Developing key messages is perhaps the most essential practice of a strategic communications department or company.  But it’s not always easy.  The process can take time and patience, but by identifying the features, advantages and benefits (FABs) of your offering, you can ensure consistent, targeted messaging across all communication platforms.

Although we are in the business of marketing healthcare, we can learn a lot from auto manufacturers; they are expert FAB’ers.  Watch carefully the next time you see a television commercial for a new car to see if you can follow the pattern. I’ll bet you’ll be able to identify the three components:

• Feature: A prominent part, characteristic or special attraction
  • “The new Cadillac CVS has pop-up navigation, a 40 gig hard drive, wood trim and a sunroof.”
• Advantage: A favorable impression or effect (of the feature)
  • “It’s a luxury vehicle…”
• Benefit: Something that promotes well-being (from the perspective of the recipient)
  •  ”…that will turn you on.”

Granted, healthcare benefits may not be as stimulating, but they certainly fall into the “well-being” category.  Auto manufacturers drive home the benefit by using sound and images. They create their brands on television and rely on the internet and dealerships to sell them.

Check out my article to learn more and soon you’ll be creating FABulous messages with confidence!

At Dobies Healthcare Group, we believe a brand is only as strong as the connection between the organization’s actions and its messages. After all, your brand is more than what you say – it’s what you do.

So how do you determine what your brand is really saying?  Two words: Brand audit.

A brand audit systematically assesses the company’s brand from three vantage points:

1. Communications: How authentically the company appears in documents, proposals, advertising, Web sites and other venues
2. Internal: What employees think
3. External: What the customer believes

An audit is like peeling an onion one layer at a time to expose the core essence of the brand, and reviewing these three areas can help leadership understand how well the brand aligns with the organization’s strategic priorities and core values. Plus, it creates a road map for both marketers and executives to use in improving the brand’s overall authenticity. 

To learn more, check out my article on brand audits and take the first steps toward truly living your brand.

This summer, Coleman, the outdoor-equipment giant, dubbed its campsite “the Original Social Networking Site.”  More than a cute marketing concept, this claim practically lays down a challenge to our Facebook-Twitter-YouTube-obsessed culture to put down the computers and cell phones and get back to “real” social networking – the kind where people actually do things…together…in person.

So this past weekend, I took Coleman’s challenge: I grabbed some friends and went camping in Middle-of-Nowhere, Mo., where cell phone/Wi-Fi service was nonexistent.  For a full 48 hours, I was unable to check my email, update my Facebook status, send a text or even make a phone call…and to my great relief, I was okay. 

Perhaps it was because I was too preoccupied with activities like building a fire so I could, you know, EAT, but I didn’t once feel the urge to post “Gathering kindling and hoping the rain stops soon” as my Facebook status.  And I didn’t wonder who had emailed me or if I was missing an important text message.   As it turns out, I CAN live sans social networks or cell service (at least for a few days, anyway)!

I take pride in this personal victory considering the New York Times article I ran across last week that revealed many Americans are hopping online soon after, if not before, hopping out of bed each morning.  Whether it’s texting over toast or social networking instead of reading the morning newspaper, this is a trend with which I am all too familiar; I check my email, Facebook and Twitter account via my Palm Pre before my head is even off my pillow every morning. 

But after this weekend of “roughing it,” I can at least take comfort in knowing my morning Internet craving can be overcome.  And you can be sure I’ll keep visiting the “original social networking site” in the future to keep my online habits in check.

We’ve been talking a lot about brands lately, so I thought I’d weigh in.  This weekend I ventured out to the suburbs to find some sport wear for an upcoming trip to Colorado (I’m headed to Beaver Creek to bond with my Vistage group and join in some ziplining across canyons and white water rafting — perhaps I’ll share my adventure on my next blog). Even though it’s not a high adventure retreat, I needed a couple of things to round out my wardrobe. Heels don’t work so well on the trail, you know.  Anyway, I went to a well-known adventure sports store that I’ve gone to since it was located in midtown. Although I had been to their posh new digs once before, this time, I found myself rebelling against the new store. Their modern retail surroundings and retail focus trumped the staff’s passion for adventure that had once drawn me there.  

So, I drove two blocks to Dynamic Earth. A place where the staff put their heart into serving customers. They really get into helping you excel at your next adventure. The staff at Dynamic Earth focus less on the label and more about how your wearing the right thing will help you perform against the roar of the river, the heat of the sun, the torrential rains above tree line. Ok, I know what you’re thinking – this retreat doesn’t sound like those kind of  “adventures.”  It doesn’t matter — it wasn’t just about the clothes. I left with new information on whitewater kayaking clinics on the Mulberry River (something I’d been looking for), inspiration to get my kayak back in the water, and a deeper conviction that brand is about what you DO, not merely what the marketers write and create at the point of purchase. Great customer service and mission-passionate staff go a long way toward establishing strong brands.

What brands are you loyal to?  And why?

That was the ‘elevator’ question (no really, we were in the elevator!) I recently posed to a colleague following a rather insightful meeting with a client about….you guessed it – branding.  Corporations today (healthcare or not) are busier defining and protecting their brands than ever before.   Social media is in full swing, which means companies are ‘out there,’ for better or worse.  Brands are created every day online whether a company participates or not.  Heck, personal branding is now exemplified online.  But that’s another blog.

Before you answer my question about brand loyalty – I’m guessing you’re still pondering – let’s further muddy the waters by agreeing on the definition of ‘brand.’  I tell clients:

• It’s not what you say, it’s what you do:  ‘live the brand’.
• It’s the emotion you want to evoke when a customer experiences your product.
• It’s a concept that lives in the minds of your customers.
• It’s not a logo or a slogan (pleeeeease!).

I call this muddy water because most marketing-types like me agree that there is very little clarity around the conference table on this subject.  It’s a complicated concept.  We’ve all heard someone say, “I don’t believe in branding.”  Or, the old mantra in healthcare, “It sounds too much like advertising.” 

I’m loyal to Southwest Airlines – they are almost always on time and are very pragmatic and practical.  Their employees live the brand.  All without a slogan!  I like that.  Also, I am in love with the Lucky Brand clothing line.  Why?  Their ‘peace and love’ concept makes me feel young and carefree – two things I most definitely am not!  (But used to be!!)  However, I don’t want to wear the logo – the Lucky Brand is all about how I FEEL shopping for and wearing their clothes. 

These aren’t very sophisticated examples – and quite frankly, they weren’t very easy to come by either.  Which goes to prove how difficult it is to successfully create a brand that is meaningful and memorable.  

Your turn!  What products, and especially services do you love and why?

Recently, brands like Sharpie, Volkswagon and Tropicana have created their own social-networking sites to complement their marketing efforts on mainstream sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  While I understand why companies would prefer social interaction on a more controlled, branded site, I have a hard time believing these sites will achieve much success after the initial glow wears off.  Personally, I would much rather interact with my favorite brands on a site where I have an established identity and a clear understanding of how the site operates (Facebook) than create an entirely new identity on a site I know little about.  Yes, Facebook Connect could make these third-party sites more appealing, but I’d prefer to interact with brands who come to me (in a non-pushy manner, of course) where I spend my time.  See how Adobe successfully engaged Facebookers in their “natural environment.”  I hope to see more brands take Adobe’s lead in the future.