I've received a number of emails recently from people on their smartphones. Many have signatures that say things like 'Sent from my iPhone' or whatever phone they're using. That's fine if you think it's cool to let everyone know you have an iPhone. I get that. Frankly that's why many people buy Apple products. Individuals tout ease of use and beautiful industrial design as key reasons for buying an iPhone or MacBook Pro. Valid traits, but many aren't fessing up to their additional desire to tote a status symbol. Apple delivers on that status in exchange for a premium price. The combined value from the UX, industrial design and status (regardless of each customer's personal mix on the three) is what Apple customers are happy to pay for.
But this post isn't about status. It's about promotion and opportunity cost. When you send out an email that says 'Sent from my iPhone' you are proclaiming your status. That's fine. But there's an opportunity cost. What else could your email signature say? What do you care more about that might be worth attaching to every email you send from your phone? Each email is opportunity to plug your personal brand, your product/company/blog, a nonprofit organization you believe in - lots of things. That signature is valuable real estate, and you should use it wisely. Plus, it takes less than two minutes to change the email signature on your phone. If you have something more important to say in that space - say it. Especially if the phone maker is only paying you in status.
Bottom Line: Don't wear the t-shirt for free.
Data comes at us from all directions. It can be hard to make sense of it all. So we filter. We ignore. We categorize. We love to group things. It helps us make sense of the world. It happens at work and in our personal lives. While grouping isn't always a good thing (e.g. stereotypes) it's a key skill for us to acquire. It's not just a human skill. Servers running highly tuned algorithms also help us out here (e.g. Google, Bing). All in all, it's not surprising that we spend a fair amount of time managing information overload. There's a lot of data to process.
As the year comes to a close the lists emerge. The 'Top 10' list is one of the most popular. And hate them or love them, most people can't get enough of them. Why? All the reasons above. You might not be much of a sports fan, but you'll watch ESPN's top ten sports moments of the year. You might violently disagree with a film critic's top movies of the year, but that's sort of the point. These lists give us a starting point to identify with what we like and what turns us off. As marketers we can create lists to get our customers attention. But you have to make them interesting. I was going to add a list to this post, but nothing came to mind (that wouldn't take some time to compile). So no (interesting) list from me. But that's okay. You don't really need mine. The lists are coming.
Happy Holidays
A promise is a big deal. Break one and bad things can happen. Namely people may lose trust in you.
I heard a great definition of trust a while back. I'm paraphrasing, but the gist was that people trust you when they can predict your behavior. Good or bad. So yes, you can even trust an evil person to be evil. It is critical for brands to establish trust with their audience. That's core to the brand promise. Without that trust it's almost impossible to build loyalty.
The media circus surrounding Tiger Woods got me to thinking about how this affects real-world brands. Tiger sold people on his focus, motivation, discipline and dedication. This combination pulled in non-golf fans who shared his values and/or were simply intrigued by his consistency. And then he let people down. He's lost the trust of many fans and supporters. Sponsors like Gatorade and TAG have been the first to pull back. I expect others will follow suit. All is not lost. Tiger the brand can still thrive, but it will need to be repositioned. Proof point? Kobe Bryant.
The thing that most intrigues me with the Tiger story is that he could have avoided it all. If he never got married in the first place, this would be a non-story. He'd just be perceived as a playboy. Fans may not have shared those values, but his actions wouldn't have evoked such strong reactions. Some would argue he would be less valuable as a brand without the family values attached. I would counter that brands should be true to the values they can sustain, not those that may generate the most revenue. The reason is simple. We'll screw up at some point if we try to fake it. And if Tiger knew he was this way he should have stayed single. Tiger should have pulled a George Clooney. We trust George to be George - the perpetual bachelor who dates hot women. As a result, there's no fanfare when he shows up with his newest girlfriend. You may not agree with this lifestyle, but his consistency is something we can learn from.
The Bottom Line: Figure out who you want to be and then make sure you don't promise your customers something you can't deliver.
