DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF
How Rick Ardon and Susannah Carr taught me my first big lesson about how brands really work.
It is funny how you sweat the small stuff, but when you are a commercial television news director, I can tell you that even what might seem a minor issue can keep you awake at night.
Back in the 1990s, when I was serving my time in that role at Channel Seven, I worked myself up into a right royal state over the question of changing the name of the 6pm news bulletin.
A bit of background is necessary here. Back then, the Seven Network adopted the opening theme music, branding, and branding conventions of NBC in the United States. At the time, their bulletin aired under the name “NBC News with Tom Brokaw” (it did that for 22 years, I think).
So, anyway, adopting the musical theme and basic graphic package also meant that we took on a version of their name — minus the Tom Brokaw bit, of course. So, what had been (I think) Channel Seven News became Seven Nightly News. I’ve underlined the word “nightly” because that’s what I became a bit obsessed about.
I am sure not every current or former TV News Director is or was the same as me, living with the constant fear of making a hash of the job, but trust me, you could become quite paranoid about making even the slightest change that could trigger a plunge in ratings (especially if you were winning).
No, Rick, wear the RED tie. Mrs Jones from Ballajura phoned in the other night to say she loves you in that RED tie. If you switch to blue, I just know she’s going to tell all her friends at the bowling club to switch over to Channel Nine.
So, back to the name. The thing was that outside of the 6pm news, we also produced other, admittedly shorter bulletins throughout the day, and it began to strike me as ridiculous that at midday, with the sun shining brightly, the news break opener featured the title “Seven Nightly News update”. Nightly? It was the middle of the day! The sun was blaring down – that just seems plain idiotic.
So, I sweated on it, mulled it over, thought through the scenario where I instructed our production team to drop the “nightly” bit out of our name and just went with plain old “Seven News”, precipitating our ratings falling off a cliff, management pointing the finger at me and the inevitable loss of my job and livelihood. (Yep, I was paranoid.)
In the end, I could stand it no longer and decided to seek the advice of the head of our then-advertising agency, Stephen Wells. (I am sure Stephen forgot about the conversation a minute after it occurred, but anyway.) That’s when my lesson in what really matters when it comes to a brand began and why the name is nowhere as important as you might think.
To my surprise, Stephen was incredibly laid back about the whole thing. I can’t attest to these being his exact words, but the conversation went something like this:
Me: Steve, I am thinking about dropping the name “nightly” from our name because it seems so stupid putting a news bulletin to air in the middle of the day called Seven NIGHTLY news.
Steve: So, what are you worried about?
Me: Well, you know, people don’t like change — and this could trigger them to stop watching — they won’t know who we are — they might suddenly switch onto those very smart people at Channel Nine who have NOT foolishly changed their name!
And this is where the wise counsel came.
Steve: (Pause). So John, what name do you think your viewers use now when they refer to your news bulletin?
Me: (Pause) Well, I suppose, the Channel Seven News, the six o’clock news with Susannah and Rick, the Seven National News… (Pause).
Steve: Yep, I doubt many of them would even notice if you decided to drop the word “nightly” out of your name. The thing is that their loyalty to the news is based on the product itself and, more importantly, the relationship they have with Rick and Susannah. For them, it is about sitting down at 6pm every night with a cup of tea and spending half an hour with Rick and Sue in their loungeroom, telling them what’s been going on that day. Oh yes, there’s that lovely Jeff Newman who always has a cheery smile and a bad joke. (Sorry Jeff, they weren’t THAT bad.)
The penny dropped — in fact, quite a few pennies. He was right — the name didn’t matter anywhere near as much as I was fearing. A few years later, when I accidentally became GM of Marketing at HBF, I observed that 10 years after the company started calling itself by the acronym “H.B.F.”, just about every member over the age of 50 still referred to us as “The Hospital Benefit Fund”.
I’ve applied that learning many times since in my consulting career and I am indebted to Stephen Wells for his sage advice and another important step in understanding what really matters when it comes to brand. It’s all about the relationship, the value and the benefit, the people who serve you — half the time, you might not even remember their name! Ask me the name of the accounting firm I use for my business? Couldn’t tell you. It’s Tom who I ring up when I need advice about my tax return. My local café changed its name about a year ago: I couldn’t tell you the new name of the joint, I just go there every day because I like to sit, drink my soy flat white, read the paper and enjoy a bit of banter with the barista.
Of course, I am not saying a name doesn’t matter at all — everyone selling a product or service needs some form of an identifier — but it is ultimately the value I derive from “whatz-a-m-callit” plumbing services that really matters. They always arrive on time and the tap never drips afterwards.
So, when it comes to names, you can move on and sweat about something else. By the way, I doubt you’ll even remember who wrote this little bit of blurb: “Ah, yes now. It was that cranky old guy who used to work for Channel Nine – Jack, Roger, Elroy…John, was it?” Buggered if I know.
For more insights and ramblings on strategic business communications and marketing from JLCA Director John Le Cras, visit the JLCA Journal page.
