It’s the funniest thing, companies (and even associations) think that corporate events are only about communicating information. They might also believe that events are about networking or about selling stuff. Wow, if this is their perspective, they are missing 90% of the real value of a company event. The real value of an event is to give every attendee a massive shot of full-throttle brand adrenaline.

Our reputation for injecting brand adrenaline right into the heart through corporate events is hard-earned. We’ve made mistakes and learned from them. We’ve shunned the typical and taken risks to achieve the extraordinary — without breaking the bank. We’ve earned our clients’ trust in our vision and in our ability to produce exceptional results.  The payoff is big in terms of every metric you can think of.

Heart & Mind® Branding is the key to creating true, lasting brand adrenaline, and here’s how you can make it happen through your corporate events:

10 Keys to Injecting Heart & Mind Branding Adrenaline into Your Corporate Events

1. Go for the emotional connection first - When you connect with people’s hearts, they will let you into their minds.
2. Make your theme heart-based, not mind-based – If you don’t feel it, no one else will either. Thinking has nothing to do with theming.
3. Throw out any themes that don’t have legs - If you or your CEO can’t get up and talk about the theme for hours, then it’s not a good theme.
4. Produce videos that aren’t “talking head” parades – Those are so 1990s. Today’s videos are not about telling; they are about entertaining and through entertainment, inspiring.
5. Be demanding – Don’t settle for ordinary or just okay in anything you do at an event. Your show is a showcase of the behavior you want to inspire in others. If you want excellence in others, you must demonstrate it yourself.
6. Make an impact – Your corporate event should literally make people laugh and cry, as well as learn. You can achieve these results through what we at HEASLEY&PARTNERS call Moments.
7. Spend less money on plants and more on production – Seems obvious, but instead of spending money on flowers and ficus trees, focus your spending on your stage and show. Do what wows!
8. Plan a unified program – Make sure your speakers’ presentations aren’t repetitive. They should build on each other. Unity of message at a corporate event is critical.
9. Build an ideal world – Your corporate event should be your attendees’ world. Make it high-service and unforgettable. If attendees leave the world you’ve created, you’ve missed an opportunity.
10. Don’t cheap out - You’re spending a lot of money, for sure, but if you cheap out — even on seemingly insignificant details — that’s what attendees will notice and that’s what they’ll remember.

Corporate events are a significant investment, so instead of plowing your resources into the same old exercise, instead of merely conveying information, you should look at your corporate events as an outstanding opportunity to inject Heart & Mind Branding adrenaline.

What is branding? Heart & Mind® Branding.

Who would have thought when the confectionary giant Mars launched a new campaign in 1995 for computer animated “spokescandies,” it would become the center of a Super Bowl commercial 17 years later—and all the hype to go with it.  These color-animated candies recruited some of the biggest names in Hollywood as celebrity voices.  Including Jon Lovitz, John Goodman and the late Phil Hartman.

What is it about these colorful little characters that makes us want to purchase everything from coffee mugs and apparel to collectibles and racing gear.  The answer is easy—the brand.

Mars brings the M&Ms brand “personality” to life through animated characters who speak to all ages and create funny, clever even a little racy moments that we can all connect with. All that and what we are really taking about is just candy-coated chocolate!

At HEASLEY&PARTNERS, we believe that great brands are built on three essential brand elements.  The first is a brand must be genuine, so you can’t fake it.  The second is meaningful, it must mean something to the people it serves.  And, the third is a brand must be different—different from anything else out there.  The M&M’s brand, and its lovable little characters, has all characteristics and they own this product segment.

Hershey has candy coated chocolates similar to M&Ms, but few would know it. And who cares? They’re the “kiss” people. In Hershey, Pennsylvania (also known as Chocolate Town, USA) the street lights are kisses. Hershey is genuinely about kisses, just as Mars is about M&Ms. Of course this should lead you to ask, “What am I about? What’s my product about? My company?” Do you think Mars would be spending the big bucks on Ms. Brown unless they knew their brand? Of course not. How much money are you wasting promoting your business without knowing what you stand for? Even one dollar is too much.

So, what will Ms. Brown have to offer?  Will she show us her vulnerable side? Will she connect with fans?  How will she be different? I think she wears glasses? From her close friends and colleagues, “Ms. Brown is very intelligent and has a sharp wit.”  She has been behind the scenes as “chief chocolate officer” for decades, and has finally decided to come out of her shell (no pun intended).

All we know is…if she is anything like her colorful counterparts, I’m sure she will not disappoint us.  We will have to wait until February fifth to find out.   Until then…

What is branding?  Heart & Mind® Branding.

With Steve Jobs announcing he is stepping down from his role of CEO of Apple, people are speculating about what made him so powerful, so successful and so iconic. Everything from his off-the-charts intelligence, his insane attention to every detail, his intensity and his relentless micromanagement just to highlight a few.  But I’ll say it is all of these and none of these at the same time. That’s putting too much emphasis on the micro aspects of a macro human being, a total person.

There’s no doubt that Steve Jobs isn’t just the founder of Apple he is a brand unto himself. The same things that makes Apple a great brand is the same things that makes Steve Jobs a great brand. They are the three key tenants of Heart & Mind Branding: Great brands are always Genuine, Meaningful and Different.

Genuine

Too many people want to complicate the power of brands by looking at them under a microscope. The real power of a brand happens by looking through the telescope. On a grand scale, Steve Jobs is and has been since the very first Apple computer, the genuine Steve Jobs. He may have grown older as we all do and wiser and richer, but in general the Steve Job we saw in the old Apple product launch reels is not at all different from the Steve Jobs we see in the launch videos today. And its clear to anyone watching his attitudes, behaviors, delivery and passion is not an act. How many of you as entrepreneurs, how many of you as employees, as managers can say the same of yourself or your leaders? Are you genuine or are you holding back, putting on aires, trying to be someone else or matching who you are to who you are with?  Steve Jobs is Steve Jobs and that’s what makes him and his brand powerful.

Meaningful

Steve Jobs isn’t just genuine, his genuineness is meaningful to people who love technology, music, video, business, entrepreneurship and every other area of life that the products his company creates enhance. Furthermore, Steve Jobs has a way of delivering and communicating what could be just “boring technology” in a way that connects with his audiences. And he always has. His message matters to legions of followers. It also repels others who don’t connect with the genuine Steve Jobs and like any great brand, he appears okay with that. By choosing to be one thing as a brand, we by definition dismiss everything else as off brand. More things are off brand to Steve Jobs than on brand and that’s the way it should be.

Different

Clearly Steve Jobs has taken a stand on the nature and the future of technology and that stand is not just a part of who he is as a brand, but also what his company is as one too. It’s a strong stand and by that measure alone, the Steve Jobs brand is different. He owns his personna, he owns his attitude, he owns his fire. This made him a standout in a world where getting noticed was the precursor to success. I’m talking about 30 years ago, not just today. Back when Steve Jobs was nearly unknown, his uniqueness began fueling his and his company’s brand engines. He began to get noticed, as did his company’s products.

So you can look and talk about all the micro attributes of this gifted man and analyze them over too many glasses of wine. Or you can look at the whole person for what he is–a leader–who stayed true to himself and his mission, a mission that is meaningful to so many and by shear virtue of those two things, made him different from everyone else. So instead of trying to work into your daily work the small behaviors of a great man, instead look up at the great leader and find the great leader in yourself.

What is branding? Heart & Mind® Branding.

This is all about setting yourself up for success and the sooner you start the sooner you’ll break through. The list isn’t long—just four, vital must-have’s. Here it goes:

1. A willingness to accept help. It’s surprising how many companies have a goal of growth, but close the door to the very help they need to achieve it. Sometimes it is a control issue, sometimes it is a trust issue, but the facts are that no company is an island and winning is a team sport.
2. A commitment to the investment. Some companies want all the help in the world to achieve their goals, but are unwilling to commit the resources. Communicating with people costs money, takes time and creates work for everyone involved. Those are the brutal facts and any company embarking on a marketing or communications strategy for growth must know this from the start and be committed for the long term. Marketing is a way of life, not an event.
3. An ability to grow. Your organization may welcome the help, trust in others’ experience and knowledge, and even be willing to commit the resources long term, but if you aren’t committed to your own internal growth, results will be short lived. Furthermore, you must be in an industry that is either growing, adding new customers every day, or complacent, where you can either rob customers from sleepy competitors or reinvent the industry entirely.
4. A fire burning within. This is all about attitude and culture. Your company, and specifically the leadership, must have the passion and the belief that the impossible is possible.They must be prepared to ignite that passion in everyone around them. And they must have an unwavering spirit in the face of adversity. A big part of a leader’s job is bringing that fire to life in everything you do. Incidentally, without the fire, the previous three factors really don’t matter.

I want you to get the best results out of your business building a brand, but also enjoy the journey. That’s Heart & Mind® Branding’s strength. Ask any successful person who achieved their biggest dream. They look around at the top, breathe in the air and begin planning their next adventure. Want the best work along the way? Master these four must have’s and you’ll reap the rewards.

What is branding? Heart & Mind® Branding.

These are the kind of comments I’ve heard people say when I so much as suggest that in order to fulfill their destiny and their mission, they are going to have to learn to speak in public. I can relate to their fear. I used to dread presenting. I was fine in the conference room, but the minute I had to take a stage, my knees would shake, my voice would quiver and my heart rate would accelerate to the point of palpitations.  But before you call 911, read on. This article is how I overcame my fear so you can too.

Before you say, “I’ll never get over it, and I don’t have to. I don’t need to speak in public to get where I want to go,” guess again. You most certainly will have to speak somewhere sometime, so you had best be prepared. Preparation doesn’t have to be complicated. You simply need a few principles to set you on the right track.

This article is not about speaking technique. You can find many articles on how to write and deliver a speech. I’m talking about how you actually summon up the courage to get yourself up on that stage in front of all those anticipating faces and deliver the speech. Understand that short of simply being fearless and hurling yourself into the eye of the tornado, the things I’m suggesting below take time. If you’re the hurling type, forget everything below and just go for it. When you fall down, get up–you’re probably the type of person who does that a lot, so it doesn’t faze you. But if you are one of the other 98% of people–even wild and crazy entrepreneurs–then read on.  These are the methods that worked for me, and I believe can work for you.

1. Win a few wars - No matter what you do, you have to have won a few wars in your life to earn the right to be on a stage. When it comes to your subject matter, if you haven’t yet lived through the tough stuff and basked in some real successes, give yourself time. You’ll need an arsenal of real-life stories to not only keep things interesting, but to maintain your confidence in the face of skeptics in your audience. This is all part of earning the right to be on that stage.
2. Overcome another fear – The thing that used to scare me as much as climbing onto a stage was climbing up anything high, particularly if a ledge and steep drop-off were involved. Thanks to my EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization) Group and a retreat to Arizona’s Rim Country, I got over my fear once and for all. Unknown to any of us, we were going on a rappelling adventure. Not wanting to look like a wuss, I strapped on the gear, got my instructions and backed off a 200-foot cliff. After that first step I wanted to pull myself back up, but I didn’t. I mustered up my courage and kept going. Now before I get on stage I always think, “Kathy, you backed off a 200-foot cliff. You can do this!”  Find your “cliff,” conquer it, and you’ll gain a new sense of power.
3. Watch and learn – I spent years booking speakers for events, so I have seen and worked with the good, the great, and even a few “booking mistakes.” The best speakers in the world are versed in their subjects through experience and speak from the heart. They tell stories and involve the audience. If you’d like to view speakers and don’t have the opportunity to attend events, go to kepplerspeakers.com and watch a few videos. Jamie Clarke is one I recommend you watch. Another great speaker is Blair Singer; and yet another is Robert Kiyosaki.  Each has very different styles. But all speak from experience and the heart.
4. Find a coach – Blair Singer and Robert Kiyosaki have been and continue to be my coaches. They have guided me and I’m smart enough to listen to their instruction and follow what they say. It takes more than confidence to be on stage; it takes learning how to command a room and these two are the masters. They also knew how to bring out a side of me that I didn’t know was there. Find someone–a speaker you admire, a speech coach, a performer–who can guide you and bring out the “bigger you” as Blair says.
5. Be open to feedback - If you can’t take constructive criticism, then you may want to rethink what you are doing or better yet, change your ways. Feedback is critical to improvement and growth in everything you do, but with speaking, it is ultra important. Do what your coach tells you to do, listen to the audience feedback, watch their faces. If they are falling asleep, you are probably boring them. Recognize that this feedback has nothing to do with speaking right after lunch, or with their level of interest in your subject. Understand, it’s not them, it’s you. And then adjust for the next time. Continual improvement is part of the game.
6. Practice, practice, practice – Until you are sick of it! Until you are tired of hearing yourself. But believe me, that will be the least of your problems when it comes to practicing. Getting started will be the toughest part because it feels really strange to get up and speak–with feeling–to no one but yourself. You must do it, and I should say practicing in your mind or quietly to yourself doesn’t count. Twenty times aloud commits your content to memory forever.
7. Perfection is boring – Too many people think they must be perfect on stage. Nothing could be more wrong. I once did some speaking videos and knew they weren’t good but couldn’t quite figure out why. Another speech coach who I refer clients to took a look and said, “Kathy, you’re trying to be perfect. And perfect is boring. Just be yourself.” Lesson learned. Now I applaud the real-ness of speakers. That’s what separates the good from the great.

I have a long way to go, but because building a brand means being a spokesperson, I’m willing to do the work and learn. This has been and continues to be my path for the last three years. With the help of Robert and Blair and the feedback I receive from every engagement, I grow with each presentation. I encourage you to take the same leap I took and continue to take. It’s tough, invigorating, and worth it!

What is branding? Heart & Mind® Branding.

You may say you don’t need to actually know any of this stuff, after all you will hire people who do. But you can bet that having a solid technology foundation and a willingness to learn new things will help you in ways you have yet to imagine. Sure you may not actually do the work, but you can’t recommend the strategy if you don’t understand the technology and what it can do for you. You can’t be a good purchaser of services if you don’t know the language. And you can’t pull off marketing miracles if your hands are bound by your fear of technology.

Let’s start with the absolute basics.  One is old school, Microsoft Word, and one is new school, WordPress:

Microsoft Word

Believe it or not, much of your communication still happens through word processing documents. Reports & proposals – these all are part of your brand promise. If they look amateurish, that reflects on your brand.  So how do you make sure your materials don’t look like you turned your computer on and started typing? How do you make sure that professional brand look we created for you lives on beyond the brand presentation?

• Tip: Understand and learn how to use style sheets. Word actually is quite powerful when it comes to type management and page layout. I wouldn’t recommend it for laying out a brochure, but to make your reports and proposals speak volumes about your work, learn how to manage type and layout through style sheets.
• Tip: Understand how to use Word’s line leading controls and paragraph functions. This is the secret to making pages look professional. It’s more than just adding line breaks between paragraphs. You want to control the space between your lines and between your paragraphs. If you don’t understand type, and leading, you’ll have a hard time pulling off a professional brand look.
• Tip: Learn the right way to use tabs. You can drag and drop them right in the page ruler. It’s that easy. Too many people just use the auto tabbing and align their text in a space that looks “close enough.” Not good. It’s so easy to set tabs where you want them, why not do it?
• Tip: Become an expert at using tables. Word’s table function is powerful enough to handle many of the most complicated charts and even create forms.  Just mess around with it, you’ll pick it up if you let yourself make mistakes to learn.

We’ll stop there with Microsoft Word. That’s enough for you to start bringing your skill levels where you’ll need them to be effective in the digital world of communications.  Practice and see what the tools do. Use the online help to guide you when in doubt.

Let’s move on to your website.

WordPress

WordPress is another way to publish your own content. We strongly urge business owners to create their websites using the WordPress development engine because it is so powerful, scalable and easy to keep fresh. Plus you can even post blogs, edit pages, change settings, approve and reply to posts, etc. right from your iPhone, iPad or similar devices.  You’ll want a company like ours to help you with the initial website development, but once you have the site, what do you need to know?

• Tip: Understand and be familiar with image file formats. If you’re expecting to do anything in marketing, you’ll need to know the difference between a .jpg, a .bmp and an .eps file. You’ll need to be able to convert image files and compress them for online use. Learn how to upload images, crop and re-size them. Know what aspect ratio is and how to maintain it.  These are critical to working in the communications arena.
• Tip: Know where to go online for images, music and videos that you will use on your website. Begin a digital photo and video library of your own company media and tag them for easy retrieval. Keep them on your own local computers or in “the cloud” on sites like Flickr, YouTube or Vimeo.
• Tip: Master the administrator interface on your WordPress website. Our developers will set up your site so that it can be dynamic allowing you to add content continually. Learn how to add a page, how to edit a page, how to add images, embed videos, manage your navigation menus and how to categorize and tag your pages and posts for easy search.

The tips in this post are by no means all inclusive and we are not trying to turn you into a power-user in any of these areas. These are simply the basic skills we have found most lacking and most needed for keeping a brand alive. We can create the brand, but you and your team must have the basic skills needed to keep it alive and growing with quality and consistency. Watch for more posts on this subject. There’s much more to learn, but this should get you started.

Years ago a technology company I worked for launched a highly successful ad campaign that featured a photo of a funny, wild-eyed, goofy guy in a straight jacket standing in a computer network wiring closet. The headline said, “Does certifying your network make you certifiable?” If you don’t know what certifying a network is, don’t worry. That’s not important. Think of it like a plumber joke, and just accept that the target audience of network administrators thought this play on words was hilarious. The organization who protected the rights of the mentally ill didn’t think it was quite so funny, though. The ad continued to run.

Another time, the same company ran some ads that featured a very cute golden retriever sitting and “smiling” as that breed often does. When the ad ran, the company got letters from cat lovers asking, “Why are there no cats in our ads?” The product automatically retrieved information from a network. Since cats don’t generally retrieve things, it didn’t make sense to have cats in the ad. The ad continued to run.

Yoplait just got slapped because they ran a commercial that showed a woman standing in front of her fridge debating whether or not she should eat a piece of calorie-laden cheesecake. Her roommate walks in, grabs the cheesecake flavored Yoplait yogurt from the fridge and satisfies her sweet tooth. People are up in arms because they say this ad promotes and encourages eating disorders. Yoplait pulled the commercial.

My point with these three examples is that no matter what a company puts out there, there will be critics and there will be people who don’t like it. But today, moreso than in decades past, those one or two voices can turn into multitudes and fast. In the first two examples, the complaints came in the form of letters. The company contacted the persons by phone, explained that offending them wasn’t their intent, carried on a reasonable and respectful conversation, and all was fine. Case closed.

Today, of course, the criticism comes publically, usually via social media. It gets forwarded and others pile on until it becomes a tidal wave. Worse yet, get the TV talking heads on the bandwagon–you know the ones who have built their careers and their financial empires on throwing others to the wolves–and you have the makings of a PR nightmare. So what do you do?

Before revealing the “How-to’s” allow me to say, if you have truly done something stupid, like Anthony Weiner, the latest addition to team Gingrich, Woods, Favre, Edwards and Scwartzeneger, then you should take your ‘lumps like a man’. That’s shorthand for: apologizing at a press conference, claiming you have an illness, going into rehab and paying restitution through an exclusive inteview on 20/20. That’s the protocol.

But what about the rest of us? The companies and people that didn’t do something stupid and didn’t intend to anger that one person out there with 5,000 followers? I wish I could tell you what to do in six easy steps. But there is nothing easy about this. The how-to is hard. It’s why you earn the big bucks. So here we go:

1. Stop it before it starts – Before putting any messages or images out there…test, test, test and don’t dismiss the results or even the one or two people who raise a flag. If five people in a sample of 100 have a problem, others will too. Do the math; the numbers get big.

2. Lose the ego – Don’t be above modifying how you say what you want to say. There are so many ways to get a message across. Keep working if the one you’re in love with clearly has a problem. You’ll find a better solution, one that speaks meaningfully to the heart as opposed to the one that is just clever or edgy.

3. Stay aware – Monitor social media and be prepared to reply publically and empathetically to people who are angered. Have your response ready and don’t blabber on in corporate speak. That just makes people more angry. Speak from the heart and have a productive conversation, person-to-person.

4. Recognize a problem – Know the difference between an angry person or two and a growing movement. If a person posts a comment and ten people jump on immediately or within a few hours, you may have a problem. Deal with it, do not ignore it hoping it will just go away. If a person posts and there are no additional comments, it is likely just an isolated problem. Be human and respond empathetically to that one person. That’s just being respectful.

5. Don’t be a “Weiner” – Be prompt with all this and never lie or make excuses. That throws you and your company into the ranks of our illustrious political leaders and sports heroes mentioned above. Make them cautionary tales, not role models.

6. Take decisive action – Finally, be prepared to admit your mistake and take action even if it means pulling the plug. Also be prepared to do more than simply cease and desist. Understand that in every mistake is an opportunity to turn it around, come out better than you went in, and be an instrument of positive change.

Dealing with these kinds of issues is never easy. You can avoid them by putting others first, above your ego, and above that promotion you’re vying for. Once again, it comes down to heart and mind, and enveloping the business objectives in the heart of the brand. The pressures of achieving business results cannot override what’s right, or they will elude you. Remember your results are not the goal, they are the reward for doing what is right.

Let’s be blunt, guys like Steven Tyler and Bret Michaels have been around. They’ve been around and around. They may be rock legends but finding new audiences in our cluttered world is like starting all over again. They simply have to do what we all have to do whether we are launching or relaunching a brand: They have to find a platform to communicate their heart.

Interestingly, in nearly all cases, these celebs are reinvigorating their careers not by being the tough, hard-driving rockers we all came to know them for. Instead they are taking an approach that is more genuine to their lives today. They are being real and if they can teach us anything about branding from their own brand success, it’s that “real” sells.

Bret Michaels

Here’s a guy–rocker from Poison–who came on The Celebrity Apprentice last season (and made a repeat appearance last night) with most of us thinking he’s just the womanizing washed up rock star from the MTV reality show “Rock of Love.” Few expected much from him–Donald Trump said so much–other than entertainment value.

Then Bret started to reveal Bret. He dropped the rocker shell for the most part. You learned he was in the game to win money and raise awareness for the American Diabetes Association. You learned he is a lifelong diabetic and feels for anyone who has to live with this disease. You witnessed the phone call where he learned that his young daughter’s tests came back abnormal and that she is now borderline diabetic. You saw his pain. You learned he was a hard-working, tough competitor who doesn’t quit. His own health issues played out on TV. It was impossible for Bret to be the tough rocker. Millions fell in love with Bret and his career soared to new heights. He’s pretty much everywhere now.

Steven Tyler

They said that American Idol would be washed up without the sharp-tongued Simon Cowell. Well this season proved them all wrong with high viewership and record votes. The reason is because we have Steven Tyler. Who could have ever expected that the lead singer of Aerosmith would bring such spirit to this show? After all he’s the “Love in the Elevator” guy. How could we have known he’d give us such “Sweet Emotion” after every contestant’s performance this season? You can’t help but feel his heartfelt love of music, talent and commitment. The guy is connecting for the first time with millions of people who were not Aerosmith fans, but they are now. Record sales are way up.

What you are seeing here is yet more proof that we buy from people we like, and that we can spot a phony a mile away. It also proves that being genuine is golden. When you’re real and reveal your heart, people fall in love with you and your brand. Of course, if your heart is rather Grinch-like, the real you may not be quite so lovable!

Why so few people get this simple fact is a mystery to me. I see cases of it everywhere. Just look around. You’ll see that when you find your platform, are the real thing and that real thing is loveable, you’ll want to hang on tight. Success will come faster than you may think.  Bret and Steven, thank you for showing us yet again that genuine heart is the power of any brand–even tough, cool rock stars.

What is branding? Heart &  Mind® Branding.

Check out #whatiwantfromajob a new hashtag we created on Twitter. We’re asking people what it is they want out of a job. Why would a branding company care about that? Because branding must first happen in the hearts of the people in the company. Only that way can they deliver the brand experience outside it. Miss that and you miss everything.

One client we had from years ago had a tremendous opportunity with a great service business. It should have been a great place to work. Sadly, they focused entirely on the numbers at the expense of why they were doing what they were doing in the first place.  Naturally as you would expect, the client didn’t understand us when we tried to infuse purpose into the workplace. He didn’t see how that would help boost his business. He just wanted a website that drove more leads. Hmm, how could he not see that even if the website drove business, the attitudes of his employees–great people, but uninspired–were the ultimate turn off?

We didn’t work for this pitiful leader for much after the website project. Kind of an integrity issue if you know what I mean. And yes, we got him his leads, but the company went nowhere. So you see, #whatiwantfromajob will be interesting to follow and interesting to learn from, because happiness in the workplace is a precursor to becoming a breakthrough brand.

What is branding? Heart &  Mind® Branding.

“In a historic shift for the beverage industry, Pepsi, long the No. 2 carbonated soft drink in the country, has fallen to third place in the category behind both Coke and Diet Coke. Beverage Digest reported today that Pepsi lost 0.4 share in 2010, falling to a 9.5% share of the category. Diet Coke controls a 9.9% share of the market, while brand Coke holds a 17% share. The move has been long been in the making — Pepsi barely nudged by Diet Coke in 2009 — but the brand wasn’t able to turn the tide. John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, said Pepsi had held the No. 2 slot for decades.” (from AdAge – 3-18-11)

There will be lots of talk about this one. Why did this happen? Did Pepsi lose focus? Did they put too much money and effort into new media?  Finding the reasons are important, of course, because Pepsi will have to regroup and minimize future errors. But you know what, this brand-shattering announcement really is a wake up call to all those brands at the top of their games. It proves that anything is possible and just because you have a lead, big or small, doesn’t mean that you can’t be dethroned.

Right now we are working with several companies who are number one in their category. We have been talking about this very thing. You work really hard to get on top, you do all the right things. But then what? Getting there and staying there are two completely different things.  I know. I worked for McCann-Erickson in the mid 80′s during the New Coke era. I was a lonely media buyer/account executive handling the Coke brands in Phoenix, Arizona. That’s where I learned the effort and energy it takes to stay number one. Staying on top is much harder than getting there.

There have been many brands that knew how to get to number one but didn’t know how to stay there. I have worked for a number of them. The strategies are quite different. Picture yourself as the number one brand, and you’re standing on the top of a hill. You’re high enough to have a better view and a lot of advantages, but you’re not high enough to be out of firing range. Even more, you have very little protection and shots can come at you from all directions and all sources. In my experience that’s what being number one has felt like.

Attitudinally, there’s a big internal shift too. Everyone loves the underdog and it’s energizing to be in that position. It’s easier to rally a team to WIN than it is to rally it to keep going. The reason is that once they’ve won, it’s natural for the team to want to bask in their glory. Even worse, it’s so challenging for leadership to inspire people who have won to work even harder. I learned this lesson at one company I worked for years ago. We had 60% market share of the industry. We were the darlings. Then we went public–the holy grail of the entrepreneurial company. After that, it was a steady downhill slide brought on mostly by people who had accomplished much, but who were not versed in staying there.  I won’t mention the company’s name but there are countless companies whose names you could insert into this story.

It’s actually fun for me to see Coke get back on top in such a big way. Even though I don’t drink soda, there’s a place in my heart for my early mentors. It doesn’t hurt that I met my husband at the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Tempe!  So congratulations, Coca-Cola. And don’t get cocky!

What is branding? Heart &  Mind® Branding.