YOUTILITY

Why Smart Marketing Is About Help, Not Hype

The difference between helping and selling is just two letters. But those two letters are critically important to your company’s success.

You’re not competing for attention only against other, similar products. You’re competing for attention against everything. To win in this hyper-competitive environment, you must ask “How can we help?”

If you sell something, you make a customer today, but if you genuinely help someone, you create a customer for life. This is Youtility.

Includes interviews with dozens of companies practicing Youtility, and provides 6 blueprints for building Youtility in your company.

Available for pre-order soon (get up to 7 exclusive bonuses) at http://YoutilityBook.com
Power Of 4  |  Add Yours

The Power of Brand

badge guest post FLATTER The Power of BrandAs a recovering attorney who dabbled in trademark law back in the day, I have long respected the power of brand. Brand cuts through clutter. It transforms the mundane into the emotional. It raises expectations.

The best brand stewards understand that they aren’t responsible for protecting mere words, symbols, and sounds. They’re responsible for delivering on the fundamental promise of any brand—that each customer’s experience will meet or exceed the last.

Brands are not, therefore, static creatures.  They rise and fall on the collective experience of their consumers.  And while nostalgia may insulate some brands from their missteps, change is a constant that all brands must weather through innovation and evolution.

So what is the power of brand?  It is the power to be uniquely understood, appreciated, and valued by consumers in a world of ever-expanding choice.  And that is a power far beyond mere words.

(Get the details on the Power Of series, including calendar of contributors)

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About Jeff Rohrs

A recovering attorney turned digital marketer, Jeff Rohrs heads up the Marketing Research and Education Group at ExactTarget. He is a co-author of the award-winning Subscribers, Fans & Followers research series and is a driving force behind the company's user conference. Jeff acts as a steward for ExactTarget's thought leadership, speaking at industry events about how the digital marketing world is evolving.

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  • geoffliving

    This is spot on. A brand lives and dies by its experience.  The rest is just empty promises if the experience doesn’t back it up!

  • Doug Brown

    It seems that this excellent definition might be expanded a bit further to also include the way brands experience consumers, which is now an undeniable part of the two-way brand/customer engagement.

  • ginarau

    This is a great way of talking about a brand. So many marketers define their brand by a logo, color or font, but the truth is that a brand is defined by every interaction and experience that someone has with that brand – from a commercial to using the product, placing an order, talking with a friend, etc. A brand encompasses a personality, a culture, and persona, and to some degree the reflection of it’s advocates.
     
    Defining a brand isn’t easy, and as you mentioned Jeff, lives in a world of constant change, but it’s critical to not overlook the importance, and power, of your brand. 

  • Todd Greene

    Be careful, though. Although customer service and excellent customer experiences are rarely a bad choice for brand emphasis, they do not always represent the brand. Consistency really is the answer. If you need to choose “lowest price” as your brand story, then your prices better always be lowest. If accessibility is your brand, then you had always be open and transparent. If customer service is your brand story, then you had better always treat customers like kings. Sometimes, though, businesses can’t do it all, and they must focus on one.