"...Pardon? Oh, very sorry! I thought you were talking to someone else..."
On Thursday, along with two marketing/advertising 'greats', I added my lowly-worm status to a day's brand and marketing workshop for health industry professionals organised by the Community Therapists Network.
The issues of how to address the general public and get your message across simply, effectively - and cost effectively - is an ongoing, possibly growing issue.
In the afternoon, we set an exercise for the participants from far and wide to develop a marketing plan for some of their respective businesses, with a small prize for the best presentation at the end. The four groups did really well and showed how a little bit of guidance goes a long way. (Congratulations to Sarah and Jo from the GP surgery for some really original thinking and a well conceived plan.)
A brand is not a product, even though people often speak of products as brands as though they are. In reality, a brand is a relationship between an organisation and its stakeholders. Successful brands only become so when their values and aspirations are aligned with their customers, staff and partners; when customers feel that they are at the centre of attention in the relationship... and when the brand messages are delivered consistently through everything a company does and says, at all the 'touch points'. This is one reason why depth of design thinking is so very important.
The one thing that all but one of the participants appeared oddly reluctant to do, is to canvas customers' views in the external environment. Only one participating duo spoke of surveying customers and stakeholders to record their views of the experience they receive. (Again, well done Sarah and Jo for canvassing opinion for their surgery). They reported that the results were both enlightening and useful.
As with so many areas of life, asking relevant, meaningful questions and then listening carefully to the answers is absolutely key to successful relationships. And it is worth doing because it pays fine dividends...
Active, effective and honest listening assists in the development of better conceived and relevant plans, improves inter-relationships between colleagues, customers and other stakeholders; promotes real support for an organisation and at the same time encourages and fertilises a good reputation.
Image: Visualphotos.com
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