy to our audience and attract customers that will love us. And isn’t it great to work with people who love you?

While we offer personal one-on-one branding consultation for $249 per half hour, you can take part in this 4 week course (one hour per week) for just $79 by g to RadiantBranding.com and signing up now.

What You’ll Learn

Week One: November 25th

Branding from the inside out. (a.k.a. “Let Your Light Shine!)

• Discovering your inner brilliance
• Answering the “Who” and “Why” vs. the “What” and “How”
• “So I Can What?”
• Determining your true motivation
• Assignment: Personal mission statement

Week Two: December 2nd

Gaining clarity and vision in your business

• Discovering your “pivot point.”
• Finding and distilling your “secret recipe”
• Classifying your business five different ways
• Assignment: What business are you really in?

Week Three: December 9th

Clarifying your message

• How clear is your identity?
• Looking at business names, tag lines, logos and domain names
• How to create clarity in your brand message.
• How to electrify your elevator speech
• Distilling your message down to pure maple syrup
• Assignment: Write a high voltage tag line

Week Four: December 16th

1000 Watt visibility

• How to be the expert in your field
• How to attract media attention
• How to increase web traffic
• How to radiate each and every day
• Assignment: Partner with someone in the group and take one action step each week for next four weeks.

So be sure to join us and get clear about who you are, why you do what you do, and just what makes you so brilliant!

When it comes to creating and building a brand name, most companies feel compelled to file protective trademarks and establish rigid guidelines to protect their image. Yet some of the most well known brands in the world today are holidays – wide open to use and abuse in the public domain. Despite being public property they still retain a high degree of brand consistency. For example, which holiday comes to mind when envisioning the colors green and red? How about orange and black? Many consumers would instantly recognize these as the colors of Christmas and Halloween. Beyond color combinations we have images — such as a bright green clover or a red colored heart. Again most consumers would accurately associate these with St. Patrick’s Day and Valentine’s Day. So without any trademark protection and no corporate marketing department to enforce brand standards, how is it that these events and holidays are so consistently represented?

The answer lies in our five senses. Unlike most company brand images, which exist statically as printed names and logos, the holidays are deeply anchored in our experiences, in the areas of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Christmas conjures the fresh scent of pine needles and the sound of cheerful carolers. Thanksgiving evokes the smell of pumpkin pie and the welcome taste of warm cider. In addition to the sensory stimulation, we associate emotions as well. Valentine’s Day stirs feelings of love and romance while New Year’s Day brings a sense of renewed hope and unity. And this holds true for countless holidays celebrated by various faiths and cultures worldwide. They are richly embedded in the fabric of our lives and are therefore woven deeply into our memories. It’s no wonder then that the holidays are easy to recall, categorize and associate. Through shared sensory reinforcement the holidays develop their own internal “brand” consistency, without the need for outside management and intervention.

So in comparison, take a look at your present business, product or service. Can it be identified with just a color, a symbol, a feeling? How can you create more texture to your company and brand by enriching it with sight, sound and emotion? The computer chip manufacturer Intel has done a wonderful job of creating a musical signature for their product. The familiar four-note melody adds another layer of identity to the company’s brand, making it easier to recall. UPS has wrapped itself in the color brown to add further recognition to their ad campaigns. Ask “What can Brown do for you?” and most consumers can identify the carrier without any assistance. Nexium has successfully marketed the “Purple Pill” in a way that allows the customer to communicate their interest to a physician – without having to recall the prescription name. For Double Tree hotels, fresh baked cookies greet weary travelers each night. Perhaps the best example of holiday-type branding is the food products company Newman’s Own, which was created for “Shameless exploitation in pursuit of the common good.” To date, the company created by philanthropist/actor Paul Newman has donated over $200 million to charities worldwide and gathered a loyal following. While other companies try to attract with a fancy label, Newman’s resonates of selfless giving.

So if your company were a holiday, how would it be celebrated? What would it sound like, look like, taste like, and feel like? What would be the mood and how would it be remembered? Then look for ways to infuse that feeling throughout the organization. Find new and innovative ideas to help permeate your customer’s experience. Connect with them using as many of the senses as possible and find that one common emotion you want them to feel when doing business with your firm. In the end you will create many more ways to remember your business. But more importantly you’ll create new reasons to celebrate it.