Once a Day Marketing: March 2016

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Differentiating a Custom Home Builder (Strategy)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys radio show podcast: Prull Customer Builders

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys, we discussed branding and marketing of one of Santa Fe’s premier builders.

Joining us on the show was Saguna Severson, Director of Marketing and Business Development for Prull Customer Builders, a company crafting quality in Santa Fe for 35 years. They were recently awarded the 2016 Showcase Excellence for a whole house remodel of a home near the Santa Fe Plaza. Prull is positioned as a custom builder and works with customers to create their dream home, the Prull tagline is “You dream it. We build it.”

What sets Prull apart is providing an onsite supervisor for ever job, bringing a high level of expertise to each project. Prull also has a policy of complete transparency and strong communication with customers to avoid surprises during the building process. They are versatile and strive to meet customer needs and make it fun at the same time.

Saguna shared that the numerous awards Prull has won is confirmation from peers that their product is high quality. Craftsmanship is very important at Prull and they have strong relationships with top of the line subcontractors to ensure the Prull brand is well represented.

Prull has a presence on Houzz.com, the social media site for builders and architects. Participants on Houzz can be reviewed and interact with others. Users are able to create idea books for their own projects and obtain answers to questions from experts.

When the market was down in 2009, Saguna started to brand and advertise boldly. She created a gorgeous website, brochures and print ads. As a result, Prull has emerged as the preeminent builder in Santa Fe and continues to brand and market to keep their brand top of mind.

The biggest branding challenge is continuously ensuring Prull sets themselves apart from the competition. Saguna’s tip for others working to enhance their brand is to be responsive to comments and questions on social media.

Enjoy the show.

Once a Day Marketing™ inspires clients to brand bold. Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com. Contact James Glover at (505) 501-1330 or email glover@onceadaymarketing.com. Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am (MDT) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

Monday, March 28, 2016

Don't Let Customers See Your Slip Show (Knowledge)

Hello, I’m Marianne Tenenbaum, Branding Strategist, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today we are discussing how integral your staff is to providing a great customer experience.

Part of a strong branding is ensuring that your customers have a great experience. Many businesses underestimate how critical staff is to delivering that outstanding customer experience.

Every employee of your company is a Brand Ambassador. It is a common misconception that only the external sales force or people working directly with customers are the ones impacting the brand. The reality is that everyone in your company is a reflection of your brand.

In addition to being neat, knowledgeable and friendly, ensure your team understands that they are part of the brand and any behavior a customer can observe is a direct reflection on the brand. This includes smoking in front of your establishment, loud/disruptive behavior, personal conversations, conducting non-work business and even unprofessional activities when they are not working if they can be associated with your business.

To reduce the impact of staff “off-duty” demeanor on customers, make sure there is a smoking area and break room available where your team can be out of sight of customers. Instruct your staff that as long as they are wearing the business logo, driving the company truck or can otherwise be linked with the brand they should be on their best behavior.

Informal and formal brand ambassador training for your staff will enhance the person to person interactions throughout your organization and create a better experience for your customers, thereby elevating the overall stature of your brand in the marketplace.

Once a Day Marketing™ inspires clients to brand bold. Visit our website at www.onceadaymarketing.com. Contact Marianne Tenenbaum at (505) 699-7849 or email mten@onceadaymarketing.com. Listen to Ask Those Branding Guys™ every Monday at 11:00am (MDT) streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

The Careful Cultivation of a Winery Brand (Strategy)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys radio show podcast: St. Clair Winery

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys, we discussed branding and marketing of New Mexico's largest winery.

Joining us on the show was Maritza Gomez, Marketing Director of St. Clair Winery. St. Clair is owned by the Lescombes family, now in their 6^th generation of wine making. Hervé Lescombes came to the Mimbres valley of Deming, New Mexico in 1981 and found the climate wonderful for growing grapes.

St. Clair has 200 acres under cultivation, growing 100% of the grapes for their wine and produces 50,000 - 60,000 gallons of wine per year. St. Clair also boasts three bistros around the state of New Mexico.

Each aspect of the St. Clair business provides a different customer experience. The vineyard offers intimate tours hosted by a member of family. The winery, set in a campus environment, has a tasting room and tours include the bottling process.

St. Clair opened the first bistro about 10 years ago as an avenue for people to learn about the St. Clair wine. The restaurants offer a menu pairing foods with their wines and a different wine is featured each week. The Las Cruces location has a large lawn area in a beautiful setting which is great for events. Look for the opening of a 4^th bistro in Alamagordo later this year!

A Large portion of advertising is directed through social media; pictures from bistro managers are posted on daily basis and the social media manager is responsive to customer online reviews. Maritza shared that label design is integral to advertising; St. Clair ensures their bottles have shelf appeal to customers. Allowing customers to experience the wine is also a great marketing tool, St. Clair scores will in competitions with competitor products.

Maritza’s tip for businesses who want to enhance their brand – be proud of your product. If you aren’t, revisit it and make it something you can believe in and endorse. The branding and marketing comes easily after that.

Enjoy the show.

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Branding New Mexico Pinon Coffee (Strategy)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys radio show podcast: New Mexico Pinon Coffee

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys, we discussed branding and marketing of a New Mexico coffee roaster.

Joining us on the show was Kelsey, Marketing Manager of New Mexico Piñon Coffee. NM Piñon Coffee, based in Albuquerque, is New Mexico’s#1 coffee roaster and differentiates through offering unique signature flavors, including pinon and 50 others, that can’t be found anywhere else.

New Mexico Piñon Coffee started with beans being roasted in the back of a pick-up truck. Their focus on marketing and expansion has led to the company’s growth. Kelsey shared that in the near future the operations are moving into a new, larger facility that will triple capacity to enable increased production. Last year NM Piñon roasted 1 million pounds of coffee and are on track to beat that number this year. Demand is strong in New Mexico as well as other states due to coffee lovers in NM sharing NM Piñon Coffee with friends and family across the country.

When it comes to marketing, they are consistently on the radio. During peak season additional advertising is added via other channels including billboards and social media. NM Piñon is very family oriented and likes to be as accessible as possible to customers; on Facebook they keep it fun and personal, at events they are approachable and like to create a family atmosphere.

As New Mexico Piñon coffee expands and grows one of their branding challenges is overcoming perceptions by customers that the product is 100% pinon while it does in fact contain coffee beans.

Kelsey’s tip for those who want to enhance their brand: allow customers to sample your product. Putting a cup of coffee in customers’ hands drives the long term result of desirable purchase behavior.

In the future New Mexico Piñon Coffee will continue to grow and plans to open more coffee houses and would like to start expanding outside of New Mexico.

Enjoy the show.

Monday, March 14, 2016

Community Branding: Don't Fumble on the Goal Line (Strategy)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today we are highlighting an important aspect of community branding that is often overlooked.

A community brand is a much more than a logo and a tagline. It hinges on ensuring that the entire community has a very clear understanding of the brand, embraces the positioning and works together to deliver on the brand promise.

That final element—working together to deliver on the brand promise—is the hardest part of the branding process. Once a Day Marketing™ refers to this critical stage as Community Brand Integration. Unfortunately, this is the one step often neglected by stakeholders driving a branding initiative.

As big brands like Apple, Nike, Amazon and Google know, once brand positioning is established you have to work 24/7/365 to ensure that everyone in the company understands the brand and collaborates to deliver on the brand promise to customers.

The same is true with a community brand. Unless there is a concerted effort by the brand developers to educate all community members on the meaning of the brand and how to work together to provide offerings that exceed expectations, the community branding effort will surely fail.

Once a Day Marketing™ has spent substantial time in the trenches with local residents, businesses, organizations, schools, churches, event producers and government entities to accomplish these kinds of positive branding changes. We know that once branding has begun, the community must continuously strive to improve the brand, just like companies do, and this branding process will never end.

The final takeaway for a community: If you launch a branding initiative be sure to have the resources and commitments in place to integrate the brand throughout the community. Don't settle for a logo and a tagline. To be successful you must establish the brand positioning, the identity and as well as the integration. Otherwise you might find yourself fumbling on the goal line.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Branding a Startup Company Revolutionizing Contact Sports (Strategy)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys radio show podcast: Pressure Analysis Company

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys, we discussed branding and marketing of a tech start-up company.

Joining us on the show was Michelle Urban, CEO of the Pressure Analysis Company (PAC). Pressure Analysis Company designs and manufactures wireless technology that is able to detect and track direct head impacts for athletes using the SmackCAP.

The development of the PAC SmackCAP is timely in light of the recent news regarding the potential long term negative impact of head trauma that occurs in many team sports. The company continues to refine and develop the product and Michelle shared that they are currently testing the SmackCAP with a local professional football team.

Pressure Analysis Company technology is licensed from University of New Mexico and the product is being developed and tested initially with football players. Michelle shared that data being collected is like nothing in the market place today, SmackCAP sensors are much more accurate and information is collected for all levels of impacts.

The goal of Pressure Analysis Company is to enhance the game of football by restoring and renewing confidence in playing contact sports safely. Target markets include players, parents and sports teams.

Glover noted that Pressure Analysis Company clearly has a vision of what their mission is - a great Why. His recommendation for Michelle is to delivery this message first in all conversations and presentations about the product. Glover encouraged Michelle to make an emotional connection with customers.

Most of Pressure Analysis Company’s marketing is via social media and earned media. Michelle’s branding tip for a start-up company: begin social media efforts right away and leverage your followers to spread your message and share your successes, no matter how small.

Enjoy the show.

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today we are sharing the second part of our discussion around what I call the 7 Cs of Successful Inbound Marketing.

In part I, we reviewed that when you are launching or managing a social media campaign, it's important to ensure you address each of the 7Cs. We expanded on the first four, Commitment, Customers/Clients, Campaign and Content. Now we’ll talk about the remaining three:

1. Consistency

2. Capture

3. Cultivate

Consistency: Once you've developed a social media presence be sure to keep followers engaged by sharing a consistent stream of content and messaging. There is a fine line between the appropriate amount of content distribution and over saturation; however, the important factor is to be consistent. Consistency will maintain your brand top of mind and grow your online community.

Capture: Once your inbound marketing is launched, you will generate followers. These might be LinkedIn connections, Twitter followers, YouTube subscribers or Facebook fans. Regardless of who they are or where they come from it's important to capture these leads for future branding and marketing efforts. Your social media campaigns are designed to build your brand and your business.

Cultivate: The final "C" is often overlooked in inbound marketing campaigns. Don’t make the mistake of spending all your time creating and distributing your planned content and messaging. When a follower shows interest in your company, brand or product, respond quickly. Reply to requests for information promptly. When customers order a product, ship it immediately. If an issue arises, be sure to resolve it. You can also be proactive and initiate dialogue with your new contacts. Social media is a two-way street and your contacts/followers are interested in developing new business relationships as well.

The secret to mounting a successful inbound marketing campaign is to make sure you address all the 7Cs and allocate appropriate resources as needed. It takes time but you will see results.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Branding a Serene Wellness Oasis (Strategy)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys radio show podcast: Sunrise Springs Integrative Wellness Resort

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys, we discussed branding and marketing of a Santa Fe wellness resort.

Joining us on the show was Wendi Gelfound, Marketing Director of Sunrise Springs Integrative Wellness Resort and sister location Ojo Caliente Hot Springs. Integrative wellness combines the best of Eastern and Western health care along with Native America practices for rounded care.

Wendi shared that wellness travelers and spas are a growing market. These travelers are looking for healthy living, good food and/or a spiritual experience. Guests at Sunrise Springs can visit for half-day, full-day or extended stays.

Sunrise Springs has natural cold springs, offers yoga and animal interaction with service dogs in training and silky chickens. A digital detox program allows guests to get away from electronic devices and connecting with one another in a more personal way. Food is grown on site to supply the Blue Heron restaurant and education is provided around how to experience life differently and learn to thrive.

Programs at the resort continue to evolve over time to meet customer needs at the same time staying true to their mission. Sunrise Springs is committed to the community and is in the process of creating speaker programs featuring wellness.

Sunrise Springs acquired an existing property near Santa Fe; they kept the original name and are thrilled to be continuing the legacy and heritage of the resort. Spaces have been redesigned and guest rooms renovated for a more up to date look and feel.

Wendi’s biggest branding challenge has been dealing with legacy URLs and social media sites. Sunrise Springs is creating updated videos to tell the story of the new resort and get that message out in the online environment. Her branding tip: start building your e-mail list of potential customers as soon as your business concept is defined.

Enjoy the show.