Branding, Marketing, & Advertising

Mark Hayward from a blog article on Self Branding –

"Branding can be described as the symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a particular product or company.

Effective branding serves to create assumptions, excitement, associations, and expectations that are ingrained in consumers and generated with the mere mention of a company and its goods or services (think GOOGLE, NIKE, Jet Blue)."

In the article I quoted from he talking self branding in a context of making money just writing a blog but the comments and ‘rules‘ of branding ring true no matter what your product is.

One of the superficial shallow things I often see in the online construction forums I sometimes frequent is the chant of branding, branding, branding, focus on you brand with little to no substance or discussion of just what a brand is or how effective branding is accomplished.

We’ll be introducing our own online forum here perhaps even sometime later this week to hopefully get the real discussion on branding underway,

Neil Patel and Internet marketing consultant very effectively visually illustrates The Difference Between Marketing, PR, Advertising, and Personal Branding .

For the past few years whenever I talk about branding with other contractors I try to emphasize something a quote I picked up on regarding Branding in a Remodeling Magazine article two years ago (Brand Aid Remodeling Magazine
October 1, 2005):

“It’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room,”

I think a lot of contractors instead confuse Branding with hype and what is in essence self-aggrandizing blatant self-promotion and the lesson we get from Neil Patel’s illustration is that your pitching that message over and over again isn’t really Branding but is instead what we call Advertising. Hyping to a client what a "great" contractor your are (a great lover) doesn’t really come off as authentic and genuine when it’s coming out of your own mouth.

However when that potential client hears that message coming from someone else it it does comes off as authentic and genuine and strikes a cord and helps build your Brand.

There’s an interesting article in Reuben Swartz’s Dollars and Sense: The Pricing Blog entitled:
Why Starbucks Coffee Is Cheap that presents a rational and explains that "if caffeine is what you want, and you want it in volume, Starbucks is your low-cost provider".

While that may be true as far as ‘pricing’ is concerned in the total realm of "caffeine providers" which includes Coke, Pepsi, Red Bull and amongst others is that really what people"buy" when they go to Starbucks? I drink nothing but de-caf regardless of whether it’s soda or coffee but I still prefer Starbucks and my local cappuccino bar to the coffee from my local delis, bagel shops and other establishments.

So what am I buying and what am I paying for?

It’s the "Experience" I get. If Caffeine is a commodity and as long as the consumer views it that way then Starbucks is one of the low cost providers (I think the delis and bagel shops beat them there and are the ultimate bottom line leader in the low price for caffeine category) when compared to buying Coke, Pepsi or some energy drink. But in their book The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage
author Pine and Gilmore describe something different that often goes on and certainly takes place for me when I buy my coffee in that I’m buying the ambiance and "eatertainment" as the authors describe it of the cappuccino bar. In fact I’m not only not buying the caffeine I’m also probably not really buying the coffee either. I buy my coffee in Starbucks and my local shop, Perks, because of the experience it gives me. I’m buying it there for the way it makes me feel.

I just discovered that Seth Godin one of my favorite all time authors and lecturers on business marketing and branding wrote what he calls a "riff" over on the WorkHappy.net: Killer Resources for Entrepreneurs bog site called The Top Five Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When They Market .

All five are great points but in particular I like:

#5 Failure to measure. All this is worthless if you don’t test and measure relentlessly. Do what works. Kill what doesn’t. Repeat.

I think it amazing how often (maybe 99%of the time) that contractors make no effort at all to research and really track what works for them in the way of marketing.

In my opinion Seth Godin is one of the most important thinkers and teachers in the world of business today and I’m sure I’m not alone in that thinking. A couple of weeks ago I bought his book All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World and think it’s one of the most important and insightful books on marketing I’ve ever read. I was so thrilled in reading it I then used up one of my book credits with Audible.com so that I could then re-read the book via my iPod as I worked.

Seth Godin’s general philosophy on marketing is based three main premises:

• The end of the TV-Industrial complex means that marketers no longer have the power to command the attention of anyone they choose. The consumer is taking control of how and who they will let market to them. (and even if you never been a part of the “TV-Industrial complex” the effect of that change still applies to you!)
• In a market place where consumers have so much power marketers must now show respect to their audience and the means no spam (un-wanted marketing), no deceit, and you must live up to the promises your brand makes.
• And to spread the word about your product in this new marketing environment you need to spread the word of your product expressed as an “idea” and in order to spread that idea that idea has to be remarkable. Godin then goes on to to describe the people who talk about your “idea” and spread the word as “sneezers” and the “idea” they are spreading is the “idea virus”

With All Marketers Are Liars Godin then “riffs” ( a typical Seth Godin expression) and expands on the third point telling us that one of the ways our message can spread is to tell it as a story and if we tell the story right people will then believe and then because they believe the story we have then been telling become true. Don’t talk about the features and benefits of your product or service. Instead tell a story that fits into your audiences world view and that people will intuitively want to believe. People will then share that story with other friends with similar world views thereby spreading your message. People buy into the way the story makes them feel and that is what they pass on to others.

Other books by Seth Godin

• Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas
• Unleashing the Ideavirus
• Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
• Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
• Survival Is Not Enough: Why Smart Companies Abandon Worry and Embrace Change