Imagine my surprise as I was about to take my seat on a Delta flight yesterday and walked by “Economy Comfort” seats in the first couple of rows in the economy section. The words were spelled out in large letters on the front of each seat back.

My first thought was, is my seat in the “Economy Uncomfortable” section of the plane?

Delta Has a Branding Problem

What about my comfort?!

Who on earth thought up this name for seats that give you 4 inches more leg room and 50 percent more recline? Over the years airlines have developed various seat configurations and classes of travel — first class, business and economy — to satisfy customers and rake in more money.

But it sends the wrong signal to the passengers in regular economy that they are headed to a seat for a cramped and uncomfortable ride.

Reader reviews are generally positive about these seats (on Delta and partner KLM), but passengers have an expectation of comfort, without having to pay extra for it.

That’s what Delta CEO Richard H. Anderson said in the inflight video that was shown as the plane took off, “…we want your time with us to be comfortable and enjoyable.” Me too, Mr. Anderson.

Companies in the service business often conduct focus groups to test new concepts. If Delta tested names for the these premium economy seats, I’d love to see the results. That’s the danger of focus groups. People tell you what they like and want but it’s not necessarily what they will buy.

Instead of Economy Comfort

Delta, may I suggest that any of these names would have been better choices:

Delta Premium Economy

Delta Upfront Economy

Delta Upgrade Economy

Come to think of it, why brand these seats in big letters for every other economy passenger to see? While not a frequent flyer, I haven’t noticed any lettering on first class, business class or regular economy seats.

Coke has done it again – tampered with its brand by changing the color of it famous red cans to white for a holiday promotion with the World Wildlife Fund.

The promotion was to raise funds to bring awareness to the plight of polar bears, an endangered species. It caused a huge kerfuffle among consumers.

Many confused the holiday Coke can with the silver Diet Coke can — horrors. Coke was forced to recall more than a billion of the white cans and restock their shelves with the familiar red ones.

Not the First Mishap

You’d think that the #1 brand would know better. Back in 1985 the company changed the formula of its venerated soft drink, calling the new sweeter version New Coke. The uproar was instantaneous — and after only two weeks the company was forced to bring back the old formula with a new name — Classic Coke.

The company had taste tested the new formula with thousands of customers, the majority of whom liked it better than the old Coke. But never did customers believe the company would ditch the Coke they had come to love and drink over the years.

Lessons Learned

What lessons can other companies learn from this latest stumble by the world’s number brand?

• If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. When I was managing advertising at a global financial services company and then at a New York bank, corporate management would often ask, “When are you going to start a new campaign? Aren’t customers tired of it?” My answer was no, if the campaign was still working. My experience was that the company insiders would get itchy because they were bored and wanted to see something new. That happens even today more than you may think.
• Ask the right questions. If you’re doing market research, ask the right questions to be sure you understand the spoken — and unspoken — needs/desires of your customers. Steve Jobs famously never did consumer research because he said consumers didn’t know what they wanted and it was Apple’s job to tell them. But how many geniuses are there like Steve Jobs. Did people know they needed an iPad?
• Learn how you are positioned.  A brand is how you want to be positioned, or perceived, in the marketplace. Your positioning is how customers actually perceive you. Hopefully they are in alignment. If you have the budget, find out. In the case of a small business without the money for research, put together an advisory panel of your own employees, customers willing to participate, and vendors. Ask for their opinions. Learn their perceptions of your brand and use this information to improve your offerings and communications.

Building and burnishing your brand is a continuous process of refinement. It’s awfully easy to mess it up like Coke did.

Related articles

• ‘Radical’ Coca-Cola cans get wintry reception ()
• White Coca-Cola Cans Freak Consumers Out (thedailymeal.com)

A company can make the best products, but if customer service is bad, there goes the company’s reputation – and sales. I was reminded of this the other day when doing a few errands.

Service with a Smile From TD Bank

TD Bank's Penny Arcade

I started at TD Bank, well known for its “Penny Arcade.” It’s an automatic coin counting machine in each branch that saves you the trouble of rolling all your coins. I save all my change in a plastic container and when it’s full I bring it to the bank – it’s usually around $100 (today it was $105.35) and treat it as sort of a present to myself.

Immediately on entering the branch on Third Avenue, a receptionist greeted me with a smile and asked, “Can I help you today?” She offered to help deposit the coins and then asked if I would like to open an account.

After the machine issued a receipt, I brought it to a teller who welcomed me and asked how I wanted my money. That was a nice touch – so I said in $20 bills. Then she also asked me to open an account. Not this time, but maybe next time? I left as a happy non-customer.

Too Busy for a Greeting at Ethan Allen

I walked a couple of blocks and entered the Ethan Allen store where I had bought an ottoman, which needs a minor repair. Two people at the reception desk. No greeting. Just bored expressions. Finally I told them what I wanted and one of them said in an unfriendly tone of voice, “we don’t do that here – you have to call customer service.”

Then she went back to reading messages on her iPhone while her colleague looked up the phone number and handed it to me on a slip of paper. I thanked them and said goodbye. No response. I like Ethan Allen products, but this kind of service doesn’t make me feel good about the brand.

A Helping Hand at Bloomingdale’s

Bloomingdale's little brown bag

My last stop was Bloomingdale’s to shop for a housewarming gift. As I wandered around the gift department seeking inspiration, a sales person came up to me with a big smile and asked if I needed help. Score a point. I found a very nice tray, a pitcher and some bowls and as I struggled to carry them, she immediately took them from me and brought them to the cash register while I continued to look. Two points.

I was happy with my choices, so she rang up the sale and packed them up. I left with a good feeling about Bloomingdale’s. (I also love the yogurt at the store’s 40 Carrots restaurant).

Burnish Your Brand

Companies spend millions of dollars on advertising campaigns to build their brands. But often the first contact a customer has is with a receptionist or a sales person. These employees need to be trained in proper customer service. Don’t think of this as just another below-the-line expense. Consider it an investment in your brand, which is your most precious asset.

[tweetmeme]A friend is forwarding my bio to his agency’s new social media director who might need some outside help.  As I was touching up a paper copy to send as an attachment, I asked myself, “Are you nuts?” Paper bios and resumes are so 20th century. My entire business life is there for everyone to see on my blog. I tooled around the web to find out what other social media consultants are doing and, sure enough, they have online bios.

Paper bios are so 20th century

Then another “boing” moment. I should add my new bio as a page on my blog, with a new tab “Social Media Bio.”

When I finished writing, I looked at my About page and it seemed bland in comparison. Dull actually. From me, the word mechanic (as someone once called me after I told him what I do).  So I immediately ditched the About page.

This is not contest, in the sense that you won’t receive any prize, but I’d welcome your comments on my new Social Media Bio. I’m still tinkering with it.  Think I’ll move the search box further up, and make a couple of other tweaks.

But I’d love to hear from you, dear readers, about what you like, don’t like or what I might add or delete. Thank you.

P.S. Since writing this post, I’ve updated my bio based on advice from readers and several experts, and also changed my navigation tab back to “About.”  I’m still not sure I’m keeping that term. As always, your thoughts would be appreciated.

[tweetmeme]I never thought about physics and marketing in the same breath. But Dan Cobley, a marketing director at Google, is passionate about both, using the principles of physics to explain the fundamental theories of branding. For example, a larger particle, a larger mass, requires more force to change its direction.

It’s the same with a brand, he states. The more massive a brand, the more force is needed to change its positioning. And, Cobley says, that’s one of the reasons why Arthur Andersen chose to launch Accenture rather than try to persuade the world that Andersen could stand for something other than accountancy. It explains why Hoover found it very difficult to persuade the world that it was more than vacuum cleaners.

In physics, you can never accurately and exactly measure a particle, because the observation changes it, he says. The message for marketers is try to measure what consumers actually do, rather than what they say they’ll do. He gives the example of the group of moms who talk about their wonderful children in a focus group, yet buy lots of junk food, helping McDonald’s to sell hundreds of millions of burgers every year. These are among the gems in this talk “What Physics Taught Me About Marketing” that Cobley gave at a TED conference in July.

If they can rebrand, so can I

[tweetmeme]If you’re a subscriber, you may have a noticed a change in the look of Write Speak Sell.  You would be right.  I have changed templates from the Red Essence to the Flexx theme, which, as it indicates, is a flexible theme with more options.

Why did I do this?  I advise clients on sharpening their brands.  But I felt my own was a little fuzzy with my old theme.  A tab in the navigation bar for “Business Writing” was just too generic.  My business has evolved over the past year and I’ve been gravitating to three focused offerings:  blog and web copy, employee engagement and branding.  Now even the term branding is a little broad, but it’s such a recognized term that I think people will get it.  The top three widgets with these services tell visitors right away what I do – and they are “above the fold.”  That is, they are visible even on the small screen of a laptop.

If I can get it working properly, I’ve also added a new podcast product called audioboo, which allows me to create podcasts on my IPhone and they are published directly to my blog.  Neat.  It’s a small technical problem that I will get worked out shortly.

My categories and blog role are now on my home page and I’ve added a search box. I still need to add content to my right sidebar on my home page because there is quite a bit of white space there.  I’m open to suggestions.

It’s a constant process – tweaking, trimming, adding to – and hopefully — improving a business.  That’s why I thought I’d share my process with you.  Any thoughts about how you’ve adapted and changed your brand or business model?  Would love to hear from you.

[tweetmeme]It took a perfect stranger to simplify my brand.  I mean that’s what I do for a living:  help individuals and companies with their brands – the words they use in telling their stories.

I was at a networking event last evening, and took the opportunity to do a little tweaking of my message as I circulated among the guests when I first walked in.  I tried a few versions.  Here is one of my openings:  “Hi, I’m Jeannette Paladino.  I’m a business writer.  I help individuals and companies to sharpen their brands and shape the key messages they communicate to their target audiences.”  Then I proceeded to tell the little group gathered around the bar that my focus was on writing web copy and blogs, branding and employee communications.

I'm a "word mechanic"

Oh, said one knowingly, “You’re a word mechanic.”  Bong.  Not wordsmith.  Word mechanic.  I love it.  I’m the mechanic who fixes the words people use so they roar into action like the motor of a fancy new car.  My tool box is filled with high-powered words.  I don’t need to use them all, just the ones that create clear, compelling copy.

My new friend had turned my brand into an image that clarified for him the perceived benefit I offered.  Once he understood, in his mind, what I do then he warmed up to the conversation.  “So, you write blogs,” he said.  He confessed that he was doing that for his own growing company and it just wasn’t a good use of his time.  Maybe I could help him out?   So, we exchanged business cards and he became a good prospect for my business.

It was a reminder for myself, and what I tell my clients – don’t over-complicate.  Keep it simple.

Let your clients and prospects imagine the possibilities of working together.

Well, PR Departments in public companies are surely beginning work on their annual reports. They can smell spring in the air – when these symbols of capitalism come rolling off the presses once more.  In a reprise of my past admonitions, with a few additions, I implore writers and designers to keep a few things in mind.

• Please make the report more exciting. Notice I did not say interesting.  Splash some color on the pages, use a large typeface so oldsters can read the copy, especially if you’re using reverse type.  Use bold, brash headlines.  Most readers will be viewing the report online so make it compelling and dispense with flash and any other doohickey that slows down loading or distracts the viewer.
• Remember the company has employees. Yes, many fewer of them, but they still are the backbone of the company.  I was shocked last year when I perused the annual reports of several of the largest Fortune 500 companies and found they had not a single photo or story about an employees.   It is disappointing to think they merited so little recognition.
• Make it sell.  The report should very strategically position the organization as the leader in its space, developing new paradigms of products and services.
• Use Testimonials. Words out of the mouths of your customers and employees can bring the vision statement to life.  Let them tell the reader what a great company this is.

So, if you’re assigned to create this year’s annual report, how do you ensure it accurately represents the organization and has a long, active life after it’s been printed and distributed?  Here are my suggestions:

• Get the CEO involved from the get-go.  Do not even think of hiring a writer or design firm until you have met with the CEO to understand how s/he wishes the organization to be positioned in the document. S/he cannot delegate this discussion to someone else.
• Write a creative platform that describes the overall theme and tone of the annual report, its content and “look.”  Get the CEO to sign off on it.
• Solicit in-put from the key people in your organization who would most likely use the annual report throughout the year such as the head of sales, director of development, director of public and community affairs, and so on.  What do they want emphasized in the report?  Find out what would make them use it during the year to help them achieve their goals.
• Make a mock-up of the report, page by page.  It doesn’t need to be fancy. Take some legal paper and fold the sheets in half.  It’s essential to know the content of every page and ideas for photos, charts, etc.
• Now you can meet with your design firm and writer, if that’s not you.  Everyone should be working from the approved creative platform and mock-up.  Believe me, they will love you for it.
• Show two to three designs to the CEO with the mock-up.  If you’ve done your job right, s/he will have a tough time picking out the winner, because s/he will love them all.
• Be true to the creative platform as you go through the process of developing the report.  Be excited as it begins to unfold as a living, breathing document that will take on a life of its own for a year.  Don’t be afraid to be a little gutsy with the copy and design.  You’re not creating the next Bible, after all.

So, with these humble bits of advice, good luck and go forth!

You’d think that Coca-Cola, long #1 on Interbrand’s “Best Global Brands List,” would achieve the same prominence on the Internet.  But, no, Coke only ranks 12^th based on number of mentions online in 2009, according to an analysis by Sysmos, a company that provides business intelligence on social media.

There could be many reasons for the variation, including a lack of social media communications programs.  The variation is also seen among other top ranked Interbrand brands.  For example #2 IBM slides to #15 in online mentions.  Conversely, and perhaps not surprisingly, Google is #1 in online mentions while #7 on Interbrand’s list, which is based on financial data, international scope, and value added.  Only Microsoft achieves equality, at #3 in both the “Best Global Brands List” and with mentions online.

So, why does it matter that a company is tops in economic value but below par online?  I believe that it will begin to matter much, much more in coming years, as the Internet increasingly becomes the principal source of information about companies and everything else.  If your company is not commanding the Internet among consumers, you may no longer be dominating the marketplace.  But leading brands have it in their power to improve their online rankings.

One way is by enlisting their employees as brand advocates in corporate communications. Employees are already surfing the web and participating in social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  Large companies have a golden opportunity to dominate the Internet “air waves” with their employees as their most important cheerleaders, commenting on corporate and employee blogs, and engaging in online conversations with consumers.

Getting back to Coke, the company has 3.7 million fans on Facebook, and 92,4000 employees spread across the globe.  Just think of their cumulative power to communicate key messages about Coke that zoom around the world on social networks.  I wonder if Coke has an organized program for their employees to reach out to Coke’s followers on social networks?  I read through last year’s Annual Review and didn’t see anything.  I don’t mean to pick on Coke.  I’m just using the company as an example of a missed opportunity.

Employees in all companies will welcome the opportunity to be empowered to represent their company in the blogosphere.  All it takes is trust:  trust your employees to promote your brand well in online communications.

As I’ve written before, internal social networking is growing like wildfire. But not nearly enough companies are leveraging their employees’ love affair with external social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to communicate with customers. I will be describing how they can in a webinar on August 19 at 1 pm. EDT with my colleague Amy Dean.  For a more detailed description and to register for this free one-hour program click on this link FreeWebinarWednesdays.

We will be discussing our concept of “Inside Out Public Relations,” how companies can use employees as brand advocates online to reach their customers and other constituents.  A simple 7-step strategic plan can lead to empowered employees speaking out on their company’s behalf.  Amy will also describe a case study in which she helped an IT consultant use Twitter to become a one-man marketing magnet for CIOs and a go-to source for trade media and conference organizers.

To learn how IBM trusts its employees to use social media wisely, tune in to the video on the landing page of this site.  Along with IBM, it’s time to join companies like Dell, Southwest Airlines, Zappos and Intel and turn public relations inside out!