Red Sky Insights :: Frequently Asked Questions

Every day we receive questions about Red Sky and Operational Branding. While it would be difficult to print all of these inquiries, here are a few of the most common questions and our responses.

Q: We’re such a traditional company when it comes to change. How do we convince senior management that a brand is about more than an ad or a website?

A: Our experience gives us a unique perspective into the mindset of most CEOs or COOs and what it takes to “sell” them. They are especially interested in learning how to make greater use of the assets that already exist in the organization (products/resources/ ideas) that will help to achive their corporate business objectives and how using these in different ways might make sound financial sense for the firm.

Our approach (Operational Branding) is based on understanding the economic and reputational value that can be gained when an organization aligns its assets and resources to consistently deliver on the promises it makes to its customers. Basically, we activate the brand promise made in your overall communications and advertising by helping you deliver on it.

At the outset, our work identifies where current company investments in the customer experience may be undervalued, misrepresented or not well understood. Market, customer and competitor dynamics change every single day and each shift represents a challenge or an opportunity for success or failure. Competitors are trying to undo your hard-won customer relationships, new products and technologies are constantly being introduced and your customers are being asked to do more with less. So, to be effective, our work begins and ends with customers.

Ultimately, our goal is to help you understand how to structure company-to-customer interactions that will provide you with the greatest return on investment. Here, return on investment refers to the actions and behaviors an organization must employ to meet the needs of its customers in ways that cause them to recommend, specify and buy your products.

For example, if we know how customers buy and are able to identify the key points in their purchase process, we can tailor interactions with them in ways that are more likely to influence preference and purchase. This includes both personal, face-to-face behavior as well as all other means of interaction, especially technology interfaces such as automated call centers.

Our approach is designed to pinpoint when, where and how much brand equity you might be leaving on the table and what needs to be done to address it. Then, we help you understand how to re-engineer company-to-customer interactions in ways designed to increase customer demand and enhance your reputation.

Most importantly, we act as facilitators through this process, to ensure that your managers and employees are the ones learning how it’s done and in ways that will enable them to train others.

Throughout our work, there is a clear link to the economic benefits of improved company-to-customer interactions as well as to the value of your advertising and other communications efforts.

Q: We have a vision and mission statement but few in the organization are aware of it. In my first meeting with our new CEO, she commented that she had read these materials and was surprised that we weren’t doing more with them. When I asked her to explain, she mentioned that in her previous position at another company, she used these materials to influence a number of changes throughout the organization. What should I do next?

A: Two things immediately: learn as much as possible about the changes that she initiated in her previous position and secondly, ask her for a follow-up meeting.

The first step will help you understand her frame of reference based on her past experiences with vision and mission statements. You can use your next meeting with her to ask her what her expectations might be for the vision and mission statements you currently have.

Q: I am trying to make sure that some of our more uncooperative business unit leaders provide more executional support for our next ad campaign. In the past, we’ve spent considerable monies to get our message right, only to have a few of these people ignore everything we’re promising to their customers. Any thoughts?

A: Many business unit heads tend to be focused on their piece of the business, their specific revenue goals and unit profits. Much of this is driven by their compensation and incentive structure. To them, advertising is an expense; unless you can demonstrate how the advertising is going to benefit his/her business unit, you're likely to get a cold response.

As an example, if the advertising suggests a new commitment to improve engagement and delivery between the company and its customers, share your expectations for the work in terms of generating more customers and profits. Explain that you understand the buying process for her customers - as well as the key leverage and leakage points, and recommend the steps necessary to better deliver on customer needs. Talk about the customer experience and how to improve it. If you’re really feeling bold, offer to spend time with executives and managers to explain the rationale for the new work and the benefits that you are expecting it to produce. Get their buy-in in advance and make sure to share with them the results of the overall program.

Q: Our firm is large. We have over 200,000 global employees. How do we possibly apply operational branding in such a diverse organization?

A: We would start with an understanding of the shared values, beliefs and experiences that the global firm intends for its customers. These are the “truths” that transcend the cultural divides and other barriers. We would also identify two or three key markets or business units that are underperforming and construct a pilot project that is designed to:

identify the relative value of the "attributes" to each market and why
identify any additional nuances that could provide added meaning in the local market, adding one or two attributes if necessary
define the desired customer experience versus current experiences, exploring how the attributes can be used to improve it
work with senior leaders in each pilot area to re-engineer current company actions and behaviors to build on what's working and eliminate what's not
measure results, including impact on revenue

Based on two or three successful pilots, you can begin to build a case for broader change in the organization:

identify businesses, markets or other functional areas that you suspect are underperforming and apply the same process as above but with a higher senior executive sponsor
measure and merchandise results to senior management ( note: results must describe nature and extent of the economic benefits to the firm)

Develop a proposal that outlines a deliberate and reasonable timeline to expand your efforts to the whole organization. Be patient. The process is a journey that takes time and is never-ending.