Once a Day Marketing

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

How Strong is Your Brand? (Knowledge)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today we are reviewing an old Young & Rubicon (Y&R) model specifically looking at brand strength.

Y&R determined that there are two elements that make up brand strength, differentiation and relevance:

Differentiation refers to how unique and distinctive a brand is to customers or in the market place. There should be clear point of difference between your product and competitors.
Relevance is how meaningful that differentiation is to customers. Do they really embrace it? Is there a mass market? Or do few people seek out your product because it isn’t relevant to them.

Differentiation is vitally important when you want to strengthen your brand; it should be the first area to focus on. If your product is just like everybody else’s it will be very difficult to create a strong brand. With respect to relevance, you don’t have to be all things to all people. Your brand should be relevant to the individuals you believe are seeking out your product. If you are able to differentiate and become relevant to target customers, the strength of your brand will increase dramatically.

Once a Day Marketing™ positions brands to become #1 in the minds of target customers. 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 streaming live on SantaFe.com KVSF 101.5 FM.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Branding the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta (Strategy)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys™ radio show podcast: Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys™, we discussed branding of the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta.

Joining us on the show was Al Lucero, Co-Founder and President of the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta. The event came into being when famed-chef Mark Miller and others teamed with Al to create a way to promote the fantastic wine and cuisine of Santa Fe.

This year marks the 25^thannual Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta which provides participants an opportunity to try new wine and restaurant fare as well as allowing lesser-known purveyors to gain attention of potential new customers. Events are held at local restaurants, the Santa Fe School of Cooking and the Santa Fe Opera and other locations.

Lucero is also the former owner of Santa Fe landmark restaurant Maria’s Kitchen. To differentiate from all the other New Mexican restaurants in town, Lucero made a bold move at that time to feature fajitas on the menu along with their now famous margaritas.

Lucero shared that there are many different ways to get your message out. He believes radio, TV and social media are all effective when you are giving your customers something to talk about such as what he called the “real margarita” at Maria’s Kitchen. Such a boast created lots of customer attention.

Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta is distributing their message thorough the website and e-mailing lists, which reach a very targeted audience of individuals who are already interested in the event.

Lucero’s top branding tip: maintain your integrity and be sincere. Embrace your failures along with your successes and keep working to let people know how good your product is.

Enjoy the podcast.

Monday, August 31, 2015

Is Your Brand Held in High Regard? (Knowledge)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today we are looking at an essential component of brand stature.

The Y&R Brand Asset Model addresses brand stature and brand strength, two critical components of a Power Brand. (I recommend you take a moment to study more about the Y&R Brand Asset Model.)

Esteem is the key component of a power brand that assess whether or not the brand is held in high regard by customers and/or potential customers; the higher the esteem, the greater the Brand's stature. Like personal reputation, the more positive the brand reputation the better it is liked or even loved by customers. This is the emotional side of branding.

The second component of brand stature is knowledge. Are consumers knowledgeable about your product? Are you enabling them to truly understand what your brand is all about and what it stands for?

To determine brand stature you don’t necessarily have to go through the steps that Y&R did. You do want to consider the esteem multiplied by the knowledge; the higher the score the higher your brand stature.

A good target goal would be to have high esteem and perhaps lower customer knowledge about your product. From a marketing perspective, you can always build that knowledge. Alternately, if customers have a lot of knowledge about your product but don’t hold your product in high regard then you have a different marketing challenge. You will have to help them understand why there should be a greater appreciation for your product or service.

It is important to understand brand stature so you can focus your marketing message to enhance the weaker component: esteem or customer knowledge. If anyone of those areas is low, strengthen that component to strengthen your brand equity.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Woodstock Photographer Still Rockin' & Rollin' (Strategy)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys™ radio show podcast: Photographer Lisa Law

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys™, we discussed maintaining a brand across five decades.

Joining us on the show was Lisa Law, legendary Rock n’ Roll Photographer. Lisa’s brand has been growing and evolving for nearly 50 years. She likes to think of herself as a historian of the Sixties. Everywhere Lisa went, including Woodstock, she documented the experiences; her photos grew into a collection of thousands of negatives.

Lisa created the Flashing on the Sixties movie and book from these experiences and photos, she has taken what is considered by many to be the most famous photograph of Bob Dylan and her work hangs in the Smithsonian. Lisa leverages her fame and her social media following to share her message and raise awareness for the many worthy causes she supports.

In addition to annual participation in the Santa Fe Fiesta Historical/Hysterical Parade, Lisa is championing creation of a Museum of the Sixties. She would like to start the museum here in Santa Fe to display her photos and Wavy Gravy’s art along with other material. Lisa feels there is renewed interest in the Sixties among the younger generations. As a first step, a small show will be created in Santa Fe which could potentially grow into a traveling exhibit.

The tip Lisa shared to enhance your brand is to keep at it. Lisa is heavily involved in the community and donates her work and time extensively; this continues to keep her brand top of mind with her audience.

Enjoy the podcast.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Business Name: A Big Part of the Brand (Strategy)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today we are looking at brand naming conventions.

When I mention Apple, Nike, Google and Amazon, what comes to mind? Of course, you instantly conjure up thoughts of amazing products and services offered by these top-notch brands. The reason: these four companies are branding experts who know how to create impressions that ensure you understand the benefits of their brand and keep them top of mind. They are branding 24/7/365 to ensure they remain global household names.

If these companies hadn't spent so much energy and resources branding you might have actually first thought of: a piece of fruit (apple), a Greek goddess (Nike), the math value 10¹⁰⁰ (google), or a large river in South America (Amazon). This is evidence that any name will work for a brand if you are willing to put sufficient branding and marketing muscle behind it.

When selecting a name for your company, a descriptive name for what the company is all about, such as Once a Day Marketing™, ensures customers understand the goal of the business; in this case to help clients market every single day. We could have selected Glover Consulting or XYZ Enterprises but neither of those names quickly informs customers of the services we offer. This type of naming convention makes branding a little easier, instead of spending time generating an understanding of the brand, you can spend that time with customers.

Other attributes of a great name include it being easy to spell and remember. This is especially true in regard to customers entering your business name into a search engine. A challenging naming convention is going to make it difficult for a small business to become top of mind with customers who are already thinking of brands with large marketing budgets.

When you choose your brand name, give thought to how long the process will take to generate sufficient mindshare with your target audience. Whatever naming convention you use, if it's going to take a lot of work reminding customers what your name is and then the benefits it provides, it might not be the right direction to go.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Branding an Organization That Ignites Startups (Strategy)

Listen to our featured Ask Those Branding Guys™ radio show podcast: Startup Santa Fe

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. On our radio show Ask Those Branding Guys™, we discussed raising awareness for a new organization supporting entrepreneurs.

Joining us on the show were Bonn Macy and Shawn Patrick, Co-Directors of Startup Santa Fe, a public private partnership with the City of Santa Fe and Creative Santa Fe providing access to entrepreneurial resources throughout New Mexico.

Founded in 2015, the goal of the organization is to make entrepreneurs aware of the extensive array of tools and resources available to new businesses starting out in Santa Fe. The investment community and local incubators are also involved in these efforts as well.

Startup Santa Fe provides an entrepreneur access to educational content to assist them in learning the components of a successful business and avoiding common pitfalls at the beginning of their journey. New businesses should come to Startup Santa Fe as soon as they have an idea; it's never too early to seek out the organization.

Startup Santa Fe is also creating a database called "Hatch" that will allow individuals forming a new business to find available resources that match their needs.

One of the challenges in getting the word out about Startup Santa Fe has been reaching their target marketing, which is very fragmented. Glover reminded Bonn and Shawn to create a unique and compelling message and then target their desired audience.

Startup Santa Fe tips for new businesses: 1) leverage the resources that are here to assist and 2) ask any questions that you have.

Enjoy the podcast.

Building Customer Loyalty (Strategy)

Hello, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing™. Today we are discussing rewarding your customers with loyalty programs.

The explosion of digital format and social media provides customers access to so many more choices than they had in the past. Once your company likely competed in a small/local market; now you are competing in the global market place.

You work hard to attract the customers that are using your business, are you working just as hard to reward loyal customers who continuously seek out your product or service? The concept of the customer loyalty program is not new. Fred Harvey, who founded his Harvey House chain of restaurants and hotels in 1878, offered such a program to his customers.

There are various program options to let your repeat customers know you appreciate their business. A formal system tracks all the exchanges with your customers and allocates rewards based on predetermined criteria. An informal system is a less complicated, for example, a local restaurant may use a stamp card. Customers present it to be stamped for each purchased meal and are rewarded with a free meal after the designated number of purchased meals.

You can offer all sorts of premiums such as free flights, hotel rooms, meals or discounts. The goal is to keep track of the activities between you and your customers and reward them accordingly.

A well thought out customer loyalty program will ensure your customers feel appreciated. The reward you offer should be something the customer will value such as the examples cited above. In exchange they will be loyal, have a greater appreciation for your brand, and endorse your brand to their family and friends.