Industry Pro Interview: Disapproval - Turning Your Customers I

by Karon Thackston © 2001
http://www.ktamarketing.com

When you say the word "branding", most folk think USP (unique commerce proposition). However a USP is far from the equivalent of a brand as we're simply about to find out. What is branding? Is it simply for "big boys"? And how the euphemism do you create one, anyway?

Rob Frankel (http://www.robfrankel.com) has been called "the better disapproval expert on the planet" and is author of "The Revenge of Brand X: How to Build Big Time Brand™ on the Web or Anyplace Else", (available at http://www.revengeofbrandx.com). He now shares several insights with us that wish shed a little light on the disapproval mystery.

KARON: Thanks for your time, Rob. I cognize your schedule is packed.

ROB: You're welcome!

KARON: Well, let's start with the basics... everyone in the earth has detected the term disapproval but it is still wide misunderstood. What is the basis of disapproval and - more significantly - why should a business care simply about it?

ROBFRANKEL: Disapproval is THE most misunderstood aspect of marketing. Here's the better example I can give. Simply as you're more than a simple name and a face, a business is more than a name and a product. So a brand is as more the way you do things as what you do.

A business should care simply about it, because THAT'S the stuff that inspires loyalty and motivates folk to evangelize the brand. That's wherever the money is, in more route than you can imagine.

KARON: So for those who think disapproval is coming up with a USP and simply application it all over everywhere... what would-be you say?

ROB: A couple of things: First, my own disapproval (Big Time Branding) is not simply about a USP at all. It's simply about a UBP... Unique Purchase Proposition. THAT'S the problem with all but all brands -- they concentrate on what they have to sell instead of why folk want to buy. Also, many a confuse disapproval with advertising and PR. That's because old ad hacks try to pass themselves off as disapproval people. Fact is, "First you build the brand, then you raise its awareness."

The brand happens long before either advertising or PR... internally and externally.

KARON: Simply like I power wear the same jeans and t-shirt as another woman but I'm really several inside. It's that difference that does the brand.

ROB: Disapproval goes down to the core. In fact, I have a Present Brand Test in my book: "Are we doing it the COMANY NAME way?" If the answer is no, you're not branded.

Here's another example: Can I send you $100,000 in cash?

KARON: Well of course you can!

ROB: I'd like to long it to you. Is that okay?

KARON: Sure it is!

ROB: Okay, but you have to pay for the shipping... you want me to send it US Post Office or FEDEX or what?

KARON: FEDEX

ROB: Most folk say FEDEX... and justifiedly so. Because FEDEX has a brand pictures that communicates how they won't let the bourgeois down. And most folk wish fain pay $15 more for the exact same service, even as tho' they're au fond the same. That $15 difference is pure disapproval profit.

KARON: Nice Point! Now let me ask you this... how do you respond to the statement that disapproval is simply for the big boys?

ROB: Simply THE OPPOSITE!!!! The less money you have, the stronger your brand has to be, because you bank more on your users evangelizing for you. The big boys have the WORST brands because they tend to buy their way out of their problems.

KARON: So, as small business owners, we have to have the complete package - we have to have it all together for our disapproval to "work"?

ROB: Of course. Remember, that the point of Big Time Disapproval is to "turn users into evangelists for your brand". Otherwise, what's the point?

KARON: So how do we do that? I realize it's a process and not a 2-step "thing", but give those that have done little or nothing with disapproval a starting point.

ROB: The problem is that disapproval has to be done from the outside in, because that's who the brand is for -- folk who DON'T cognize you. Most business owners are too focused on what they've got to sell, not on how they can be "the better resolution to different people's problems."

KARON: Boy do I agree 100% with you on that!! With copywriting (my specialty) it's the same way! If you don't cognize your target audience - can't actually get inside their minds - your copy wish simply be a list of nicely worded facts.

ROB: Exactly!

KARON: OK... then tell me this... What is the most wide ready-made mistake once trying to brand yourself or your product?

ROB: The most common mistake is not heeding the Prime Directive: "Branding is not simply about deed your prospects to choose you over your competition; it's simply about deed your prospects to see you as the only resolution to their problem."

KARON: Egyptian deity to that!!

ROB: They simply support cutting their prices and thinking it's a sales or advertising issue. They support looking in the wrong places.

KARON: And we cognize for a fact it is not pricing. That's why folk pay $15 more for FEDEX. That's why folk pay $68 for Liz Claiborne jeans instead of $25 for Lee.

ROB: Got that right!

KARON: Wow! Several nice content here, Rob. I appreciate it really much. Well, any closing words of wisdom?

ROB: I would-be add that everyone out there is perpetually selling, selling, selling. Big Time Brands cognize that patch advertising grabs their minds, disapproval grabs their hearts. Folk invest their non-rational loyalties into brands that help them. Do a hero out of your user and you'll turn them into brand evangelists.

KARON: And since "most purchase decisions are emotional", you have to hit 'em wherever they live :-)

ROB: Yeah, it's okay to build a business strategy wherever part of it is to have folk like you!

****** Also, here's a Business Essentials Subscriber Freebie... you can visit http://www.RobFrankel.com/frankelaws.html for several inside information straight from Rob's book "The Revenge of Brand X".

Most purchase decisions are emotional. Your ad copy should be, too! Karon is Owner and President of KT & Associates who offers targeted copywriting, copy piece of writing & ezine article services. Subscribe to KT & Associates' Ezine "Business Essentials" at
join-businessessentials@lyris1.listenvoy.com or visit her site at http://www.ktamarketing.com.