“How much cheese do you take off the pizza until you have no customers left?”

Gordon Bethune, Continental Airlines turn-around CEO (circa 1994)

Defining Value

Financial results and brand experience – the two are inextricably linked in the equation of profitability. Whether or not they are completely understood and embraced, shareholder results and brand value are ultimately both the responsibility of the CEO.

CEOs who place a premium on brand design and brand experience realize the most sustained return on shareholder brand value. While task-oriented responsibilities for creating brand and shareholder value can be delegated, the final responsibility for valuation outcomes can not be abdicated.

“We push innovation
and design very strongly.”

Bob Ulrich, Target Chairman and former CEO

Particularly in an age of socially distributed messaging, if your product is faulty or lackluster in form and appearance, your service is sub par, or your price inequitable, your profitability, brand and shareholder value will eventually suffer.

A Brand-colored Vision

Withstanding the effects of business fluctuations is often dependent upon remaining true to a vision for your brand. Steve Jobs famously refused to relinquish the reins of Apple to an accounting-minded CEO after a product flop.

Investors and Wall Street alike have always recognized that Apple’s stock price is tied directly to Jobs’ final say and his dogmatic defense of brand design and belief in its business value. CEOs who focus on financial responsibility alone myopically neglect and erode brand value.

However, assuming a CEO holds and adheres to a vision for their brand, as filtered through the eyes of their customers, the resurgent moments can be something to behold as the visionary listens, refines, and launches the brand’s design anew.

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

Steve Jobs, CEO Apple

A History of Brand Design and Business Value

CEOs who embraced brand design as a means to brand and business value abound: Virgin’s Richard Branson; Yves St. Laurent; Continental’s turn-around agent, Gordon Bethune; Martha Stewart; Target’s Bob Ulrich; and Starbucks’ Howard Schultz, just to name a few.

From product design to packaging, usability to interface design, remain steadfast in your adherence to brand design and its importance to your institution’s value.

How do you rate your brand’s design, your customer’s perception of it, and your vision for where it needs to be?

Image: SixyBeast

Location, Location, Facebook.

Starbucks Facebook Coffeehouse

Starbucks introduced a Starbucks Card tab on its Facebook fan page today. Inside the tab is a new eCommerce destination, an embedded app that allows customers to manage card registration, check their balance and rewards, reload cards and edit profile information without ever leaving the Facebook environment—a virtual Starbucks coffee shop in a virtual Facebook strip mall.

1. Establish Differentiation

Starbucks’ new Facebook app mimics the basic functionality found on the Starbucks’ mobile app and their website. Applying the “Starbucks on every corner” model to the largest corner of the social media neighborhood differentiates the ubiquitous coffee merchant from wannabe competitors yet again.

2. Recognize Opportunities

Encouraging friends to share coffee and coffee gifts on a social exchange platform that boasts nearly half a billion potential customers is simply smart business. The numerous sharing mechanisms mean word of mouth (WOM) potential about product offerings is exponential.

“What’s even cooler is that come summer time, Starbucks will introduce functionality that will let users reload a Facebook friend’s Starbucks card as a gift through the application.” – Mashable.com

3. Keep Innovating

Starbucks didn’t develop deep and valuable brand equity by sitting idle. Their new Facebook app supports that brand essence by reinforcing Starbucks’ position as industry segment thought leaders, if not innovators. Utilizing the Facebook platform as a commerce platform didn’t require earth-shattering technology, but the application of the technology is groundbreaking.

4. Provide Ongoing Value

The ability to send a little swig of swag to a client, a pick-me-up to a hurting friend, or a bit of caffeinated cheer to your college son or daughter right from Facebook adds real value to the busy lives of Starbucks’ customers and further establishes Starbucks’ formidable brand value.

5. Deliver Convenience

Starbucks recognizes the value of location, location, location, which translates to convenience, convenience, convenience for their customers. Many Facebook subscribers search, exchange, post, view, listen, chat…in short, live, in a web browser tab or mobile device pointed at Facebook. What could be more convenient than never having to leave your chair, or Facebook?

If I were to pick one social network to which resources for inbound marketing and social media budgets were allotted, it would be Facebook. Basic math and most brand marketers would concur with me. It’s the new coffee house everyone’s talking about – and hanging out in.

Image: Poolie