Aim Small

Garth Beyer

Brand Strategy: Aim Small

A 50+ year-old archer taught me a lesson about marketing the other day.

During a focus group session to prepare for an upcoming pitch, one archer said the key to success for him was to aim small. The concept applies to marketing as much as it does archery.

If you imagine an archery target, and you fit all 7 billion people into the target, then you aim for a bullseye, which likely still contains about a billion people, how certain are you that you’ll hit just the right tribe of people when you launch your marketing campaign? It’s as if you’re still aiming for the masses.

What if you aimed smaller? Aimed for a specific spot in the bulls-eye, a small small piece of the globe. What if you aimed to convince and convert 10 people to love your brand and left it up to them to call 10 of their friends instead of you firing another arrow, another marketing strategy?

Marketing is as much about accuracy as archery.

 

Stay Positive & Aim Small To Succeed

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In The Box Podcast

Episode 23: Principle Of Least Interest, Promoting Efficiency, Finding Your Audience And More – Podcast

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast, we talked about getting comfortable with admitting you don’t know something, how the principle of least interest can function for the better, how to promote efficiency when two people are doing the same task, what the best reward is you can give someone who has done great work, and how to find an audience. Enjoy and be sure to subscribe.

Episode 23: Principle Of Least Interest, Promoting Efficiency, Finding Your Audience And More

I don’t know – One way to get comfortable with saying ‘I don’t know”

Principle of least interest – Do you believe in the principle of least interest

Promote efficiency – Does pitting friends against each other for a reward function effectively as a way to promote efficiency?

Work rewards – What is the best reward to give someone for their hard work?

Bonus – What is one way for a business person to find their audience?

 

Stay Positive & Surround Yourself By People Who Are All In

The Problem With Humanizing Your Brand

Garth Beyer

Being Human And Authentic

The problem is not understanding what being human means.

Being human isn’t acting like every follower’s best buddy. It’s not talking with the latest slang, and it’s not to be entertaining and to laugh at human flaws.

One archery brand comes to mind when I think about a failed effort to be human. They posted an image of a red barn on FB and asked people to tag those they know couldn’t shoot the red side of the barn. Entertaining? Sure. Human? No. Regardless of how many people you could tag.

Another way to explain being human is authenticity. For a brand to be authentic, it is less about being a brand people can care about and more about being a brand that does the caring.

No one wants to be friends with a brand that highlights their shortcomings as a human, especially for entertainment purposes. People care to walk the path to brand loyalty when they feel a brand is beside them, not pointing at them.

 

 

Stay Positive & Be Human, Be Authentic, Be Caring

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The Hardest Question You Will Ever Ask (Or Be Asked)

Garth Beyer

The Power of Why

While camping this weekend, a little boy and his father walked back and forth from the bathroom to their tent a half-dozen times. Each time they passed I heard the boy asking “why?”

“Why don’t they have a camper?”

“Why are the campsites numbered?”

“Why is he crumpling the newspaper?”

Somehow along the path to adulthood, we lose the drive to ask why.

Moreover, we lose the drive to answer why, which is a terrible condition, especially given we are all marketers (of ourselves, of our ideas, of our existence).

This is one way humans are like brands: we aim for eyeballs, for attention, for likes on a FB page, for instant gratification instead of asking and answering the hard questions.

Why do I matter to them?

Why should they like my page?

Why would they care?

You can’t expect anyone to like your story, to believe in you, until you give them something to believe in. The only way to get there is to call forth your inner child and keep asking why until you’ve made your story remarkable.

 

 

Stay Positive & Keep Going Until You Feel You’ve Reached The End

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“What’s The Damage?”

Garth Beyer

Invest In Yourself

What drives me crazy is when I hear someone ask another person who did something that cost money, “What’s the damage?”

No damage.

It was an investment, even if it was a poor one. Lesson learned, right? Right?

Don’t let those who ask you what the damage was off the hook. The only damage is the kind of attitude that blinds you from the lesson learned from the purchase.

From mountainous trips across the globe, to a new car because your current one broke down, to a heavier set of dumbbells, you have the say in whether it hurts or harms you, not anyone else.

 

Stay Positive & Invest In Yourself (Always)

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Being Beleived…

Garth Beyer

is worth more than being noticed.

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That’s why we as marketers tell stories instead of show what’s new and shiny with a product or service. (At least the smart marketers do.)

Moreover, understanding the motivations of the customer helps you tell the story they’ll believe in,  easier.

What need do they want fulfilled?
What does she want to feel?
What desire does she have the drive to satisfy?
What kind of stories does she want to share with her friends?

 

Stay Positive & Tell A Story That Resonates

The Problem With Brand Ambassadors

Garth Beyer

How To Make A Better Product

Naturally, every brand deems it beneficial to have brand ambassadors, but is it the right marketing choice?

Product and service success comes when a brand matches the expected experience the customers have of the product or service. This philosophy explains why it gets more difficult for Apple every product release (and it often leads to the moment your competitors have the advantage).

If brand ambassadors are set forth to talk up the product or service, to embody and represent the brand in the brightest light possible, then aren’t they accomplishing the opposite because one can’t possible meet the ever-demanding rise of expectations the ambassadors are setting?

Better to build a work culture that speaks for itself, one that people talk about because it makes them feel good; it puts them in the light.

If you’re in a business, you’re in the business of making people feel good, consistently. Sometimes that calls for exceeding expectations, but not setting the expectation before the experience that they will be exceeded (what many brand ambassadors do).

Rather than thinking what information brand ambassadors can share, think of what feelings they feel when interacting with your brand and how they can share those.

Anyway, isn’t everyone who touches your brand a potential ambassador? You tell me.

 

Stay Positive & Brand Ambassadors Work When The Culture Was Built With Them In Mind