Position Your Brand » Emotional Branding

The Ultimate Customer Service

Sharon — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:28:31 +0000

If you’ve been reading my newsletters for a long time, you know that I believe that marketing and branding are all about the product/customer relationship. In fact, brands are icons of the essence of those relationships and connections. We can talk more about that at another time.

Today, I challenge anyone to beat this fantastic customer relationship support example.

Setting the scene:
Yesterday, Glenn and I went to see our doctors in Kennebunk ME. It’s a 2 hour drive but well worth it. This dynamic duo discovered and CURED Glenn’s debilitating Lyme disease which had gone undiagnosed for 10 years. [Glenn is completely free of long standing migraines, joint aches and pains, has restored energy and basically got his life back.]
While it may sound very strange for a Pharma specialist like me, I’m personally a huge chicken about doctors and dentists, especially when it comes to poking, prodding and tests. So much so that Glenn suggested taking his blood tests at the same time I did and going for the results together so I would feel supported and maybe a little less of a scaredy cat.

So that’s what we did. About 10 days ago we did our 12 hour fast and headed to The Elliot Hospital Lab to get beakers of blood taken [just kidding, only 4 small vials, but it felt like a blood letting to me.]

Yesterday was our day to make the trek out to southern Maine to get our report cards. That’s how it always feels to me. As soon as the word test is used, I develop performance anxiety. “Sorry, Dr Livingston, but you failed on your liver enzymes, barely passed on C Reactive Protein and you need to work harder on your metabolic syndrome factors.” I’m not sure which is more traumatic; having my blood drawn or the anxiety of being “graded.” Ugh.

We got to Kennebunk early with plenty of time to pick up an Rx that we needed to bring with us for our appointment. In fact, it was the whole reason for making the long drive. Otherwise we could have gotten the feedback via phone.

Now here’s the thing. We were supposed to stop at the Rite Aid down the street from Mulliken & Caprio’s office to pick up an injectible solution. The nurse had called us the day before to let us know it would be waiting for us. When we got there 45 minutes before the appointment the prescription and any record of it was no where to be found. After arguing with the pharmacy tech for 15 minutes Glenn remembered that he had Dr Mulliken’s cell phone number for emergencies. Excited to have a solution, he called it only to be deflated once again as he reached a recorded message.

Did we make this trip for nothing!? Ooooo. Chagrined and crest fallen, we headed around the display of Blissful Feet massagers towards the door. As we turned the corner, our two fearless toxic avengers came striding determinedly toward the pharmacy counter.

I see them approaching us in slow motion like an action adventure flick where the heroes magically appear at just the right moment and confidently slay the villains and rescue the wronged. What a super surprise and relief. This was literally 5 minutes after Glenn had left a message.

They re-wrote the prescription, got us immediate service and we were on our way!

Our heroess – Drs Scott Mulliken and Teresa Caprio of the Sacred Heart Center in Arnudel, Maine (207) 985-1806

It was the best house call I’ve ever experienced and went a long way to strengthening our relationship.

Do you have a Service or Brand story to share? Leave it below please!

BTW, the results were all normal, so I did all that worrying for nothing . . . again!

And, more importantly, if you or someone you know is struggling with Lyme, or any medical problem which is perplexing you and you don’t mind the trip, we can’t recommend these docs more highly.

Doctors as Clients – Exercise

Sharon — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:04:32 +0000

Lots of people wonder how well projective techniques work with physicians. I often get questions about whether
or not doctors will “play.”

What drives that question is the belief that professionals are trained to only react to facts. Moreover, there’s a sense from many researchers that it’s almost insulting to invite physicians to free associate and divulge their real feelings. It’s almost as if they’re above the emotional and visceral.

Yet isn’t it a combination of looking at the data and one’s intuitive sense that makes for the best medicine? Good doctors avoid becoming walking brains and stay connected to their hearts and instincts when investigating issues with their patients.

Over the years I’ve successfully employed virtually all the same projective techniques I’ve used with patients and consumers with physicians. And, interestingly, the vast majority of doctors find them intriguing and a RELIEF! They get to take off their fact finding hat for a few minutes and invite their creative process. While at first it might be a little strange, a little different, being playful is a wonderful departure for them from the seriousness of everyday work.

So, you’ll hear doctors voices become animated as they tell you what they see in a guided imagery. Their eyes brighten in choosing IconiCards™ to add to a collage that depicts how it feels to work with various conditions. They lean into the table to tell you the story they’ve just created in their imagination. [Compare that to the lean back, arms crossed posture, dispassionate voice you often see and hear when they're asked to respond to a medication profile.] By just presenting facts and asking for a reaction, we invite detached involvement and then wonder why it’s so hard to read what physicians really want.

Here’s a quick, easy to administer and depthful exercise to help understand how a physician is really thinking and feeling about a category and possible solutions.

Lay out a deck of IconiCards™ [or any deck of archetypes] on a table close to the interviewing station. As part of the introduction, show the doctor the archetype cards and ask him to pick a card which might represent any of the following.

The condition that’s the subject of the interview, e.g., hypertension AND can be any condition/disease state
A typical hypertension patient
The doctor in the role of treating hypertension
A preferred medication in the doc’s armamentarium

Sometimes, the participant will ask if more than one card may be chosen. Answer that “up to 2 would be fine”. Most will select just one.

When the IconiCards™ have been selected, have the doctor bring them back to her/his seat. Ask him to give 5 adjectives describing just the CARD. After that has been done for each card, and you’ve written those down for reference, play back the adjectives for each issue, one at a time, and ask the physician how the archetype and those words tie back to condition, patient, etc. You’ll start to see a textured picture emerging.

Then ask the doctor to tell you a story about the 4 characters chosen. Tell them “all stories have a beginning, middle and end and usually have a point of tension that get’s resolved”. Encourage them to tell you a story about the chosen cards (rather than a real story from their practice) so that we can more likely draw out the emotional components to the story and not just a step by step account of what happened.

After the doctor creates and shares their narrative, once again, ask them to tie it back to the condition, patient and current solutions. You’ll hear different themes with different problems. Difficulty in diagnosing that leaves them feeling frustrated and inadequate. Excitement in getting to work on a rare problem that, once diagnosed, has great outcomes. Dismissiveness and boredom with the same old, same old from patients who tend to be non compliant. Despair that they usually push away when they want to help and there’s no good solution. You’ll hear humanness that may touch your heart or may turn you off. Doctors attitudes and feelings run the gamut of human reactions.

Be prepared to melt with compassion or be shocked at the seedier side of medical practice. Also ask what’s missing in this drama. This will give you ideas for how an ideal or different medication could be served up to better solve the problem/better treat the condition.

There are lots of projective techniques you can use. IconiCards™ is one I love because it’s so quick to get to feelings and images, but there are many different approaches.

Remember, that the more creative you are willing to be in crafting interesting exercises for your study, the more depthful, intuitive and emotional will be the responses, EVEN and perhaps especially with physicians who enjoy the opportunity to recognize and liberate their whole and original selves.

Emotional Insight Magic NEW!

Sharon — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:01:15 +0000

People are still wanting to sign up for the May 30th IconiCards™ Insight Mining Machine class but it has been filled.

While we can’t accommodate you this month and because there has been such interest, we’re pleased to announce that we will be holding another session later on this summer.

It’s going to be on Saturday July 18

Save the date and Reserve Now!

IconiCards for Emotional Insight Magic

Dr. Sharon Livingston
DATE: Saturday, July 18th
TIME: One Day Training
LOCATION: My office just outside Manchester NH
Early Bird Cost: $997 before June 15th [other wise $1250]

A special invitation to you to learn great ways to use IconiCards.

Come to this one day training session to learn great techniques for using archetypes in your work. You’ll be amazed at the variety of exercises and how well you can use them to gain deep insights into how people feel and relate to products, categories and interpersonal relationships.

Because the characters on the cards are so meaningful, the stories that come out of people’s experiences are more authentic and useful. It might seem like magic, but it’s not. It’s science.

Come learn this fascinating yet easy method to gain incredible vision. You will come out of this one day seminar with:

A good understanding of the importance of archetypes
Confidence that you can use this tool effectively in your profession
Stories about current brands and their archetypes
Ideas for applying archetypes to your
- marketing
- branding
- new product development
- research
- teaching
- counseling
An exercise you’ve created for your own particular challenges
Ways to analyze the wealth of information
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A complimentary box of IconiCards™!
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The NEW class is taking place on July 18th

Sharonl@tlgonline.com – 603.537.0775

Call or email NOW to reserve a space

Your email Bizarro Focus Group World Comes to Web TV

Sharon — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:04:13 +0000

I’ve always wanted to do a spoof on Focus Groups and Qualitative Research. There are so many weird and outrageously comical things that happen in the course of everyday business; so much so that we once ran a contest called “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Focus Group.”

The entries were priceless.
Gynecologists shooting test diaphragms across the table at each other like sling shots
Man taking out his full set of dentures to show the group plaque build up
Participant entering the backroom and watching the whole event without any of the clients realizing that no one knew him.
100’s of crazy exposure in the mirror stores

For a primer on how NOT to do qualitative research, you have to check out a hilarious new web tv series call Group Think (www.GroupThink.tv) . Attached is an interview with the producers and stars of the show, Angela Espinosa and Wendy Rosoff who tell us how the idea was born and developed.

Click HERE for audio and transcription of Our Interview!

The show is new and there are only a handful of 3 minute episodes so far, but each one made me laugh out loud and watch again. It’s like “The Office” gone Focus Group. What was astounding to me was how they were able to capture a story in such a short time segment. And the acting is great. Angie and Wendy are excellent comedic actresses. The show will be expanded to 6 minute installments in the new future.

Here is a link to the first episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NITI1XkWjVk

Add your own funny story to my blog, www.positionyourbrand.com/blog/ and get honorable mention on the www.groupthink.tv website.

I’d love to know what you think, if you thought it was as funny as I did, so please let me know.

Also, Check out IconiCards™ at www.IconiCards.com

Tying Emotional End Benefits to Archetypes

Sharon — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:52:55 +0000

Traditionally, unearthing Emotional End Benefits has been done through benefit chain/laddering exercises. The unfortunate thing is that these exercises tend to be tedious and, in the hands of a less than master practitioner can leave us somewhere in the middle of the ladder or jumping to the ultimate end benefit of
“I feel good/better/ecstatic/like myself more/higher self worth” etc.

The problem with these answers is that they leave us in the dark. We’re doing the exercise to find differentiating emotional hot buttons that help set the mood and tone of our marketing. What can a creative do with emotional end benefits of enhanced self esteem? They need more specific direction in what the communications needs to look like, feel like, sound like for that category and product and more importantly, that particular brand. Unfinished ladders leave us in the dark, having to project our own beliefs onto the branding and advertising instead of designing for our target markets.

After years of conducting 1000’s of benefit chains, as I mentioned in the previous post, we have constructed a model of Emotional End Benefits. Some lead to Trial and Some Lead to Repeat. Ideally we want both. Fortunately, there are features and functions that secure both.

More importantly, through extensive research, we now know that various Brand Archetypes suggest different and specific Emotional End Benefits. So you no longer have to go through the long, arduous task of pulling teeth from respondents in IDI’s [taking up long portions of it] to identify meaningful emotional benefits. We’ve done the work for you.

To tempt you to join our new www.IconiCards.com club and learn the specific connections of archetypes to emotional benefits so you can more easily empower your clients to leverage brand archetyping, let me give you a few examples.

If your brand is a Conqueror, like some aggressive antibiotics, the emotional end benefit is Winning the competition and Triumphing over the deadly bugs.

That’s in contrast to the Angel image, in the same category of antibiotics, which is all about Gentle, Compassionate, Caregiving.

Another antibiotic might be the Engineer, which is a targeted product that accomplishes its goal by being the Smartest guy/gal on the block.

If you’re interested in the www.IconiCards.com club it’s $49/month. Email me Sharonl@tlgonline.com or call my cell 603 5050 5000 and I’ll let you know all about it. BTW, the cards have been getting a super response. Wait til you hear all the wonderful stories people are sharing.

Hope you’re getting to enjoy the holiday pre-season and,

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Sharon

Dr. Sharon Livingston, President
The Livingston Group for Marketing, Inc.
office:603.537.0775 mobile:603.505.5000
www.tlgonline.com

What do we mean by Emotional Branding?

Sharon — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:52:59 +0000

In the way we at TLG see brands and help clients to think about them, the brand is an expression of a relationship with the product and with self, via the brand. It’s an emotional connection which is the glue of the relationship. People stay with a brand to continue experiencing the feelings they enjoy getting.

When people use various brands they do so for some benefit or set of benefits. What I find truly amazing and fascinating is that every brand feature and functional benefit ladders up to an emotional end benefit or valued judgment of self that results in enhanced self esteem. This last rung is alternately described as:

I feel good about myself

I’m confident/self confident

I like myself

I’m proud of myself

I have better self worth

I’m good

The customer’s relationship with a brand results in these overall positive feelings. It’s just human. We stay with a given brand, just like we stay in our people relationships, as long as we continue to maintain some positive feeling about self from the connection. Relationships fall apart when we’re no longer getting enough good feelings to want to stay with it.

The step just before the top of the ladder, self worth, is what specifically makes up feel better about ourselves, proud, confident, good. It’s also the specific “shade of good/better” that informs the mood and tone of our marketing applications and advertising.

There are many different avenues to increasing our targets’ sense of self worth. In our Livingston Paradigm of Self Esteem©, these fall into four classic categories which we have chosen to call . . .

Category I – Healthy Narcissism [yes it’s possible and necessary to feel good about ourselves for what we reflect in our personal mirrors]

I’m Flexible

I’m Creative

I’m Free
Category II – Love/Sex/Belonging

I’m Loved

I’m Sexy
Category III – Nurturance

I’m a good caretaker
Category IV – Altruism/Giving back to Society

I take care of the world

I mentor the world

Feelings/Values that fall under Category I – Healthy Narcissism, include:

Feeling Free

Being in Control

Having Integrity

Enjoying Humor

Being Creative, etc.

Those under Category II – Love/Sex/Belonging are items like:

Being attractive/sexy

Loving and feeling loved by another

Category III – Nurturance

Being a good Mother/Father

Being a good Manager

Being a Caretaker

Category IV – Altruism

Taking a political stand

Protecting the Environment

Being a community leader

The value of understanding the categories is that they link to Trial and Repeat.

Categories I and II are the kinds of things that get us charged up and excited. Features and functional benefits that lead to Cat I and II also create “Trial”. So fast cars [BMW] and big trucks [FORD] make some people feel empowered and in control, leading to a wish to test drive the car or Trial.

Categories III and IV are the “Shoulds” of society and the dharma of marketing. We believe we should be doing the right thing in our lives. These are features that have benefits like “saves time”/”saves money.” Such benefits and feelings that are associated with giving to others lead to “Repeat”. [If I have extra time/money I’ll spend it on my family and will be appreciated for being a better parent.] Volvo is known for its safety features leading up to Nurturance and Repeat. Volvo buyers are very loyal to their brand.

So the best, most compelling brands/marketing applications and ads ladder up to emotional end benefits associated with both trial and repeat. Combine Hi Performance with Safety as in the Volvo S80 and you pique interest for Trial while encouraging Repeat.

After years of research, we have discovered some short cuts for getting to emotional end benefits via identifying the Brand’s Archetypal character and story. In fact, as some of you know, we’ve created a deck of cards to help identify Brand Archetypes and their stories. [Check out www.Iconicards.com if you haven’t already, to see what they are and get some tips on how to use them. ] The stories include the emotional end benefit that is connected to each archetype. In the next blog I’ll tell you about some of these archetypes and how they load on emotional end benefits.

I sometimes can’t believe we get paid for doing such interesting work! Hope you AND YOUR CLIENTS enjoy the exploration and discoveries as much as I do.

As always, to your success.

Dr. Sharon Livingston, President
The Livingston Group for Marketing, Inc.
office:603.537.0775 mobile:603.505.5000
www.tlgonline.com

Emotional Branding

Sharon — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 12:20:35 +0000

Hi Folks,

Welcome to my new blog on Emotional Branding.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m, Sharon Livingston, a clinical psychologist who has been conducting Qualitative Research for over 20 years. I’m the immediate Past President of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association – a network of 1000 Focus Group Moderators/Professionals worldwide and President of The Livingston Group for Marketing, a consultancy that specializes in Insight Mining.

But who am I really? If I describe my essence, like a brand, you might see me as:

New Product Detective – on the scent for hooks that will grab people and reel them into the right approach for them

Emotional Benefit Diviner – discovering the emotional undercurrents that drive appeal and purchase

Marketing Mystic – able to intuit the essence of your brand to help you market to the combined feature, function and emotional needs of your audiences

So in this blog, let me be your:

Marketing Muse, inspiring, cheerleading, giving you ideas for how to talk to your audiences and help them tell you what’s really driving them; what they really think and feel rather than just telling us what they think is the right answer, the socially desirable response.

I LOVE my work and feel grateful that I get to such exciting work with such great results for my clients.

I’ll invite you to think imaginatively, push the limits, be creative and have fun.

Join me and please share your stories.

To your success!

Sharon

Dr. Sharon Livingston, President
The Livingston Group for Marketing, Inc.
office:603.537.0775 mobile:603.505.5000
www.tlgonline.com


I’m Flexible	I’m Creative	I’m Free


I’m Loved	I’m Sexy


I take care of the world	I mentor the world