Nothing comes close to beating the zipper.  

Tired of ‘innovate or die’ hype? YKK zippers has an interesting branding lesson. The zipper is an old invention with relatively new applications. It was the brainchild of Whitcomb Judson of Chicago in 1893. Only in 1913 did Gideon Sundbach re-engineer Judson’s fastener into a more streamlined and reliable form. And it wasn’t until the mid 1930’s that zippers were embraced and became a viable business success. No other high tech solution has replaced it. Velcro doesn’t come close.

Most zippers have YKK on them. 

If you have wondered why there is an interesting history to the modern version of the zipper. In 1934, Yoshida Kogyo Kabushililaisha was founded. In 1994 the privately held firm headquartered in Japan, changed its name to YKK Co.  In size and complexity the company would rival any major high tech international firm and consists of 80 companies at 206 facilities in 52 countries. They manufacture everything from the brass to the dyes used in the cloth and made over 1.5 million miles of them last year. 

“A fair company on which customer’s can depend.”

This is how YKK describes itself. It makes a lot of sense and is a great message for sales personnel to carry to their customers.  The point here is to state a clear message of who you are. So many companies and personnel fail to get this message across to their customers and suffer because of it. Forget the marketing hype for a minute (because your customers ignore it as well).

What makes you different from Brand X?

How is your company known? How would your company like to be known as? You need the answers to these questions because your customers frame them in another way: What makes you different from Brand X? If you don’t have the answer or simply haven’t learned it, stop everything until you do.

And for goodness sakes, don’t state some slick marketing line. Unfortunately, sales people are often perceived as a little suspicious until the customer gets to know you. Using a slick statement can trigger an even greater defense. Whatever you say, make it real, simple and natural. Branding yourself and your company into a one liner is a hard but valuable task. Take a few minutes and get your team together to create one. Maybe even ask some of your customers for ideas.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

CRM is a good platform to standardize branding though communication protocols that can be imbedded throughout the customer interaction routines.

• ‘Marvel’ allows a prescribed series of activities that are specific to email content, brochure distribution and even talk scripts
• Template files are an easy way to provide branding and content standardization especially when used in licensed or controlled industries to ensure compliance
• MosaicCRM’s ‘Sales Intelligence’ is a suite of modules designed for specific Product Knowledge, Features/Benefits, References and more

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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