Durango, CO: A Winning Brand (Smart Monday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. Today we are in Durango, Colorado.  Smithsonian Magazine recently selected Durango as one of the top 20 best small communities in the United States.  The strategic question is what makes Durango so special.

Think about branding from the perspective of the 7Ps.  First is product, Durango is a gorgeous, historic town in the San Juan Mountains next to the Animas River.  It has blocks of restored store fronts, a four year college, a ski resort and it’s an outdoor adventure community.

Price - you can find condos in Durango from $149,000 to homes for $2 Million.  There is quite a diverse range of housing prices.

Promotion – Durango advertises a consistent message that it offers a great quality of life, higher education and numerous outdoor adventures.

Place – Durango is situated in the southwest corner of Colorado, close to New Mexico and the Four Corners region.  Mesa Verde national park is nearby.  It is ideally situated and has great four season weather.

There are great people in Durango as well.  Everyone seems to be an outdoor enthusiast.  They want to make sure that you have a good time and they are here to have a good time themselves.

Physical evidence - As you look around town it is evident that merchants take great pride in the facades of their storefronts and make them inviting to you the customer to come on in.

Process - I heard a wonderful story yesterday.  There was a restaurant fire on Main Avenue, and within one day a former mayor had coordinated raising $30,000 to assist the displaced waiters/waitresses through the time it would take to reopen the restaurant.

Positioning - Durango has staked a claim on being one of the best small towns in all of America.  It provides great quality of life, they understand the 7Ps and constantly work to ensure people outside the community know it’s a great place to live, to work and to play.

Like any product, it’s important for a community to have a brand as well.  Durango’s brand is exemplary.

That concludes our Smart Monday.  Be sure and stop by tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

5 Social Media Predictions (Digital Friday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Digital Friday and I’m going to pull out my crystal ball and give you a few predictions as to where I think the world of social media marketing is headed.

It’s taken a few years but one can’t argue that social media is here to stay.  It is being driven by the ever increasing capability of technology used to access social media content.  Consumers crave all types of content and companies are finding success creating that content and sharing it with customers in interesting/innovative ways.  Technology, demand and supply have come together, creating benefits for business and customers.

Here are my five social media predictions.  Don’t hold me to them, however, I’m fairly confident that they are going to happen sometime in the near term.

Number One is the proliferation of social media channels and apps.  We see that every day.  More and more are coming online.

Number two, with this proliferation there’s going to be a lot more content.  If you think what we have available today is a lot just wait until tomorrow.  It’s interesting to note that in 2011 there were one trillion views on YouTube.  Customers out there are seeking content.

Number three is choosing the right channel to distribute your content.  You can’t be in all places at all times.  You will have to determine how you position your digital content and which social channel you use.

All this content is going to create more clutter.  We’ll be bombarded daily, hourly, practically every minute with more and more social media content.  In the future there is going to be ways to filter this content so it actually reaches the desired customer.  That’s number four.

And the last prediction, Number 5, is that there is going to be real-time response to customers by businesses.  Now that we have the ability to interact with customers in a social media capacity they’re going to want information and we have the ability and the obligation to get back to them ASAP or even faster than that…immediately.

Leveraging social media for your business is no longer a question of if but when.  You absolutely have to be embracing social media to be successful in the market place today.  If you are not, start now.  If you are already using social media channels the next step is to determine how to be very targeted in the delivery of your social media content.  You must have engaging content, consistent delivery and a way to cut through the clutter.  If you can do that you will find a market out there following your content.

That concludes Digital Friday.  Try to stop by next week.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Consistent Messaging Inside and Out (Action Wednesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  It’s Action Wednesday and before we begin I would like to remind you to please send me your comments, like our Facebook page, retweet, and share your thoughts.  The more you share the more we can enhance your Once a Day Marketing experience. 

Today we will discuss consistent messaging inside your company and out.

Every day we talk about branding and marketing.  It’s important for you to develop a branding and marketing campaign.  I know you’ve been working on it or have already implemented.  You’re identifying target customers, creating a compelling message and you’re trying to be consistent and repetitive with that message so that people hear it over and over again.  It takes time to have your company be top of mind when it comes to buying your product.

Once the message has been created, what are doing to make sure everyone inside your organization is on the same page regarding that messaging?

Remember, everybody in your company is a brand ambassador.  It’s critical for them to be on the same page with you with respect to the messaging you’re sharing with the public.  When customers comes in, phone or email, they should be sharing the same compelling, consistent message that you are.

For example, a small community is sharing a message that they are a tourism destination and there are many things to do in town.  If a tourist comes to town, sits down in a restaurant and asks the waiter what is there to do in town and the waiter answers “There’s nothing to do in this town.”  All the marketing and branding goes out the window.  It’s vital to ensure that the messaging you’re sharing with your audience is also understood by the people inside your organization or in this case the town.

That concludes Action Wednesday.  Stop by tomorrow for Recon Thursday. To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Ad Throwdown: Flo vs Gecko vs Mayhem (Recon Thursday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  It is Recon Thursday and we are going to have some fun looking at how several companies are working to achieve recognition and recall.

Before we begin I want you to think about insurance companies and the ads you’ve seen on television.  What’s coming to mind?

The three insurance companies I immediately think of are Progressive, Geico and Allstate.  They are all competing for recognition and recall and are top of mind for me personally.

What those companies most want is that when I need insurance I will seek a quote from them.  None of them have brand dominance in my opinion, there is not one I think of to the exclusion of the others.  All are competing in the same product class and are doing a good job as a result of their advertising.

The following describes how these three companies have positioned themselves in recent television advertising.  For Progressive, Flo comes to mind.  She is dressed in white, in a very clean computer software store and she’s selling insurance packages.

Next, Geico.  When I think of Geico I do think of the Gecko and picture him and his Australian accent.  Geico also runs other campaigns including the recent insurance “taste test” and Maxwell the Pig who squeals in the back of a car.

And then you have Allstate who has been running ads around various situations involving Mayhem.  Mayhem is depicted as a bruised and battered man a result of some recent mishap.  The message: thank goodness for insurance that covers Mayhem.

Are these advertising campaigns doing a good job?  As I mentioned earlier, they’re all top of mind for me.  I thought of all of them as potential insurance companies for future business.  They’ve met their objective there.

Wondering if people would actually seek these commercials out on their own rather than only viewing them via television, I took a look at YouTube.

Progressive and Flo had as many as 300,000 views for one commercial.  Geico can boast 600,000 views for the gecko.  But the winner by far is Mayhem with 1.9 million views for one video.  People have taken time out of their life to actually go watch a commercial on YouTube.  I think that’s pretty impressive.

That concludes Recon Thursday stop by tomorrow for Digital Friday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Becoming a Total Solutions Company (Strategic Tuesday/Product)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy for Once a Day Marketing. Today is Strategic Tuesday and I’ll share advice that will have your customers thinking of your company more often.

The strategy to consider is becoming what I call a total solutions company.  This will allow customers to see you as a brand or a company that will meet a greater number of their needs.  Eliminate customer perception of you as narrow focused with respect to your offerings and become the one-stop-shop for them.

Customers often have a fixed budget to accomplish a project.  If you are thought of as a total solutions company and perceived as offering more products, there is a greater chance you will get a larger percentage of their total budget than you would have otherwise when you were only offering a narrow product range.

Let me share with you how the total solutions concept has enabled me to evolve my business.  Initially, I established a film and video production company and my goal was to make great videos.  I found that clients didn’t only require video, they also needed other media so my company wasn’t top of mind.

I revamped my company and added all media types to my offerings.  I was now a media production company, not just a video production company, so my clients considered me when they needed any form of media.  However, then I found they weren’t always thinking about media because it wasn’t the strategy they were pursuing.

I repositioned my company for a third time and established a total solutions company that would drive strategy and would play into all forms of media and video.  I broadened my offerings over the years.

You’ll have to define what total solutions means to your company.  It may be a great strategy for you to consider in the future.  It would be beneficial to have your customers turning to you for more solutions then they do currently.  Implement in stages and expand your offerings over time.

Thanks for watching.  Please join us tomorrow for Action Wednesday.  If you need branding support, please contact me to discuss an online or face to face service engagement.  That information can be found at the end of this video.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Branding: Recognition vs Recall (Smart Monday/Positioning)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Smart Monday and we are going to review one of my favorite aspects of branding, the difference between recognition and recall.

Let’s take a moment and define these terms.  Recognition is familiarity with your brand from past experience.  Someone may not know where they have heard of your product, they may not even know what your product does but somehow the brand is in their mind.

Recall is when a brand comes to mind at the time of purchase in a particular product class.  If I am thinking about buying a car Ford, Chrysler or Porsche might come to mind.  All of those are being recalled at the time of a purchase.

There are two additional terms I would like to discuss.  The first is “top of mind”.  That means the first brand that comes to mind when someone is thinking about buying a product in a particular class.

The second is “brand dominance”.  This occurs when a person only thinks of one brand when making a purchase in a particular product class.  How great would it be if that brand was yours?

You don’t need to have sky high recognition across a broad audience.  The goal is to achieve recognition and good recall with your target customers.  On the negative side, there is something called “the graveyard” which is when you have high recognition, however, people are not recalling your product when it comes time to buy.

Your objective is to ensure customers recognize your brand.  Again, that recognition doesn’t have to be off the charts, it just needs to be enough recognition and recall by your niche audience so they think about your brand and your products when they are making a purchase.  Top of mind is even better, so they think of you first.  A long term goal would be brand dominance.  It takes time to accomplish, however, customers won’t thinks about any other brand, they will just think of yours when it comes time to buy that product.

That wraps up Smart Monday.  Try to join us tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday.  If you need branding support, please contact me to discuss an online or face to face service engagement.  That information can be found at the end of my video.  I am Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we will see you next time.

5 Great Reasons to Blog (Digital Friday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy for Once a Day Marketing. Today is Digital Friday and I’m going to share five great reasons to blog.

To blog or not to blog, that is the question.  Blogging can be a big time commitment.  You have to create relevant content that’s going to resonate with your customers.  Blogging just for the sake of blogging isn’t going to add value if no one follows you.  Blogging is a good fit for some business owners and perhaps you’re that person.

Here are my top 5 reasons to blog.

First, it keeps you on top of your game.  When creating a blog and presenting it to your audience you have to stay current on your subject matter and be an expert.

Number two, you become branded as the expert because you are now creating original content and people are following you, trusting your brand, and becoming more confident in your information.

Three, it creates an inbound marketing campaign.  We’ve talked about the importance of that previously.  You are creating a presence on the internet and competing against other businesses that are also creating inbound marketing campaigns.

Four, it is a very useful tool.  When I am talking to potential clients I send a link to one of my video blogs that directly relates to what we’re just talking about.  The blog is a powerful marketing tool in its own right.

And five, you are able to engage your followers.  They will comment, share likes and dislikes and you have the opportunity to respond and develop a relationship.

These are some of the many compelling reasons for blogging.  However, it isn’t for everyone.  I love blogging.  I’m communicating with you right now and creating a relationship.  If that is something you would like to do, then seriously consider blogging in the future.

That concludes Digital Friday.  Join us next week for Smart Monday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

The Faster Better Cheaper Way (Recon Thursday/Product)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and today is Recon Thursday.  I know you’ve all heard the expression: faster better cheaper.  That is what we are going to talk about today.

Just think how much more your customers and potential customers will appreciate your product and brand if you deliver faster, better cheaper.

Faster means getting product to the customer more quickly.  If they want your product and they can get it into their hands immediately that’s going to be a good experience.

Better.  Think about Procter & Gamble.  They’ve always said things like “new” and “improved”.  What can you do to make your product new, improved or somehow better in the minds of your customers?

Cheaper.  There are two elements to that, the price is lower or customers get more value for the same dollar.  Faster, better cheaper will allow you to enhance your brand and drive more dollars.

Look around your company for faster, better, cheaper opportunities.  You might use profit as a selection criteria as to which one you will pursue.  That will lead to an enhanced bottom line.  You may also consider the easiest or the quickest way to implement a faster, better, cheaper strategy.  Once you have accomplished the first strategy, look at another and over time you will be improving all three elements of your product.

That concludes Recon Thursday stop by tomorrow for Digital Friday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Speaking Out: Time to Go Public (Action Wednesday/Promotion)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. Today is Action Wednesday and we are going to discuss the importance of becoming a public speaker.

One of the best ways I’ve found to enhance my own personal brand is seeking public speaking engagements.  There are many organizations in need of professionals to speak to their audiences on a variety of topics.

What I like about this activity is that it brands you as an expert.  You will be in front of a large gathering speaking about a subject you are very knowledgeable of.  That enhances your brand.  Afterwards, you are able to make connections with people from the group.  Those connections may lead to business opportunities.

Ensure your public speaking engagement successful by selecting an organization that is a good fit between your content and the audience.  If you are a fitness guru it may not make sense for you to present to a group of triathletes who already know how to stay fit.

Develop entertaining and informative content.  You don’t want to be boring.  You want to make sure that everybody leaves the presentation excited about what they’ve heard and feeling good about the content.

Lastly, work the room so to speak, and identify opportunities to go out and present.

There is no real downside to public speaking engagements unless your presentation skills are not strong, however, with time and practice you will become a very good public speaker.   At a minimum, you will brand yourself, and that alone is a good thing.  You may also develop business following your presentation.  I am a big believer in public speaking.

That concludes Action Wednesday.  Stop by tomorrow for Recon Thursday. To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Managing Marketing Milestones (Strategic Tuesday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. Today is Strategic Tuesday and we are going to discuss identifying your next marketing milestone.

I am referring to the short term milestones to accomplish that will put your company in a better position.  The question is, what milestones should you pursue?

From a strategic point of view, there are many goals to accomplished related to your marketing and branding.  Focus on identifying the marketing milestone most important to complete next.  It may be creating a marketing plan, improving your product, developing a new pricing strategy or, perhaps increasing attention around customer service.

List all the possible marketing milestones then, choose the one that is most important right now.  Pull a team together and complete it.  Then go back to the list, chose the next marketing milestone and finish that one.  Over time, you will find from milestone to milestone you are advancing your marketing and your company as well.

That concludes Strategic Tuesday, please stop by tomorrow for Action Wednesday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

You Can Brand Anything (Smart Monday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  It’s Smart Monday where we increase your branding and marketing IQ.  Today we’re going to discuss the fact that you can brand anything, and that means you can brand your business and products.

I’ve talked about branding on numerous occasions here at Once a Day Marketing. It’s imperative to develop a brand which creates an image that is #1 in the mind of your customer related to the benefits your product offers.

It’s important to have a brand that is perceived correctly so your customers seek it automatically when they are looking for that benefit.  If you don’t have a strong brand, you are competing on price and that isn’t a good place to be because the only thing that you can typically do with price is lower it.

Let’s look at a few products that have been branded successfully.  First consider Starbucks.  They have taken coffee, added an experience and delivered the message that Starbucks is the place to go when you want to have a great time sipping a cup of coffee.

Next we have Google.  There are numerous search engines available, but where do we go?  We go to Google because we understand what Google provides and it’s always top of mind.

Now let’s take a look at some items that may be a bit more challenging to brand.  Sugar for instance, it is a refined, granulated sweetener.  Is one really different from another?   C&H Sugar branded their sugar as “pure cane sugar from Hawaii.”  So what did we do?  We bought that sugar.

Charmin is a similar situation.  Although it is toilet paper, they were able to create a brand, Mr. Whipple and squeezably soft.  Virtually anything can be branded, that’s your goal when you are working with your company and products.

Brand your company or product so it is properly reflected in the minds of your customers.  There is no better investment you can make than to develop the ideal brand for your company and products.

That concludes our Smart Monday.  Be sure and stop by tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Responding to Social Media Inquiries (Digital Friday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Digital Friday and we are going to talk about how to avoid a social media pitfall.

There is an emerging customer experience concern arising throughout all forms of social media.  Businesses are developing social media inbound marketing campaigns, creating content and pushing it out.  As a result, inquiries come in via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn from people who are interested in that content.  The problem is many businesses are not responding to these inquiries.

Consider the implications.  Your goal is to create awareness and generate excitement about your product.  Then you let customers or potential customers down by not responding to their inquiries.  It’s critical to create a system so you can respond to your customers.

First, create a process to collect all the inquiries and ensure you capture everything that comes in.  Two, respond, make sure you reply to everyone who has taken the time to contact you.  I don’t recommend auto-reply.  I believe each response should be personalized and you or someone else in your company directly engages that customer.

Next, follow-up promptly.  Responses should be immediate if possible, for the best customer experience.  Example:  If someone is shopping, has a question about your product in that store and sends an inquiry, responding instantly would create a great impression in the mind of that customer.

Lastly, leverage this type of interaction to build relationships because it is going to lead to increased opportunities for sales in the future.

Personally taking the time to respond to inquiries as quickly as possible is an opportunity for you to really distinguish your brand in the minds of your customers.  Remember, it’s equally important to respond to comments that are negative as well.

If you are conducting an inbound marketing campaign, ensure responding to the inbound inquires 100% of the time is a priority.  You may not always be able to achieve that, but that should be your goal.

Thanks for tuning in to Digital Friday.  Join us next week for Smart Monday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Inspiring Branding: The Bobble Bottle (Recon Thursday/Physical Evidence)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. Today is Recon Thursday and I want to share a branding success story that I hope will inspire and encourage you to keep your efforts going every day.

The Bobble Bottle Company is just two years old.  They sell a re-useable, very stylized water bottle with a patented filter that allows you to put tap water into it and still drink purified water.

This company saw the problem of disposable single-serve plastic bottles accumulating in landfills all over the world and looked for a solution to reduce that waste.  That is exactly what they were able to achieve.

Bobble Bottle created water bottles with built-in filters so they can be re-used hundreds of times.  This provides the purified water consumes buy bottled water for and also reduces the impact on the environment.

Rather than designing the technology themselves, they partnered with a company who already patented the filtering technology.  Demonstrating understanding of one of the 7Ps – Physical Evidence, they designed a unique bottle.

With an affordable price and a thirsty market all over the world, in 2 years they have gone from an idea to $40 million in sales all over the world.

I hope you find inspiration in the Bobble Bottle branding story.  It demonstrates that branding does work.  Regardless of what your goals are, stick with your marketing and branding efforts every day and you will achieve success.

That concludes Recon Thursday stop by tomorrow for Digital Friday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Let's Do Lunch: Networking Follow Through (Action Wednesday/People)

Hello there, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Action Wednesday.  I had a great networking lunch yesterday and that’s what prompted me to share today’s advice about networking follow through.

Here at Once A Day Marketing I’ve talked a lot about networking and how important it is to build your contacts.  What I’ m recommending today is that you pick up the phone or send out an email and invite a contact to have lunch or perhaps a cup of coffee with you.  This way you are meeting face-to-face, you’re enhancing and building the relationship, and you’re having a real conversation.  This is what people do to build trust and camaraderie.   What will happen over time is that you’ll get opportunities for more business and you will strenghten your network.

Grabbing a cup of coffee or having that lunch is a great way to cultivate the relationship with your contact.  Over the last few weeks I’ve had some really good lunches and coffees with some new contacts from Twitter and LinkedIn.  Here are some of the results of our conversations. 

Once individual I met with suggested I might be able to help market and brand his non-profit organization, which he is a board member of.  I met with another contact who from the high-tech world and he’s working with a national fitness publisher who’s trying to get his story out via the internet and his social media marketing.  He suggested I meet this man.

I had coffee with a woman contact who’s returned to Santa Fe from back east and now we’re talking about collaborating on a social media project.  Then through LinkedIn I reconnected with a client from 10 years ago who’s in Chicago.  We had a great conversation on the phone and look forward to more chats in the future.

You don’t always have to have the meeting face-to-face but typically a lot more ideas are generated across the real table.  Regardless of the approach, it’s very beneficial to your business and personal brand to continue engaging these contacts and nurturing the relationships.

If you find yourself in Santa Fe, let’s do lunch.  Please join me tomorrow for Recon Thursday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Customers Are People First (Strategic Tuesday/People)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. It’s Strategic Tuesday and we are continuing our series on emotional branding.

Often in the quest for success and profit we forget that customers are people first.  And people, as we know, have emotions.  Think about how you interact with your family, loved ones and friends.  It is on an emotional level.  It’s ok to create an emotional bond with your customers and that is what we are going to discuss today.

According to Mark Gobe in his book Emotional Branding the most important thing you can do for your brand is to develop the right emotional connection with your customer.  He suggests creating partnerships and communicating with customers just like you would with members of your family.  He says it’s ok to let customers enjoy your brand.  That is what you want to accomplish with emotional branding.

Mark Gobe has created what he calls the 10 Commandments of Emotional Branding.  I’m not going to go through the entire list now, you will be able to find it online.  I will cite a few commandments that I think are very important.

First, he says they are not customers, they are people.  That makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?  Next, you aren’t selling a product, you’re selling an experience.  We love that experience because it makes us feel good and we remember the brand.

Another is moving from communications to dialog with your customers.  You have conversation with your friends and family, you should with customers as well.  Lastly, transition from a service perspective to a relationship, you are not only providing customers with solutions, you are creating a relationship in the process.

All I can say now is that I hope you are really enjoying Once a Day Marketing.

Thanks for tuning in, please stop by tomorrow for Action Wednesday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Emotional Branding: Bonding with Customers (Smart Monday/Process)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. Today is Smart Monday and we are starting a series on emotional branding.

Emotional branding is when you bond with your customers on a personal level and look at them more as individuals.

There are two sides to emotional branding.  First, you formed a company and offer a product to enhance the lives of your customers.  If you make that evident to the customer using your product, it will resonate with them on an emotional level.

Next, when customers use your product they have an emotional attachment to it.  Perhaps it makes them feel better.  Take a cookie store as an example.  When you walk into a cookie store and smell the cookies baking you know they are going to taste great.  However, that aroma might also take you back to your grandmother’s kitchen when she was making cookies.  Now you are bonding with the customer and they are bonding with you on a more personal level and that is what emotional branding is all about.

The best way for me to share more about emotional branding is to site a couple of encounters I have had that have touched me personally.  The first is Disneyland.  When I was very young I had the opportunity to go to Disneyland when the theme park was just opening.  It was something I will never forget.  It wasn’t so much about riding the Matterhorn; it was the opportunity to see all the Disney characters around the park; having the map of the whole Disneyland theme park and riding to Tom Sawyer’s Island and for a moment pretend I was Tom Sawyer with Huck Finn.  Those experiences touched me deeply as a child and I will never forget them.

Another example involves Team in Training, an organization that raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  I decided to raise money by running the Dublin marathon with Team in Training.  They assisted me in training for the marathon and gave me tools to raise money.  When I crossed the finish line, knowing I had raised money for cancer research felt very good indeed, but more than that, I felt good about myself and taking time to run the marathon and aid cancer patients in the process.  I will never forget that experience and will always be aligned with Team in Training because of it.

You would be surprised how many branding experts really don’t understand the idea of emotional branding.  We are going to talk more about it tomorrow, specifically looking at the book Emotional Branding by Mark Gobe, one of the top branding experts in the world.  He defines something called the 10 Commandments of Emotional Branding and we will look at how those will assist you in developing personalized relationships with your customers.

That concludes our Smart Monday.  Be sure and stop by tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday when we will continue our series on emotional branding.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Webinars and Other Online Engagements

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Digital Friday.

When information is digital there are no boarders.  You are able to communication your content with people all over the world.  We are going to be talking about that today in our video advice.

There are many ways to harness the power of the internet to engage clients online.  To begin your efforts in this area, consider one on one consulting.  Leverage online tools to create a relationship with an individual who you work with virtually and use your capabilities to design solution for them.

Next look at webinars, you’ve probably attended a webinar, if not, I recommend that you do.  There are free and fee-based webinars depending on the content being delivered.  Webinars are another tool using the technical capabilities of the internet which enable you to share information using a PowerPoint with clients all over the world.

Consider online video conferencing.  You are able to host a live event with guest speakers or panelists that is shared through the power of the internet.  A friend of mine was recently an online keynote speaker.  He presented to a group of people in an auditorium from his home.

The material for all of the forums we have discussed can be captured and re-used over and over again as long as the content remains relevant.

As you are engaging customers online, the question you have to ask yourself is how much content you should provide free vs. fee-based.  One rule of thumb indicates you may have to share 97% of your content on a no-fee basis.  That may sound high, but the reality is that the other 3% are potential customer waiting to seek out your product or service.

With respect to fees you also have to also have to take into account whether the content is very specific and very personalized to the needs of a customer.  The more you tailor online delivery to a customer the more you can charge.  You have to create the right mix between free and fee.

It’s up to your to determine which of these powerful tools is the best way for you to personally engage customers using online technologies.  I recommend that you seriously consider how to present yourself and your products and services to potential customers all over the world using these technologies.

Thanks for tuning in to Digital Friday.  Join us next week for Smart Monday.  To discuss an online or face to face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Your Reputation Precedes You (Recon Thursday/People)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. It’s Recon Thursday where we look at your business, the market or your competition and we have a great piece of advice for your today.

We’ve all heard the expression “your reputation precedes you”.  In the marketing sense, that is the definition of branding.  Think about that.  People become aware of your company and what you stand for without ever encountering you or your product.

There are many examples of things that you personally have never seen yet have an understanding of.  That is what you want to achieve with branding.  Ensure the message you are advertising in the marketplace conveys an image to potential customers of what your product is all about.  If it gets to the customer before you so, that’s a great thing.  You want your brand reputation to precede your actual engagement with the customer.  When they already have a solid understanding of what you are all about sales will be much easier.

To determine if your brand precedes you, start by leveraging the internet.  Search your company name and review the information you find regarding your brand.  Is it enough?  Is it what you want it to be?

Another fun exercise is to drop your company name to someone you just met.  Look for recognition of your company name.  If they have that deer-in-the-headlights look, that is not necessarily good.  Or, they may smile and say “yes, I’m familiar with that company”.

Nothing is more rewarding than when I have name dropped my business and someone responds favorably.  It’s very exciting because you know your branding effort is working.

That concludes our Recon Thursday, stop by tomorrow for Digital Friday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Supporting Non-Profits: Good for the Brand (Action Wednesday/People)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  Today is Action Wednesday and I know you’ve heard the expression “win-win”.  Today we are going to talk about something where you can help a good cause and also enhance your brand.

For Action Wednesday I’m recommending that you get involved with a local charity.  We’ve discussed previously that a brand is simply everything.  Your association with a non-profit will create a favorable impression in the minds of your customers.

Chose a non-profit that aligns nicely with your business if possible, more importantly, make sure it aligns with your own personal interests.  Then roll up your sleeves and get involved at the board level giving your time to help make decisions for the organization.  Or, get involved when the organization needs help.  Over time, all of this effort will be seen very favorably by your customers.  They are going to notice your company is supporting a great organization and may seek out your products and services more often in the future.

There are so many benefits associated with this action item.  First, you are supporting a good cause. Whatever charity that you’ve selected, you are going to assist them in meeting their mission.  Second, you will feel very good inside because you’ve taken the time to support the non-profit.  Lastly, you will also enhance your company’s and your personal brand in the process because of your personal involvement with that organization.

Thanks for joining us on another Action Wednesday.  Stop by tomorrow for Recon Thursday. To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Overt Benefit: Finding That One Thing (Strategic Tuesday/Positioning)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing.  It’s Strategic Tuesday and today we are going to talk about overt benefit and finding that je ne sais quoi for your product.

What is overt benefit?  Before we answer that let’s take a look at the old movie City Slickers.  Jack Palance as Curley and Billy Crystal as Mitch were driving cattle across the range.  Jack Palance says “There’s one thing to the secret of life” and he holds up his finger.  Billy Crystal asks “What that?”  Jack Palance replies “That’s for you to find out”.  The same thing is true in determining the overt benefit of your product.

Doug Hall of Eureka Ranch probably coined this phrase.  It’s all about discovering that “certain something” beyond the features and benefits of the product, one thing that, at the highest level, stands for your product.  It may be why you entered into business or why you created the product or service, perhaps to solve a problem or fill a gap in the marketplace.

In one of his books, Doug talks about a company that manufactures electric BBQ grills.  Their grill was so good it wasn’t allowed to be used by professional cooks in BBQ competition because it provided an unfair competitive advantage.  That was the overt benefit to him.  He was now able to tell the client that they should leverage the fact the grill was banned from competition when creating their marketing campaign.

It is important for you to understand overt benefit.  In today’s world consumers/clients have a vast array of choices.  Overt benefit could be the means to communicate what is unique about your product and differentiate it from the rest.

Think about something as simple as dental floss.  You used to be able to go into Walgreens and quickly pick up dental floss.  Now there are probably 60-75 different kinds of dental floss available.  How does the consumer make the choice?

Now give some thought to the new phone apps.  It seems like every business has a phone app.  Again, if there are > 500,000 phone apps, how is yours going to be found by your customers?

Knowing your overt benefit allows you to cut through the advertising clutter and strengthens your position to build your brand in the mind of your customer over time.

It’s not always easy to determine what the overt benefit is but it’s absolutely critical that you do so.  Once you know your “certain something” you will be able to share that with your customers and create an accurate image of your product in their mind.

That’s our advice for today.  Be sure to tune into tomorrow for Action Wednesday.  To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.

Brand Image is Everything (Smart Monday/Positioning)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing. It’s a new week, thanks for stopping by.  Please continue to comment, re-tweet, Likes us on Facebook and share with friends.  Many more of you are tuning in and we are really building our brand.

Today we are going to talk about brand image vs. brand identity.

You have heard the expression “image is everything”.  Let’s take a look at brand image.  As we have discussed previously, brand image is the perception of your brand in the mind of your customer.  That perception is built over time given the experiences they have with your brand.

Canon camera ago clearly understood this point.  They launched a new camera called the Rebel with the slogan “Image is Everything”.  They hired Andre Agassi, the rebel in professional tennis at the time, to be their spokesperson and it was a great fit.  Canon had a sophisticated new camera; they had the rebel of tennis and a slogan that implied the camera took great photographs.  And Canon knew it was creating the right brand image as well.

Brand identity is what you want your customers to perceive.  All of your marketing, branding and strategies are designed to create the perception in customers’ minds of what you believe your product is with respect to its benefits both physical and emotional.

Branding is the process of using brand strategy and marketing to align customers’ brand image with your brand identity.

It is important to align brand image with brand identity so customers have the correct perception of your product.  If they don’t, they may seek out your product for the wrong reasons.  They may buy the product expecting one thing and get another, resulting in an unfavorable experience.  Additionally, if their perception is not accurate, they may not buy your product at all.

Your branding efforts should ensure customers understand the benefits of your product and that their brand image does in fact align with the brand identity that you want to project into the market place.

Thanks for joining us on another Smart Monday.  Stop by tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday. To discuss an online or face-to-face service engagement and enhance the marketing and branding for your organization, contact James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we’ll see you next time.