11. Branding for Startups Video Lecture | How to pitch your Startup? - Entrepreneurship

if some of you guys know Mark Williams
no did not get five years younger and a
lot more attractive I'm Stephen clef I'm
actually pinch-hitting from work mark
unfortunately got mauled by his
three-year-old son and has an eye injury
and has actually spent the last few days
recovering but he will be okay on the
panel today first on the far left we
have Dave Moore who is the director the
creative director at Williams LD he's
been in the business for about 20 years
he started when he was eight but he has
been doing everything from design to
advertising to writing he's also worked
at edelman and has focused on a lot of
large to small brands particularly
Pacific Northwest brands ranging from
the puyallup fair to t-mobile in the
middle here we have kieron davis who is
the president and CEO of the intellect
marketing group he works as an intellect
or independent consultant and founder of
three companies he focuses on startups
and early-stage tech companies providing
them with consumer information it also
consults to over twenty three startups
and fortune 500 companies ranging from
visio to view 12 US bank and net steps
and on the right side of the panel here
we have din or Daniel sorry I didn't
promise this was going to be smooth
pinch it I just said I was pinch-hitting
who is a senior associate at Voyager
capital who focuses on new deals and
also the management of existing
portfolio companies has previously
worked at both Goldman Sachs and at bank
of america where he was an endless in
investment banking in the technology
space so I think the way that we're
going to do this I'm going to start with
some questions for the panel definitely
opportunities for people to ask
questions during the
handle if you could raise your hand I
will call on people and then I think
we'd look to wrap up about 1 45 so we
can break out into some smaller groups
and have some working sessions with some
of the members of the panel so if that
sounds good we will start with kind of
the very fundamental question of what
makes a great brand and I think we can
start with Dave and then work our way
down we have let freely what Matt's on
the list of questions yes so here's this
is kind of this is kind of my thing I
think that a great brand starts with a a
kind of moral compass not not not so
much how are we saving the world but I
think before you even name your company
you have to set out and say what do we
do for the world why do people care
about our business beyond what what do
we exist for beyond making money so that
people care and and we can we can build
your brand from that I think that I
think that's kind of a foundation do you
wrong thing I believe that it's so
important to have a brand that's
memorable that's relevant to what you're
doing and no relevant you know I'm sort
of a I like to have names and if I can't
get a name of a company what I do is I
work with a byline that tells people who
we are what we do so they can sort of
figure it out so I wouldn't have come up
with google or yahoo were our zillow but
but you can also take your your brand
and by working with style or color you
can you can make it relevant to the
particular audience that you're there
talking to it did a lot of work many
years ago in unfortunate if T kinds of
companies and so you saw back in those
days yeah there was a lot of dark blue
you know that was in you know American
Express or IBM or those kinds of things
so so if you were selling into that
industry and you came out with something
in orange you know you wouldn't
relevant for the industry that's still
kind of true today but now we've got a
lot more to work work it in our palate
so once again memorable relevant than
the other thing I always look at and I
do this kind of when you go to domain
names too is it should be unmissable so
a quick one I had a I was working in a
company that was doing some technology
for the real estate industry a few years
ago and and I was meeting with Wyndemere
and so I had one of the top windermere
execs in my office and I and I just done
some market research and I said you know
guess which website and it was kool
banker Wyndemere or john l scott gets
the most traffic ok and the answer by
the way is john l scott even though they
weren't as large you know a realtor at
the time if the answer is why do they
get the most traffic you can't miss fell
their name and windermere people didn't
get it so i said i'm going to give you
i'm going to give you fifty thousand
dollars worth of consulting free right
now on your way back to your office call
your tech guy and register every
misspelling of Wyndemere and the guy
actually call me back a month later
instead you know well that was the best
$50,000 we never spent spell so when
when Mark asked me to to talk on this
panel eat so we met over coffee
initially and he said I want you to talk
on this panel I said Mark I don't I
don't even know what brand means so so
me and he's in he actually said well
that's that's that's just absolutely
untrue you know exactly what it is and
the fact that you think that is why we
want you on the panel and the reason you
think that is because you you fail to
realize that that brand is is nothing
more than the perception that customers
have of the businesses you invest in and
in and so looking at in that like that
that's utterly accurate so if the
question is what makes a great brand
from our perspective a great brand is is
anything that customers identify with
and leads them to to purchase those
products or services so
brand is is relevant to Voyager capital
into early stage investors to the extent
that it is an illustration of the
perception customers have with with the
company and and in fact and again I've
never read a textbook of branding so I
might be famous speaking relatively to
the real exits on this panel I'll
correct you please give it if that is
true so if you will agree with with my
definition of what brand needs then then
there is in fact nothing more important
to what we do at Voyager capital in
identifying early stage investment
opportunities then brand we have made a
very formalized concerted effort at
approaching brand we call it go to
market strategy with very specific ideas
very specific goals and very specific
strategies for every one of our consumer
companies or every one of our companies
and I should say that ranges from
consumer products to b2b products to and
everything Enterprise enterprise
customers enterprise software everything
in between and in fact we've we've
employed a number of frameworks which
hopefully can get into later around
really understanding what what it is
that our the customers of our companies
are interacting with relative to our
companies and and how they view those
companies so I'm sure we'll have a
chance to get into that but but to us
that's what brand is and that's what
makes a great brand great so I'm going
to throw this back to Dave with sort of
a creative question obviously some of
the largest brands in the world spend
hundreds of millions of dollars on
branding and advertising first startup
who obviously doesn't have that type of
capital to support advertising and brand
what are the starting points as far as
branding and advertising the most
fundamental things that they should be
thinking about as we start building
these brands yeah I think it sadly it's
a similar answer I think you have to you
have to set out with messaging is
even even as your even as you're
thinking of how you're going to name
your company you want to be thinking
about what you stand for what you what
you stand for that people care about and
it's it's easy to get into what I call a
parody land of saying we're that we're
going to be the best where the highest
quality where the foremost provider of
those are those are kind of mission
statement things that sound really good
on paper but in the end the people on
the other end of the brand that are
viewing it they don't really care about
those things because they're parody
level with everybody else who says best
foremost provider of taught highest
quality so you really have to think
start with this kind of ideas for
messaging that that are things that
people care about that they can relate
to and then beyond that I think you can
it's similar to picking a name picking
colors things like that we can Brandon
can evolve from that from those very
basic things but of course you know the
basic things you need are a good name
and a nice little you know logo logo
doesn't have to be anything spectacular
especially when you're a startup but it
can't it can't hurt I think this
probably leads into a financial
discussion of you know how are you going
to afford to get a logo tis
professionally designed and I think the
answer to that is get what you can't
afford that you kind of with the world
of branding logo design and branding you
will get what you pay for I want to go
on record right now as saying please
don't ever use any one of the branding
crowdsourcing sites like logo mail and
stuff like that don't ever do that
please power the problem that you run
into with that is you get what you pay
for a lot of those things are a lot of
things are copyright infringed on those
sites as well as it just being kind of
anti graphic design ethics but I think
the basic things that you want our that
the messaging first think about think
about what what's your cell is which you
know you guys probably all practice your
elevator speech that kind of thing so
thinking about just the
very basic emotional and intellectual
draws of your product or service first I
think those are kind of the basic kind
of free things that you can do that you
don't have to really hire an expert to
do it's kind of funny sometimes we end
up doing that with companies and I'm
often kind of shocked that but they
haven't done that for themselves a lot
of times they needed somebody from the
outside a company has gotten so big they
need somebody from the outside to come
in and kind of tell them who they are
again which is in my opinion that's like
Lillis sure you guys want to pay us to
do that but it seems like you should be
able to do that for yourselves great so
it dave talked a little bit about making
sure you are articulate core values and
value propositions I guess passing this
two-tier on how how do you typically
recommend or advise companies and
articulating these core values or do you
have any examples of companies that have
done a really good job of articulating
really what their core values are in the
past sure and I think when you talk
about core values you talk about you
know what it what it you know if you're
a if you're a corporation or if you're
new and nimble if you're into the green
space you know you need to make sure
that that that your your identity Fitz
Fitz that kind of space and I think Dave
just said something i had a i've had a
mentor and advertising and marketing for
probably the last thirty something years
and he was he was with DD mb and he and
most of you here are probably too young
to even know this but he ran he actually
came up with we're Avis number two and
trying harder one of the classic
campaigns and all of advertising here
and they're both swagging campaign and
so he used to lecture me and say what do
you want people to think about when they
think of you okay and and you know
you've got to get that across with your
brand with your tag lines and with your
positioning okay and if you do that then
then you've done your job you know I
also think that and there's two things
that maybe we'll talk about a little bit
more later but you know how do you how
do you
it right I have a mantra that I use in
my practice which is one of two which is
proved all assumptions doesn't matter
how much I like something I'm going to
go out and I'm going to test that
somehow now if you can afford market
research you know you go out and you do
market research if not you know call
call six people up you know and you know
make sure it's not your relatives but
call you know call up a dozen people and
say what do you think of when you hear
this you know how would you react to
this I mean get some feedback besides
what you're thinking and see if your
messages is resonating correctly and
then the other thing that I would say is
there's there's a real need early on to
be sure in and protect your IP because
you know it look at domain names now
every domain names God okay but but you
know you should become very very
familiar with the US Patent and
Trademark Office why i gotta do is log
in the US PT mo I think it is gov do a
search see if there's a trademark if
it's not you know you don't need an
attorney initially for 300 bucks or so
you can file your own trademark request
and at least then you've got it in the
system you got a date on it now when
people start arguing it actually what
you first do is see no one else has got
it but but then know if you get a
kickback from the patent trademark
office then maybe you talk to your
attorneys you know those things are very
important the other thing is go and
protect your trademark in social media
as well and and I just ended up going
back and claiming for a company their
trademark that and it was already gone
for YouTube for wordpress for Twitter
for facebook they were all gone i
emailed there's there's actually a
there's a there's an email department
within each of those social media sites
that respond immediately because they
don't want to get into lawsuits and they
immediately dump these other registers
because I showed them that we had the
trademark register of the trademark
office we got all of our social media
sites real quick I want to I want to
back up just a little who by show of
hands who in the room considers a brand
to be
your name and logo and who would
consider a brand to be everything that
you do yeah yeah you're right ok cool
istic so that's a great lead into my
next question for Daniel obviously
founders have a large investment in the
brand and what they stand for and what
they want to articulate oftentimes
founders of company all necessarily
experts in the branding field at what
point do you recommend that founders
bring in outside experts to help them
deal with branding okay so shall we it
depends on how about this it depends on
if it's a strategic question or tactical
question so strategically you should you
ought you ought to be thinking about
your brand from from the instant you've
decided to you know to form a company
there are all kinds of technologies that
are being developed as projects at the
University of Washington or in people's
garages or wherever the second you go
from being a project or the second you
go from being a technology to a product
is the second you decide to start
thinking about your brand you know as a
technology you don't need any customers
and it's fun and it's interesting and
you probably solve some very interesting
questions written some really
interesting algorithms or whatever it is
the second do the instant you make the
change to wheel I want to sell this to
somebody is the second you start
thinking about your brand and how that
customer eventually will consider you in
reverse that to me is very strategic
that's baseline that's that is get
around the table and brainstorm how
we're going to talk about our product Oh
what what pain is this is this is this
product now solving for our customer or
future customers and and I think I think
strategically those those types of big
meta-level questions can can inform your
kind of strategic tornado that's
spinning around your business plan now
now at some point it becomes a taxable
issue which is we've defined what we're
going to do
which itch we're going to scratch and
now let's start layering in messaging
campaigns social media logos etc etc etc
and and that really would would would
continue to bolster the perception that
your customers have of you but but
initially its I wouldn't even separate
it I wouldn't even suggest that you
should think of anything beyond brand or
go to market or customer perception in
those in this early formative stages of
course there's a lot of technological
innovation that should continue to
happen in the company as you continue to
understand customers problems on a more
on a more on a more pinpointed basis but
but it would be it would certainly be a
mistake if if you if you went a day
without without considering branding or
initially from a strategic perspective
one of the things that's really tough
about answering these questions I think
is that there is no branding cookie
cutter solution assembly line step 1
through 10 best practices there's just
not it's it's kind of like triage in an
emergency room when we do it we each
each each client comes in and you have
to kind of size up what those needs are
based on what the product is what
they're like what the company's mission
is you know a packaged good is going to
have much much different branding needs
than a software company or a internet
based sales company or a social media
application development company so each
one of those a package good for example
you know at that i would i would say
packaging becomes your face even more
important than your logo and so that's
probably your one you're going to want
to get the best professional help you
can afford to get to help you do that
unless you're incredibly gifted yourself
with designer advertising stuff but I
mean add that when you were saying you
know you do the best you can which is
true but remember that the brand really
is going to live with you forever you
only get one chance to do it and you've
got to do it right you know Casey always
redo it
yeah it for going to cost more you can
update okay but dealing I was going to
mention is that this you know the the
CEO or the founder kind of thing you
know there's this phenomena that we deal
with in marketing and advertising and
creative which is I don't think anybody
in wellman probably not many people in
the room would think about doing surgery
on themselves or a family member but
anybody can create an ad right they
think everybody can do creative right
well it's it's not true I mean that's
where you have to bring in professionals
and there's a lot of things that go into
that picture and so I've heard some you
know I've actually started working for
some companies that had horrible brands
and it was too late to do anything now I
went back in and I tried the retrofit
the branding of their products and the
branding of their positioning and those
kinds of things and so we sort of saved
the day but that's the other thing to
keep in mind is that when you're talking
about branding you're talking about your
corporate brand you're probably talking
about products and product brands and
the product brands need to be extensible
so that you know you can you can grow
into whatever it is that you're going to
be producing but the other thing is
products if if branded correctly they
all reinforced each other that grow your
business they grow awareness and they
end up going demand for your product so
to your on both you and then you'll
spoke about social media and I think
especially for startups they look at
social media is being a very inexpensive
endeavor into brand work can you talk a
little bit about when and how are the
red x to engage in social media and then
also when is the wrong time and how to
not do it because that's an easy
question right yah well in it you know
it's it's it's pretty amazing these days
I've been I've worked in a couple of
very specific industries over the last
12 months with some clients and so I've
gone to a couple of big trade shows and
the trade shows all have breakout
sessions and education things and
seminars and most of the sessions you
know you know percentage-wise what's
going on
have been on social media now and
everybody thinks that you know if I get
a facebook page in a Twitter page and
I've got a YouTube thing and you know
whatever you know I'm going to end up
selling a whole lot of product well
that's not the case okay first off you
need to understand the demographics of
each of those social media venues and
they're very very different secondly and
you know this is no news content is king
okay if you don't have good compelling
content if you don't keep it fresh okay
and if you don't have ways of pushing it
out so that people know it's there okay
your social media is not going to do
anything and then again as far as the
brand's concern okay that's the place
like I said one go and claim your names
okay because if you have hopefully you
have a trademark on your corporate name
if you do you can get all your social
media names okay and then make sure that
that every place that people see you
they see your brand they see your they
see your you know I actually my agency
Wickham's healthy we I was just showing
a Dave some things a second ago besides
doing a brand for me they gave me a
whole graphics elements you know
planning set of materials and graphic
elements that's okay a toolkit so I've
got so I've got little blue waves and
I've got you know backgrounds and I've
got you know different shadows and and
and spider web things that we can put on
our materials and so everything that we
do uses our graphic elements so when you
look at the the companies that I work
for you'll see that you know you can
look at it you can say that's so until
company because that's their look and
that's what you want to get to it looked
kind of nice to I could tell you did it
though I'll bring it that so are there
any questions out there at the moment
i well and I'm not trying to drum up
business for my agency friends or for
myself but but I I go to the
professionals first you know I learned
I'm not I'm not artist I'm not a
graphics person I'm pretty good at going
in and describing very clearly what
industry we're in what's problem we're
solving the demographic of the people
that we're trying to communicate with
the feel of the industry or maybe the
the social commitments are the product
commitments and when you work with a
great agency they take that and they
turn it into you know an element a
graphic element that represents you I
can't do that so I've done it sometimes
very inexpensively in comparison and
other times you know I go out and I get
as much as I can get from the clients I
work for you know within reason and and
I met her that you know I've done agency
searches just to see who I could afford
to work with in some cases and i would i
would very early go to professionals
because like i said you only get one
chance to do this okay your image is
your image your brand is your brand it
speaks for you i would say to the social
media question i would say that it's
very important from very early stage to
make sure that you have a web presence
and so there's a lot of very deep nuance
of thinking that goes into SEO and sem
google rankings and all that and that
can get very expensive very quickly like
exponentially expensive right to get to
that last you don't need to go to the
vertical part of that that curve but you
ought to think about your web presence
and test it yourself on a day-to-day
basis and there's very inexpensive
options for you know you can diagnose
your website
and you know unless I'm missing a title
I'm missing missing content here's two
broken links all these things hurt me
and my google rankings fix those and
it's easy forty fifty dollars a month
doesn't cost you anything and it's very
important and web presence right comes a
lot of performance make sure you have a
twitter handle that that you use
frequently and twitter is great because
i found this out recently you can say
tweet this at 135 on friday and i think
that might be HootSuite but they're
right so usually don't you use you know
get there get there on late on thursday
night or whenever you think of it right
aight tweets and schedule them out for
the week so to do little things like
that to have a web presence and enable
people who are searching you to find him
because we're just doing that you have
grandma's age and stuff you know too
much
I've got a I've got a solution that I
use and one is I don't think you can
ride really compelling blogs are put out
your materials on you know any of the
social media even your website if you're
not a subject matter expert okay you
want the person that knows the most
about whatever it is that you're selling
to be talking about and unfortunately if
that's you that means you've got to do
it but i also have a proofreader okay
and you know i actually went on
craigslist about a year and a half ago
because i had a company that decided
they didn't want to spend money on an
agency to do public relations so they
said you can write it you just write the
press release in sports and i said okay
fine I'll you know I'm not a no but
we'll save some money and I'll do press
releases so and I know their technology
pretty well so I could do that I'm sort
of a subject matter expert but
grammatically or you know annealing is I
type way faster than I think you know so
I'm throwing in extra words and you know
who knows and so I went on Craigslist I
found a i found a proofreader that she's
got a PhD in divinity from harvard and
she's you know and so she's got time on
her hands i guess but but it turns out
that she's done proofreading for books
and magazines and whatever and she
charges me like 30 bucks an hour to do
pre fruity and so and she's in boston so
you know i send stuff over to her you
know when i finish in the inn and
evening usually within an hour to
because she's at home she fires this
thing back i would say she spends maybe
15 minutes on a press release you know
just proofreading by the way she
rephrase 'as things for me she corrects
errors for me you know it comes back and
about once once would be two months she
sends me a paypal bill and I over like
45 bucks right so uh you know so that's
it you know get to get the most islands
you can get and then find yourself a
great proofreader or come see me and
i'll share her with you maybe she'll get
out of that divinity job if we get her
an appropriate i think one of the
biggest mistakes people make with social
media is
not really having a plan for it I mean
that's what we see in the advertising
world is people just kind of have they
don't really have a plan for what
they're doing they put the same
information out through every single
channel there's all kinds of different
information there's new product
information there's customer service
feedback all this stuff happening all at
the same place and I think there are
people who are making the best use of
social media are the ones who have it
kind of a purpose for each part of
social media that they do and they have
it as a plan part of a larger
communication plan that they have it's
kind of hard to name an exact detail
example of that but you get what I mean
a lot of people go out and they're like
well we have to be on Facebook and
Facebook just becomes a place suddenly
for people who like them to see all the
bad things that have that are happening
with it that their company is doing
their company is poisoning streams or
whatever that people are posting will
post articles and stuff and I would say
that is another thing about social media
you need to keep in mind is it's become
the great equalizer you can no longer be
Enron or even be of a really anymore
people just if you're if you're not good
for the world are good for business or
good for people they'll find out and you
and they'll post about it and they'll
write about it and everyone will see it
and know and the people that will know
it no and see are the people that
previously said they liked you so anyway
that's the point is to have a have a
larger plan for social media I think
I kind of have this running joke in my
family whenever we see a store play the
name like jeans are us and I with my
wife and I say what do they do here's a
great example the people in the back
there they make video like it's pretty
obvious what they do so this there's
kind of two opposite ends of the extreme
I don't know that there's anyone right
solution there but I think that it has a
lot to do with your intentions as a
business how out how do you want to be
perceived you there's a kind of a cool
hip factor that you can go for it one in
but in on the on the other end is you
can be completely pragmatic and
straightforward so it really depends on
on your kind of I think personal gut
check as so as to what you want the
company to be like how you want it to be
to perceived you want it to be perceived
as straightforward and pragmatic or do
you want to be perceived as kind of hip
and on the edge right now or somewhere
in between these this guy's got a lot of
experience with naming some good some
not so good you know zulily is great
great example I mean you know that
that's a company that certainly you you
know I think you can have a cool name
and you can have a relevant name as well
and sometimes relevant doesn't
necessarily mean that you know it
doesn't need to be high-end torrents
clothes or us right but but if you but
if you think about the emotion the feel
of zulily its its child like it's you
know but it's but it's kind of high end
right so you know that's that's where
you bring in the professionals you bring
and the artsy folks you know to say you
know we can represent that feeling of
what you know you're trying to establish
with your company through this kind of a
name we've worked without yeah we've
worked with all sorts of people don't
have a big budget yeah that Nike logo
started it said nike at first though
they spent years and years and a lot of
money to get to the point where they
could drop starbucks coffee off of their
logo I mean oh sorry that's a different
company it takes it takes a long time to
get to that point I think that you you
need a verbal cue you can't have just a
visual cue it has to be it has to be a
verbal cue yeah yeah you know I work out
for him you know and I huh I would say
that that the certainly the name is one
of the things we're talking about it and
branding the logo also is very important
if you can get a recognizable logo once
again you got tied to the name you know
you have to train people to do that you
know the the comment on international
brings up a good point which is one as
you're looking at names you know
especially if you're looking at you know
some of these zulily or something right
you know you need to make sure that the
markets that you're going in if it's an
appropriate name you know when it
doesn't mean you know dog water ours or
something so so in yeah yeah I would say
that that's you know something you got
to look at I would I would bring up one
thing that's important right now too is
if you want there's one of those middle
grounds between being super kind of cool
and hip and being really pragmatic with
naming is something that has meaning
that's maybe a little obscure like Nike
I mean that that's if everyone knows
that story but it's you know there's so
there was some soul-searching in some
thought that went into picking that name
and it's relevant I don't know what not
about having the social media campaign
so what are my options again my my
friends we're starting a food
cooperative in Yakima so and so what are
the options as far as doing that what
you've said is having a campaign around
social media I think that that one of
the great places to start with social
media is to kind of educate yourself on
kind of the basic blocking and tackling
of PR a little bit you want to kind of
have a message platform like a thing
that you say and then and then kind of
figure out how you're going to use each
channel so if you want to just report on
things that have to do with your product
field facebook is that's you decide that
that's what you're going to kind of do
with with say Facebook but if you want
to drive people to events and sales and
things like that then maybe twitter is a
little bit better but at the same time
you just it depends on your product or
service in your company what it is but I
would say if you really want to look at
kind of the where to start i would say
pick up some basic books on public
relations first that that's that the
kind of thinking that the public
relations firms do is very much similar
to the way advertising is where they
start with this if they're very good at
it they start with this kind of what's
our message what is its like if you're
being interviewed for the news what's
your point what's your thing that you
say what what is the thing you stand for
and kind of base all your editorial off
of that I but I mean just I think cause
some common sense would be that you know
Twitter is very much
a kind of very active very responsive
great way to tell people that there's an
event happening at a certain place at a
certain time or yes but and so there's
there's kind of some basic things that
makes sense for but they're still
everyone's still kind of discovering
about what works and what doesn't for
for that so it's it's hard to say that
there's any kind of best practice or
rules or anything like that anytime
matter of fact I would say as an overall
rule anybody who says these are the ten
best practices for anything related to
marketing or ranting they are full of
crap they are completely full of it
because it will change tomorrow but I
mean we'll try to give you the best
knowledge we have well we'll do one more
quick question and then we will do the
little breakouts
yes yeah I think I think it becomes
about well it's obviously becomes about
you but it comes it comes about it
becomes about qualifications like your
resume so to speak so only it becomes
about you I guess you're if you're a
coach I guess it would become about your
accomplishments and history and time and
and also results-oriented i would say
that those are probably wait and you're
the you're the entity so you know you
still have to position yourself right
you've got it you've got to talk about
what it is that you know what problems
you solve and how you do that and why
you're the best person to be able to do
that and and talk about you know track
record and reputation and those kinds of
things you might be able to find some
hook though some real some real point of
difference that you have 50 if you dig
deep enough and make that kind of the
basis for for your business operation
there might be something you do that's
that's better than everybody else or
different than everybody else I think if
I could add one thing as far as the
branding discussion goes what branding
ultimately is is not about what your
company is but it's about how it's
perceived and perception is reality at
the end of the day so figure out how you
want people to perceive your company and
then brand yourself that way can I say
one thing to follow up on that yes I
know that we're wearing look so so we
take a really active role in that in
that precise piece in we try to
implement what we called net promoter
score which is I think something
probably a lot of people have heard of
now it's a start off as an academic
discussion and now it's really turned
into a very very practical one and Net
Promoter scores a really really simple
survey to give to your customers and you
ask them only would you refer us to
another customer and the likelihood of
you referring to us will you please rate
us in a 1 through 10 10 being not only
will I would already have in one or zero
being never
away and the the net promoter score the
equation is really simple it is anybody
who gives you one through six you assign
a negative one to all of those anybody
who gives you a seven or eight the sine
of 0 and anybody gives you a nine or ten
assign a one and you want to be positive
and you want to be very positive on that
score in fact you can give yourself a
percentage out of that we we we found
that to be the the most the most
actionable brand measurement tool in our
portfolio companies in fact we have
implemented in maybe half our portfolio
companies compensation being directly
linked to a promoter score for the CEOs
and have the sales team inside a quick
thing I've got a quick one I also want
to talk about how you can you can use
your brand and all sorts of
unconventional places a few years ago I
had a good friend of starting a medical
malpractice company and so he called it
cranium insurance so he sends me this
thing over him by the way it was CRA you
know it was done in the Google kind of
colors so uh you know I happen to know
Richard Tate who started he invented the
game cranium and I said you know first
of all Richard's gonna come to sue the
pants off of you and secondly what are
you doing are you ensuring only brain
surgeons you know I so you know we sat
down we started looking at the brand and
so we came up with this name advocate md
and i went ahead a logo person designed
a great logo they like the idea of it so
the first thing i did was i had their vp
of sales get advocate md stenciled on
his golf bag the guy couldn't get to the
third hole without having a doctor come
up and say what do you do and he goes
all we do medical malpractice insurance
right so the good news here is a bath mb
was just acquired two years ago by one
of the largest insurance companies for
hundreds of millions of dollars and the
enemy acquire has kept the name they
become the i think they're probably the
second largest medical malpractice
company in the southwest right now but
you know you can put it on golf bags so
don't forget that okay well thank you
guys for the questions thank you to the
panel now Dave Kieran and Dan are going
to sit at different tables for
breakout session and if people want to
ask individual or more specific
questions to any of these guys I
encourage you to do so I will as well so
thank you