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5 Steps Brand Strategy Framework adopted by Fortune 500 companies
123 Plays1 year ago
Are you tired of using pricing as the main tool to win customers and compete with the competition?
In this episode, you will learn from Sheznie, a brand and marketing manager with over 30 years of experience in various industries.
She will share with you her insights and stories on how to create and manage a successful brand strategy using the ADAM+E framework so that you don't have to rely mainly on pricing to win the market. The ADAM+E framework consists of five steps: Audit, Design, Act, Measure and Evolve.
She will explain the importance of knowing your customers’ needs, preferences, emotions and values, and how to align your brand’s form, character and delivery with them.
She will also give examples of how she worked with PETRONAS to rebrand their retail arm and become the brand of first choice, and how she advised a bedsheet company to enhance their brand value and avoid competing on price.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone who wants to learn more about branding and marketing from a seasoned expert.
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Transcript
Introduction & Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Winning with Data-Driven Marketing Podcast. This podcast is brought to you by WaaS.ai Market Research. I'm Julie, your host in this podcast, and in every single episode, we talk to industry leaders, marketers, and growth experts in Asia about how to use data to enhance the ROI in their marketing activities.
WaaS.AI Market Research Promo
00:00:22
Speaker
We bring you real case studies while giving you background on how these leaders built their career to where they are today. We will bring you to our speakers shortly after a quick word from our sponsor. WaaS.AI Market Research is an AI-powered digital research platform that can help you understand your target customer as quick as 24 hours from as low as US$1,000.
00:00:47
Speaker
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00:01:17
Speaker
Now, back to the show.
Guest Introduction: Chesney Merrickett
00:01:20
Speaker
Joining me today is Chesney Merrickett.
00:01:23
Speaker
currently Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager for Hongleng MSIG Takafo. She has over 28 years of experience in technology development, retail management, branding strategy, strategic communications, and has aided brand and marketing departments in Fortune 500 companies such as Petronas, YTL, and Habituoles. She has also worked for Walmart, Citibank, and Academy of Art in San Francisco. She is the welcome for joining us today.
00:01:53
Speaker
Thank you so much, Julie, for inviting me to talk here today. I hope that I'll be able to impart my 30-year experience in marketing and branding.
Chesney's Career Journey & Branding Experience
00:02:04
Speaker
She's thinking you have more than 30 years in marketing and branding. What inspired you to pursue a career in this space?
00:02:13
Speaker
Well, actually it happened quite naturally when I was out of university in California. I just finished one year
00:02:29
Speaker
They call it optional practical training and it was with Walmart. Walmart is like the biggest retailer in the world and I had done a one-year training with them as a manager in San Jose, California in the Melveda store and basically going out from that job of managing 100 people in the store and then
00:02:52
Speaker
And then going into marketing, my first marketing job was with Academy of Arts San Francisco. So I moved from San Jose to San Francisco to start my first marketing endeavor. I didn't have any experience in marketing at all.
00:03:09
Speaker
My second job in marketing was with a branding company we were more consulting from. So we actually rebranded a lot of brands and some of the brands included Madras Daganen, SME Bank, Sepan-Langta National Circuit, MBSB, and all the big, how do you say, conglomerates?
00:03:33
Speaker
that I, and we had the privilege of rebranding their brands to make them into a bigger brand. So, with Petronas, I went in when they were at the cusp of trying to figure out how to make their
00:03:51
Speaker
retail arm into a number one retail arm. They were number three. So Shell and BP were ahead of them in terms of purchase retail. So when I talk about retail and BDR retail stations and most of the store, pre-max, all the brands that are hitting all the consumers. So basically they were having a tough time trying to out-compete their competitors. So Shell and BP were ahead.
00:04:17
Speaker
So the CEO said, you know what, we want to be the brand of first choice. So and then if you have a vision of being the brand of first choice, you got to figure out what does the consumer really want. So basically, when we went in, we audited kind of we call it a brand audit.
00:04:39
Speaker
And we went down to even the nitty-gritty of looking at how the stations were, looking at why people would choose petrol drivers compared to Shell and BP. And the main thing was, people didn't really know the difference between the petrol stations. I mean, whichever petrol station that is nearest is the petrol station that they would usually go.
The Role of Brand Audits in Marketing
00:05:04
Speaker
Because they don't really... I mean, petrol is petrol, right?
00:05:07
Speaker
Only difference is that maybe, oh, you know, my mom, my dad used to put Petronas. So yes, I follow it, you know? So it's a legacy thing. So, you know, generations will use Petronas because, you know, maybe their grandparents or parents were using Petronas brand. The other thing is it could be, because, you know, last time Petronas petrol stations were combined with
00:05:33
Speaker
the oil change service, you know, like you would go in and do an oil change and they would say that, you know, Petronas oil change, no one actually pushes the Synthium oil because it was too expensive and it wasn't benefiting the works. People were changing the oil because you weren't giving them enough permission for pushing the brand.
00:06:00
Speaker
So simple things like that that
Introducing the ADAME Framework
00:06:03
Speaker
we didn't know in the HQ, I mean, they didn't know. That was brand questions that they should have asked their customers, because they would do right away. Of course, everybody would do a market survey every year to find out how their brand is performing, but they don't do it in a way that what really matters to the customers, you know? So we did a very extensive audit
00:06:29
Speaker
We told them you needed 50 people in your brand department and we need you to revamp everything A to Z about your brand because you want to outcompete, show up, repeat who are the giants, right?
00:06:44
Speaker
And one of the major things was looking at their current brand portfolio, which was pre-mag symtheum. So we needed a very good agency to be able to craft out the story, the advertising. So we did, I'd say, a pitch with the big advertising companies, and we brought in Leo Burnett. And that was the year that we started out with the Merdeka campaign.
00:07:14
Speaker
And until today, they still have the Merdeka campaign, right? So it's been 30 years. Well, we're celebrating 66 years of Merdeka, but you know, that was the start of the Merdeka campaign. And at that time, I'm not talking.
00:07:31
Speaker
to do the campaign. And then, of course, on my side in the company I was in, our CEO was also called Yasmin Ahmed. So it was like a Yasmin Square team. It was the best team that they could have, a branding and advertising team that was very strong.
00:07:53
Speaker
So I was very happy to have done, have the experience with veteranist design and that's where brand strategy, we feel we had done the pilot in veteranists and the, and the strategy that we implemented, it's called Adam. It's called Adam because first you audit, A is for audit, D is for design.
00:08:18
Speaker
A is for act, M is for measure, and then E is evolved. So basically we take the brand through these five phases of branding every year.
Designing Effective Marketing Campaigns
00:08:31
Speaker
So we audit it at the beginning of the year, and then we design the marketing campaign that needs to be done. Then we act upon the creative that comes out, which is through advertising. And then again, we measure based on the feedback that we get from the advertising campaign. And then ease evolves.
00:08:59
Speaker
So for next year, we figure out what didn't work. And this happens every year. And they've been implementing the same strategy since. So why do you think PagerS is so strong now? It's because they've been implementing a strategy that basically evolves every year. And it keeps getting better because they get to know their customers.
00:09:24
Speaker
better, their products better, more quality, more essential thing to hear and then basically look at the market as a whole. What else do we then offer to the customers? So yeah, that's basically the gist of a strategy that I've implemented for the last 30 years of my career.
00:09:47
Speaker
and has without fail done a lot of very good things for brands in Malaysia especially. Thank you for sharing the framework.
00:09:59
Speaker
ADA, ME, Adam, and let's drill up a little bit into it. You mentioned just for the brand audit, a lot of companies may have to do it every single year, but it's not really doing what really matters to the customers and you go the route of doing extensive. Could you impart with us and our audience on
00:10:20
Speaker
How do we design the brand audit in a way that it will actually matter that we can actually use the results to really design and act upon? Well, first thing is you need to have a database. Marketing is a data-driven business.
00:10:40
Speaker
One part of the key strategy is knowledge management. So we had a brand, a management system that we had put into Patronus and it was on the platform which was Lotus Notes and then it went and it evolved to .NET, someone migrated into .NET. So it's basically a database that keeps this research and that research will be active upon. So every year after they do research, and of course it was with their
00:11:09
Speaker
partner Nielsen, that we could do the market survey, right? And basically what we did was from the market survey, we analyzed the data and then told them, this is the campaign that we designed based on the data. So based on that, you would have, right now they would have 30 years of data.
00:11:34
Speaker
So you can actually search through the 30 years and figure out which element do you want to hit for your customer. You know, do you want to have an emotional bond with them?
Aligning Marketing Actions with Brand Values
00:11:49
Speaker
Are you trying to launch a new product to them? Are you trying to reach new customers? So each element of the brand is in that database. And it's a searchable database that you can keep. And we don't only keep Petronas' brand audit data.
00:12:09
Speaker
While we're doing the brand audit for Petronas, we take their top three competitors and do a brand audit of their competitors as well. So basically you have Petronas shell and then maybe now it's not BP, but it could be Petron, could be another brand right now. So at all times you have the data of all your own and also your competitors.
00:12:32
Speaker
You can also see where your companies are going. At that time, even Shell was trying to be more environmental. You could see through the advertisement. They had the Shell with the beach, you know, they had the Shell. So they took like into sustainability.
00:12:48
Speaker
And you could see through their advertising creatives that they wanted to go through that. And then BP had a struggle with that because of the oil spill. And of course, eventually, they wouldn't want to commit this running already because they're no longer in the retail space now.
00:13:06
Speaker
So again, a brand can really mess it up like BP, or that brand can thrive like Petronast. So it depends on where you want to go. And then with that data, you decide, you know, which part of the customer journey. Because again, you know, with marketing, you're trying to hit the customer lifecycle journey. You're taking again legacy, right? Taking it through the customer may live until they're 70 to 100, right? So how do you make them
00:13:36
Speaker
be loyal to your brand and then also make sure their children be loyal to your brand and their children children. So, you know, again, it's, it's, it's that data that you would have. So when you start having that data is when you can figure out how do you then become the number one brand or they call it brand of first choice that they want it to be. Yep.
00:14:02
Speaker
Quite wouldn't imagine, say, there is a company who has, you know, both in the market for, say, more than 10 years, but they haven't actually started to collect all this database of research, not having all this data. What kind of data would you see as useful to collect for them to store and see impact? I think the best thing is looking at their product portfolio.
00:14:30
Speaker
what are the product portfolios that they have currently because basically you either have four or five meat brands and then you have sub brands you know that you also have that you are trying to reach out to the same customers but your main brand your core brands which is your core service offering has to be very strong so they need to
Understanding FCD Framework & Customer Experience
00:14:53
Speaker
know you for a certain part of their life so for example
00:14:59
Speaker
Okay, Coca-Cola is a drink, right? You know, like, in one day, one person can drink Coca-Cola 10 times, or they can drink it never, right? So it depends on where you want to reach them. If you want the one that's going to
00:15:14
Speaker
make sure that they drink your brand or use your brand more often. You want to know what makes them choose that. And the main thing is you need to know your customers. So look at their preferences. Where are they buying your brands? Which outlets are they going to? So your distribution channels,
00:15:39
Speaker
very important, you know, is it through, you know, are they going to 99? Are they going to 7-11 to buy your brand? Or are they going to supermarket? So it kind of helps you with your business decisions also, because then you can decide, okay, maybe you should scrap the distribution channel that's not working for us.
00:15:59
Speaker
or we could have more advertising around this, how do you say, outlets, because we know people are going to this outlet to buy our brand. So really knowing your customers and when do they buy, you know, sort of, is it in the beginning of the month? Is it when they get payday? Or is it something that they do every two weeks? You know, so really knowing when they're buying your brand. And the plea is,
00:16:28
Speaker
Why are they buying your brand? You know, that's really important. The why is really important. You know, the why could be that after they buy, they feel so happy that they got the great value of buying your brand. They had paid maybe less than a competitor, but they still get the same quality. Or it could even be that they like the ambiance of your
00:16:53
Speaker
retail station, because when they go in, you know, everything's clean, your toilets are clean, the clerks, you know, greet them, you know, and it's all the really small things that you didn't think would matter, that matters to the customers, or maybe they even remember your name, which is even better, you know, so, you know, again,
00:17:15
Speaker
you need to know what will make them come back to you to buy your brand. So yeah, so that's the key things that you need to know. Again, knowing your customer more and more and more is what will give you the advantage over your competitiveness. So who can be their best friend is basically what it is.
Competitive Analysis & Market Adaptation
00:17:35
Speaker
You know, basically know exactly what
00:17:38
Speaker
We'll meet them when we want to keep coming closer to your brand. That's basically what it is. Well, it's like relationship, right? Need the porn. You know the clothes that they will become, it's just like...
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's true, it's true. It's funny, people try to build on relationships that are, oh, I think they will like me, but and then you give them something they don't really want, then you're actually wasting, you know, marketing dollars on promoting that product or service that they don't, yeah.
00:18:11
Speaker
On that note, I want to go to the second, the framework that introduces the design. And it will be great also if you can actually share with us on either the Petronas case or any other cases that you have worked on. So after audit, then we go into design. So in this design stage, what's the usual process? And during this stage, what are the usual challenges that you see?
00:18:41
Speaker
I think in designing a campaign or designing advertising or promoting the product at that design stage is trying to figure out, okay, you have an X amount of budget, X amount of budget, X amount of resources. How can you translate your objective, which is you want to be able to reach out to your target audience and
00:19:07
Speaker
be able to, it's like content, you know, now you have all your influences and of course back then they didn't have influence in marketing or, you know, what we have right now with YouTube and all. And the only thing that they had back then was TV and radio and in between newspapers, right? So there was old school traditional marketing and also billboards, right? So the creating had to transcend
00:19:37
Speaker
not like how right now you can get to people's mobile phones in a second as soon as they post a social media post you get it you know basically you get to reach your target audience and because it's so targeted with digital marketing
00:19:54
Speaker
You can even prompt when they need you, you know, with cookies and everything. But for the design, you need to figure out, OK, what's going to hit the buttons? What is going to make them cry or laugh or, you know, or say, hey, that was a really good ad? You know, so basically that's what we try to do.
00:20:15
Speaker
When we started with the Madeka campaign, it made you cry, right? Or made you reminisce or made you think back to back then. So again, it was trying to pull on that heartstrings. So if it's an advertising campaign, manages to pull on your heartstrings, it's actually a successful campaign. So when you're designing that, you have to figure out what's the emotions you're trying to convey or the feedback that you want them to
00:20:45
Speaker
feel after designing the creative. Same with the content that you do right now at Digital Marketing, same thing. You don't want it to be bland. You don't want it to be, oh, it's just another poster, or it's just another post.
00:21:02
Speaker
Every time you are engaging with the customer, you should think it's the only way you can reach them. You have to figure out like you're on an island and you're trying to reach out to your family from miles away. What's the message that you
Evolving with Consumer Values & Data Utilization
00:21:19
Speaker
would transcend to them? And that's where you should design the right creative. And you must have the right creative agency that's able to communicate that.
00:21:30
Speaker
And you, of course, we were brand marketing strategies. We had to brief that to the creative agency. And you have to have that relationship with the creative agency that can understand your brief and can understand it firsthand what you're trying to communicate. Okay, there's one thing that
00:21:56
Speaker
Even with the big companies, you have mistakes happen, but you learn from the mistakes and then you figure out what will work. At that time, they wanted to promote their pre-max brand, which is the
00:22:15
Speaker
brand, the petrol brand, they call it Pre-Max, right? So they had got a racer to come in and do their ad. And in the ad sequence, he would be racing to the station, like as if he came from a race and then pump his petrol and then race out
00:22:42
Speaker
All right. When the advertising agency had pitched it to the SEO, he initially said, okay, you know, go ahead, shoot the ad. You know, it looks like it's okay. When it got shot, you know, they shot it and then it took like a few weeks and like maybe 1.3 million or whatever to shoot it.
00:23:08
Speaker
When it went up to the board of directors of Petronas, it got shut down because it said, you know what, the ad shows that we are relaxed in road safety because we're getting a racing car driver
00:23:28
Speaker
driving, you know, speeding into the station. And then, you know, so it was that the safety element was something they forgot to put into the ad. They scrapped the ad, didn't use it. No one heard about it. Only people that were in the background knew about it.
00:23:50
Speaker
So again, big companies still make mistakes on this, even the smallest thing that led there. So sometimes you don't see it. So when designing a creative, you must look at all elements that customers would want, you know, what your brand is supposed to, uh, your brand values. Is it safety? Is it, and our trusted, you know, what are your brand values? So you need to make sure that your creative is aligned with
00:24:21
Speaker
I like this example a lot because when you were describing that ads to me, I can sense the emotional, the emotions that make him up and he's so excited. And I was like, I could be like that, right? But when you raise up the idea about safety, I can also see how it might backfire. Yeah, exactly. And they saved it. I mean, they saved it in a sense it didn't come out. So they scrapped it and told him you can be in altogether. So they kind of saved their,
00:24:51
Speaker
ran from being destroyed and probably destroyed at the press if it were to go out. Yeah. And what's the, you mentioned around, you know, sometimes even becoming mistakes, you know, choosing the right creative agency is key in design. Is there sort of like a hiring criteria that isn't mine when choosing the creative agency?
00:25:19
Speaker
I think it's the brief. If they can get the brief, it's very important that they understand and also your strategies, that they understand why you're implementing the strategies at this point in time. Because a lot of people will have, how you say, a preconceived notion, oh, I think, you know, patronage should be like this.
00:25:40
Speaker
Or it should be like that. But you know, you really need to know the brand inside out before you create the story or even shoot the creative for it. And having that relationship with even the creative director needs to know it. And of course, in Creative Agencies, the creative director can change over time. So you need to figure out whether that creative director still is the right creative director for the brand.
00:26:07
Speaker
and you need to do maybe every four or five years, revamp the agency to see whether or retest the agency to see whether they're the right agency for you or the brand.
Coca-Cola's Brand Challenges
00:26:19
Speaker
Because eventually, if you are a 100, 200 year brand, you want to make sure that the loyalty is still there with the customers and that you're still in the life cycle journey that you want with them and not have an agency that's going to mess up that relationship.
00:26:37
Speaker
So again, the creative that comes out, it can be, it can be innovative. It can be very creative, but has to be still aligned with again, your brand values.
00:26:52
Speaker
Awesome. You mentioned brand value is actually a few times now. Definitely wanted to touch on that later on. If we go down to the third one, which is ACAPON, I'm curious, is there any best practices around
00:27:10
Speaker
around the idea around when we are acting and implementing on the plan. Stay, we started to receive, so we always came up with a plan that perhaps is a longer period of time. But then how we like say there are certain things that doesn't go with our expectations. I'm curious if you're actually faced with such a scenario before, whether half we tried the plan, there are unexpected scenarios that happen. And how do you go about it? Yeah.
00:27:38
Speaker
For sure, I mean like once, you know, one of the CEO changes, you know, because every time when the CEO changes, they always want something, you know, weaponized every two years that happens. So again, you know, every two years you're having to deal with a different leadership that wants to do it that way or have a different vision, mission for the brand, which shouldn't be the way actually, actually a vision and mission of the brand should still be
00:28:08
Speaker
should sustain, the main version of the brand should sustain. But maybe for the year, it could be a supplementary vision where they want to go for the year. Maybe they want to improve or they want to do a mark, you know, maybe making sure that the sales go up. And so basically, that vision can change, but the main vision shouldn't change. So, you know, the key brands there
00:28:33
Speaker
The 100-year-old brands like Coca-Cola and McDonald's have maintained their vision. Disney, they maintain their vision and bring the happiest place on earth. That doesn't change. But maybe for the year, the CEO may say, now we need to cut costs and all that. And then make sure that the customers still don't feel the pinch and they still get the same quality and value. So there's another thing that they need to look at.
00:29:03
Speaker
with branding. And we call it FCD, not OCD, but FCD. So it's a form, character, and delivery. So form is what you see of the brand. So that could be your logo, your building, could be your, you know, basically what they see in your uniform. It's anything to do with your brand, what they see. So C stands for character.
00:29:33
Speaker
The character of your brand, what is the emotions that they feel about your brand? So when they would go into your store, they would buy your brand, they feel happy. Do they feel excited? The character of your brand can be exemplified with maybe the people at your station or the people in your store or the people that they, when you call them at their call center,
00:29:56
Speaker
That's the character that your brand embodies. And then D stands for delivery.
00:30:06
Speaker
Deliveries are the total experience, so from form to delivery. So basically, it's your station. So they see your station with your logo and all that. They see of your apartment and smiling, and everything's clean. So the whole total delivery of your brand is the touch point that your customers
00:30:33
Speaker
have with your brand each time that they engage with your brand. So it could be an engagement online. So you see a lot of engagements online now with e-commerce brands like Sharpie, Lazada, Amazon. So every time that they are clicking on your
00:30:49
Speaker
at what they feel. Do they feel happy or do you feel sad that money is going into their, you know, they're basically going to you. So if this experience from A to Z, from the time that they, the first time that they see you and then the time that they get the product eventually is a positive experience, we call that a positive FCD.
00:31:15
Speaker
Or it could be a negative FCD. And you need to figure out where the negative red flags are. Is it because maybe your brand doesn't show in your form? Maybe there's no consistency in your character? Maybe the person that's smiling at you is the longest smiling at you?
00:31:35
Speaker
So NND is whether you go from one station to the next. Is it the same experience? You go to McDonald's, it's rare you get a different experience. You kind of expect experience to be the same. And you get disappointed when it's not.
00:31:51
Speaker
So you have to, I always ensure that the experience is consistent throughout. So the FCD is where do you act upon, you may put it up in the ads, you know, oh, you know, where the best brand are you.
00:32:06
Speaker
you're getting great value, but people don't feel that after coming out of experiencing your brand. So you need to fix that really fast because the expectation and the reality has to be very balanced and that people get what they see in the ad. So that's part of the implementation of your, from design to implementation.
Innovative Branding Strategies & Common Challenges
00:32:29
Speaker
So even when the creative agencies working on the campaign,
00:32:36
Speaker
You then have to walk down to the integrity of where the campaign is being implemented, the stations and all that. The customer will experience what you're trying, the emotions to be in the advertising. So that's where you need to bridge that. And that's where you figure it out what you need to do.
00:32:59
Speaker
On the positive FCD and negative acidity, just as you mentioned, is that something that you would manage your stage after acting on it? Yeah, that's part of the audit. Part of the audit is looking at your FCD and looking normally at your FCD again. You have your competitor's FCD.
00:33:20
Speaker
So in veteranists at their brand department, we had set up a room where they call it a war room because it's called a competitive signaling environment room. It's called CSE room where all the competitors, brands, advertising, brochures, marketing material, everything is in that one room where you could always have foresight of where they're going.
00:33:50
Speaker
and that you are making sure that your brand is standing out from that crowd because you know, you're always in a crowd. If you are a thought brand, you're always in a crowd and hopefully you're not in a crowd where people can make you out. You want to make sure that you stand out from all the sea of brands that are out. So again, with that, you would be able to know because you would see it for yourself.
00:34:21
Speaker
Yeah. Is that like a physical room? It's a physical room with LCD screens, you know, which would be able to pull out, you know, TVC ads, pull out radio ads, pull out, you know, basically anyone can have it, you know, anyone should have it at their brand department.
00:34:41
Speaker
making sure that you always know what your competitors are doing. Don't be so, how do you say, narrow-minded that you already need to look at your competitors data. And also, new competitors. Because they could be new engine into your industry. Like for now, you know, the oil and gas, they're not just competing with other oil and gas, you're competing with the EV brands now.
00:35:08
Speaker
competing with those that are giving electric vehicles. So again, those are your competitors. The people that are vying for your product are the people that are gonna say, hey, maybe you are no longer sustainable for us. Maybe you no longer fit our brand values. So then they would just hop into another brand's car and just drive away and say, bye, thank you so much for the last 100 years. And then go and
00:35:35
Speaker
go and be loyal to another brand. So again, your customers are very fickle-minded and they can be swayed by price, they can be swayed by promotions, and they can be swayed by empty promises. But you need to make sure that you're steadfast in what you are trying to promote or give them in the end of the day. What is it that they're taking back from your brand?
00:36:04
Speaker
I really thought we'd be into this. Can you imagine, I used to see the room. Yeah, yeah, it's like the real room, you're like hyphen, right? And I'm curious a little bit more about this room. How does the team actually use it in real life? Well, again, imagine yourself being in a museum. You have history of certain things that happen, maybe,
00:36:32
Speaker
way back you know Zaman Chinese you know so it's again like it's like way back you know how did Shell start you know how did BP start how did you know it's basically all you know what the history because they went through the same history timeline as you except that maybe theirs could be a faster timeline where they became the number one brand or
00:36:53
Speaker
Now the number two, and you have to keep track with that with your numbers. The numbers, when I'm saying numbers, is two numbers that are actually very important for you to track is your market share and your mind share. It's like, you know, your mind share and also your goodwill. Oh, how, you know, goodwill is every year any report tells you what your brand value is, right?
00:37:20
Speaker
So making sure that your goodwill and your mindset and market share is always on top is something that you want to make sure that you also know where you are. Because competitors are looking at you too, don't think they're not looking at you. So, you know, so they always keep track who are the top competitors they're competing with. The more that you have a data, the more that you can be top of your game.
00:37:46
Speaker
It's just like how, I guess, Olympic athletes, they go and watch the people that they want to emulate or they want to beat. They will go and see what move will they make, whether they're going to have a service advantage if you're a tennis player or whether, you know, in football, whether they have the best defense. That's the same thing you do with brands. You really observe where, what are your competitors doing?
00:38:15
Speaker
more observant you are the more you can kind of like um be the first be the first to make sure that you get the the people's attention how do you manage your goodwill basically like
00:38:33
Speaker
But for Coca-Cola, for example, if you were to Google, what is the brand value of Coca-Cola, right? Basically, you would look at there's an increase over the years. It could be based on how they're performing. And now, I think, in 2020,
00:38:59
Speaker
The Coca-Cola Goodwill is total at $33.48 billion, but they've been declining since 2021. So again, with a big brand like Coca-Cola, they need to figure out why they're declining. There must be new competitors coming in. It's basically showing you
00:39:29
Speaker
There are hundreds of brands, right? Hundreds of brands in the industry. So they're going to show you who is the big giant, who is the small. And as new competitors come in, of course the big brands are going to lose their brand value because these new companies are more aware of the trending, what people need.
00:39:50
Speaker
So they need to learn, like, what are the new brands coming in? Well, how do they then make sure there's no decline? So again, Coca-Cola, the last two or three years, they've been declining, they need to figure out why, what, and I feel the reason why it's decline is because people are getting more healthy.
00:40:08
Speaker
So they're more going towards healthier alternatives for lifestyle. Because, you know, Coca-Cola is a lifestyle brand. Even though it's a beverage, people drink Coca-Cola because they can't afford it. I mean, why would you drink Coca-Cola when water is free, right? But even water you pay for. So again,
00:40:31
Speaker
So branding again is you pay for the brand. I just had a conversation with a brand owner, a Beijing brand owner. She owns Chester London. She owns this
00:40:48
Speaker
retail brand that sells sheets, bed sheets, and she's from Ipoh. She's from Barra. She had built this brand for bed sheets and fillers and all that, and it's called Chester London. She said it was from the influence of traveling to London.
Integrating Culture & Brand Values in Employees
00:41:10
Speaker
Bringing those designs back the hotel brands that you know that they did with the sheets in the one thousand thread count So it's basically how do you? Transcend that brand and and she said, you know now we had to mark down our our sheets, you know from being thousands of ringgit To hundreds of ringgit because we're competing now with e-commerce, you know, we shop in Lazada you know finer brands coming in with
00:41:40
Speaker
1003-pound sheets. So I said, don't see yourself as a sub-bar brand. See of yourselves as a brand where you feel that why would anyone pay
00:41:58
Speaker
so much money for a Chanel bet, or a Dior bet, or you know, the bigger brand bet. It's because you're paying for the brand that you are, the experience, the delivery experience, right? So maybe all you need to do is change your packaging, change the quality of your brand.
00:42:17
Speaker
make it a bit more out market, maybe a cool brand with a hotel or a cool brand with a luxury brand that will enhance your brand. So you must think about, so again, creatives and people at the top, they really need to be innovative at how they brand themselves and look at year and year, why are you having to lower your prices and try to compete with the low
00:42:44
Speaker
quality producers when you can actually enhance your brand, make it a better product, and charge people more. And they're willing to pay it. They're willing to pay it. I mean, and you need to believe in your brand. The first thing is you need to believe in a brand that you can give that experience to the customers. And you create the story why they should buy at that price point.
00:43:11
Speaker
I can see how when companies are using price as the main goal to sort of compete is when they lose sight of using the products of the company. Exactly. And again, it's because they feel so afraid of losing their market share, right? They just want to, you know, looking at the bottom line, bottom line. But they don't understand that customers, for them, it's like, I use your sheets to go to sleep. You know, that's basically what it is.
00:43:40
Speaker
And then, you know, why would you continue having the same experience with your customers that they're happy that they're buying your sheets? Are they happy maybe to gift it somewhat? You know, that's it. You know, go into gifting. If that's easy to pivot, pick your company. Make it a gifting company where you use the sheets as a wedding present, a birthday present, whatever.
00:44:03
Speaker
you know, again, look at where are you trying to reach your customers? So again, you know, brands have to be very aware of their customers. And that leads us very nicely to our faith of the framework which has evolved. How would you, is there like a certain steps or best practices that you would recommend for companies to
00:44:30
Speaker
we are almost at Q4 of the year. So I think this is a good time for a lot of friends to look into how do they evolve next year. And I think if there is any reflection exercises, it should basically start now. What is your advice to companies who would like to do this step properly so that they can really evolve next year?
00:44:55
Speaker
I think, again, it goes back to understanding the customers, what drives them. People are more aware now of consumption. People are not more aware now about the stage, more aware about
00:45:10
Speaker
In your future generations, they want to be hit zero by 2030, zero carbon, you know, having a future for you. You want to make sure that the Earth lives before, you know, they hit 100, right? You know, you don't want Elon Musk to say, hey, we need to vacate Earth and go to Mars in the next 30 years, because, you know, I have a grandchild who just got born, like, in 2022.
00:45:36
Speaker
I want to make sure that how we are teaching consumption with retail brands especially is that the brands go with the needs of not only the consumers but also making sure that it's sustainable. So a lot of companies have gotten to ESG
00:45:56
Speaker
Very big this year especially and like, you know companies like Volvo has gone strictly into EVs and why is that? Because environment is getting
00:46:11
Speaker
that we are not doing enough or we're not doing it fast enough for our mother nature to survive. So basically now it's a stopgap measure where what do brands have to do to ensure that it's sustainable. So in the evolved phase, you need to understand where consumers are now aware that they are more
00:46:41
Speaker
They need to be more into recycling. Maybe they need to be more into consuming the right brands that are based. And brand values are usually aligned with their own values.
00:46:53
Speaker
So, you know, your own personal values, you know, so maybe they feel like, I'm not going to spend a lot of money on this brand because it no longer aligns with, you need to be aware what their values are, whether their values have changed. And so your brand evolves with them. If you want them to still be your customer, why not you would need to find new customers that align with your brand.
00:47:15
Speaker
And that's how the Evolve phase works, and that is every year. Find out what actually makes them decide to still be with your brand. Thanks for sharing with us the Adam framework. With your experience on branding, what do you see as the typical challenges or mistakes a lot of companies may face while they try to build their brand?
00:47:46
Speaker
I wouldn't say, as I said, you learn from every interaction that you have with, that's not a mistake because you learn. It's a mistake if you don't learn and you keep pumping dollars into the same thing. So again, I think the main thing that they need to understand is that knowing you don't have to have a lot of big budget,
00:48:10
Speaker
A big budget helps in terms of making the creative more creative or having you to engage with the best agencies out there. But even if you had an internal team of designers, if you had hired someone one to do your multimedia,
00:48:29
Speaker
want to do your graphic design and want to do your digital marketing and want to be the co-product. They're basically all you need in a brand. SME may not be able to even afford three people in the marketing team. So the person that you take in
00:48:45
Speaker
It's very important when you interview them that they understand your business, understand what you stand for, and that can be done in the first month of the orientation of this person, on the marketing person, is that they know the ins and outs of your company.
00:49:03
Speaker
And Walmart, which was the first company I worked for, was the best at doing that. And that's why they're still number one. They're Fortune 500 number one company. And they are like that is because of the way that they've ingrained their culture into the employees.
Balancing Career & Personal Life
00:49:20
Speaker
So the first we get at Walmart, the first month at Walmart, I wasn't allowed on the store floor until I went through every step that the preceding manager
00:49:38
Speaker
experience it was like a manual and it was because it was way back then everything was not computerized yet and Walmart was already like quite advanced in their computer database and everything but it was just like a folder it was like this that
00:49:53
Speaker
It basically gave you a manner of how do you control your inventory? How do you make sure a customer that comes in and complains? Whatever a customer felt at the parking lot, what do you do? Whatever customer came in with the exchange of a present that they got from Christmas that they want to change it. So it was a very detailed
00:50:22
Speaker
and out of the business of the customer's interactions with the company. And as a manager, what you're supposed to do is at every scenario, what you're supposed to do. And until I had that manual down pat, I couldn't go to the store floor.
00:50:45
Speaker
Imagine, and I was just the store manager. I'm not the CEO of the company. And what they had was, they called it a store within a store. It means that anyone who was the store manager of that Walmart store is kind of like you own that store.
00:51:06
Speaker
you are responsible for everything that happens in the store, whether there's a fire, whether there's someone that's going to get shot. Of course, they was in San Jose, so they were selling guns. So I had to actually get a gun license to be able to sell guns because Walmart sold guns in the sporting goods section.
00:51:28
Speaker
So again, my experiences with them were very vast. But what I learned from Walmart was that they made sure that their employees were prepared in every situation. And I think with brands, you have to be aware of every engagement, every situation, and you need to keep track of their data. Without data, or if you don't keep track of it, how would you know how to face it?
00:51:55
Speaker
It's like an FAQ. It's like a long list of FAQs. What if this happens? What do you do? What if this happens? So they had that and they knew that what? Because they knew that managers were going to come and go.
00:52:11
Speaker
They knew that the customers are not going to change. Customers are still going to behave the same way. But the managers come and go. So they made sure that each manager was aware of how they dealt with that situation. And I think that is what most companies should have or implement that as a system. That is, of course, HR that needs to do that.
00:52:33
Speaker
make sure the people are always ready for what they're supposed to. And of course, that wasn't a marketing job. It was more managing management. I felt that that was something that was very valuable. And I think that's why Walmart is still number one.
00:52:51
Speaker
And of course now they are into web 3 technology, they're into all this VR technology. So I have no qualms that they'll still be number one because they are so up their game and they work like clockwork. The people that they have there know what they're doing.
00:53:15
Speaker
That's a really interesting story here. I like the idea around the orientations, you know, no ins and outs, company and keeping track. Like you see, customers don't change the manager's thoughts, right? And that pretty much goes into the loop of what you mentioned. You know, the mistake, literally all the challenges is you don't learn from. Yeah.
00:53:39
Speaker
Actually, you keep track of it. You should keep track of the mistakes so that it doesn't happen to another manager, or it doesn't happen to another marketing manager, or it doesn't happen to another CEO. And that's also the same way human history.
00:53:55
Speaker
I will notice the reason why we have so many wars is because all the leaders have been learned from their mistakes. So if someone had kept the database of what you should or shouldn't do as a leader, then maybe you wouldn't have so many wars. With that, we have reached our very exciting final session, which is we call it the New Round. I typically have
00:54:23
Speaker
two, three questions that I asked to the speaker, right? And for you, I have a special question for you because you're a mother of three. I have a grandkid.
Recommended Reading & Conclusion
00:54:35
Speaker
If you have a grandkid, you look young, you're a miss of moving home again, and you're a miss of embarking on a new career as well. How do you manage all this? Well, I take a deep breath every morning.
00:54:54
Speaker
make sure that I'm ready for the day. I think the main thing is that I'm trying to be the best version of myself as a mom, as a daughter, as an employee. I'm trying to be the best version I can at that time and giving the amount of time to each
00:55:14
Speaker
I say role that I play and that it's not something that I force upon myself is that I prioritize making sure that the time is a quality time and that making sure
00:55:34
Speaker
And also time management is really important. I wake up at like four in the morning every day. And if I don't wake up at four, I really got to get my day started. And now that one of my daughters is already married with her own kid, and I was just telling her today, I said, come and see me. And I haven't seen you in three weeks. I do miss having her around.
00:56:03
Speaker
And I think about parents who get that you're going to grow up and they're going to leave you and have their own life. So you really need to make sure when they are with you that you're spending time with them. And that's what I'm doing with my younger 2S. And I've been privileged to have three beautiful girls and now a grandson, which basically they're the reason why I do what I do every day.
00:56:28
Speaker
And I feel like whatever decision I make, it's for their lives, future lives. So hopefully they will appreciate or be grateful for that. I don't know when they go of that. I read this book, 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma. But now I met you, who is the 4 AM Club. Hello.
00:56:58
Speaker
Well, it's, it's more about like, you know, I'm so, um, it's important for me to know, let them know that I prepared their meals, you know, but, you know, so that when a luncheon, they know that, um, I took the time. I said, sorry. Hey, no, my lead is the same thing.
00:57:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's amazing. It's very inspiring. Yeah, because I've had a lot of health issues. I've had an open eye surgery. I've had two strokes. And I'm just thankful. Thankful I'm here. That's all. That's all. I'm thankful I'm here that I'm able to still spend time with them. Yeah.
00:57:52
Speaker
I didn't know this part actually, this part of your story and wow. I think even during COVID period is also the time where it inspired me to, that they would like to live in a different way, but what you just mentioned, what you went through, I can't imagine, but definitely give you a different perspective around the chapter of life. Yeah, because a lot of people think like, oh, you know what, I have tomorrow, I can see them tomorrow.
00:58:19
Speaker
But what if more doesn't come? You have to really think, what can you do today that makes it count? And a lot of people don't know that. It's important to tell them that you love them more.
00:58:33
Speaker
and all that, because they wouldn't know. Well, if you're gone, how are they supposed to know? Right? Yeah. So again, of course, because I have girls, so we're a bit more bonded in terms of like what we love to do, you know, with makeup and in shopping and everything. But it's just that part of like telling them, you know, that I'm always there for them. It's such important for me. Yeah.
00:58:59
Speaker
I think there's something here for all of us to learn. And that brings us to our last questions. What is the one marketing book or resources that you would recommend to our audience? Oh, wow. Why marketing book? I guess the one that really resonates with Google.
00:59:24
Speaker
Oh, I think you need to read it. So again, remember I said that I work for Tracks Associates? Well, there's of course all the problems that we've built patronists with and shared.
00:59:41
Speaker
done a book, a brand book. And she basically put in all the case studies in that book and how we managed. So everything that you have heard in my podcast
00:59:57
Speaker
She had written a book and put it into case studies that you can refer to. It's called The Right to Brand by Yasmin Merican. The Right to Brand. And you can get it in Kinokuniya and MBH and all that major stories.
01:00:14
Speaker
If you can, you can probably get it on Amazon. And that showcases the case studies in Petronas. And even before Petronas, she had done branding of Caltechs and all that. So that will be the book that you can use to see how that add-on process, CSE process, and FCD process work for the clients.
01:00:40
Speaker
and see how they had implemented it and then changed the way they brand it off. So the right to brand, if they can get a copy of it, that would be something that I would recommend.
01:00:54
Speaker
Thank you. Shazni, this has been amazing. Thank you for sharing all the framework. Usually our audience would also want to know if you want to reach out and learn more about what you're up to. Would LinkedIn be the best place to reach out? Yeah, you can reach me on LinkedIn or you can reach me at shazni and gmail.com.
01:01:15
Speaker
or my phone number. I'm quite open with them, WhatsApping me, because I'm in all kinds of groups anyways, so they can reach out to my WhatsApp number, 017-296-2456, and I would love to hear from them.
01:01:35
Speaker
of their own experience with brand name marketing. Maybe there's something I can then them because there's always different scenarios, different customers, different audiences that we want to always reach out to that they may have had more experience in.
01:01:52
Speaker
Oh, amazing. I love your attitude of, you know, keep learning as well. Thank you so much for listening. If you find this valuable, you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts. Also, please consider giving us a rating or leaving us a review because this really can help other listeners to find the podcasts. You can find all the episodes or learn more about this podcast at was.ai. See you in the next episode.
01:02:40
Speaker
Bye!