from Coca-Cola Art Gallery on flickr

I spent a good part of Saturday with one of my clients, FuegoMundo, assisting with their booth at a local Latin street festival. It was a lot of fun. And it was good to get out into the trenches to do some real hand-to-hand marketing.

Before the festival started, all of the exhibitors (Latin restaurant merchants) were invited to hear from Jose Espinoza, Director of Multi-Cultural Commercialization + Customer Programming for Coca-Cola North America. He did a presentation on how to strategize around the Latinization of American cuisine. It was an interesting discussion.

During his talk, he made reference to something that got me thinking. Speaking about Coke, he said that they don’t really have to work on “building” the brand we know as Coke. Being one of the most recognizable brands on the planet, people either love the brand – or they do not. But he said the most important thing they need to do is MAINTAIN the brand. They have to be sure that the experience is always good.

Coke doesn’t want you to have a flat soda at a restaurant. They don’t want a product you buy at a store to NOT be what you expect. If your experience with a Coke product is sub par – even one time – it begins to erode their brand. In addition, they have to worry that a poor Coke experience at YOUR restaurant negatively impacts your restaurant’s brand too.

Now, save for a few other companies on the planet, most of us do not have the brand affinity – or the brand awareness of Coke. But we do have brands. And that brand is EVERYTHING to us – and impacts our ability to go to market.

But just like Coke has to work to maintain it’s brand, so do we. We have to be certain our customers continue to get the experience they expect. And whether you like it or not, this is a 24/7 undertaking. Here are a few things you can do to do some marketing maintenance:

Get feedback from customers – Always be seeking feedback from your customers. Did the experience live up to their expectations? Find out direct from the source how you can improve and perfect! And then APPLY it where appropriate!

Question everything – How is this decision I am about to make going to impact my customer’s experience? Will it make it better? Don’t assume anything. Always challenge yourself and your organization! And empower everyone in the organization to question things…

Test, test, test – Test everything. And test it again. Don’t launch a new idea, a new service, a new website, etc., until you know it will deliver as intended and expected.

Demand the best – Always demand the best from the people in your organization. If people who work in your organization aren’t giving their best effort, remove them. Find someone committed to the principles your organization – and your brand – is built on.

Take pride – If you aren’t taking pride in everything you do, then you will ultimately fail. Or at best be mediocre. And this even applies to the person cleaning your shop at the end of the day. If the cleaning crew takes pride in what they do, you have a fighting chance!

So, there are a few ways to maintain your brand. What do you think? And what are other things to think about when doing maintenance marketing? Just keep in mind that all of us, not just Coke, have to maintain our brand!

Be Intrepid.

This post was picked up by The Customer Collective!