The customer.
Go to Amazon.com, type in “customer” and search under books.
You’ll get over 180,000 results.
If you read them all completing one book per day, it would take you over 490 years to read all of them.
That’s a problem.
“If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think.”
David Ogilvy
The Customer, Simplified
For the last 23 years, L.A.-based Trendsetters has been providing market research and surveys to companies throughout the US, both large and small, from seasoned to startup.
Recently, a key decision was made.
Lynda Hubbard who heads up Trendsetters decided it was time to refresh the company brand to crystallize all that they learned over the past quarter century and to have that reflected in a brand refresh.
After an initial discussion, we decided we had to have the brand reflect the voice of the customer, and to more accurately mirror the world of her customers.
Not only in words but in visuals.
Not only to freshen up the brand but also to have a look that was reflective of:
- Today’s design aesthetic and
- The concerns of today’s businesses.
So, after discussing the insights of what companies are seeking today, we developed a brand new story to clearly differentiate the company in a new and dynamic way.
The previous identity consisted of a trophy and used Trendsetters as the company name with the slogan, Plan to Succeed.
How the Customer Speaks
We looked closely at what her customers were saying, the language they were using. Their answers in interviews focused on growth and success in PR and Marketing.
Not only does Lynda provide the insights but also the exact steps, a roadmap of sorts, on how (and where) to implement the survey findings.
So the new brand would change the name slightly to TrendCreators which reflects a much more causative brand position and incorporates a new slogan that summarizes everything: The Answers to Business Growth.
Additionally, there’s a subtle “T” that forms part of the speech bubble — the exact place we discover the trending chart.
The factors of growth and answers married perfectly.
Working closely with Lynda, I also developed another facet of their brand: the TrendCreator Marketing Roadmap Report™ using the analogy of a GPS navigation getting each client directly to the front door of their prospects.
Why?
Understanding Customer Values
Because companies do not buy what another company does.
Instead, they buy what other companies help make possible.
We needed to avoid that common mistake of talking about what we did versus what the customer wanted:
Market research is what they did, but business growth is what they helped make possible as a result of accurate and intelligent insights.
As Lynda put it, “Surveys find out how customers really feel and how they talk always communicate much better when used in marketing copy, design and strategy. It then gains the vital attention from customers that business owners really want. If that is your business goal, our specific surveying techniques help clients achieve that.”
