From Todd LaRoche, EVP, Managing Director of Creative, Palio

Just the other day, a small incident I happened to observe crystallized for me a basic branding principle that seems so often overlooked by many in the marketing business.

I was having lunch in a small Chinese restaurant with tray service. As a friend and I were enjoying our dim sum at a table, a patron brought his tray up to the register to pay for his food. The cashier was tasked not only with ringing up customers but with filling their drink orders as well. The restaurant was busy, the cashier was rushed, and he obviously wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries. So, instead of taking just a little bit more of his time to ask the patron, in a friendly tone, if he would like a drink with his food, the cashier hurriedly blurted out, “Is that all?” A reasonable question to ask, you would think, given the context of the moment. But it was one that actually lost the sale.

The terse phrasing of the question, combined with a delivery sounding something like incredulousness, led the customer to believe that the cashier was chiding him for not having more on his tray. At this, the patron replied, “What do you mean, ‘Is that all?’… it’s all I want.” The cashier responded with a retort thinking that he was now being attacked, which led to another response from the customer quickly followed by his irate exit.

At the moment it seemed pretty funny. But when I see the same thing happen in the marketing world it’s tragic, because we’re talking about losing a lot more than an $8 lunch order over simple laziness or neglect.

This is Marketing 101 – make sure you understand the difference between “the how” and “the what” a brand says to its customer, and the importance of addressing both well.  Then drive your marketing communications around both of these elements to appropriately motivate customers. One of the golden rules to remember, as demonstrated by the above referenced event: Don’t rely on your message to be communicated correctly and compellingly (ie, to close the deal) if you’re only looking at “the what” you say, or the literal message of your communication.

Seems pretty basic, and yet it’s something many marketers don’t follow through on, often because, like the cashier above, they are pressed for time or don’t have the wherewithal to get above the corporate-management issues they’re dealing with minute to minute, day to day.

The next time you’re discussing a creative platform for your brand, don’t think just about the key thought… make sure the delivery of that thought – the brand personality – will be in keeping with the experience you want to deliver to your brand’s target.

Palio is an advertising agency revolutionizing pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing to create experiences that will Never Be Forgotten.