Monthly Archives: June 2015

Who was your career inspiration?

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Brand Audits Update x Christine Moody*

iHeartNy-8744

I have always been creative and right through high school and university, design has been my chosen career. As you study and practice design, there are many inspirational people. The designer who still inspires me is Milton Glaser (b.1929-)—who designed the ‘I HEART NY‘ logo. This is a great example of timeless brand identity. The logo was designed in 1977 as part of a promotional campaign for New York State and only expected to last a couple of months. The logo was so popular and it still appears on T’shirts sold across the city—even though the logo is trademarked and owned by New York State Empire State Development. Glaser’s original concept sketch and presentation boards were donated to the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

The logo was designed in 1977 as part of a promotional campaign for New York State and only expected to last a couple of months.

What makes this brand identity last so many years remain relevant today? The simplicity, the flexibility, and the meaning—no tricks or fancy typography. If you have visited New York—a city full of yellow cabs, busy sidewalks, big food, and even bigger personalities!—this logo will have a different meaning. And that’s the thing a great brand identity is what you want it to be. For me the ‘I HEART NY’ logo makes me smile because I remember all the great times I have had there!

This is what I aim to achieve in my work. Milton Glaser continues to inspire all these years later. Who was your career inspiration?

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation.

Why being ‘customer centric’ is everyone’s business

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Brand Audits Update x Christine Moody*

customer centric
For many organisations, customer centric means inviting customers out to lunch occasionally or sending them a bottle of wine at Christmas. While there is nothing wrong with doing these thing, being truly customer centric is a whole lot more and a whole lot harder to incorporate across the organisation. When an organisation puts the customer at the heart of its strategy, it is able to achieve amazing things. There are so many organisations who have done this—eg, Procter & Gamble and Cleveland Clinic—and have increased customer satisfaction as well as increased the number of innovative products and services it offers.
Being customer centric, is an all-of-organisation initiative…
To be truly ‘customer centric’, firstly there has to be a change in mindset around ‘what it means and who is responsible for it”. Being customer centric, is an all-of-organisation initiative—from the CEO to the front line staff—it is not just something that the sales and marketing staff need to implement. For the mindset to change the CEO needs to understand it, see it in action at other leading organisations, and then become the embodiment of it! Only then will it filter down and across the entire organisation.
Here are some articles that dig deeper into the ‘customer centric’ concept:
Fast Company
“In my experience, truly customer-centric CEOs don’t let themselves become abstracted from the delight and frustrations of genuine customer voices. Instead, they listen to those voices—day in and day out. This connection to actual customer commentary provides insight into customer needs that abstract data cannot.”

Forbes
Marketing: Building a customer-centric marketing ecosystem x Daniel Newman
“While most companies today claim to put their customers first, a surprisingly small number are actually doing it right. So, where are they going wrong? The fact is: some businesses are treating customer-centricity as a set of strategies meant solely for the customer-facing units of a business. They often forget that a customized or one-on-one approach is more than just a marketing goal for customer service reps and sales people.”“While most companies today claim to put their customers first, a surprisingly small number are actually doing it right. So, where are they going wrong? The fact is: some businesses are treating customer-centricity as a set of strategies meant solely for the customer-facing units of a business. They often forget that a customized or one-on-one approach is more than just a marketing goal for customer service reps and sales people.”

Inc
“To forge a deeper relationship with your customers, show them how your corporate strategy meshes with theirs. Rather than merely sell solutions, sell them on the idea that you can help them sell to their own customers. Think long-term partnership, rather than short-term sales goals, and you’ll grow as your customers grow.”
*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation.

Why designers + MBAs are a great combo

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Brand Audits Update x Christine Moody*

 Designer + MBA combo
 
The business environment is constantly changing along with the idea of an organisation’s competitive advantage. Due to the rise of the power of the customer—mainly through social media platforms—more and more organisations are realising that becoming ‘customer-centric’ is an imperative in order to create a point of difference and survive. Innovative organisations are creating executive roles for designers to ensure that the customer-centric focus is culturally embedded in the organisation rather than an ‘add on’ that comes with contracted designers who perform tasks around a particular project. Being customer centric means putting the customer in the centre of the organisation to view the organisation from their point of view. It leads to recognisiing their ‘pain points’ and improving their contact with the organisation but also leads to revealing potential innovative products and services.
Innovative organisations are creating executive roles for designers to ensure that the customer-centric focus is culturally embedded in the organisation…
Here are some articles on companies that recognise the importance of designers being part of the team.
 
Fast Company
“Product design is historically a male-dominated field, but today it’s brimming with talented and ambitious women. In the coming months I’ll be profiling 21st-century women like me who have built—or are building—careers in the design industry. I’ll share their stories about how they are evolving design practice through their unique perspectives on art, culture, technology, and business. I saw how MBA students would tackle problems a designer could tackle, but in a different way.”
 
Design Council (UK)
“Design is everything, because without it we have no business. Anybody can design a decent product. They can’t all design outstanding products. So, design is the differentiator. CEO, Pentland Brands plc (owners of Speedo)”
Better By Design (NZ)
“A simple observation ‘the closer we get to nature, the less likely we are to find people wearing something natural’ was behind the creation of Icebreaker’s outdoor clothing. This simple observation was behind the creation of the first truly new category in outdoor clothing in the past decade. Jeremy Moon, founder and CEO of Wellington-based Icebreaker Nature Clothing realised the opportunity presented by this paradox when he first saw finely woven merino wool. “It felt like nothing I’d ever touched—silky soft, warm and natural yet it could be thrown in the washing machine.”

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation.

Finding the ‘gems’ in your resume

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Brand Audits Update x Christine Moody*

Office Job_ Modern-Office-Designs2

I have been conducting corporate brand audits for over 30 years and more recently concentrating on personal brand audits. Audits are conducted for those in mid- to late-careers especially women looking for Non-Executive Directorship roles. Conducting personal brand audits is fascinating as I work with clients to peel away the ‘standardised’ content of their resumes to enable me to reveal the ‘gems’ of information to reveal a personality that makes each client unique. These gems are used to highlight the client’s point of difference and to ensure they are remembered and stand out.
These gems are used to highlight the client’s point of difference and to ensure they are remembered and stand out.
It also inspires and informs every element of the brand identity toolkit—from resume to business card. By creating a suite of customised tools for their toolkit—brand story, business cards, photographs, resume layouts, and graphic elements—to create a unique and personal resume. Each element is just as important as each other—the content, the layout, the photography etc. A customised toolkit for your personal brand doesn’t guarantee you the job/promotion/board role—that’s your job!—but they do help you stand out and be remembered.
Here are some useful resources on ensuring that your resume (digital or paper versions) makes it through…
Inc.com
“Time moves in a different dimension when you’re job hunting. Managers say they will make a decision “soon,” and you don’t hear from them for three weeks. Recruiters say they’ll get back to you “tomorrow,” and they never, ever contact you again. It’s a weird and frustrating position to be in. Finding a new job is pretty awful, but there are some things you can do to your résumé to help speed up the process. OK, they won’t get you a job tomorrow, but they will increase your chances of getting one.”
Forbes
Eight surprising rules that will get you the job x Susan Adams

“At 76 years old, Bill Ellermeyer is an elder statesman of the job search world. He founded an Irvine, Calif. outplacement firm in 1981, which he sold to staffing firm Adecco in 1990, then ran that office as a division of Adecco subsidiary Lee Hecht Harrison until going out on his own as an independent coach in 2004. He specializes in what he calls “career transitions” for people who have lost their jobs at the executive level, mostly from the c-suite or as vice presidents. Some of his clients have been out of work for more than a year when they come to him. He pushes them until they find a new position. After three decades in the career coaching business, he’s come up with eight rules, some counter-intuitive, that he says promise to land his clients a job.”
Fast Company
“While good old paper may seem passé in the digital age, LinkedIn hasn’t completely replaced the old-fashioned résumé.Résumés are the heartbeat of a career search,” says Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, a career and workplace adviser at Glassdoor. “If done well, your résumé will tell your story and sell you.”

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation.

What’s your brand story?

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Brand Audits Update x Christine Moody

Brand Story
Everyone loves a good story
Whether your brand is a start up or an established organisation, every brand has a good story to tell. A brand story gives your products and services context, meaning, and emotion. It also allows you to tell a unique story to your stakeholders—staff, potential and existing customers, and suppliers. 
 
Writing the brand story is the first thing to do when you are creating a new product or service. For example, when I have an idea for a new product or service the first thing I do is buy a new Moleskine notebook. This notebook serves as the main repository to capture my thoughts, research, clippings, and notes all in one place. It also serves as a place to start documenting and writing the brand story. 
It is one of the most important things you will do as it forms the framework for any future decisions.
Only after the brand story has been written do I talk to a range of trusted advisors about my idea. The feedback and insights from this process helps inform the prototype. The brand story influences everything I do and say around the new product, eg, it informs my narrative on social media as well as the content of the brief to the photographer. It is one of the most important things you will do as forms the foundation for any future decisions.
Here are a selection of articles on brand story creation and why creating your brand’s story is so important.
 
Forbes
“Disney’s “content marketing” strategy goes in reverse compared to most brands. Meaning, where most brands start with a
physical product and then build a story around it in the form of “content marketing,” companies like Disney do exactly the opposite. They create a brand story – a movie – and then build products around that story.”
 
Inc.com
“A startup’s story needs to be a shapeshifter. You need a version that will convince people to give you money, another to persuade star talent to join your team, another for those first customers taking a chance on you. These stories live in different places and have different purposes. One may never be written down, one may only be emailed to select people, one may live at the top of your website in the form of a video. But they should all stem from the same core.”
 
The New York Times
“Knowing where their products come from allows them to keep tabs on the way many of their products are made. The narratives also connect consumers to other people and places, adding a personal and experiential component to a tangible good and giving it an aura of authenticity.”

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation.

Does your brand behave badly?

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Brand Audits Update x Christine Moody*

Frustrating

Corporate brands often forget that they are judged by their customers on every level and on every touch point. How they handle themselves when things don’t go to plan is where every brand has an opportunity to shine and show their true colours. An authentic brand’s reaction is to put themselves in the shoes of the customer. How would you feel if the company treated you a certain way? As way of an example, how every little transaction matters here is a story about a luxury car company.

Recently a friend of mine found themselves in a dire financial position. She was very proactive communicating with her financial institutions and was able to negotiate a change in arrangements early on so to avoid any penalities or reports to credit agencies. This included banks and credit card companies et al. This process took time, energy, and patience but it really paid off. However there was one organisation that she had the most difficulty with. It to her surprise a luxury car brand  that she had been loyal to all her working life. While effort was put into selling the car to my friend—glossy brochures, showroom demostrations, loan cars for the weekends, and tickets to corporate events—when it came to negotiating a better finance deal it was completely the opposite. Big brands—expecially luxury brands—need to remember that paying attention to every little detail is just as important during the entire journey and relationship with the customer—not just during the sales process. It is how you treat your customers at every single stage of the ownership of that vehicle that makes or breaks the customer’s loyalty.

Big brands—expecially luxury brands—need to remember that paying attention to every little detail is just as important during the entire journey and relationship with the customer—not just during the sales process.

In a lot of cases, companies not understanding this means that the staff in the accounts department, for example, are too removed from the customer or don’t understand that how they treat customers will have a direct affect on the next sale and ultimately how that customer feels about the brand. The customer experience is an entire journey that starts long before they enter the showroom and does not end with the signing of the sales document. All the glossy brochures and slick advertising will not help overturn a bad customer experience. But being human and having empathy will go so much further.
Here are some other articles with brand stories that every company can learn from.
Forbes Companies behaving badly: When good services goes bad x Jabez LeBret “At the heart of great communication is the ethos that you communicate to those around you the way they want to be communicated to. In the moment that your customer is contacting you with an issue, he or she is upset, frustrated, and looking for you to solve the problem—not solve the problem because you are feeling charitable that day. Of course, you cannot make an exception every time. But telling your customers that you’ve made an exception at the moment they achieve resolution is like giving them a piece of cake, then taking it away before they get one bite of satisfaction.”

Harvard Business Review
Stop trying to delight customers x Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman, and Nicholas Toman
“Two critical findings emerged that should affect every company’s customer service strategy. First, delighting customers doesn’t build loyalty; reducing their effort—the work they must do to get their problem solved—does. Second, acting deliberately on this insight can help improve customer service, reduce customer service costs, and decrease customer churn.”
Customer Think
“HBR describes the customer experience as “your customer’s end-to-end journey with you…the cumulative impact of multiple touch points over time, which result in a real relationship feeling, or lack of it. So it’s about the multiple interactions that a customer has with a company and the collective nature of these interactions (whether good, okay or bad) that make up the entire customer experience. Right from the time a lead engages with a company till the time he continues to be a customer defines customer journey which makes the TOTAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.”
*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation.

What does a personal brand audit achieve?

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Brand Audits Update x Christine Moody*
Brand Audit_project-manager-holding-clipboard
Towards the end of last year, I decided to use my Brand Audits’ framework and tools to conduct an audit on my own personal brand—’Brand Me’. It is not a perfect situation to audit yourself but I used a robust framework and process to keep it as unbiased as possible and included as many ‘external stakeholders’ as possible—ie, I did not ask my mother! This process allowed me to highlight what I had achieved to date but also what I wanted to achieve and more importantly the gaps.
It also enabled me to put in place goals and strategies to close the gaps to reach my goals in 2015. Through this process I am happy to say that I have completed a range of new start-ups; finished my Masters thesis; got my fitness to a level I have never had before; and for fun (and lots of laughs!), attending ballet classes “just because”. And all this was achieved in less than one year.
“It also enabled me to put in place goals and strategies to close the gaps to reach my goals in 2015.
Annual audits not only keep you on track, but also allow you to celebrate all you have achieved and reflect on your successes. It helps you ‘regroup’ after a diversion or disaster and gives you focus, energy, and motivation to keep going with a clear purpose and direction. I have now completed many personal brand audits for clients and I got to say that I enjoy the process because I see the difference that this makes to people and their lives.

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation.

Innovation—ideas based on your own needs

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Brand Audits Update x Christine Moody*

TheWrapDress-230514-48

I have always been an entrepreneur—even before I knew there was a word for it! I started my business when still at University and basically have worked for myself on a range of start ups. I believe working with a variety of clients as well as on a variety of projects in those early days not only gave me valuable work experience, it also exposed me to a variety of CEOs. I was able to observe first hand and at close range, how their leadership style had a direct affect on the entire organisation. It also gave me insights into how they coped with not knowing what was around the corner as far as technology was concerned. But it did not matter as the best leaders ensured that their companies spent time and money on exploring better ways of doing things and being aware what other industries were developing. They also recognised that things that they found annoying (pain points) may also be annoying for their clients so they set about creating new products around solving a problem.

Many of my ideas have come from a personal need or pain point or seeing a problem with a process or product. Every new concept I have developed—from The Wrap Dress (see story below), Designer Law School, and Poppy Cakes—have been an outcome of a an idea inspired by a personal need. So look around your company and spend time with your clients, and most importantly keep your eyes and ears open every time you are out of your office. You will never know where a new idea can come from.

Why I created ‘The Wrap Dress‘

I made my first Wrap Dress as a versatile staple that I could dress up or down for any occasion. So I could get out the door faster, and still look and feel as fresh and crisp at the end of the day as I did at the start. Something that would have me looking and feeling good, wherever my day took me. The concept grew from a corporate sewing group I started a few years ago—affectionately known as ‘Stitch ’n’ Bitch’! The Wrap Dress style was chosen as the first garment for its simplicity and versatility. And something that would perfectly suit the busy, outgoing women in our group.

I chose a stretch fabric that I later discovered was typically used in swimwear. As it turned out, it perfectly suited the everyday/everywhere/everybody style of garment. I was wrapped in a great idea! Then a friend wanted one. Then another. Then friends of friends. Then people I’d never met. I’ve kept refining the design and make over the years. The beautiful, comfortable, durable, versatile Wrap Dress you see before you is the end result. Complicated lives need simple solutions. The Wrap Dress makes getting dressed, out of the house and on with the day that much easier—and more fun!

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation.

A brand called YOU

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Brand Audits Update x Christine Moody*

Inc
Inc.com
“Just like household name brands, you have characteristics that define you; ways that you think of yourself and ways that others think of you. Effective personal branding isn’t about putting on a show or figuring out how to do as little work as possible while getting the most financial reward. That’s not something that I believe in. Life’s just too short to not be focused on building the best possible version of yourself.”
 
Women’s Agenda
Your personal brand matters: Five ways to develop it for career success x Megan Dalla-Camina

“One of the key aspects of our career that really matters is your personal —which is essentially how you choose to present yourself. Everyone has one. Many people don’t know what their personal brand says about them; and few do something positive to build it, enhance it, and leverage it to support their career success. I am still surprised by how many people think they don’t even have one.”
Harvard Business Review
“People reinvent themselves all the time—to take on a new challenge, shift into more-meaningful work, or rebut perceptions that have hindered their career progress. Sometimes the changes are major (a financial services manager moves into retail, a venture capitalist becomes a life coach). Sometimes the rebranding is subtle, as for an executive who wants to advance but needs to overcome the knock that he’s “not good with numbers.” Taking control of your personal brand may mean the difference between an unfulfilling job and a rewarding career. As Longfellow noted, “We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.” Your path may make perfect sense to you, but how can you persuade others to embrace your new brand—and take you seriously?”

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation.

Want to be customer-centric? Then worry about every little detail

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Brand Audits Update x Christine Moody*
Customer_Centric
The habits of customer-centric CEOs like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Apple’s Tim Cook aren’t as hard to pick up as some executives might expect. Here are three things leaders can start emulating today to become more customer-centric and gain the insight into business opportunities and pain points that come with that focus.
 
Forbes
As more and more brands are vying for a slice of the consumer’s attention, businesses need to restructure themselves, and become more customer-centric to stay ahead in the race. While most companies today claim to put their customers first, a surprisingly small number are actually doing it right. So, where are they going wrong? The fact is: some businesses are treating customer-centricity as a set of strategies meant solely for the customer-facing units of a business. They often forget that a customized or one-on-one approach is more than just a marketing goal for customer service reps and sales people.
Wharton
Customer centricity is not merely about customized products and services. It’s also a celebration of customer diversity. Mary Kay consultants live and die by their ability to leverage individual customer-level data. A truly customer-centric firm also knows that world-class service should be reserved for only the best customers. Its principles warn that rolling out the red carpet for every customer is a crippling waste of resources

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation.