Branding: Straight Shot Marketing

Hello everyone. Today, we are going to be talking deep, deep talking about branding. Everybody’s heard of it. Not everybody knows what it is. Hello? Every one. Happy new year.

We are a couple of weeks into this brand new year of 2021, and we have started it off with a bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Today we interrupt our social media series to talk a little bit about branding. Now, most everyone has heard of branding, or at least a business is referred to as a brand. I mean, it’s somewhat of a buzzword.

And the problem with things becoming buzzwords is that charlatans come out of the woodwork, like wolves in sheep’s clothing, and try to take advantage of people using buzzwords, but that doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t take away from the importance and original meaning of the term. So we are going to pull the covers back, unveil the truth, maybe expose some charlatans with what branding really is.

So Zachary. Hi, how are you? Tell me what is branding really well, let’s start with exposing right off the bat and I’ll tell you what branding is not. Okay. Your brand is not your logo. It’s not your tagline. It’s not your mission statement. It’s not your products or the services that you offer. And it’s not the name of your wait.

You mean it’s not a pen or a cup? No, it’s not a promo item either. Um, and, and I start with this because when I ask a company, what their brand is, these are the answers I get all the time. Um, and it’s, it’s. It’s an incorrect perception. So if you thought of any of those things, that’s not what your brand is.

Okay. Your brand is simply what people think about you when they think about you. It’s your company’s perception in the mind of your public. You see brands are developed in the public’s mind with, or without the company’s involvement because people have opinions naturally, right? You people have opinions about this.

Been just about that. They have an opinion about you. Okay. They hold their own perceptions naturally as human beings. Well, that perception. Is what your brand is. So what we try to do is influence what that perception is going to be in your public’s mind. Now, branding and brand development are what happens when a company starts to get involved in the building and construction of that brand of the company’s perception in the mind.

Of the consumer braining is the process of developing and influencing that perception so that it can then be utilized to help the company become remembered. And then preferred in the marketplace. So what an agency does because we own an agency, we do this all the time. We help to professionally develop what that brain image is going to be, so that it is true so that it is, um, you know, professional so that it is beneficial to the company and will ring true.

To the consumers and be what they want to hear. All of that stuff kind of goes into the making of this. Um, so you need to define your brand, including who you are internally and externally, right? So who you think you are and who they think you are? Right. And then we need to communicate it to your potential and existing customers so that you can become again, remembered, chosen, and preferred in the marketplace.

That’s the purpose of the brand. And you’re going to need that brand in order to become efficient. And effective in all of your communication efforts that your company is going to do moving forward. Now, if you remember back when we did the SBA episode during the small business series, the three-legged stool, I remember the three-legged stool marketing communications is one of those legs that the business is built on.

That it stands on. You remember, if any leg is faltering, the whole business comes crumbling down. Marketing is one of those legs. Well, branding is what marketing is built on. It’s the foundation that your marketing should be built on. So very, very important. So that brings up why we build a brand just to begin with, why would you build a brand?

Well, um, One because branding has been proven to be successful over time. This is not some new theory. That’s come out of nowhere that the concept of branding has been tried and true at this point. Um, and your brain is what’s going to differentiate you separate your company. From other companies that provide similar products or services.

Right. And branding is more powerful than pricing is. And if you don’t use branding, pricing is the only thing that your customers have to go off of. And who do you think they’re going to choose? Who’s more expensive or less. Oh yes, Jennifer. Less expensive depending on who they are. Yes. Um, now your brand also is what makes your business recognizable.

Okay. It also makes you memorable. It is what persuades brand is often what brings value to your business? If we look at, Oh, I don’t know, star Wars. Oh, star Wars was just sold to say just a few years ago now, uh, was sold to Disney for $4 billion based on its brand value. Right? There are tons of science fiction franchises out there that are not worth $4 billion.

Star Wars is because of its brand value. All right now, Coca Cola built immense brand value and political sway because of its brand recognition. If you remember in the Coca-Cola episodes, we did. I can’t remember which one it was. Uh, but in their timeline, we did a series on Coca-Cola in the timeline. They actually had political sway with the government during the war because they were Coca-Cola.

So something, if you haven’t seen that with establishing and position, Yeah, feel free to go back and look at that one, feels free. But what we really mean is go back and listen to slash watch. You see brands are developed in the public’s mind with, or without the company’s involvement because people have opinions.

Naturally, they hold their own perceptions naturally as human beings. So your brand is not your logo. It is not your campaign tagline. Your brain is what people think about you when they think about you, your brand is also, um, Well, there’s a graphic that we often use. As a matter of fact, I’ll throw it up on the screen when we’re describing what a brand is and we use an iceberg.

So this, for those of you that can’t see the graphic, is an iceberg that you can see below the water level. And you can see that the iceberg on top of the water, the part that you could physically see is the appearance and the, uh, the perception, it’s your logo. It’s all the things that you can see in a brand.

And then below the surface is actually larger. Then what you can see above, and it’s all that homework and deeper meaning that goes in it. Okay. So our brand is a very substantial, very valuable thing too, uh, to business. Now, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon says it this way. He says that your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.

So I think it’s very. Yeah, let that sink in for a second. So aside from Jeff Bezos, you have your own official definition, don’t you? Uh, yes, not of brand, but of brain ding. I do have an official definition of that. Branding is the process of proactively developing, managing, and exploiting the perception of a business in the minds of their audience so that they will remember.

And choose them in the marketplace. Yes, that is very, quite official-sounding. It’s beautiful, really beautiful flowery words. So what does it actually mean? Um, branding and brand development are what happens when the company decides to get involved in the building and construction. Of their brand of the company’s perception in the mind of the consumer.

Again, it’s the process of developing and then influencing that company’s perception so that it can be used to help the business become remembered in preferred a preferred business, right in the marketplace. That’s the goal. So we. The agency, reformation productions. We do this a lot for businesses. We help you define your professional image and begin to use it to better communicate with your consumer.

Yes, we do a lot of branding, but let’s break down the term. Branding is, uh, an Overarching term, that includes two different things. It includes brand developments, which is the definition of the company’s professional brand image and how it’s going to be showcased in the marketplace. And then there’s brand implementation is how you’re going to use that image.

Use that perception to communicate to your business’s customer, consumer client. Audiences, et cetera. Yes. Okay. So let’s talk about those one at a time. Okay. Um, why do companies need a brand? I mean, we know we need to develop one, but why? Well, Why do you need to develop a brain is actually not the proper question because your company is going to have a brand developed either way.

The question is centered around whether you’re going to be involved in helping to shape that brand or not. You know, there’s an old saying that it’s not a coffee mug or a t-shirt somewhere I’m sure. Or are all good things on the coffee mug or a t-shirt? I don’t know. It says what people think about me is not in my business.

Has anybody out there ever heard that before? I know I’ve heard that before. What do people think about me? It’s none of my business, but it is, isn’t it in, in, when it comes to commerce and actually a business, it is very much your business. And that is why you need to be involved in the development of your brand.

It’s centered around what the brand is going to do. For your business, right? You need it to define who you are both internally and externally. You need it to communicate to your potential and existing customers so that they choose you. Remember you and prefer you in the marketplace, right. And you need it to be efficient and effective and consistent in your communication efforts, your communication efforts.

If you remember, uh, when we did the SBA. Episode a little while back with, um, I think Benny central Romana was in here with the small business, um, series that we did. He talked about the three-legged stool and marketing was one of those legs that the business stands on. And of course, when Lake falters, the whole business falls over, right.

The three-legged stool. It’s a good analogy. Isn’t that. But, uh, but those communications, that leg is built on. Branding with branding. It informs everything that you’re going to do as far as your communication efforts are concerned. Now it’s also your business because branding using your brand to your benefit has been proven to be successful.

Overtime. This isn’t branding is not a new concept, right? It’s been tried and true. All of, the big brands, big corporations that, you know, have used it in becoming the fortune 500 fortune 50 status that they’re, that they’re at brain is what’s going to differentiate you and separate your company.

From other companies that provide similar products or services brand is more powerful than pricing. Some companies use pricing. Oh, we’re just like them, but we’re cheaper. A brand is more powerful than that because price doesn’t always work. Some people don’t want to pay the lowest because the lowest price often means not as good.

Right. So brand gives people a reason why they should choose you in a reasonable and a how that you’re different than your competition. It also makes you recognizable. It makes you stand out from your competition. It also makes you memorable. Right? You can remember. You know, the, you know, yellow, wouldn’t blue box of Mac and cheese, which is zoo craft.

And that is so funny that you pick that. I don’t know, but it’s memorable. Right. You know, it because they’re consistent with those colors and you tie it in because they also use that whole thing throughout their, their communications. Yes. The blue box, uh, a brand is also what persuades you to choose. One of the other brands is what brings value to your business.

It’s the emotional pull too, you know, it’s what your brand is. What separates you from another competitor because of the feelings associated with one over the other as well, if it’s done correctly. Absolutely. Well, of course, if it’s done correctly, we only do things correctly, right? Now you shared an illustration about how a brand brings value in one of your webinars recently?

Yes, I did. Uh, and I, I actually, I think it’s very effective in helping people to understand what a brand is as well. Well, I think we should play that clip. This is from the B to B and B to C champions of the social media webinar that Zachary did with S.C.O.R.E last month. Let me illustrate the easiest way to tell if a business has a brand.

Now, this is not my illustration. This comes from Seth Godin. Uh, he does keynotes for much larger audiences than I do. Uh, he was a frequent contributor to a fast company magazine and he is in the AMA. Marketing hall of fame. Most of you did not know or care that there was such a thing, but he’s why I agreed to become a writer for a great journal.

Uh, but anyway, to the illustration, if Nike was to build a hotel, okay, you can look in your mind’s eye and have a pretty good idea of what that hotel. Would look like you can see the inspirational posters that are in each room, the jerseys that are used as decor, you can just see it in your mind’s eye, right?

That is because Nike has a brand. They own a personality in your mind. Now, if Hyatt a hotel chain was to build an athletic shoe, You have no idea what that would look like? That’s because Hyatt doesn’t have an established brand. If your business can swap signage with your competition and no one knows the difference.

Then you have no brand with no brand companies choose direct marketing because they don’t have a choice. All right. Hyatt markets on Travelocity and Google where the intent is that you’re there to buy something. It’s intent-based you go there because you intend to buy. Right. Sounds good. Right? Let me show you, this is what kills companies that have no brand.

Here on Travelocity. You can see listings of all the same hotels. Side-by-side cookie-cutter one by one, same C’s all the way down. Okay. Then if you look here, this is sort by price and that is all you have to go by. Otherwise, this hotel is just like any other hotel at the same level brand brings value to the company, and it’s the reason to choose one over the other outside of price.

Now in that clip, you mentioned Coca-Cola they have built immense value in the marketplace based on their brand and political sway. Do you remember? I do. Yeah, our Coca-Cola series that we did where their brand not only won them government contracts. But also gave them influence on the laws regarding sugar restrictions.

You also said companies that quote have no brand. Now, can you clarify that? Yes, that is not what I actually meant. What I meant was companies that have no established brands, because again, brands are going to happen. Whether the company is involved. Or not like I said before, but it takes the company’s involvement.

You really establish that brand and make claims to the brand and what it means. That’s really what I was referring to when I said that. Okay. So let’s talk about that. How does one go about establishing a brand? Well, there are two areas which we’ve actually already mentioned. One is brand development, which is the, you know, cognitive homework that goes into defining who you are as a company.

And then there’s ongoing branding, which is using that brand in the marketplace. A lot of times I’ll call it brand implementation. Now in brand development, we look at defining who you are, what you’re going to represent, right. How you want to be known in the marketplace. And this isn’t like pie in the sky.

Is it. No, no, it has to be realistic and true for it to work properly. It can’t be what you want to be. It has to be who you are. There is an awful lot of discovery that goes into. Uncovering your brain inclinations for this reason, because if we develop your brand around something that’s false, it is not going to ring true to the consumer and they are going to call you out on it at some point.

And that’s damaging. To your brand. So we start with looking at the founder’s vision oftentimes right. When they first decided to start the car, right. We back when yes, the origin, the original purpose, what was it? What was your original purpose? And does it still apply today into your future? We also look at your behavior and your manner as a business.

How do you act, how do you treat your customers? How do you treat your employees? And we do that so that it can be true to what the customers are actually seeing. Yeah. We don’t want to build a brand on the business being, understanding and calm if their manner is all aggressive and pushy. Absolutely. And it would ring false to the public.

So it wouldn’t. Work. Right. But there are also no wrong answers. The fact that I just said, you know, pushy and aggressive understanding and calm are not better than pushy and aggressive. It is different. Brand helps a company figure out just how they are going to be different from their competitors. For some competitors being pushy and aggressive would be a positive thing for some being understanding and calm would be a negative thing.

And it all depends on what, who your company is. So brand helps a company figure out just how they’re going to be different from their competitors. So we look at. Differentiators to determine positioning your messaging. That is what you should be saying to the public. We look into your current company’s perception, both internally.

So that’s how do you see yourself? How do your employees see you as a business and externally, if you have already been in the marketplace for a while, what does the public think about you now? Because they already have a perception of you, your brain is already started to build. So we have to take that into account as well, because we may have to.

Correct. What people already think about you, or sometimes we can take what they think about you in build upon it. Right. We also look at and develop the brand mission, the personality of the company, the company’s unique selling position, uh, professional messaging with the brand voice, right. And then also a consistent, supportive look and feel for that brand.

So that’s brand development, right? Then we look at how are we going to communicate those factors in the marketplace by developing strategic marketing options. That’s the implementation side. Now, this is all part of the straight-line marketing process, which you can find out more about at straight-line marketing process.com.

Yes. So let’s look at that because you’re right. It is, uh, it’s what the whole straight-line marketing process is for now. Jennifer, why do we call it straight-line marketing? Because the most efficient and effective way to get from point a to point B is a straight line. Just like your mama always told, just like I was indoctrinated.

I mean, trained, I mean, just like common sense. So in this analogy point, a would-be your company in your products and services, your mission. What you’re trying to do it B would be your customers. So we just draw a straight line and go from a to B. We don’t go up and down and try different things and go back.

Cause that’s just time and money and we go straight there. Now that map includes. Five different stages. Okay. The first one is to identify. Yes. The second one is, listen, listen. The third one thanks then speak, speak. Yes. And measure. All right. The first three are part of brand development, which we’ve talked about in the last two are part of brand implementation.

So you can kind of see how we’re breaking all of this down here now. So that’s brand marketing in a nutshell or written out as a process. Anyways. Now again, we have a whole web series on this available at straight-line marketing process. Dotcom we do. And as marketing professionals, what we try to do in brand marketing is try to influence the prospective customer by letting them know more about the business, letting them know more about the business, gives them the opportunity to make a connection with the business.

Now, those connections are built on. Emotions. So we try to, you know, speak their language by using terms and images that will then influence those emotions. Right. Do we want them to feel comfortable or on edge? Do we want them to feel sexy or reserved? Do we want them to feel confident? Or afraid, and that’s going to depend.

All of that has come to depend on the company and its individual brand. Then we push those emotional buttons and they become factors in the purchasing decisions. The brand is instrumental, very instrumental in how we go about doing that. Now, as you said in the clip that we watched a price is low-hanging fruit, right?

If no other factors are there for the public to consider, they have a tendency to make a decision based on price alone. Some businesses capitalize on this by using words like. Free or discount, but if your business is not targeted toward the people that would be influenced by low pricing, then we need to make sure that we do our due diligence and showcasing other factors to influence them.

If your product or service will not win the business based on price, then we need to make sure we provide the necessary elements for them to make a decision in your favor. So that’s where the brand comes in. It also ties in with the whole marketing slash sales relationship as well. So take it away, boss. You explain that it does, um, marketing and sales.

A lot of times people think, uh, if you’ve been in corporate America while marketing sales don’t get along, um, or they’re the same thing. Well, yeah, you get that too. And that’s part of the reason why they don’t get along is people don’t understand the relationship between the two. Um, so I’m going to split it.

Let me say no, there is too much. Let me sum up, explain it.

Marketing works on branding and it works on awareness. Okay. It develops the company image. It develops the communication tools that are then going to be used. It creates awareness and it influences buyers both potential and existing. Buyers consumers customers, right? And it provides lead generation tools.

Now sales then take all of that work and all of those tools and really take it to the street is the way that I see it. What they’re in charge of is. Conversions right customizing, uh, the different offerings that the company may have read the, um, the, the body language and the positioning of the person that they’re talking to.

And really sales is people skills, right? They have to understand what the company offers so that they can customize it as necessary. To get the sale, which is separate from what marketing does marketing does. Branding Martin builds awareness, marketing builds tools, but they don’t actually talk to the person you’re selling to that is sales.

So it’s very important to kind of know-how that relationship works. So in addition to other things, your brand has to be built on relevance. That is how relevant you are going to be in the marketplace. The marketplace is where sales lives. So you should take into consideration the needs of your sales team.

Right, but you also have to consider the competition. And of course, you have to consider the consumer. Like I mentioned earlier, relevance is that overlap between what you want to say and what people want to hear. That’s the sweet spot, right? Your relevance is where those two things overlap in my graphic here.

I have a circle and you can kind of see that, where they overlap. That’s relevant. That’s our goal. That’s what we’re going for here. Now there is a lot of responsibility that falls on the brand. So it needs to be developed correctly based on a deep understanding of the company and truth. It has to be true because people will talk about it.

What’s that old Heather Locklear, your commercial.

And for those that didn’t understand that reference. Here’s a newer one.

Yes. Funny how those made it into. Movies commercials made into movies. I mentioned that that agency that developed that was like, yeah, I made it in the winter. That’d be rad, loved referenced in Wayne’s world. So 95%. Have customers share bad experiences with others, and that’s not what you want to be told.

Two friends and so on. And so on right now, 6% of unhappy customers don’t complain. However, 91% of those will simply leave. It never comes back around 13% of dissatisfied customers are going to tell more than 20 people. Good news travels fast. So it’s important to make sure that. What you’re saying is true is accurate because if it does not put a bad taste in their mouth, they’re going to tell other people that they don’t like you that’s bad.

So here’s an, here’s another stat. Americans tell nine people on average, right? As far as tell two friends, they tell nine people about good experiences, but they tell 16 people nearly two times as much. If it is a poor experience, misery loves company because people love to complain bitch, and moan. They like it.

Yeah. Um, let’s see. Who’s where did this come from? This came from, uh, the American Express survey that they did. It’s very interesting, Hmm. It’s amazing. You know what though? Not surprising because you’re absolutely right. Usually, people like to, you know, build comradery with other people by complaining about stuff.

That’s usually how people find the groups that they fall into. He loves company. Why are we awful? We should build a factory and make misery.

Uh, again, it’s going to happen anyway. You’re going to have a brand, whether you were involved or not. Now, if you are involved, you can benefit from generated awareness preference in loyalty. Let me give you an example. Okay. Yes. Harley Davidson, their brand happened to them. Right. The unbridled perception of their fans became their brand.

Now they had a lot of negative perceptions as well, particularly during the AMF years. So when they got the, okay, okay. You are leaving out huge parts of the story, then non-motorcycle people out there. Aren’t going to understand. Guys, we did a series on Harley Davidson or the movie rather than Harley and the Davidsons.

And you can go back to our app and watch it and whatnot. Yes. So if you don’t know the story hardly in the Davidson brothers lost their company and their image, their perception was damaged because of quality issues. Right? When they gave away the brothers, the families gave away the company. The quality suffered.

They sold their soul to Wendy’s, in the same way, you if you know, if you grew up in the eighties, wait, we’re done. We could be Wendy’s quality. Went down when Dave died, you can tell when it became run by stockholders, as opposed to the family, the quality with doubt and therefore the perception of Wendy’s with down people no longer consider Wendy’s the Chick-fil-A of hamburgers, which is kind of what it was before.

They were a premium, fast food steps above burger King and McDonald’s, and people don’t view them that way anymore. Now they’re all the same. Yes. And what I was referring to is Zachary is very upset with Wendy’s over there. Uh, the changing of their pickles. It’s, it’s a really big issue in our home.

It’s a, it’s the, it’s the pickle controversy. Yes. Uh, there’s a lot of companies that have changed things, uh, over the years that I have not appreciated, but I think that just comes with getting older. Uh, but Harley in the Davidson’s lost the company a little different than Wendy’s Wendy’s, you know, you had a death of the founder, hardly the Davidson’s lost the company too, had to sell it, uh, to, uh, to AMF.

Right. And when that happened, their image, their perception was damaged due to quality issues. Then the family bought it back years later, damaged. Yes, but it wasn’t Harley Davidson. I mean, isn’t Harley Davidson known as being like a monster brand, like a cult brand in here’s how they did it. Okay. The new company leadership, once the family bought it back, leaned into the perception that was held by their fans, by their customers.

Now with the company behind that perception, it’s spread like wildfire along with the professional elements and tools that were developed for them. It’s spread throughout the marketplace. And now everyone knows them as the rough and tumble. Edgy outlaw motorcycle brand much different than Suzuki or Honda or triumph or any of the other ones.

Harley alone owns that space in the market because they capitalized on that part of their brand, which came by them supporting what their customers are, were already saying. There. So that’s, that’s the story of how that works and they are successful brand people get tattoos of their logo. That’s loyalty now that’s a brand success.

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Welcome back, everyone. We are talking about the brand today. We had gone over quite a lot already, but let’s continue. Let’s talk about how companies mapped their brand foundation to their operations goals and strategies. That is all you. Exactly. All right. So I’m going to do this by giving you an example.

Okay. Chick-fil-A yes, Chick-Filet started in Atlanta. And they wanted to become. Worldwide. Right. They wanted to compete on the global scale as far as being a food chain goes. Right. So let’s start with some facts and goals about Chick-fil-A number one. They started in Atlanta. If you didn’t know that they started in Atlanta, Georgia.

Okay. Hateful actually, which is in the Atlanta metropolitan area. So, uh, no, the big chicken is sorry. No, the big chicken is, Oh my God. I’m so Chicago up in this place. I’m so sorry. So sorry, locals. Chick-fil-A the dwarf house is Chick-fil-A the dwarf house. Was actually founded in Haynesville Georgia, which is near the airport.

It’s inside the Atlanta Metro area. It’s a part we call, um, Haynesville, it’s kind of like Brooklyn or Manhattan to New York anyway. Uh, for those of you that aren’t local. So where is it in relation to the big chicken? The big chicken is in Marietta, Cobb County. Completely different. That’s OTP. Oh, outside the perimeter.

Sorry. Okay. So Chick-fil-A is started in Atlanta and they wanted to become worldwide. They wanted to become a global food chain. Success. That was one of their goals. They also wanted to build a legacy, both for their family and for the industry that they worked in. So they had some goals upfront. Okay.

Then they started to build their brand foundation. Okay. What was their brain going to be built on? Well, there’s a couple of different things that, uh, that I could bring up different differentiators, but we’re just going to talk about one right now. We’re going to talk about quality. And then how that brand differentiator is mapped to their strategies and their operations.

Okay. Quality. They want it to be known for quality. Therefore their products use premium materials. They use handmade chicken, handmade biscuits, and they are never discounted. Right? So their products are developed to maintain quality. Let’s look at their employees, their employees go through rigorous screening and training, which is very unusual for a fast food joint.

Uh, um, I was going to get ready to start putting down other ones you don’t need, you don’t need to break people down to build there. Let’s put it this way. There’s a way list to work at Chick-fil-A. None of the other ones have that. You don’t have waiting lists at fast-food restaurants particularly does.

Okay. They offer scholarships to their employees. They don’t make them work on Sundays because that’s the stance that they’ve taken. They are also very involved in charity. So again, quality employees, have done work to make sure they have quality employees. Let’s look at their locations. Okay. Um, their locations experience.

Focused both physically and in behavior. Now here’s what I mean by that. Physically, if you go there, you will notice that they were one of the first places to have multiple registers and there was no wine. Because somebody would always be able to take your order immediately. Now, for those of you that aren’t as old as I am fast, food restaurants used to have one or two registers open period.

That’s it. And you literally had to wait. Chick-fil-A was the first one to have multiple, um, You know, opened up at one time that you could go get your, your, your experience was good because it was fast, fast as you could do there, there, uh, drive-ins still a very, very unique experience. They have people standing outside.

To take your order and then you pay and then you et cetera, to make that experience go faster and smoother than any other place. You don’t have a problem. Can I take your order? You can understand them. Oh, sorry. Our shake machine’s broken. So we don’t have milkshakes right now. So you don’t have that problem at Chick-fil-A during rush hour, they have invested physically in their locations to make them optimal.

You also have a person. Now, this is a fast-food chain. You have a person at Chick-Filet that runs around and refills. Your tea takes you, your trash away from you. This is not a high-end food chain. This is a fast-food restaurant and they put that in there to make your experience better. Then say McDonald’s or taco bell.

All right now that’s physical there’s, author’s things that they do behavior wise the whole. Um, it’s my pleasure. Instead of thanking you, is a behavioral modification in their employees. They are taught to be thankful and to, you know, treat people, their customers. With respect over the top friendliness.

Yes. So that was when they started. We’re just going to use that one breakdown of quality. Right. Which was their brand differentiator. And then they developed, okay, this is our brand. We’re going to develop a campaign. So does anybody remember what their campaign was before eat more chicken? Oh, I know. What was it?

Um, Delicious. It was delicious, really different, delicious lead different did speak to the quality aspects of the brand. But it didn’t work as well. It wasn’t enough. So they added another brand attribute another differentiator, which was family-friendly. When they added the family-friendly brand attribute, they came up with the.

Eat more chicken campaign. It caught on like gangbusters. It has been, it’s still going on now. It’s been an extremely successful, uh, campaign for them. And that’s, you know, for those of you that are familiar with eat more chicken, it’s the cow’s campaign. Uh, they’ve been using that for four years now. It encapsulates their, their brain, including the family-friendly part.

Right. They have a mascot now. So. What is it? No, the cows man, most people that are into the fleet to fleet used to be only in the South because it was one. Right. And I was going to ask you about that. So I’m originally from the Midwest. I am obviously from Chicago, Illinois, and yeah. It wasn’t, I don’t think it wasn’t until after I left and came to Georgia that they finally had a Chick-fil-A, there was one in Illinois, but it wasn’t in the Chicago suburbs.

And, um, so there’s one there now, and I don’t believe it has the same drive-thru well, it’s nose like crazy up there. Right. But I’m also wondering if it has the same. Like table service inside the restaurant. So if you guys are from any other part of the country, that’s not like Atlanta, is there any other place if you guys are from anywhere else and that you have a tick, Chick-fil-A let us know if they are still doing the same things that they’re supposed to be doing, or if they’re.

We have a lot of corporate stores around here because we’re, we’re in Atlanta. And of course, they’re going to follow the rules of some of the franchises that may be supposed to be following up. Yeah. Feel free to call in and bust out your Chick-Filet right now, throw them under the bus. So that’s how Chick-fil-A used, uh, you know, branding, marketing to influence their strategies.

Attain their goals, et cetera, this type of work, this mapping of the differentiators mapping of the brand to your actual operations and your strategy. That’s what makes the brain work. That’s what makes it where your brain is not just a glossy cover on the outside but goes through to the core of your business.

Yes goes through to the core of your business. Now there’s been a lot of other businesses that have been successful in branding. And one of the things that that they’ve done is, uh, you can tell they’re successful because their brand names are now used as, uh, you know, generic nouns for things or replace the actual bird.

For example. If I was to tell Jennifer, Jennifer Google streets. Okay. Let me open my little laptop, open up my search engine and just start looking for a straight shot. Yes. Google doesn’t mean search it’s Google as a brand name, but it’s so well branded that I can tell her to Google something and she knows what I mean.

You mean like if somebody Googled straight shot on YouTube, right? Exactly. Now. Another example of this is if someone tells you to go Xerox, something that means two, that means to make a copy of it. Well, Xerox was a copy machine brand. So a matter of fact, Adam adamant had a song called Xerox machine, which was about copying it’s about plagiarism, but it’s about copyright infringement.

It had nothing to do with mimeographs or copy machines. He was using the brand name Xerox to then represent coverage plagiarism. Now, another one is aspirin. If somebody asks you for aspirin, you can give them ibuprofen. And that’s okay. Because they don’t mean aspirin. They mean pain reliever. Right, hand me a Kleenex.

It doesn’t matter what brand Kleenex is. They want tissue and in the South now I know this isn’t the same everywhere, but in the South, all soft drinks are called Coke. That is not the same everywhere down here. When you say, Hey, do you have any Coke? They’ll say yes. What kind do you want now? Where I’m from is Chicago.

If someone comes on, do you have any Coke? Chances are they’re an undercover cop? Uh, well, um, you know, they, uh, they actually, um, Pepsi made a commercial about this. Uh, it was in the super bowl, I think last year where they were like, uh, they actually had kind of backfires on them, honestly, where it, they came into a restaurant, Steve Carell was in, it is in the first one, went into a restaurant and the waiter said, um, Was talking to them taking their order.

They were like, what do you have a Coke? And they would say, well, it’s Pepsi. Okay. Well that’s because would they said, do you have a Coke? They mean, do you have any soft drinks? And they were like, well, we don’t actually have Coke. We have

the point is they referred to it as Coke, not the same Coke. I remember growing up as a kid. So the ultimate goal of a brand is to become synonymous with a product or service like Kleenex, Google Xerox, that’s the ultimate goal. But to do this, it has to be used in that way, a number of times throughout, you know, but before we get way too long in the tooth here about all this daiquiri, Why don’t you just go on ahead and while you’re on a roll, give us a straight shot here.

First is the understanding of what brand is and what the relative terms mean. So the brand is not tangible the expression of a brand. It’s tangible. Your brand is your perception in the mind of your audience, which includes who you are, what you stand for, why you’re in business, how you’re different, and where you stand.

It’s your character and your personality. Of a business. So that’s the first big takeaway. The next is, you know, what goes into branding, right? Which is brand development, which is the definition of the company’s professional brand image and gives the company getting involved in building. That brand and how they’re going to be showcased in the marketplace and then brain implementation that is then using that image, that brand, that perception to better communicate the business to their consumer audiences.

So you have to remember again, what your brand is not, it’s not your logo, it’s not your tagline and it’s not what you do. Your brand is who you are. As a business, who are you now? Simon Mainwaring Mainwaring means wearing Mr. Simon says the keys to brand success are self-definition transparency, authenticity, and accountability.

Now, when you’re developing it again, takeaway summary here, it’s important that you remember to be proactive. To be true, to be informed, and to be relevant. Don’t forget where you came from and who you are and embrace where you came from and who you are. The next thing to remember from today. Why should you brand well, Because it’s going to happen anyway because you might as well be involved in it?

Right? It’ll also benefit your company by having increased awareness, um, a better connection with your customers, better understanding, uh, by your, the customers of your business. You have to remember that 70% of buying experiences are based on how that customer feels. About your company, your brand also helps you increase preference in the marketplace.

Right? 55% of customers say that they would be willing to pay extra for their favorite brand. That’s a large percentage when it comes to the marketplace, not caring about the price, also increases loyalty to your brand. And then lastly, I would say you have to make sure that your brand. Is true to how you act and true to what you’re going to invest in only promise what you can deliver.

If you promise superior customer service, make sure that you are investing in your employees and allowing them to provide superior customer service. If you promise speed, make sure that you are investing in whatever equipment that you need to accomplish. That if you promise quality. Start with the best ingredients, stay with the best ingredients or you have to support whatever it is your brand is promising in your operations.

So those are the biggest ethical takeaways from what I’ve said today. And you’re right. I can talk about this forever. You know, branding is so important. It holds a lot of responsibility and its successful businesses, operations. But it’s also a lot of work and it’s going to take investment. It is either investing in time or investing in money to save yourself time.

Right? Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed our investment in bringing this episode to you. Now you can show us by subscribing hitting that little like button, smashing that bell, and we’ll see you next time on a straight shot marketing podcast. Bye.

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this is been a straight shot.