Stephen Melanson - Verbal Branding

 

Bulletin Writer:        Leigh Ann Crimmings

 

 

Josh Lopresti brought his son, Luke.  Rick Copland brought his friend Chuck Christoforo.  Florence Goulet brought her Ugandan daughter, Dona.

Bob Guernsey from Groton / Dunstable club

 

Karl Kussin fined Florence for not sitting with her guest, and Carol Toomey paid a fine for the pleasure of sitting with Florence’s guest.  Suzanne Greenough paid two happy fines; one for Rotary relaxing the dress code, and the other for the Klondike Bar she shared with friends.  Jean Goldsberry was happy that her team scored a 100% on their recent licensing review.  June Grace expressed gratitude to Paul D’Oliveira who was able to save her Rotary pictures when her computer crashed.  Peter Mahler was sorry to miss the Golf Tournament.  Anne Trudeau is happy to be back in town after being away at her summer home for most of the season.  Hillary Taylor is also happy to be back in town after her travels to Montana and Squam Lake in New Hampshire.  Florence Goulet is happy that Dona has the opportunity to study here in the U.S.  Judy Carlough paid a happy fine for a lovely vacation in Savanah, GA.  Our guest speaker, Stephen Melanson thanked Leigh Ann for the opportunity to speak at our meeting.  Carol Toomey paid a sad fine because there are two new cases of Polio in Nigeria - a country previously declared Polio free.  Glenn Burlamachi paid a big $50 fine for three reasons he has to celebrate.  He is happy that his daughter and her friend safely arrived in Montana on their road trip and for the time he and Beth were able to spend with them.  He also celebrated his 50th birthday, and he just signed a purchase & sale agreement on two more funeral homes - one in Groton, and the other in Littleton!  Big congratulations to Glenn!  Finally, Joe Saia and Phyllis Maurer paid happy fines and thanked the club for another successful Golf Tournament.

 

President Steve created and shared another compelling and energetic video of the Council on Aging cookout.  Chris Alphen and Carol Toomey updated the club on Oktoberfest advertising.  Carol reported that she could create an insert to be delivered with the Action Unlimited during the week prior to Oktoberfest, which will happen at Verrill Farm on October 22nd.  Volunteers will be needed.  We will need all TIPS certified Rotarians to submit copies of their TIPS certificates along with copies of their driver’s licenses so that they can be available to pour beer at Oktoberfest. 

There is a Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, 9/08 at 5:00 at Newbury Court.  Please let President Steve know if you will attend, so he can be assured that he will have a big enough room.

 

Stephen Melanson gave the club an overview of Verbal Branding that we can all use to become better business people.  Verbal Branding is the secret sauce of what makes a company unique.  One tip to keep in mind is that people don’t care what you do - they only care about what is in it for them.  Therefore, it is important to make a differentiated offer.

 

Business people need to know what makes them different and better than the competition.  When we talk about ourselves and our business, it is important to consider the dynamics of communication.  We all have limited memory, and people will remember one or maybe two things about you after they meet you - at best.  People tend to tune out and not listen.  Because of this, it is important to create curiosity.

When Steve meets people, he tells them he is an expert on Verbal Branding.  This prompts the questions “What is Verbal Branding?” or “What do you mean by that?”.  He then knows he has created curiosity.

 

The logic of a brand was described as being a pyramid shape with the top of the pyramid consisting of what is really important, which is what makes your company different.  The base of the pyramid consists of the same stuff that everyone in your industry is doing, and isn’t that important.

 

Business people have been trained to develop an elevator pitch, where we describe who we are and what we do in 30 seconds or less.  Steve brings up the many problems with this approach and offers another solution.  A scripted 30 second speech is too long, sounds scripted, and people can tell it is scripted.  He instead challenges us to differentiate ourselves in 5 seconds.  We should find one or two concepts that would make people feel like anyone would be crazy not to use us. 

 

The 95% rule states that 95% of what companies do is the exact same thing that is done 95% of the time by their competitors.  The other 5% is the top of the pyramid.  It is the secret sauce that cannot be found anywhere else.

 

So the three most important points of Verbal Branding are:

 

What is your explicit offer out to the marketplace?  Do senior managers use this to make decisions?  For example, Volvo is known for its safety and every decision that is made at Volvo keeps its reputation for safety at top priority.

 

Many companies will say that what makes them best is their people.  If they can’t answer “how so” - what about their people makes them better, they don’t have a very strong differentiator.  Some will state that they have the best customer service.  Again, they have to be able to answer “how so”.

 

Dunkin Donuts gift card, won by James.

 

Helen Halloran will give a presentation on Social Media.