Brands

In The Box Podcast

Episode 8: Grunt Work, All-Inclusive Resorts, Misinformation And More – Podcast

Garth Beyer

On this episode of In The Box Podcast, we talked about our obsession with time, the importance of symbols to brands, all-inclusive resorts, bitching about grunt work to colleagues, how comedians are truth-tellers, and how we can best prevent misinformation. Enjoy.

Episode 8: Grunt Work, All-Inclusive Resorts, Misinformation And More

Not bitching about grunt work – Does bitching about grunt work help you connect with others or does it hurt their view of you?

Symbols – How important are symbols to a brand?

All-inclusive resorts – Are all-inclusive resorts really all-inclusive?

Comedians – Can we take a minute to recognize how important they are to a healthy society?

Time – How obsessed should we be with time? and why are people so obsessed with time?

(Mis)information – What are the best ways to prevent misinformation from being spread?

 

Stay Positive & If You Like What Your Hear, Please Subscribe And Leave A Rating

Your Consumers Are Only Getting Smarter

Your Consumers Are Only Getting Smarter

Garth Beyer

Branding

The uninformed consumer is passé.

It’s ever more important to put a story out that matters (if not because you actually have one that matters, but because it is becoming the only way to survive in business).

The days of advertising and appealing to the mass are over. Now people are steadily searching out brands, reading about stories, seeing reviews from people who worked at the company of the product they want to buy. They actively ask what their friends think of a particular product before making a purchase. They read the “about us” page before they continue looking at what to buy.

Very soon Unilever will lose customers to their brands because people will see that they run provocative ads for their Axe brand that directly counters the messages they are trying to get across with their Dove brand.

These conglomerates that are trying to reach the mass by switching what brand they slap on a product won’t benefit them in the long run, simply because people are now realizing how one company is running the majority, and they’re not happy about that.

Take the beer industry for instance. The rise in craft brewery sales can be pinned (among other things) to consumer’s realization that Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors are the parent companies to some of their previously favorite beer brands.

Now people are starting to go to the restaurant that has a family story over the chain restaurant where computers rule.

In the past, having 20 brands owned owned by a parent brand worked. Now people want one brand (the parent) with one product. And that’s good for you and me because it offers us the chance to tell a story that truly matters, resonates with humans (not robotic consumerists), and allows us to pour our hearts into one bucket.

 

Stay Positive & Being Passionately Forward Leads To Consumer Attachment

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Does Word Of Mouth Come Natural?

Does Word Of Mouth Come Natural?

Garth Beyer

Word of mouth marketing

No. Never.

For some brands and businesses, word of mouth seems to come natural. I encourage you to think about it next time you hear someone talk bout a brand or business or when you yourself talk about one. (If needed, which I doubt it will be needed, ask why the person brought up the brand or business.)

Always (always!) the brand or business is talked about on purpose. They’ve made themselves remarkable enough to be talked about. They’ve done something different from their competitors so you can tell your friends about it. They’ve designed their site, their shipping method, their product or service in such a way that it’s easy to talk about on Twitter and share their reactions and reviews on Facebook or Amazon.

Word of mouth marketing may seem to simply come natural, that the brand or businesses never considered it to begin with. Some may have come by it accidentally, but as soon as they’ve noticed it, they’ve leveraged it. And why not? Word of mouth is the best marketing there is.

You are building your brand or business with it in mind, right?

 

Stay Positive & People Don’t Whisper To Each Other Anymore, They Shout

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One Great Thing Makes Everything Else Better

Garth Beyer

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If you know anything about Madison, Wis., you know hot & spicy cheese bread is a big deal. In fact, it’s Stella’s Bakery’s one great thing. As a result, all their other pastries are delicious. Stella’s one great thing makes everything else better.

Take the hot & spicy cheese bread away and everything else tastes a bit more bland.

Take Apple’s design away and everything else starts to feel cheaply made.

Take the Dre out of Dre’s Beats and, well, you get the point.

The piece of advice all these brands take to heart: don’t try to be everything. Be remarkable at one thing. The rest follows.

 

Stay Positive & Can You Guess My One Great Thing?

Go ahead. Guess. I’ll mail a loaf of hot & spicy cheese bread to the person who guesses it.

Brands Businesses And Their Faces

Garth Beyer

I played an odd game last night with family. The game Faces. Basically you try to associate a particular attribute “the flirt” with one of the seven faces. If you guess the same as the dealer, you both win.

I also watched Shark Tank (worth watching otherwise I wouldn’t mention it).

Combining the two made me think a few things.

1. If given the chance, people can read your face. They are constantly analyzing every feature to see if it fits the world view you’re trying to sell. No, the grumpy looking women is not going to be the flirt. No, the stock faced men trying to pitch a tie business based on the Netflix platform are not passionate about their product.

2. Most will get close to understanding the face of your brand, but the more you stand out, the more they will all agree on what the face represents. That’s when you can call your branding a success. Everyone looks at Apple and sees the same face. It took years and plenty of differentiation and risk to get there.

3. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you’re pretty.

 

Stay Positive & But Some Makeup Never Hurt

Garth E. Beyer

A New Edge To The Publishing Industry

Garth Beyer

What I’m about to tell you is a fallout for publishing companies, sure. But the change occurring results in the thriving  publishing industry.

Brands are now publishers.

And for the sake of those who don’t consider themselves a brand: businesses, services, inventors, creators are now publishers too.

A product won’t sell well unless you provide a copy of the story of it.

A business won’t gather as many clients unless they first share their story with them.

A freelancer won’t get as many bids unless they pitch their story, not their service.

Stories are driving the economy, and the only way to get your story out there is to publish it*

 

Stay Positive & If You Don’t Know Your Story, You’re Behind (here)

Garth E. Beyer

*word of mouth storytelling, I’ve always considered a form of publishing too.