Franchise 2016

Steve SchildwachterChief Marketing OfficerBrightStar Care@SteveS1

(Acknowledge how perfect the session description is, especially the definition of a brand promise as a statement that guides the brands growth.)2

What it includesGround RulesTargetComplete and ConciseBrandNot always obviousFrame of ReferenceWhos your competition?Point of DifferenceOnly one thingReason(s) to BelieveHelps process things

Classic Brand Positioning

The classic brand positioning is the best place to start.First rule is always knowing your consumer, of course, and in a classic brand positioning its OK to be a little more complete.as in a paragraph.but you can still say youre concise if you limit your paragraph to whats really relevant.Brand in most cases is pretty obvious, whether its Checkers or BrightStar Care, but sometimes it isnt. Once we were line-extending a popular air freshener but tried naming it something too far afield from the parent brand and product.Frame of Reference is, without question, the most-overlooked part of this exercise. Its not always obvious who your competition really is.The Point of Difference is what we call the Brand Promise, and whatever you call it, its got to be just one thing.In my humble opinion the brand promise, or brand positioning, should not have reasons to believe. But I kept it here because most internal audiences cant stop at the point of difference without knowing or saying more. Thats OK, because nobody writes these sitting alone at a desk; its a team exercise. And often the real point of difference is buried on a list of rationale. You bring it forward during the process.3

Align Promise and Reality

This story starts with a consumer insight. We were selling bug spray and it seemed pretty easy: Problem Solution. Mosquitoes were the problem and OFF! was the solution. But when conducting consumer research we saw the reality was more Problem Problem. Most people disliked putting on bug spray almost as much as they disliked mosquitoes.

This epiphany inspired us to write a new brand promise that not only kept us honest with consumers (admitting faults, doing more specific segmentation), but helped us rally the organization to change what R&D was working on. Most of the work was very long-range, involving a lot of lab time, but we sped up development of a handheld mosquito protection device think of it as the OFF! You dont put on. Result was a +55% increase in sales.

The Reality should influence the Promise.and the Promise can influence the Reality.

(Its intentional that this slide is titled Align Promise and Reality instead of with. Because sometimes the Promise recognizes the Reality; sometimes the Promise bends the Reality.)4

Team Effort

A year ago this month I returned to franchising when I started as CMO at BrightStar. The first thing Shelly Sun said to me was: We need a new TV commercial on air by September 14th.

The good news was and is that we have an authentic, powerful story. The challenge was to improve upon previous advertising that (1) wasnt in consumer language and (2) didnt differentiate us from competition. To get there, we had to craft a brand promise.

Who answered the challenge? A team. We worked internally with critical departments like Clinical Quality, and with groups of franchisees in a face-to-face work session. Naturally we consumer-tested what we were working on but the main point was that we took the time to bring along all stakeholders for the ride. One small example from the ad: Joint Commission becomes same standards as the countrys best hospitals.

Since then our brand promise has guided all our marketing communications. Today, our consumer inquiries driven by Marketing are double what they were a year ago. All this was made possible by a clearly articulated brand promise.5

DocumentarianismComplexityEnemies

Your two biggest enemies in crafting a brand promise are Complexity and Documentarianism.

Complexity seems easy to define, but how many times have you found yourself wallowing in it? These days, probably a lot, and its our job as marketers to simplify it for your colleagues, customers and consumers.

Documentarianism OK, I made up that word. Its really the problem of words on a page. A brand promise you never make to the consumer because you dont live it out day to day on the job. The document is an end unto itself.6