With the DTCS in full swing today, and wine industry tweeps chirping all day long about the on-goings, I was interested to see a side conversation on the placement of Twitter or Facebook addresses on wine labels. Healthy conversation ensued, with the majority of the social media advocates screaming YES!

I didn't see many in the conversation against the idea, but it was more of a preaching to the choir kind of inquiry - asked on Twitter and in a blog by someone whose followers are engaging in the social space heavily. For the full conversation, read here.

The post got me thinking about the basic needs of a wine consumer throughout the purchase path, and the role which information and access to the brand plays at each stage. To start, let's consider the basic path, as broken down to 5 stages on the way to brand loyalty:

At each stage in the path to purchase, there are specific customer needs in order to affect a movement to the next stage. And, there are marketing and sales strategies implemented at each to help encourage continued engagement and momentum forward. Ultimately, the goal is to drive towards loyalty, delivering repeat engagements with a brand, becoming a brand advocate to friends and colleagues, and delivering share of wallet to the brand.

At the risk of oversimplifying the process, the following identifies a few of the activities which can be undertaken at each of the stages, corresponding with the basic consumer consideration at each stage:

So, what role typically does packaging play in the purchase process? The role of the wine label is generally to appeal to the consumers need and provide information relevant to their decision making process. Brand name, varietal, region and vineyard all deliver necessary information. Winemaker’s notes even better. A winery URL to encourage incremental information to be found – great. In this age of smart phones, it’s easy and common to pull out your iPhone and dial up the latest Vino app for consumer reviews on the product under consideration. Easy, as well, to call up the winery website and see if any additional information on the product may be found.

So based on this, would a Twitter address on the label assist in the decision making process? Social media engagements most certainly play a role in the continuum. However, the act of "fanning" or "following" typically indicates that a customer has already experienced and enjoyed a wine, and is willing to engage further with a brand. By this stage, the consumer is likely past the label and packaging, moving deeper into "conversation" with the brand. It’s not likely that someone reading the label in the aisle of BevMo will “fan” a winery, expecting real time conversation to begin and drive them over the edge to purchase.  

Now, having said this, let’s assume the consumer buys your product, brings it to a dinner party and enjoys your 2005 Merlot with friends that evening. They look at the wine bottle to investigate the brand a little further, see your URL and Twitter address and make a note to visit for more information. Nice. No harm and an opportunity to begin the path towards engagement and loyalty.

So, does it hurt to put a Twitter address on a wine label? Likely no. Does it provide the information necessary to help a consumer make a first purchase decision? Probably not. Will it encourage deeper investigation into a product they’ve enjoyed? Perhaps. 

Personally, I'm more excited about the potential that QR codes present for wine label application. WOW. More on that one later.

Ok, maybe not a fascination, but yes, I listen to Lady Gaga. I admit it. However, it's not because she’s musically talented. It's not because she did a fantastic sado-masochistic presentation of herself at the MTV awards last year. Nor is it because of her amazingly keen sense of fashion. But rather, it's due to the fact that her music gives me something that I need to perform a certain behavior. Something that I can use and embed into an important activity in my life: exercise. And, she provides me with exactly what I need to do it: a monotonous, fast paced, upbeat tempo that is timed to the exact BPMs at which I like to walk.

I found her branded product (music) and am using it in a certain behavioral way that is both meaningful and relevant to me. I need music that’s fast paced at a beat I can work out to (relevant), and that will allow me to continue to perform an exercise that helps me clear my mind, which makes me feel energized and happy when I’m done (meaningful).

That’s power.

She’s connected with me in a way that – regardless of what I feel about her presentation or political position (which by the way, I know nothing about) – works for my NEED. That works for me. And I’ll look for her next single on iTunes the next time I’m searching for exercise music.. She’ll likely get another $1.99 from me, regardless of whether she’s a brand that I would follow on her website, or on Twitter, or even attend a concert.

This is a lesson for any brand seeking to connect with the consumer.  Consider the needs, behaviors, cultures, activities of the consumers in the marketplace who may potentially consume your product. How do they interact with the world and friends during their day? What are their needs? How might they be able to apply what you are offering into their everyday? We talked a little about this in our blog recently “Time to Clean Your (Brand) House”.

Think about it.

P.S. For those Lady Gaga fans (you know who you are…): Barbie Gaga.

We're going through an exercise to help position a new company that's entering a very crowded market. In order to most effectively define who and what this company is, we need to also define how it's different than others in its market, and why businesses would want to engage with them.

The process of developing a positioning statement is pretty straightforward - it's the actual activity itself that becomes the challenge. Many different ideas and "keywords" come to the brainstorming page, and a lot of passion sits behind each of those. The challenge is ensuring that the language used to define who and what a company or brand is adheres to 3 primary principles; that it is:

1. Ownable in its respective marketplace or industry
2. Meaningful to the core audience being provided for
3. Durable and lasting over time (not trend-based)

Read "Time to Clean Your (Brand) House" for more information on defining a positioning statement.

One of the most fun exercise in the development of the positioning statement - and one that I find helps tremendously when "stuck", is to get everyone working on the obituary for that business or brand. Think ahead to the future and imagine the company is a person. Sadly, it just died (of natural causes, of course - the business was a thriving one!). Now. What would you like the obituary to say about the life and legacy of that company?

Once written, the initial positioning exercise and the struggles to identify which definitions would be most meaningful and durable are much easier to nail down. Test it yourself. What would your brand legacy be? Why wait until you "die" to act on the actions necessary to create that legacy?

For more on the differences, here's a good snapshot article: Strategic Planning, Mission - Vision - Values.

10.  Know your BUSINESS
Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to help monitor and manage your business. Your KPI’s will help define and monitor the progress your business is making towards the long term goals you have established.

There are KPIs for every aspect of your business, not just financial or marketing activities. You might establish KPIs for your operational efforts, your supply chain activities, your logistics or manufacturing side of the business, or any other core activity undertaken by your business. Have each of your divisional managers define the critical measures in their area of focus as they work towards the long term goals of the business. Which metrics must they monitor to ensure continued success?

Your KPI’s should be SMART. Everyone should have a firm grasp on those business indicators that are critical in keeping your business growing. And, they should be monitored on a frequent enough basis that your team is able to see when issues are arising in certain areas. Establish timely reports to help monitor your KPIs (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly), and use the data your reports show to refine or fine tune your business and brand strategies when necessary.

And finally... a little extra credit:

11.  Know your LIMITS
If you've attended to each of the top 10 addressed here, you're not going to overextend your business; however it's easy to get ahead of yourself with the next great idea or opportunity to service your market or customer. Keep it simple. Keep focused. Don’t try to be all to everyone. Don’t over-leverage your resources.

Establish your top 3-5 business priorities in the near term and maintain that focus. If market, consumer, financial or other conditions disrupt your ability to focus on those top priorities, refine them down to 3, 2 or 1. Recognize your limitations and work with them. It's too easy to be distracted by the next great idea, or the latest trend, but with strong planning, a focused vision, engaged and informed employees, a good understanding of the marketplace, and supportive and empowering leadership, your business and brand can soar.

A visual to recap:

Last week, in “Time to Clean Your (Brand) House”, we defined 4 critical things that you need to truly “know” to successfully build a strong, engaging and lasting brand. If you’ve taken a look at your brand – and evaluated your position with those first 4 - now it’s time to move onto the next 3.

Without further ado, here we go…

5. Know your CHANNELS
As a marketer, your job is to utilize the right mix of channels to build brand engagement and sell your products and/or services. It’s critical that you understand the channels at your disposal and how best to leverage them as unique avenues through which to communicate. Knowing your audience (as referenced in Part 1) also means knowing where they expect to find information, and where they’ll be receptive to finding and engage with brands. But just knowing which channels they’re likely to utilize isn’t enough. You need to know how to engage through them and further, how to evaluate the impact of them.

Each channel has its own rules for engagement, its own metrics to evaluate, potentially its own manager to keep it running. Your marketing mix should be such that each channel can operate independently, however it’s important that you consider the forest for the trees –your customers brand experience is made up of the combination of all touch points, and it’s essential that you create and maintain a well balanced and managed marketing channel strategy.

Make sure you understand the role each channel plays in your marketing mix, how much you can and should expect to get out of each, and what metrics you’re anticipating through the whole mix, as well as the individual channels. It’s important to not only KNOW the right channels, but to UNDERSTAND them and how they are delivering.  

6. Know your VEHICLES
You’ve decided that direct-to-consumer channel is a viable and important one for your brand. Now it’s time to figure out which vehicles need to be leveraged to most effectively engage in the DTC channel.

* Where are your target users engaging?
* Where would they be most receptive to finding you?

Once defined, it’s even more critical that you understand how to use and manage those vehicles. For instance, on social media vehicles you’ll seek to engage with consumers. But with direct mail, it’s a one way conversation that hopefully leads to the engagement.  You’ll push information out through one vehicle, while another will be used to (hopefully) get your consumers to pull information from you.

Think about the various DTC vehicles at your disposal: email, direct mail, catalog, social media, your tasting room, and more. Each has its own distinct form of engagement and purpose for your target consumer. Each has its own metrics to be evaluated for success measures, each may have its own manager for daily execution. To most effectively get the end results you’re seeking, be sure you truly understand each vehicle and its purpose and placement within your marketing mix. Establish individual vehicle goals, define the key metrics that you will monitor for each, and define which resources you will need to employ to most effectively deliver your brand and sales goals through those vehicles.

Don’t forget: Like your channel marketing mix, it’s essential you create a balanced mix of vehicles leveraged within each channel, understanding how together they contribute to the whole brand experience, ultimately delivering against your desired end. Your channel will have key performance indicators, and potentially its own P&L for management. Manage at the granular level (by vehicle) with an eye for the big picture (by channel – and ultimately your entire business).

7. Know THYSELF
It’s important to understand who you are as a brand; from the visual elements that comprise your brand, to the tone and “voice” your brand takes, to the core values to which your brand adheres. Consistency is especially critical when it comes to the expression of your brand.

Work with your designers or whomever is responsible for the design and development of your brand mark, typography, logo, color palette, etc., to build a standards guide. The standards guide should define for everyone in the company how your brand is represented visually and communicated verbally. It should define the exact color tones, font styles, sizing ratios, placement and usage guidelines for your brand elements. It should demonstrate commonly used business applications (business application templates, website usage, advertising guidelines, black & white vs. color expressions, etc.). It should define how your brand "speaks"; its personality, the tone it takes in communications, and even the ways which your brand will spell, punctuate or capitalize common words (think about the variations available for words like: eCommerce, ecommerce, e-commerce, or online, on-line, on-Line).

The standards guide can also dive into the overall vision, mission and core values for your brand. Once defined, share your standards with everyone in the company and anyone who participates in the communication of your brand. Be diligent about adhering to the standards. If you’ve effectively communicated your brand strategy internally, there should be no inconsistency in use. If there is… work on your internal communication skills.

To successfully build a strong, engaging and lasting brand, there are several things your brand must first "KNOW" about itself.  They are the building blocks upon which you will best build and manage a successful business, and they apply regardless of whether you’re selling a product, a service, or simply trying to build up your own personal brand.

The following are the first few in my top 10 list of the most primary (and critical) considerations. Even in the midst of these final few weeks of holiday shopping frenzy and promotional mayhem, it's a good time to do a quick brand audit for your business and see if your brand needs a quick polish - or a complete review. If needed, make a commitment to get your (brand) house in order before the new year... and resolve to stay consistent in your attention to each during 2010; building and managing a brand is an ongoing endeavor.

1. Know your POSITION
A positioning statement is a concise statement which defines your business and its reason for being. It should clearly communicate 4 things:

• Who your brand is in business for FOR WHOM
• The category in which your brand competes WHAT
• The benefits that customers will derive from using your products WHY
• The proof – or Reasons to Believe – that your brand delivers what is promised HOW

A solid positioning statement must identify the true value gained by the users of the brand, as well as easily understood Reasons to Believe (the HOW).  Put each of your RTB’s through a test to ensure they are: ownable, specific, true and memorable.  Take some time to discuss each of the above before you jump quickly into the definition of each. You’ll likely find that there may be multiple “right” answers to each, so the challenge is to clearly identify those most impactful, ownable and identifiable. The goal is to define, establish, understand and live your identifiable brand position. Your position should serve as a ‘filter’ through which business decisions and actions are taken. Every person in your organization, every action taken by your business, regardless of department or level, should understand and act according to the position you have established. 

2. Know your COMPETITION
What are others doing to service your customers and position themselves in the marketplace you intend to serve? How are you leading the pack or continuing to differentiate yourself against this competition? If you don’t have a sense for who else is serving your target audience, and how and what they are doing to distinguish themselves, you’re not going to be able to stay in the market competitively.

Not only should you understand your own position – as stated above – but you should have a sense of the position your primary competitors are taking. List those businesses who compete in your space and identify how they are understood in the market, what they offer, where they specialize -- anything that will help you get a grasp on where YOUR business and products sit in the competitive space. Resolve to own your space and incorporate the benefits and unique attributes of working with your brand into your positioning.

3. Know your AUDIENCE
Who is buying your products or services? What do they need? What do they want? To understand your target audience, you not only need to identify who would ideally engage with your brand for its product attributes and benefits, but what other factors influence their lives and help drive their purchase decisions. Customers purchase for product-driven reasons, but they also purchase for emotional reasons. They “buy” into brands that make them feel good, or that make them feel like they belong to a group. As well, consider the cultural influences of your audience, how they engage with their family and friends, what they seek in their lives. The better you understand who is engaging with your brand, the better you can position and compete in the marketplace.

4. Know your MARKET
What’s happening in your industry? Are you on top of the general trends and normal fluxuations? Where is the market heading? By understanding the movements occurring within your industry, you can best manage your position and stay on par or – better yet – ahead of the competition. Unless you’re in a unique position of creating a new business paradigm, there should be plenty of resources for you to gain insight; conferences, industry journals, blogs, market research firms. If your business is serving a significant enough portion of your identified market, you may even find industry trends within your own sales and customer interactions.

Food for thought... more to come.