Don Roy, Ph.D.

Why Good Grammar is Important to Your Personal Brand

I was curious what I was writing about this time last year, so I went back through my posts. Here is a post from July 29, 2012 on the importance of good grammar. It could have been written five years ago or fifteen years from now and still be very relevant.

A blog post with a provocative title caught my eye recently. A Harvard Business Review post by Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit and founder of Dozuki, was titled “I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar Here’s Why.” Wiens uses a grammar test to screen potential employees at his companies. Writing is central to effective performance at both firms – Wiens describes iFixit as “the world’s largest online repair manual” and Dozuki helps clients write product documentation such as user manuals. For Wiens, proper grammar usage is not about achieving perfection as much as it is about demonstrating professionalism.

Response to Wiens’ post was surprising. Although many people agreed with Wiens’ stance that good grammar is good business, many people critiqued his use of grammar and questioned his audacity to have what he described as a zero tolerance policy against grammar mistakes. Interestingly, some of the more than 2,300 comments devolved into evaluation of grammar usage in other persons’ comments. The Grammar Police had a mighty presence on Wiens’ blog post!

The article resonated with me as I see firsthand the effects of poor spelling and grammar on the quality of students’ written communications. A correlation exists between grammar skills and perceived credibility of the communicator. For Kyle Wiens’ companies, the quality of his brands hinges on proper presentation of information. He cannot afford to take a laissez-faire approach to his employees’ writing craft. Nor can you or I. Our written and oral communication is a part of our product. Inferior product quality of our personal brand is not an option in a highly competitive market.

Command of spelling and grammar has three benefits:
1. It demonstrates a commitment to learning. Kyle Wiens says if a person has not mastered spelling and grammar after 20 years is it indicative of his or her learning curve in general?

2. It reveals attention to detail. Good grammar usage sends a positive signal about the communicator, just as poor grammar raises questions about the communicator’s message quality and even credibility.

3. It can be a source of competitive advantage. Commit to sharpening this element of your personal brand. Think about how many job announcements seek a candidate with outstanding communication skills. Make it a point to stand out in this area.

You do not have to be an English professor to use grammar effectively. You only have to adopt a mindset of continuous improvement, pushing yourself to become more skilled at communication. Make your communications skills a strength that gets you hired or promoted, not allow it to be a liability that holds you back.

What Does It Mean to Innovate with Discipline?

Photo by Phillie Casablanca/Flickr
(under Creative Commons License)

I came across a very interesting post on the Reveries blog this week about how Lego let innovation both drive the company and almost drive it into the ground. The post was discussing a review of a book about Lego, Brick by Brick, that chronicles how the company embraced theories of innovation with disastrous results. Lego rebounded by realizing that the growth mantra espoused in B-schools and corporate board rooms is not the only way to go. A return to a focus on committed customers and not chasing trends in the toy market brought Lego back from the brink of bankruptcy. The Lego story has a happy ending, but this mega-brand had lost its way at one point.

What Went Wrong?
The forces that contributed to Lego’s troubles are not surprising. Technology developments changed the toy industry as well as how young people engage in play. So, it was reasonable to think a firm would adapt to changes in the external marketing environment. If toys were going high tech, shouldn’t Lego be developing more technology-intensive toys? The video game generation is highly stimulated and has a short attention span, so developing more pre-constructed toys would address the potential threat of being irrelevant to young people who did not want to spend hours on a building project. Lego was wrong on both counts. The company was characterized as “innovating without discipline.” Generally, innovation is looked at favorably, an essential endeavor to fuel growth. But, it went horribly wrong for Lego.

The Alternative
The Lego story captured my attention for two reasons. First, it was a reminder that even the most astute companies can get it wrong when it comes to pursuing growth. Being wrong is a forgivable sin as long as you learn from it. Lego learned its lesson well. Second, conventional wisdom is not necessarily the strategy of choice. Disciplined innovation for Lego is adding new value to its passionate brand community made up of Lego lovers of all ages. One of the missteps Lego made was to follow the toy industry definition of the target market: Young males.

Innovate on your terms, not the industry norms. Lego regained its focus and brought new products to market that appealed to its customer base rather than continuing to chase prospective customers with products that did not always deliver against the Lego brand promise. While the external environment should not be ignored, keep your customers and brand advocates at the center of all innovation decisions.

Overcoming Resistance to a Sales Career

As a person who has spent all of his adult life working in marketing, I am sold on the critical contributions salespeople make to an organization (pun intended). Despite my strong feelings about the value-added impact the sales force makes, this quote from a recent USA Today story still stopped me in my tracks:

“Sales representative is the second-hardest job to fill behind skilled trades.”

In an economy that still has not fully recovered from the jolt it felt five years ago, how could such a vital position have an employee shortage? It is not a matter of businesses shrinking their head counts in sales departments. Rather, it is a gap in trained candidates to step into sales roles to help drive business growth.

Why Avoid Sales?
Over the years, I have had many students come to my office to discuss career paths. Many of them were marketing majors, and a surprising number of them quickly announced to me “I want to work in marketing, but I don’t want to work in sales.” That pronouncement is at the same time eyebrow-raising and troubling to me as a marketing educator. My reaction is that I feel I have failed to persuade students on the merits of sales as a career path. So, what are reasons behind their reluctance to pursue a sales career?

No understanding– Many students misunderstand how salespeople go about their job duties. Images of cold calling or door-to-door selling are just too uncomfortable for some students- they cannot envision themselves in that role. The reality is that B2B selling involves less of these activities and more emphasis on relationship building and problem solving. Once students realize that is what they would do in a sales position they are not as terrified.
No confidence- I sense that many of the students who share with me their aversion to sales is attributable to a lack of self-confidence. They do not see themselves as aggressive or dare I say, pushy, enough to succeed at selling. And, if compensation is going to be tied to how much is sold, lack of confidence can be a huge obstacle to overcome.
No need– Some students look down on selling and salespeople, thinking that is a position beneath them. A no need resistance to a sales career often is a no understanding or no confidence reason in disguise. These students need to be educated on the importance of sales to an organization as well as career paths that can be taken beyond an entry level position.

There is Always Room for One More
When I was a teenager, I had what would be thought of by many people as a weird habit: I read Help Wanted ads in the Sunday newspaper regularly. I could not help but notice that there were more ads for salespeople than any other type of job. I asked my father why this was the case. His response resonates with me to this day: Regardless of what a business does or makes, someone is needed to sell it. That statement guided me toward becoming a marketing major in college. And, it is a piece of wisdom I share with my students.

There is always a place in an organization for someone who can generate revenue (i.e., sell). Employees add value to a firm in different ways: Some help save money by managing processes while others support revenue generators by performing administrative services. But, as companies look to break free from the shackles placed on them by economic conditions in recent years, employees that can connect with clients, build relationships, and close deals are in greater demand than ever before.

USA Today – “Bosses Lament: Sales Jobs Hard to Fill”

Rebranding: Short-Term Pain for Long-Term Gain

It has been said that the only three certainties in life are birth, death, and taxes. Perhaps a fourth certainty should be on that list: Change. Whether you embrace it or detest it, change makes its way into our lives. Do you have Facebook friends who announce “I am out” after the latest tweaks? Yes, some people follow through and leave Facebook to convey their disdain for change while most others will continue on as their resistance withers. We may not like change but often accept it and adapt to it.

Rebranding as Change
Our relationship with change came to mind recently when St. Thomas Health, a nine-hospital system headquartered in Nashville, announced a rebranding initiative. St. Thomas Health has rebranded five facilities it acquired over a period of years under the parent brand St. Thomas. The change removes familiar brands from the local landscape such as Baptist Hospital (Nashville) and Middle Tennessee Medical Center (Murfreesboro). In their place is branding that prominently features the St. Thomas brand (St. Thomas Midtown Hospital and St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital, respectively). The rebrand will undoubtedly not be a cheap exercise. Think about all the places where old brands must be replaced- exterior and interior signage, websites, uniforms, business cards, brochures, and more. And, the rebranding announcement triggered a predictable reaction of sarcasm, disagreement, and disappointment. People who know the facilities by their current names see no reason for St. Thomas Health to change now.

Motivations for Rebranding
On the surface, one can understand why St. Thomas Health would be reluctant to rebrand. After all, the facilities acquired were known brands in their own right and could continue as is without a costly rebranding effort. But, there are two motivating factors for a brand owner to rebrand a portfolio to put brand assets under a single umbrella:

Internal needs– As a company grows, particularly when growth involves acquiring other brands, it can be beneficial to create synergy in marketing efforts by having a core identity. St. Thomas Health acquired facilities that kept their old names for years. Perhaps the criticism of St. Thomas is not that it rebranded some of its hospitals but rather that it waited so long to do it. Now, St. Thomas will have a consistent identity across all of its hospital properties.
External pressures– Rebranding may be needed to be more competitive. In the Nashville market, St. Thomas Health has a significant competitor in Vanderbilt Medical Center. The strength of the VMC brand (and the fact that all of its facilities reflect the corporate brand identity) likely influenced St. Thomas executives in its decision to develop a stronger corporate identity.

Grin and Bear It

Change can sometimes be difficult to sell and challenging to implement. Branding can be likened to managing a physical space like a home or building. Sometimes, a property gets to the point where what is best for it is a period of time in which renovations are made. You may make a short-term mess by ripping out flooring or knocking down walls, but in the end the renovation creates a more valuable asset. Similarly, rebranding has the same objective. It can be messy while being carried out, but the payoff to the brand owner can be a stronger brand both in terms of greater marketing synergies as well as stronger association among consumers. Approach rebranding by being prepared for short-term pain in anticipation of the long-term gain that could result.

Can Kroger Clip Coupon Value without Harming Customer Relationships?

Photo by sdc2027/Flickr
(under Creative Commons License)

Perhaps this story should be filed under the category “All Good Things Must Come to an End.” Kroger appears to be phasing out the doubling of manufacturers’ coupons. The practice gave coupon users an incentive to shop Kroger as the retailer would match a manufacturer’s coupon value, usually up to coupons with 50-cent face value. This week, Kroger’s Central Division announced it would no longer double coupons in its 136 stores, located mostly in Indiana and Illinois. It joins the Houston and Cincinnati divisions in honoring manufacturers’ coupons at face value only. Kroger officials said the reason for the change was that fewer shoppers are using manufacturers’ coupons as they get more offers online.

Not a Popular Move
As you might expect, some Kroger customers are unhappy that their purchasing power has been blunted with coupons no longer being doubled. Social media reactions to the ending of doubling coupons indicate that some customers are sad, some are mad, and some believe Kroger is making a big mistake. Kroger’s counterpoint to complaints about the end of coupon doubling is that it affects only a small percentage of their customers (about 7%). And, in place of forgoing revenue via coupon doubling the company will lower prices on “thousands of everyday grocery items.” Thus, all customers stand to benefit from Kroger’s policy shift, not just the 7% who were enjoying benefits of coupon doubling… at least that is the Kroger company line.

Overcoming Resistance to Change
A key to overcoming customer skepticism will be transparency. Kroger must make shoppers aware not only of the new lower prices, but the items with prices lowered must be communicated. One of the complaints from some shoppers in the markets in which coupon doubling has ended already in favor of lowering everyday prices is that they cannot see the impact of the new program. Perhaps most of the items with lower prices are not items these shoppers buy, but regardless Kroger must proactively show that they have permanently lowered prices on many items.

What Will Be the New Different?
Now that Kroger has decided to phase out coupon doubling in a third region and customers adjust to the new reality of no coupon doubling, what will the company focus on to differentiate itself in an increasingly competitive grocery market? Walmart and Target are aiming to take customers away from traditional supermarkets with low prices and a one-stop shopping experience. Publix has captured a position of best-in-class customer service. Kroger’s point of difference? Well, it is big and getting bigger. Kroger announced this week it is buying the Harris Teeter chain. Unfortunately, being the biggest company in any category is not a very meaningful position to those who matter most: Customers. It’s your move, Kroger. Show us the new different- how will you be remarkable?

IndyStar.com- Kroger to Quit Double Coupons

Referral Programs: A Strategy for Customer Retention

Customer referral programs have been a staple of marketing plans in many organizations for years. The axiom about the marketing cost to acquire customers relative to retaining them is well known, even if it has some variation (10 times more, 8 times more, 5 times more- others?). The exact number is not as significant as the realization that targeting current customers is essential to marketing effectiveness. Thus, it is in marketers’ best interests to figure out how to nurture relationships that exist already.

Tapping Customer Connections
One strategy used in customer relationship management is to tap the social connections of customers by devising referral programs. The task of acquiring customers can be made easier by enlisting the help of current customers to recommend a business to their family, friends, or co-workers. Customers become a part of your sales team, sharing their experiences with their contacts. Although many customers voluntarily refer brands to their contacts, referral programs often sweeten the pot by offering incentives for referring someone who eventually becomes a customer (e.g., cash or free product). Finding new customers is challenging enough; why not enlist people already convinced of the value of your brand to advocate on your behalf?

The Surprising Payoff of Retention Programs
Customer acquisition is a significant motivation to implement referral programs, but they also can be an effective means of increasing customer retention. In a study published in the July 2013 issue of the Journal of Marketing, researchers Ina Garnefeld, Andreas Eggert, Sabrina Helm, and Stephen Tax examined the effects of customer referral programs on customer loyalty. Analyzing a data set from a global telecommunications company, they found that participation in a referral program has a pronounced effect on customer retention and loyalty. Defection rates among customers participating in a referral program dropped from 19% to 7% in one year. And, not only did referral program participants hang around as customers, but they spent more, too. Average monthly revenue from these customers grew by 11% compared to a control group.

Interestingly, customer tenure was negatively related to customer loyalty. Newer customers demonstrated a more positive relationship between referral program participation and attitudinal loyalty (i.e., liking and positive psychological attachment to the brand). An explanation for this finding is that \making referrals is a way for newer customers to align their attitudes (“I feel good about my cell phone provider”) and behaviors. Customers that have had a longer relationship with a firm may have already achieved internal consistency in their feelings and behaviors toward a brand.

Customer Referrals: A Dual Focus
Findings from the Garnefeld et al. study should prompt marketing managers to re-evaluate their use of customer referral programs. A tactic with a long history of being used for customer acquisition has a dual benefit of strengthening relationships with existing customers. An additional consideration in the research was reward size. Not surprisingly, a large reward (€50) had a positive effect on the interaction between program participation and attitudinal loyalty than a small reward (€5). In other words, offer sufficient value for customers to advocate on your behalf. The money invested will not only bring in new customers, but it could be instrumental in retaining current customers. Reducing customer defections is a key to improving profitability that must not be overlooked.

5 Myths of Personal Branding

Personal branding has taken off as a practice for managing one’s professional identity. The ease of communicating via social media channels has lowered the barriers to building a personal brand. I was first exposed to the concept of personal branding in 1997 through Tom Peters’ seminal article “The Brand Called You.” The ideas in Peters’ article were a little unsettling- could you really market yourself like Levi’s markets blue jeans? I was skeptical, but the confluence of less loyalty to employees among corporations and the emergence of the “new economy” brought about by the Internet convinced me that personal branding was going to be very relevant. Today, I encourage my students to apply marketing and branding principles learned in their coursework to managing their professional brands.

There are obstacles to putting personal branding into practice. Fortunately, most of the obstacles can be found between our ears- they are our own perceptions and fears about the importance of establishing and managing a personal brand. In my work with students and professionals looking to establish their personal brands, I have observed five misconceptions, or myths about personal branding:

1. Personal Branding is Bragging
Some people are reluctant to embrace personal branding because the idea of promoting one’s abilities and performance can be difficult for someone who is modest or does not like to “toot her own horn.” Yes, promotion is part of personal branding, but a great brand’s true value resides in the product itself and the benefits of the product to users. Promotion is how we communicate our brand’s meaning and makeup to the world, and that messaging needs to be real and relevant.

Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Dizzy Dean was once asked how many games he and his brother, Paul, also a pitcher both playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, would win in in the 1934 season. Dizzy Dean predicted they would win 45 games between them and went on to say “It ain’t bragging if you can back it up.” The brothers won 49 games between them that season, and the Cardinals won the World Series. I would say Dizzy Dean wasn’t bragging- his message related the value he and his brother could bring to the team. Personal branding is not bragging; it is backing up your meaning and makeup while communicating your value.

2. Personal Branding = Your Social Media Presence

The huge user numbers for major social networking sites can lead people astray, thinking social media is the key to personal branding success. Social media is a communication channel- nothing more. We can tirelessly work to post updates on Facebook, send tweets on Twitter, make connections on LinkedIn, and so on, but those efforts represent only a small part of the overall management of a personal brand. Social media plays a major role in the implementation of your personal brand, but your brand is not the words you say and images you share through social media.

Personal branding is a process for identifying, developing, and communicating your unique value. The “identifying” and “developing” have to happen before there is anything to “communicate.” Thus, personal branding is by necessity more than one’s social media presence. You can have a brand without using social media, but you cannot communicate using social media independently of your brand.

3. Personal Branding is for Celebrities

You may have heard of personal branding but dismissed it because you believed it was something that only celebrities and other high profile people need to be concerned with their brand image and reputation. And, you are correct- celebrities in entertainment, sports, politics, business, and other fields use personal branding to communicate with their followers and maintain their status as opinion leaders. Social media has given opinion leaders in the “offline world” another channel for exerting their influence.

Remember, most people who have popular social brands already had well known personal brands. For example, Justin Timberlake has more than 23 million fans on Facebook and 22 million followers on Twitter. His brand is so strong online because of the value he has offered through his singing, acting, and performing for nearly 20 years. Social media has elevated the stature of personal brands like Justin Timberlake because fans and admirers can connect with him as well as other people who share an affinity for him. You, too can build a reputation for offering value to others… and it does not require you be a celebrity.

4. Personal Branding Requires You to Act Differently

The prospect of having to “act” like a brand is unsettling to many people. Their thinking is often something like “I’m a person, not a pair of running shoes!” Personal branding might be avoided by some people because of a perception that it requires them to act out of character. Thoughts like “putting on airs,” “phony,” or “arrogant” may cross the minds of those who believe that personal branding requires us to maintain a persona that could differ from who we really are. But, the most admired brands in the world are known for being remarkably consistent (think Amazon, Apple, Disney, and Google). They are authentic.

Building a great brand is not about coming up with a clever slogan or tagline, creating eye-catching brochures, or designing a slick website. Great brands make promises to customers and deliver on those promises. Do they fail sometimes? Of course they do, but even when a customer service failure occurs these companies work hard to recover from those failures to restore customer trust in their brand. So, contrary to the myth that personal branding would require you to act differently, you must act yourself- be authentic!

5. Personal Branding is All about Appearances

A brand is a multi-dimensional concept, with one dimension being observable characteristics or features. Product and service brands use tactics such as logos, color schemes, slogans, distinctive packaging designs, unique fonts, and brand characters to strengthen people’s association with their brands. These tactics help establish mental connection between a brand as observed by the senses and its Meaning and Makeup. Likewise, tactics can be used to associate your personal brand with what you. Your appearance, business cards, wardrobe, and résumé are some of the tactics used communicate your personal brand. But, there is a tendency sometimes to put too much emphasis on these outward expressions of a personal brand.

History can be an effective teacher, and to debunk the myth of personal branding being all about appearances we go back in time to the late 1990s. The commercial Internet began to grow and created opportunities to develop online business models. Entrepreneurs did just that, attracting great interest from investors seeking to profit from the Internet’s growth. But by 2001, many dot-com companies were going bankrupt, having burned through their investment capital while making little (and often no) profits. One reason some companies failed was they spent excessively on marketing, attempting to use marketing tactics like those of popular brands such as Coca-Cola and Chevrolet. The difference between dot-com brands and established brands was that the established brands enjoyed the benefits of decades of marketing. They did not buy their exposure overnight; it was payoff for years of delivering value to customers through their products and advertising.

Let Go of the Myths

Any of these five myths of personal branding could be persuasive in delaying or even foregoing the decision to develop one’s personal brand. Do not let the myths define your brand through inaction. Embrace your responsibility as manager of the world’s most important brand: You.

What Consumers Want from Local Businesses

Small businesses have been competing in a defensive posture for most of the past two decades. Competition from corporations and chain companies have made it difficult to attract customers and compete on price. But, small businesses are thought to have an advantage that their larger competitors simply cannot match: customer intimacy. Small businesses often avoid having distance put between them and customers. Decision makers, including business owners can frequently be found on the front lines serving customers. In contrast, key personnel in larger firms may become removed from direct customer interaction because of greater demands on their time to perform administrative duties. So, small businesses will be able to battle their deep-pocketed competitors as long as they turn on the charm through customer service, right?

Hard versus Soft Traits
Not so fast- it appears that consumers are not as enamored with “touchy feely” interactions with small businesses as we typically assume. An annual survey by BrightLocal, a SEO agency specializing in local businesses, found that the customer service advantage local businesses are presumed to be able to realize relative to larger competitors may not be so important to consumers. When asked to name up to three “reputation traits” influence choice to patronize a local business, the top responses were:

Reliability (71%)
Good Value (45%)
Expertise (36%)

And somewhat surprising were criteria at the bottom of the list:

Friendliness (8%)
Courtesy (5%)
Localness (5%)

Local SEO chart about which reputation traits are most important to a local business

Source: http://www.brightlocal.com/2013/06/25/local-consumer-review-survey-2013/, accessed June 27, 2013

The findings suggest consumers are interested in functional criteria related to performance and benefits received for price paid. The low importance attached to friendliness and courtesy is a blow to the notion that those traits are potentially the most potent differentiators that local businesses possess.

Don’t Change, Just Get Better
Hopefully, local business owners will not look at the LocalBright study’s findings and make a strategic choice to forego friendliness in order to focus on enhancing reliability, value, and expertise. The personal touch that local businesses can offer is valuable; it is just not valuable enough on its own, evidently. I was surprised at the findings initially but then thought about my experiences with local businesses as a consumer. Being local and even being friendly cannot compensate for businesses whose products or services are not as good as competitors. Local business owners may be our friends or neighbors, and they embody the American entrepreneurial dream. But consumers are not willing to subsidize the dream; they have expectations about the competence local businesses should exhibit and value they offer.

BrightLocal – “Local Consumer Review Survey 2013”

A Social Media Marketing English Lesson

I am a marketing professor, not an English professor (as one can determine from reading my posts). But, I feel compelled to weigh in on a practice that makes me cringe when I see it occur. Some marketers and individuals misunderstand their role in communities. Social media has empowered the voice of the people, transforming us from “targets” to participants. Unfortunately, some people are stuck in the old mass media model of broadcasting messages. In a world in which social networking sites have elevated second and third-person pronouns to star-of-the-show status, too many brands are still communicating in “I” and “me” terms. If you want to increase the likelihood that your “target market” will tune you out, just keep doing what your are doing.

Align Pronouns with Objectives
If you are not an English professor either, no worries. Let’s demystify how to avoid falling in the narcissistic trap of a first-person voice in social media. The voice that you use should be consistent with the objectives for using social media in the first place (you do have objectives, right?). For example, if you have an objective of growing a community around your brand, you do it by focusing on the community instead of you. Think about the person you talk to at a party (or maybe better described as listen to) that only talks about himself. He complains, he brags, he jokes, but he is in control of the conversation. And, you are pretty sure he does not really care about you at all or he may have actually tried to engage you in an actual conversation.

Don’t be that guy! The tone of your content should align with your community. Talk about the problems or challenges your community members face. Celebrate their joys and accomplishments. Ask questions to learn more about what is on their minds. Lift up employee success stories. It is not about you, it is about the community. One of my favorite quotes is from John Maxwell, who says “people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.” Too many social media marketing messages try to show us how much the sender knows rather than conveying care and concern for the community. Social networking is a participation sport. As a marketer you can play, but you are far from the only player in the game.

Don’t Ditch First Person
You do not have to eliminate “I” and “me” from your vocabulary. The point to remember is that when participating in communities we step back from the center of attention to be part of the circle of community members. There are times that you want to assert yourself as a resource (i.e., how much you know); just be careful to avoid that practice being the primary use of social media. Some people might disagree, but social media can be used in pursuit of sales objectives. For example, Panda Express used Facebook to distribute coupons for a free serving of orange chicken, part of a promotion touting the chain’s extended summer hours.

This pronoun dilemma is particularly challenging for individuals looking to build a personal brand. Of course, you need to persuade your audience of your knowledge, capabilities, and value. However, there is a need to stake a balance between asserting brand credibility and fitting in among the community that interacts with your brand.

Your Customers, Their Brand

Well, it has happened again. A marketing lesson taught about who owns brands. This time, the pupil was a corporate behemoth, Microsoft. The company first made a splash last week at the E3 show with its upcoming Xbox One gaming console. The splash was followed by waves that developed after Microsoft announced stringent rules on selling and sharing games and regular connection to the Internet to check for updates as well as any new games added to a user’s system. Xbox fans were not impressed, and the decision to become more controlling over gamers’ access to content could not have come at a worse time. Sony is preparing to bring the PlayStation 4 to market this fall and will compete with Xbox One for next generation console dominance. Microsoft is at a decided price disadvantage, with planned pricing for Xbox One at $499 compared to $399 for the PS4. The combination of consumer angst and price differential does not bode well for Microsoft. A poll conducted on Amazon.com to gauge preference for Xbox One versus PS4 was running 18 to 1 in favor of Sony at one point.

Same Song, Different Brand
As I prepared to write this post, I could not help but feel I had written it before… and I have- more than once. In fact, less than a month ago I wrote about how Nutella had to reverse course and give its blessing to a user-created World Nutella Day event. Why does this subject keep coming up? Because brand marketers lose sight of who the real owners of their brands are. Of course, the business legally owns the rights to the tangible brand assets- name, logo, maybe even a slogan or package design (think contour bottle of a Coca-Cola). But, that is where the seller’s control stops. Brands are images in our minds, experiences in our daily lives, and relationships that add value. Brand as image, experience, and relationship is constructed by customers and communities of people who form a connection with a brand. We ascribe meaning and significance that brands hold; those feelings are not dictated to us by marketers (though they often try). Microsoft’s stringent digital management rights policies seemed odd because they came off as rules imposed by the seller rather than a model that benefits users in some way.

A Recoverable Gaffe?
Sony was quick to pounce on Microsoft’s user-unfriendly plans for the Xbox One. However, Sony did not have to say a word as gamers torched Microsoft on social media. Below is an example of the treatment Microsoft’s planned policies received from the gaming community:

No wonder PS4 enjoyed an 18 to 1 preference in the Amazon poll mentioned earlier. Microsoft had little choice but to rethink its DRM policies for Xbox One and make them more compatible with the experience gamers are accustomed to enjoying. But, it seems that Microsoft could have saved itself from being skewered online if it had been more customer-centric in the first place. The Xbox brand sits in the enviable position of market leader in video game consoles. Even a $100 price premium might be feasible given its brand equity and consumer trust of the brand. However, that trust was eroded quickly when Microsoft forgot its customers made the Xbox brand valuable and attempted to enact policies that favored only one side of the buyer-seller relationship. There is still time for Microsoft to recover from its missteps; hopefully the company will keep the customer front and center in its marketing strategy as it brings Xbox One to market.