The CEO as Brand: 7 Principles and Platitudes to Elevate You and Yours

For CEOs interested in attending the next CEO Series event, “Innovate or Else,” please contact Heather Ward, the CEO Series program coordinator, at hward@holland-mark.com.

Here’s the full video of his presentation:

He left attendees with some time-tested advice about the value of being imperative: “all four of these things [relevance of offering, clarity of message, consistency of experience, and driving of engagement] must come together to create an imperative relationship with your customers or your prospective customers, and really the translation of all that is about getting to love. It’s about getting to a place where your customers don’t just buy what you’re selling, they actually promote what you’re selling to others just like them.”

Related articles:

http://masschallenge.org/blog/bootcamp-day-2-recap-points-clarity

http://bostinnovation.com/2011/06/30/inside-look-at-masschallenge-bootcamp-2011-photos-mcbootcamp/

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Starts with a clear statement of what we do, thought I’d bounce a draft off you folks and get some feedback. Here’s what we have so far:

Holland-Mark is a marketing services firm focused on making brands “imperative.”

We believe that consumer and business-to-business buying habits have changed permanently in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Where people once bought what was “interesting,” today they buy only what is “imperative;” what they truly feel they need or expect a return on investment from.

While advertising can make products “interesting,” marketing communications alone cannot make a brand “imperative.” Imperative brands have four attributes in common:

• Relevance of Offering – A product aligned with the evolving true needs of its target audience.
• Clarity of Message – A truthful, relevant, motivating and distinct statement of its core value proposition.
• Consistency of Communication – Reinforcement of the above at every point of contact with the brand.
• Driving of Engagement – An ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship between the brand and its primary external constituencies.

These requirements correspond with Holland-Mark’s four core offerings:

Sync™ – A management consulting offering which shapes a product or service experience to align more closely with the right market opportunity

One Simple Thing (OST)™ – A brand strategy offering which distills messaging down to a singular thought which is true, relevant, motivating and distinct

Every Point of Content (EPOC)™ – An audit of the 360° experience of a brand to ensure consistent alignment with OST™

Content Hub – A social marketing program which enables client organizations to engage effectively across social media channels.

So what do you think? Do you get that? Would you pay for it?

Anyway, here it is…

What do you think? Were you at the event today? Any questions I can answer, or comments on the day?

Damn smart, if you ask me …

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What is social media?

How do marketers really feel about social media?

What is the power of social media?

Thanks to everyone!

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As Seth put it:

“Squidoo has built several hundred pages, each one about a major brand. (Here are some examples). More are on the way. We’ll keep going until we have thousands of important brands, each on its own page (and we’ll happily add one for you if you like). Each page collects tweets, blog posts, news stories, images, videos and comments about a brand. All of these feeds are algorithmic… the good and the bad show up, all collated and easy to find.

Of course, these comments and conversations are already going on, all over the web. What we’ve done is bring them together in one place. And then we’ve made it easy for the brand to chime in.

If your brand wants to be in charge of developing this page, it will cost you $400 a month. And once you take the page over, the left hand column belongs to you. You can post responses, highlight blog posts, run contests or quizzes. You can publicly have your say right next to the constant stream of information about your brand (information that’s currently all over the web—and information you can’t “take down” or censor). You can respond, lead and organize. If a crisis hits, your page will be there, ready for you to speak up. If your fans are delighted, your page makes it easy for them to chime in and speak up on sites around the web.”

Didn’t catch that? Allow me to translate:

Dear BMW Brand Manager: We know you’re a little skittish about this whole social media thing, so we took the liberty of taking all that stuff you’re terrified of, the stuff that’s been spread all over the Internet by your most ardent fans and detractors, and put it all in one place where everyone can see it. Oh and PS, you’re more than welcome to comment on it, so long as you pay a small fee to us, da management.

Wow.

Look folks… the genie is out of the bottle. The conversation about you, your brand, your customer service, whatever, is already out there and happening online. It’s time to deal. It’s time to get involved, set the record straight where you can, and learn from the mistakes you make where you cannot.

If this doesn’t get you there, just wait until Seth and co. stop by to ask you to buy some “insurance,” so “nuthin’ bad happens.” Seems to me it’d be better to get involved now, so at least you know what’s being said.

Either that or get a doberman.