Been listening to Sting’s “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You” on repeat recently, coupled with reading Douglas Rushkoff’s latest offering “Life Inc.” Faith is ‘reliance, trust, belief in, loyalty, sincerity.’ A definition according to The Oxford Dictionary.

Beginning to believe we have lost faith in each other so we have been buying from brands instead. In fact, perhaps we have allowed brands to define us rather than the feelings and values we hold true to each other. This is why business became transaction and to some extent de humanised, especially in corporate organisations. That’s why small business will have a future advantage. Its still comfortable with having a trusting relationship!

Lose faith in governments, the media, professions, brands, products, religion, all replaceable. When we lose faith in each other, our connections and our intentions are questioned and we decide not to trust, then we are in trouble. These are not replaceable. When we lose faith in relationships, whatever their dynamic, what have we got left?

Okay I’m going to be writing a lot about business community over the next few months. After what seems like tons of research and development, I’ve developed a framework that takes us beyond marketing that centres on building a community through strong robust relationships with customers and employees. Its nothing new, lots of people are talking about it. My company is just one of the first to create a practical way of applying it that is just so very exciting.

It starts with the end in mind, a business having a productive, collaborative, engaging, inspiring community of people co-creating, innovating and participating in the growth of the company. This is two, multi way stuff at its most dynamic. Its truly powerful and generates principally three results; true customers, true employees and true profits.

What do I mean? Well a business community is what you define it as, what’s specific to your business. Its the hub that’s at the centre of your brand! And, okay, its a space where people who have a common interest meet, share ideas, connect with each other, build great relationships, find mutual benefit and create things that have greater value. The people involved in your business community will take your business places you never imagined.

It’s not your database, although thats where you begin. A database is too static and inert for today’s business environment. A database doesn’t allow you to connect customers to each other. It only shares information one way and, in fact, its just a list. Not terribly engaging is it? Life has changed, customers have changed and so have employees. Social media has overturned how we do business. Meeting peoples expectations is pivotal in thriving and moving from a passive relationship to a fully engaged, demanding yet valuable organic place where great business is done.

Our businesses now need to start the process of growing, facilitating, encouraging and taking part in a business community that flocks to our brands. Its different from a database, it will grow, it will subtract, it will change dimensions, it will have different kinds of influencers, different connectors. It will have power struggles, it will innovate, it will co-create. It will shape your business and you will shape it. It will change everyday. You’ll measure it, you’ll monitor it but you will never rule it.

Gone are the days of sending newsletters out each month, some direct mail, tweeting and blogging. Building a business community goes much further than that. Its got lots of activity, heavy weight influencers, strong connectors, play, interaction and a hell a lot of conversation.

I’ll talk more over the coming weeks about how this will develop, some practical examples and, if you’re interested in your company taking part, get in touch. We’ve been testing for a while but we’re interested in developing this further with local company’s.

You don’t need to buy big exclusive brands anymore. You don’t need an Audi or a VW when a Skoda or a Seat will more than do the job. You don’t need to buy Armani jeans when Next is just around the corner. Purchasing a mountain bike, today, causes anyone procrastination issues. There is a plethora of choice and the supposed lesser brands have caught up.

The difference between a Golf and a Skoda used to be huge 20 years ago. Now you couldn’t slide a piece of paper through the difference, except the price of course. Even Alex Ferguson, Manager of Manchester United has commented that the difference between the Premiership and Championship is minimal nowadays.

This means that brands are pushing up against each other. The market place is crowded and that has implications for customer purchasing. VW are going to have look very hard at how they justify the extra £3000 – £5000 for their cars when a Skoda more than does the job, particularly after the purchase. Too many brands and you get crushed and so does your customer. If you were in the exclusive market, I bet things are getting more difficult each year?

If exclusivity is diminishing because someone chased you and closed the gap, you need to concentrate on creating a new visible wedge! It’s why customer experience is so important. Future small business success will be based on choosing one of two competitive advantages; price for identical products and those who create innovative experiences that are distinctly different.

There is lot of it and, of course, us Brits love it….Irony. Travelling down the M5 yesterday I saw a Viridor (waste management company) truck driving southbound strewing its contents across the road! It got me thinking about other cases, all real cases. The business consultancy/advisory service that doesn’t have a training budget for its staff. The cafe that states it has the best customer service in town but you can’t even get a smile out of them? McDonalds selling salad and fruit, or, a new climate change computer here in Devon turning the Met Office into one of the most polluting buildings in the UK.

All a little disturbing, if it wasn’t so funny, particularly as those companies committing it just don’t see it! Apart from doing your brand harm, it hardly endears the customer to the credibility you worked so hard for! Irony should be left to the comedians.

It’s a point of difference from the customers point of view. It asks the following questions:

1. How different is this product/service from the other suppliers I could buy from?

2. Why is it different and do I believe what I am being told?

3. Does it reinforce my values and the feeling I want to get from buying this product and service?

4. Is it going to remove the anxiety I feel when buying?

This point of difference clearly demonstrates why you clearly stand out from the crowd. Why you have attained the reputation you market and provides a compelling reason why your customer should buy from you again and again.

This point is communicated by all the people working in your company and experienced by your customer at every stage of your interaction with them. Those companies not effectively doing this are the ones struggling to rise above the competition.

Here’s a little bit of ingenious, clever fun (with a serious aspect) regarding brands. Click on the URL below:

http://www.brandtags.net/

Well actually, perhaps its an interesting way of looking at your own brand identity and seeing what word/phrase comes to mind! Even better, try it on your customers and people. Bet you get some interesting thoughts……

Is a brand a product, a service, a company or even a person? Is it a logo, a marketing strategy or an attitude or a culture? It’s a question often asked and it’s perhaps understandable why so many small business owners get so frustrated by the lack of a clear definition by the marketing specialists themselves.

It’s an elusive concept, if it’s a concept at all? Naomi Klein in her book ‘No Logo’ provides the most appropriate interpretation of brand as ‘the core meaning of the modern corporation.’ Meaning is the main word here…meaning!!!! I think we can assume she includes small businesses. Brand is something we cannot ignore and should be looking for ideas from. Manchester United, Madonna, Sony, Fairtrade, Mini, VW Camper vans are all strong brands, constantly changing and adapting to market trends.

For me branding is a devolution and communication of your companies core values through an identity, a culture, company assets, specific products/services and through your people. It’s something that is coherent but necessarily consistent and it means something to your customers and employees. What brand does clearly do though is that it encompasses the key point; it’s not what you do, it’s actually how you do it that matters.

Old school marketing is rapidly on its way out. The traditional customer/supplier interaction (I make or supply a product and then as a customer you will buy it) is about as attractive as swimming through nuclear waste! The cost of doing business that way has been phenomenal and why many small businesses have called marketing a waste of time.

The future relationship with our customers is going to be a lot more sophisticated, a lot more meaningful and a lot more engaging. Customers will make decisions on our business based on:

1. Whether they feel a unique sense of belonging to the brand/business. This comes from building a sense of community and creating a social glue that people connect to. Examples, Lego and Harley Davidson.

2. Customers will need to feel that they and your business have a common purpose. Has your business got a strong customer focused approach? Are you passionate about your products/services? Do you uphold morals and ethical practices? Like Eden Project and The Co-operative.

3. How authentic the business is? How it upholds it’s principles? Demonstration of honesty and truthfulness where transparency of engagement with the client is at the forefront of doing business. Everything is exceptional.

4. Consistency. Providing stability in an increasingly unstable world. Probably one of the most difficult things to achieve when we want change but predictability. Companies that do this are Nokia, Honda and Premier Travel Inn.

5. Integrating the customer into your product/service development. Building products and brands that customers can relate to by providing channels and mechanisms for customers to shape and form future products/services.

6. And for some of us….mystery! The more mystique a brand can cultivate, the stronger the possibility of becoming a sought after and admired product or service. Coca-cola did this with their recipe.

There are others but being able to incorporate these ideas into your marketing decision making process makes for interesting ways of taking power from your competitors and generating some excitement about your business. 

Was discussing with a client the other day the challenges they face in not only ensuring their business grows but that the growth is sustainable over the next 10 years. No easy solution there. What was apparent though was that the challenges of the last 10 years are very different from the challenges of the next 10!

In the past it’s been about product quality, efficiency, delivery, manufacture and just being as good as the competition. The key challenge for this small business, (our own businesses can’t escape this either) is to re-think the way this business works and to re-orientate it clearly towards people – customers, employees and other stakeholders. It’s a complete shift in understanding and action.

The future is all about delivering value to the customer and I’m not talking about the cheapest price here! And, adding worth/value to the assets of your small business. That means customer aquisition, customer loyalty and brand reputation/credibility. The four capabilities need to be in:

TRUST – your business reduces anxiety and doubt in all dealings with customers

TRANSPARENCY – trust is driven by a relatively high degree of transparency…if a customer is a partner rather than an audience, there is less to hide

ENRICHMENT – your small business can enrich your customers life or it can manipulate it

VALUES – common set of values amongst your team will ensure that implementing actions will be positive, more effective and value adding to the customer

Integrity, authenticity and transparency are changing the way in which businesses are judged. The small business has the advantage of being able to change the way it thinks quite quickly!