Brands – Orren Prunckun

Orren Prunckun’s Marketing & Sales Q&A – Episode 2: The 5 things you should have in a marketing plan

Orren Prunckun — Mon, 20 May 2019 05:16:11 +0000

In this episode you’ll hear me answer a question about the 5 things you should have in a marketing plan.

So, listen here as I discuss this!

To be featured, first go to http://speakpipe.com/orren and record your number #1 marketing or sales question as an audio file.

Then click send and I will answer it for you for FREE!

Transcript:

Question

Hi Orren Michelle here having a sales and marketing plan and budget is clearly important when starting out what would be your top five must dues or must-haves in that plan for a start-up in Adelaide?

Answer

That’s a great question so I’m just assuming based on what you’ve given me that you are a startup that is pre-revenue not actually making any money someone couldn’t take that as the assumption for your question so the one thing that I’ll be checking yes sorry I’d be looking at currently with that position is I would be concentrating on a business model rather than a business plan and basing this on all of the work done by Steve Blank so in the lean startup and startups really are searching to find a correct business model and then companies then trying to execute on that business model and companies the ones that are creating plants and from all my experience that work with startups over probably the last five six seven years now is that a lot of them have gone in with a lot of thinking around what a plan is and I should just really be looking at a higher level model so I’m really gonna start kind of with that assumption and what I would do is break it into two sub categories of what are you selling and how are you selling it so in terms of what are you selling I’ll be looking at what places like McDonald’s and Hungry Jacks do so there’s kind of a infamous case study that floats around the internet that costs and I’m not going to get the figures right but a cost McDonald’s let’s say $1 to acquire a customer and what a customer does it does is they come in and they purchase this dollar product usually a burger and you can see you know particularly in Australia Hungry Jack’s does all the time you notice every time you go past 200 Jack’s they’re gonna have a big banner ad out the front of their physical locations just saying you know $1.00 those or whatever so they’ve got these $1 offers to entice you to come in and then when you come in you spend the dollar but they basically make no profit off that and then what they do and if you notice they’re like especially Hungry Jack’s to say would you like that in a meal so they try it up solely to the meal and then next minute you know you’ve got chips and you’ve got a coke and if there’s someone sitting next to you they’ve got a meal and then you’ve got the family meal and you’ve got dessert and then you drive out forty dollars later so they make all of their money in their profit particularly after that initial sale so I’d really be concentrating on what you offer in terms of things like that so what are your upsells from what you are initially selling you’ll probably only find that by going and actually out and talking to real people and seeing where they currently are in life so what the goals are to get from where they’re currently up to something in the future and also that kind of pain point or that need where they’re currently out and then finally in the future what are some of those fears if they don’t actually get that and what are some of the dreams if they do so you’ve kind of got if you’re picturing an axis of the timeline going on the x-axis and then on the y-axis you’ve got positive and negative you’ve got kind of four quadrants and be really worth going out and talking to who your customers are I’m working out whether I currently what my future looks like both in terms of positive and negative and you’re gonna really find out what they want now in terms of what you’re selling again I would also be looking at that progression in a logical order so when they purchased the burger what’s the next thing that they want and you kind of want to have chips because they’re delicious and then you don’t have a drink to wash it all down and then once you’ve had that you’ll want to finish it off with a dessert like this is nothing new you know if you look at potato is half the world has moved on potatoes because they’re super cheap you know Russia USSR living on you know millions of people living on potatoes you look at a soft drink all it is literally water, flavouring, sugar and then just a ton of profit in there so just looking at what that logical progression is to get whatever that person a once now currently and whatever they want in the future and how can you speed that up or automate it or make getting that desire result much quicker or with less effort in terms of how you’re going to be sewing and how you communicate that the main thing I really want you to think about is what is your hook or how are you different than everyone else at a marketplace so a really great book called the blue ocean strategy is really about creating a blue ocean in an ocean full of competitors were all the shark eating all of the fish so having thoughts about who you competitor desert sort of competitors are what they are offering and positioning yourself different to what they are putting out to the marketplace so really having a look at we competitors doing and competition is fine in my opinion it means that people have a need in people of wine but differentiating yourself from those people but also when you differentiate them make sure that there is a clear line in people’s minds what you offer compared to what they offer so the next thing I would be looking at is the customer journey so really smart guy named Eugene Schwartz wrote a book breakthrough advertising and in the breakthrough advertising book and came up with a model called the market awareness model and it goes through five stages go through someone being unaware that they have a problem then becoming aware that they have a problem then the third step is once they’re aware that they have a problem being aware there are actually solutions out there to create the change and then for stepping now that they know there are solutions and obviously hopefully one of those solutions is yours they become aware of that solution and they become product aware particularly of your solution and then once they become product aware and I like your solution and they become most aware because they’ve got the solution and they’re most aware of how it works because elves the consuming it or using it so within that model you can’t really go to most aware from unaware there’s who accept exceptions or examples where you can do that but a lot of people before they actually buy from you they’ve got to you know that I have a problem they need to know you can solve it they need to like you and then once they’d like you they really need to trust you and then when all those factors are there they’re going to purchase so what I would be really looking at is how that bits in with that kind of McDonald’s example that I gave you one of the easiest ways to get people to either know that they have a problem or know about you even if they know they have a problem it is giving them some sort of revelation or some sort of notification so that revelation could be I’m getting them aware that they have a problem and once they’re aware that I have a problem which is notifying that hey you are someone that could potentially solve it and in terms of getting them to like you just helping them is a really good way for someone to like you and once they like you they need to trust you and way you build trust is you make a connection and that connection lasts over a matter of time and they able to see that you make a promise and then that you deliver on that promise and you keep your promise and then you repeat it over and over again and they can trust you and that takes time that takes a relationship and that takes connection and then they are open to you selling what you are currently doing so I really think about how you can get people to know they have a problem know you like you and then trust you before you can go out and sell and then basically on that point of selling what I would be doing is going to people in real time so not necessarily online or offline but I wouldn’t be automating this process and I’d be going out and talking to people and trying to go through that whole process again just know you like you and trust you and then selling to them in person or online but in real time that way you can actually have a conversation with people it doesn’t matter if it’s email or as text or its phone or you go to a cafe but at least you can have a conversation with them back and forth to way so you can really work out what they respond to and what they don’t respond to only at that point then I would start automating things I see that trap with a lot of people they just go straight to automation and unless you’ve been doing marketing sales for a long time will be selling your product for a really long time you may or may not know what is sticking on what is not what some objections people have and what some objections they do not have and also really working out what they really, really want and you can only really find that out through a real time conversation what I would also be doing while you’re trying to go find those people to go sell to them is a big component while you’re trying to solve those people in person it’s really just going out and finding those people and I’d really suggest going to your initial network because they already know you they already like you and they trust you but beyond that really figuring out who has the problems that you’re trying to solve currently which I talked about before but also in the future and working out what the common denominators are in terms of their demographics are who they are where they’re located and so on their psychographics who their interest in their beliefs and then also the behaviours that they that they display based on those psyche graphics and those demographics so really find out who those people are that could potentially use your solution in other words who has that problem currently now that they want to get out of and have some dream to get some different place in the future that if they don’t get that they then potentially fear some implication of that so really that’s probably all I have got off the top of my head and I think and I have been counting but I believe we’ve got two five or the top five things that you asked for so hopefully that helps go out and try it and see what happens.

How To Create A Brand Name

Orren Prunckun — Fri, 17 May 2019 13:38:38 +0000

Great brand names have the following 6 elements to them:

Results orientated;
Rhyming;
Rhythm;
Repetition and Exposure.
Association;
Alliteration.

(Alliteration above on purpose!)

Don’t believe me?

As of today, 24 September 2018 The Coca-Cola Company has a $198 billion dollar market cap.

That’s many zeros: $198,000,000,000!

The Coca-Cola Company’s first product was Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola is made up of 4 ingredients:

Water;
Sugar;
Flavour; and
A shit load of profit!

The shit load of profit comes from its brand, specifically its brand name.

Coca-Cola has all 6 brand name factors.

It is not an accident that Coca-Cola and The Coca-Cola Company’s market capitalization is valued at $198 billion dollars.

There are plenty of other brands that use the same concepts.

Don’t believe me?

Here is a non-exhaustive list:

AC/DC
American Airlines
American Apparel
Armor-All
Banana Boat
Barry Bonds
Beach Boys
Beavis & Butthead
Bed Bath & Beyond
Bedknobs & Broomsticks
Beetle Bailey
Best buy
Betty Boop
BlackBerry
Blackberry Blockbuster
Bon Bons
Borders Books
Boston Bruins
Brady Bunch
Brigitte Bardot
Buffalo Bill(s)
Bugs Bunny
Charlie Chaplin
Chevy Chase
Chubby Checker
Chuck E. Cheese
Cleveland Cavaliers
Constant Contact
Daffy Duck
Daisy Duke
Dick Van Dyke
Dirty Dancing
Donald Duck
Dunkin Donuts
Eminem
Fred Flintstone
Gilmore Girls
Godric Gryffindor
Golden Globes
Golds Gym
Great Gatsby
Grey Goose
Harry Houdini
Hulu
Jacksonville Jaguars
Jane Jetson
Janet Jackson
Jesse Jackson
King Kong
KitKat
Krispy Kream
Lois Lane
Los Angeles Lakers
Lulu Lemon.
Lynyrd Skynyrd
M&M
March Madness
Marilyn Manson
Marilyn Monroe
Market Basket
Marilyn Manson
Marshall Mathers
Meals On Wheels
Michael Moore
Mickey Mouse
Micky Mantle
Mighty Mouse
Mini Me
Minnie Mouse
Minute Made
Modest Mouse
Momma’s & The Poppa’s
Muscle Milk
New Jersey Nets
Palm Pilot
PayPal
Peter Pan
Peter Parker
Philadelphia Phillies
Pink Panther
Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Penguins
Pooper-Scooper
Porky Pig
Pride And Prejudice
Road Runner
Rolls Royce
Ronald Reagan
Roto-Rooter
Salazar Slytherin
Seattle Seahawks
Sesame Street
Shake ‘n Bake
Shawshank
SpongeBob SquarePants
Tater-Tots
Ted Talks
Tetley Tea
The Bold & The Beautiful
The Dirty Dozen
TicTacs
Tina Turner
Tonka Toys
Tummy Tuck
Volvo
Weight Watchers
West Wing
Willy Wonka
Woody Woodpecker
YouTube

Marketing Ideas – Episode 17: How to determine what your marketing message is

Orren Prunckun — Thu, 16 May 2019 01:18:13 +0000

In this episode you’ll hear my thoughts on:

When to deliver a message;
What the two main types of messages are;
How long each message should be;
Why these work the way they do; and
How to determine where a prospect is in the buying cycle.

So, listen here as I discuss these!

Transcript:

Hello hello it’s Orren rPrunckun and I want to talk about the struggle that people have in determining their marketing message now it’s a very common concern that people haven’t it’s a issue that they just don’t really know how to solve they’ve got some idea and they dabble I’m here and they’re trying to work out what their right marketing messages but sometimes it just doesn’t matter I’m gonna go through all the reasons why I know that it doesn’t land now depending on who you are selling to you and particularly their buying temperature is going to change the type of marketing message you’re going to give them so for example tougher marketing message you give someone a prospect that is cold it’s going to be very very different than the type of marketing message you’re going to give a prospect who is either warm or fight if not boiling the same guys with no prospect that doesn’t know you it doesn’t know they have a problem and they’re frozen all of these different marketing messages that you’re going to be giving them are all going to be different and they usually differ on two main factors there’s quite a few other factors that changes and depends on what you’re giving them but the two main factors are number one if it’s a branded or sorry a branding style message or a direct more direct sales message and then the other one is the length either you know very short to you know something that’s very long in the hours if not days now when you’re moving the cross back through all of these buying temperatures from frozen to boiling you’re going to be giving them a marketing message that’s going to be really sure and concentrating more on a branded or branding style marketing message and as you move through those temperatures all the way up into a boiling them the marketing message you’re giving them is going to get longer and longer and it’s going to get more direct in terms of asking for the sale now why is this the case there’s a couple reasons one is someone that doesn’t know you doesn’t like you or doesn’t trust you someone that’s cold and I don’t even know that they have a problem sorry I beg your pardon that’s frozen and they don’t even know that they have a problem for them to consume something a marketing message that you give them that is you know 5 10 15 even up to an hour long is not going to happen that’s like going up to someone in a supermarket and saying hey will you listen to me on this topic I’m really passionate about for now there’s going to look at you until you get lost you know something is really short even under a minute it’s going to be the type of length marketing message to be giving them now once they know you and they like you and they trust you and you’ve built a lot of rapport in a relationship with them they’re more likely to listen to something for an hour or longer so the marketing message of giving them is going to be longer in those aspects also if you are something of higher priced product you’re saying a sale a sales message is going to be far longer than say a really low ticket item it’s going to be far shorter because the risk in terms of what the prospect is risking is far lower as you move down that buying to purchase someone that is you know or boiling prospect you can be going for more of a direct sale you’re gonna ask for it you’ve given a lot of value in that branding up front as there were a frozen or prospect and you can ask for a direct sell one and they’re gonna get they’re not going to be as they’re going to be far more open to it then something that you have done before so the type of marketing message that you are giving is really predicated on the temperature the buying temperature that this prospect is at when you are delivering that message you’ve got to really gauge and get a barometer of where that person is at that prospect is that the time that you want to communicate with them and that is going to determine the marketing message that you are going to deliver them it’s not ad hoc it’s not random there’s a sequence that you need to go through and it’s all dependent on where that person is that not where you want them to be or where you are what you want to sell them at the time of sale so the two things they’re going to summarize are whether it’s on a branding message or a direct sales message and then also if it is long or short and with that it kind of depends on the price point that you are selling as well so hope this is really useful for those that are trying to work out what their marketing messages I’d like you to go out and try it let me know what happens and see how you go thanks for listening.

Marketing Ideas – Episode 8: Confused prospects never buy

Orren Prunckun — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 08:56:41 +0000

In this episode you’ll hear my thoughts on:

Why your marketing message needs to be clear & simple.

So, listen here to hear as I discuss this!

Transcript:

Hello hello this is Orren Prunckun so throughout my life I played music I played drums and I played drums in a metal band for quite some years and then I used to be a pro DJ as in I used to get paid my full salary to play music for people for several years of my life so I think I know music pretty well so recently I was listening to a commercial radio station and an eighties glam metal band came on I’m like yeah this is cool I’m into eighties glam metal and I hadn’t heard this band before and the lyrics were completely incomprehensible had no idea what they were saying now this glam metal song was only a clip for about 15 seconds and then it ended and then it went into a political campaign sang was authorized by Clive Palmer of Clive Palmer United Party now don’t get me wrong don’t get me wrong why I will not be voting for Clive Palmer so that’s not the purpose of this run but what I wanted to explain was a marketing lesson so the marketing lesson here is a confused prospect never buys so I have no idea what that song was even trying to communicate to me and in and I do well what we would all do was have a USB that we take out of our brain and plug into someone else’s brain in computer can communicate everything that we wanted to about what we’re trying to market so they got all of our experiences and stories and were convinced that way but we don’t live in an ideal world maybe the technology it maybe technology will get there at some point but at this stage we have to use our words and other communication mechanisms to communicate what we are trying to do to our prospects now if our prospect has no idea what we are communicating the message is lost on them completely irrelevant sailors message and that is what happened with this clip now I did a bit of research into the clip to find out what it was all about and it was actually meant to be a parody maybe not parody but a a cover of a metal band from us called Twisted Sister so it was a take on one of their songs what are their famous songs now as I said in the start of this I seem to think I am pretty good at identifying music of any music for a lot of my life and I still had no idea that it was meant to be a take off of this song on that point Twisted Sister has now a cutest Clive Palmer of ripping off their song for a political campaign now that’s a whole another killer fish and bad and don’t do that because he’s ripping off intellectual property so that’s the second thing that Herkimer has done poorly but the first one the marketing one is confused prospects and never buy like if they cannot understand your sales message they will not know what to do or what you are trying to convince them to do so when you go out and create a sales message make sure that what you’re trying to communicate is very very clear and a lot of us try to over complicate things with technobabble and all of that kind of technical detail if a two or three year old cannot understand the point you are trying to make you have gone too complex for them and if it’s in a song that no one can understand the lyrics you have completely wasted your marketing and sales dollar so what I want you to do is try out in your next marketing sales communication simplify things and make it really clear what you’re trying to communicate I tried out let me know what happens and I would love to hear from you thanks for listening.

Marketing Ideas – Episode 4: Mother Teresa and the myth of being selfless

Orren Prunckun — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 08:59:59 +0000

In this episode you’ll hear my thoughts on:

Why Mother Teresa was selfish and that is okay; and
Why you should focus on what value your product provides your customers.

So, listen here to hear as I discuss these!

Transcript:

hello hello so we all know Mother Teresa she helped humanity and at face value she was a very selfless human being but she was still doing it because there was something in it for her regardless of her being selfless so she was kind of being both selfless and selfish and that thing and I Kavya see can’t speak on her behalf was that she got a good feeling out of helping humanity and the population there was still something in it for her and the same thing goes for all humans including people that want to buy your stuff now I get approached every day almost every day and people are when they ask me things they usually want my help for free and in these requests they are always focused on what they can get from me now I’m happy in some circumstances to help these people out because you know I get a good feeling out of it just like Mother Teresa does but a lot of the time the path is not clear of what is in it for me and how I can advantage from this so a lot of people that are requesting these things for me they focus the entire conversation on what they can get and what’s in it for them and what they can get from me rather than even mentioning what I can get out of the interaction or better still focusing the whole conversation of what’s in it for me and what I get out of it and then based on that one day’s you get in exchange now this goes for anything that you are selling to prom as a supplier you should always be focusing on what value you can provide to your customer and obviously there’s going to be in exchange for some again usually it’s going to be an exchange for cash money but if you I’m not focusing on what you can give your customer you are going about it the completely wrong way now if you look at charities write charities and ask for money and the thing they ask in return is a good feeling how you please donate to us because you’re going to get a good feeling out of that and yes like Mother Teresa and like when I like to help people because it’s being selfless a lot of people don’t actually want to go out of the way just to do it based on that pure feeling alone so charities they should be giving something in addition to the feeling that they are helped out that that person who is donating is helping out same goes with what you’re offering you need to be offering some values of people that is far beyond what you are asking in exchange for that transaction so why would are you not there are no one in the world is completely selfish selfless or altruistic even though their actions on the outside may seem so, so next time you go out and you ask something from someone whether as a favor from someone that is an acquaintance or money from a customer always provide more valued or value at least has a bare minimum to them in exchange for what you’re asking back so I really want you to go out try that out see how it works for you and then let me know thanks for listening.

Marketing Ideas – Episode 2: Irresistable offers

Orren Prunckun — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 08:52:58 +0000

In this episode you’ll hear my thoughts on:

How to make sales easy for you;
How to overcome sales objections; and
How to make it easy for customer to buy.

So, listen in to hear me discuss these!

Transcript:

hello hello I just wanted to record a quick video around selling so a lot of people have big issues with selling and they find it hard to do or they find it sleazy or unethical or they just have really bad experiences with selling but also being sold to and I think a lot of it comes down to the way and what they’re selling for example I really think that if you said to someone and I’m only using currency here as an example I said look if you give me one dollar I will give you $100 back now I’m only using that example with currency just to represent value and kind of currency is just a representation of value so if someone was to give you one unit of value or one dollar and you were to give them a hundred or whatever ten units back that is such a great deal people would be insane not to take it now I do know there’s a caveat to that so one of the reasons why people would not take that deal is because these don’t trust you like for example if I went and said that to some random person at a bus stop hey if you give me a dollar I’ll give you ten dollars back they would think it’s a scam because it sounds too good to be true and obviously I would be an anonymous person they don’t know me they don’t like me and they don’t trust me so in that situation would be a really hard choice to make but let’s just say people knew me their life to me and they trusted me and I wasn’t some crackhead that was at bus stop offering them something that sounded too good to be true most people would take that deal and the reason is it’s a no-brainer is and is irresistible deal and I think a lot of people that have issues with selling is that they don’t have something that is equivalent to the example I just gave you there either asking for a dollar in giving a dollar back well they’re asking for a dollar and they’re giving less than the dollar back but if you were able to give that amount of value to someone that’s 10 X 1.1 X something is more than what they’re giving you sales becomes really really easy and you can apply that to anything you’re selling not just a monetary transaction because let’s face it if you’re selling it’s not just products services or solutions if you are interacting with another human and you’re trying to get them to do something call persuade them to do something called influence them to do some ik you are in sales mode no matter what you are doing if you’re interacting with another human and you want them to do something you’re in selling mode so if you can offer something that is way more just incrementally more than what they are giving you in exchange for that whether it’s time whether it’s money whether it’s effort and so on selling becomes so easy and the choice to buy from you is also really easy and people will not feel like they’re being hard salt nor will they feel like they’re being pressured or you are doing it in a sleazy and unethical way so I think the point of this video is that I really wanted to think about in any exchange you’re having with someone else what can you give them that is so much more valuable than what you’re asking in return and literally selves become so easy and all of their objections seem to melt away good luck

Case Study: Nike Brand Alignment

Orren Prunckun — Thu, 06 Sep 2018 01:30:07 +0000

In 2016, Colin Kaepernic the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers sat down during the playing of the American nation anthem.

People were pissed.

Kaepernic, later explained his reason why: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of colour. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

Fair argument!

And just now, Nike has used Kaepernick in their ad campaign that says “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” and is also donating to Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights” campaign as well.

Obviously the slogan is congruent with Kaepernic’s 2016 statement and actions.

Yet, this ad campaign got a lot of people butt hurt.

People (angry, white, racists) are burning their Nike shoes in protest.

Was this a risky move for Nike to align with something so controversial?

Nope.

Nike has made a smart brand decision, despite their stocks dropping 3.2% to US$79.62 from US$82.18 as a result.

Nike understands fashion and culture.

They understand how both of these influence marketing…

All people need shoes.

Yet, only some can afford shoes.

And an even smaller amount can afford high end shoes like Nike.

Nike knows this and bet it all on black (pun and no offence intended).

Who helps sell high end products?

Tastemakers do.

Just look at who the tastemakers currently are…

Putting aside brands, tastemakers who are people of colour make up more than 70% of the top followed people on Instagram.

Artists who are people of colour makes up 90% of the current Top 10 music Billboards.

People who buy high end shoes look up to these people.

People who buy high end shoes don’t look up to angry, white, racists.

And angry, white, racists burning Nike shoes don’t influence culture, period.

And if Nike can win over those tastemakers by showing their support to a cause that is deep to their heart, then those tastemakers, wear Nike products and do the taste making for Nike.

Perfectly executed social proof.

And what better way to win over tastemakers who are people of colour, than back a person of colour who is congruent with your brand.

Yes, Nike will lose customers (angry, white, racists), but they’ll gain a whole lot more with this campaign.

It has been estimated the ad has created $43 million in free PR within 24 hour of launch and that figure will continue to climb as people like me comment on it.

And I’m betting their stock price will rise above that pre-campaign price of US$82.18 soon enough.

How To Market and Sell Commodity Products, Services and Solutions

Orren Prunckun — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 03:04:37 +0000

I see this all the time in commodity-type industries.

I call it a commodity-type industry because those businesses provide products, services or solutions that do not have a value-add, above-and-beyond the core products, services or solutions.

The customer is simply paying for a non-creative output.

A commodity could be defined as:

“A basic products, service or solution that is undifferentiated that it is and can be interchangeable with other products, service or solution of the same type.”

Emotional value as opposed to function value is what separates a brand from a commodity.

If you expand the emotional value, you can broaden the price.

I have discussed this in depth here.

Other examples of commodity-type industries could be:

Tradies;
Chippies;
Labourers;
Painters;
Etc.

The commodity issue that affects their marketing and sales is the exact same issue with promotion between affiliates – it’s really hard to differentiate one affiliate to another.

In other words if a company has 10 affiliate to sell the product, those 10 affiliates are all selling the same product for the same price and if they overlap in prospects, it’s really hard for them to be better than the other competing affiliate.

I have written about affiliates in depth here.

A great example is Uber’s refer a friend incentive, in what they call “Free Rides”.

Uber offers users a $5 discount if they refer a friend.

The friend also gets a $5 discount.

The problem is this offer is available to all current users and all prospective users.

Any prospective user can take advantage of the $5 discount from any number of users they know.

Which one do they choose?

Usually it’s the one that is front of mind when making a purchasing decision.

This is the reason why advertising or constant marketing and sales communication works.

You, as a brand, have no idea where a prospect is at metaphorically or when a need arises, so using advertising or constant marketing and sales communication helps you catch prospects and customers at the right time for them.

You, as a brand need to be different.

Customers want your product, service or solution to work.

The product, service or solution working alone is not a differentiator, it’s a bare minimum.

It needs to work!

That’s why customers purchase.

In the case of a Sparkie, the product, service or solution has to adhere to the electrical code etc.

Again, it’s a bare minimum.

Any one qualified (and there are lots of them,) could deliver the product, service or solution.

There is not real value add in-and-of-itself.

Most of these commodity-type industries market and sell the same product, service or solution.

They pitch their services the same.

But there is nothing different about them compared to their competition.

So, how do commodity-type industry businesses compete?

AKA generate leads and prospect.

They compete on price.

When businesses compete on price and discounting, they drive the market down.

Customer gets accustomed to lower prices and the process is irreversible.

It eats away at your margins meaning you need to sell more to make the same revenue.

And competing on price is a race to the bottom.

NO!

Don’t compete on price.

Don’t compete for new business based on your commodity product, service or solution alone.

Beyond these two, here are some market-proven ideas (not an exhaustive list) to help your commodity business compete:

Brand: Create a premium brand;
Free and Offers: What can you offer prospects for free or $1 that will qualify them as a prospect or customer to push them into your marketing and sales pipeline and marketing and sales communication sequence?;
Have a pipeline and communication schedule and content. This allows you to communicate with new prospects on an ongoing basis to sell them at the time of need;
Bonuses: This is related to Free and Low Priced Offers. I always suggest affiliates (as discussed previously in this guide), to differentiate themselves by creating a value add by way of a bonus above-and-beyond the core product, service or solution. A great bonus is something cheap, high perceived value to the prospect and scalable in its delivery. Usually digital products are great for this. The product is the commodity, but the bonus is the differentiator;
Partnerships: Customers with the same pains or same wanted gains actually buy more than one product, service or solution (even competing products, services or solutions) to bring them closer to that gain or away from that pain. Customers were going to buy those products, services and solutions anyway, with or without prompting from symbiotic marketing. How many books of the same genre do you own? I’m willing to guess that it’s more than one. So, case in point Another example may be hair shampoo and conditioner. A better example may be hair shampoo and a hair straightener. In the latter example, the products, services or solutions are either upstream or downstream from each other. Upstream is better than downstream because your products, services and solutions are the next logical progression for the customer who has purchased a competing product, service or solution. Products, services or solutions that are alternative or competing can also be complimentary to your product, service or solution (in the case of hair shampoo and conditioner). Embracing this dynamic puts you in a position of leverage – partners invest money, time and effort in generating leads and partners both leverage each other’s investment. Put this way, if a partner has a qualified contact list that has purchased $1,000,000 of products, services or solutions and you can leverage this to build your contact list, you have in effect gained access to $1,000,000 of qualified customers. Pretty powerful;
Advertisements: search engine ads not social medial ads, for the reasons outline previously in this guide;
Search Engine Optimization: where do most people go when looking for a commodity product without having a referral? Google. The search for the suburb and service. You want to make sure your business is in the first position; and
Use and incentivise referrals with evangelists: You have already made a promise, delivered on that promise and created trust (especially important in industries where there are charlatans and swindlers), so you now have a great basis for word-of-mouth.

Once you have differentiated yourself on the front end in how you market and sell, you also need to differentiate yourself on the back end in how you increase customer loyalty.

How To Build A Brand Like Disney

Orren Prunckun — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 14:35:01 +0000

As of today, 29 September 2016, The Walt Disney Co has a $149 billion dollar market cap.

That’s many zeros: $149,000,000,000!

I was recently at Disney Land in Hong Kong, and Disney knows a thing or two about brand building by creating experiences.

(I’ve also had the same experience in Anaheim, Florida and Tokyo.)

And I think maybe a correlation between creating experiences and their market cap

Brand building by creating experiences could be discussed for eternity and all the nuances never fully explored, so let’s just pick one sliver…

Brand names, names and naming.

…So, right now I have the song Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins stuck in my head.

Strange right?

But this is an important brand lesson…

Having an unforgettable or notable name is really important for your brand.

A brand name is arguably one of the assets that provide you with the most return on investment and leverage.

Something that could take a day to find can create years-and-years of perceived value.

A brand name is a condensed and distilled concept of the essentials features or benefits of your product, service or solution.

It goes without saying, if you have a new brand you are launching and trying to establish, you automatically do not have brand recognition salience in the market.

You are starting from scratch.

So in order to have the best chance of recognition, you need to be smart about your brand name.

However, as you can guess, most brands get their name wrong!

That’s a big call I know, but after this guide, I hope to convince you of this claim.

So how do they get it wrong?

They name their brand something clever or worse still confusing.

When prospects and customers spend money on your product, service or solution, it’s highly important to them.

They are trying to solve a pain or reach a gain.

Solving their problems and getting results is serious to them.

Spending money represents changing one currency, such as time and labour, into another, that is money in exchange for a product, service or solution.

People’s time and labour, and thus their money, are really important to them and they treat it that way.

A clever or confusing name doesn’t do anything to building trust with your prospects and customer that your brand can solve their pain or gain.

So you are probably thinking how do you get a name, right?

We’ll discuss that in turn, but let’s first look at some theory…

Humans have something called the phonological loop.

The phonological loop is a short-term, verbal memory system in the auditory cortex of the brain.

The auditory cortex is located in the temporal lobe.

It acts as a “recording device” that records incoming auditory data continuously coming into the ear.

Sound enters the ear and bounces around before it is processed by the brain.

From the phonological loop, the brain processes the information and decides what to do with it.

It could be forgotten or stored in longer-term memory.

Sometimes, some sounds stay in short-term memory for longer periods of time than others.

Why is this?

Those sounds are not automatically processed, but they are repeated as if they were.

This is a strange phenomenon!

Dr. James Kellaris from University of Cincinnati discovered what is called “Ear Worms.”

Earworms have audible properties that stimulate the phonological loop more than other audible propertie, and stay in the short term memory for longer periods of time than others.

They capture attention and repeat in the phonological loop (i.e. in your head) for about eight seconds.

It’s involuntary.

Self-repetition does not remove the Earworms, but rather makes it stay longer in the ear.

It’s like an insect bite – the more you scratch, the more itches.

The loop scratches the “itch” by replaying it over and over.

The more an Earworms plays, the more it plays!

The more they scratch, the more they itch.

This is why you say “I have that song stuck in my head”, just like I did with Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins.

This is also why a DJ pulls the music out for a slight second to allow a sing-a-long; when you hear a song, you can fill in the rest even after the song stops playing.

It keeps your brain busy when thoughts are idle, stressed or tired.

Earworms could also be called the unscientific terms of: “repetunitis” and “melody mania.”

It’s clear that the longer sounds stays in the phonological loop, the higher the chance of being remembered, or better still, not being forgotten.

The latter, not being forgotten, is more insidious as it exists and needs to be forgotten, rather than it simply existing and needing to be recalled.

It takes less cognitive power.

So how do you create a brand name where the sound stays in the phonological loop and is really hard for prospects and customers to forget?

Let’s discuss how to create a notable & unforgettable name.

As we have learned, it is possible we need to extend the time the sound stays in the phonological loop.

Here is how to do that and thus create Ear Worm for your brand name.

It’s important to note that humans communicate via speech for far longer than they do in written form.

This evolutionary fact means humans understand speech through hearing much more effectively and efficiently than in the written form, such as a logo or slogan.

Someone can be illiterate and still communicate, but it’s rare for a situation in reverse.

What this means in terms of brand names, is that the name should sound good before it looks good as a logo.

Logos don’t get into your head like songs and song lyrics do – they are easy to forget.

This is the phonological loop in action.

But logos have their place, and we’ll cover them shortly.

Here are some devices that help Ear Worms and name recall…

Start with the benefit, result or outcome your prospects and customers want.

Document all these words that relate to benefits, results or outcomes.

Next, take the list you just created and gave each word an emotional value on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most and 1 being the least.

How much emotional power does each word have?

For example, the words “like” and “love” have very different emotional power when you think and say them.

Next, discard all words that have a score of five or below.

Document emotional value of those words.

Next, look at your list of words and see if you can link any of them together, so they still make sense using the following Ear Worm devices.

These devices make Ear Worms even harder to forget:

Repetition;
Rhyme;
Alliteration;
Association; and
Rhythm.

Here they are…

Repetition & Exposure: Repetition is using the same words more than once, to help with clarity and exposure.

Repetition of words creates predictability of what will come next.

It creates a familiarity.

The Repetition Effect, as described in the book The Most Important Graph in the World by Tony Buzan, says the brain will remember things that are repeated often enough.

This is why repetitive advertising works.

To quote William Rastetter: “The first time you say something, it’s heard, the second time, it’s recognised, and the third time, it’s learned.”

The story of the Three Little Pigs is a good example of this.

A variation of Repetition could also be Rhyme and Alliteration…

Rhyme: Rhyme is a repetition of similar or same sounds in more than two words.

This is commonly the last syllables or end of words.

Rap songs are a simple example of this.

Alliteration: In comparison to Rhyme, Alliteration is a repetition of similar or same sounds in more than two words.

But, usually, this occurs in the first consonant of the start of words.

Association: An association is a connection or link between something.

The Association Effect, as described in the book The Most Important Graph in the World by Tony Buzan, says the brain will remember things that have associations, connections and links to other things in memory.

In regards to naming, associate powerful words with famous people, places or things.

So, can you use the same first or last name or juxtapose them?

Rhythm: Rhythm or beats include the same number of syllables.

Songs or jingles with a rhythm or beat are easy to remember.

I’ll discuss brand jingles shortly.

These five naming devices help addictive and play over in your prospects and customers head.

And of course, an addiction is an impulsive action in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequence.

An Ear Worm!

Disney pays much attention to detail; it’s worth $149 billion to them – they use some of these tools in the most obscure parts of the experience they create: from the boats to the shops in each Land.

If Disney knows the value of naming, maybe you should think about how important it is too!

And yes, I get the irony of how unmarketable the name Orren Prunckun is.

But alas, my parents weren’t marketers

Case Study: How To Give Your Brand A Face Lift

Orren Prunckun — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 14:28:14 +0000

There is an axiom that says “perception is reality.”

And in marketing, this is especially true!

Absolute objective truth does not matter and therefore for most marketing purposes; it does not exist.

The only sure reality is prospects’ and customers’ subjective perception of your brand.

The Understanding and Misunderstanding Effect, as described in Tony Buzan’s book The Most Important Graph in the World, says individuals have different associations with different words.

When I say the word “apple”, Person A may have a different association with the word then Person B, depending on their past experience.

This means there are different perceptions of the same situation.

For example, one person gives a book a one-star review, and another gives it a five-star review.

Who is right? Who is wrong?

It’s the same product, service or solution, just a different reaction to our perception of it.

Let’s look at another example using an analogy; if one person says you have a tail, they are probably insane, because humans do not have tails.

However, if ten people say you have a tail, they are probably right, and you better turn around and see if it’s true, as they may be on to something!

It follows then that everyone has a perception of your product, service or solution.

When a child is born, a process of “limbic imprinting” occurs.

Limbic imprinting is where the human nervous system memorizes new data and stores it in their formative period.

For example, you usually always remember the first times certain milestones happen – your first tooth lost, your first kiss and so on.

Children learn very quickly in their formative years because they have a lot of these first experiences.

The same happens with prospects and customers when they first come across something new like your brand.

Once that imprint has occurred, it’s almost impossible to delete or reposition what is already perceived and formed in the prospects’ mind.

With this considered, you never get a second chance to make a first impression with prospects or customers.

Let me repeat, because it’s important.

YOU NEVER GET A SECOND CHANCE TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION.

First impressions matter and first impressions last!

This is called the Primacy Effect in psychology.

And you probably already know it’s hard to change someone’s mind (or perceptions) once it’s made up.

Your brand cannot be different in their mind from then on.

Look at politics, money, vaccinations, abortions, religion, sex, drugs and so on!

People are willing to die for their perceptions and beliefs on these topics.

You can’t change them!

This means that something new can only be related to something that is already in one’s mind, such as prior knowledge or experience.

In other words, humans can only understand a new data if it is relative or related to something else they understand.

The Interest Effect, as described in Tony Buzan’s book The Most Important Graph in the World, says that the more someone is naturally interested in something, the more they will retain on the subject.

In humans, this is called the Reticular Activating System.

The Reticular Activating System is the way a human brain controls what it gives attention to.

Only 2,000 pieces of information are processed by the brain per second out of 400 billion (400,000,000,000) pieces of information that they are exposed to each second.

This is the reason why advertising or constant marketing and sales communication works.

You, as a brand, you have no idea where a prospect is at metaphorically or when a need arises, so using advertising or constant marketing and sales communication helps you catch prospects and customers at the right time for them.

One of the jobs of marketing is to help prospects become aware of their needs as well as be at the right place at the right time for when they do become aware of those needs.

Prospects and customers believe and see what they want to believe and see.

The mind accepts consistencies and ignores the rest.

Differentiation exists only in prospects and customers’ perception.

Again, similar to the Primacy Effect, children learn really quickly in their formative years because they have a lot of interest in new things.

This leads us to explore the prior experience of what perception is already in prospects’ and customers’ mind about your brand’s marketplace.

Marketing’s job is to manipulate these perceptions.

The rest of this will explore this manipulation.

And, as I alluded to previously with the Understanding and Misunderstanding Effect, don’t be fooled; the word “manipulation” may have a negative association with you, but I do not intend to put it that way in this context!

It could be said that there are two types of value:

Functional (or practical) value; and
Emotional value.

Both are quite distinct forms of value.

Value is the difference between a prospects’ current pain and wanted gain.

The realization of that value is money used for payment.

Functional value, on the one hand, is what your product, service or solution delivers to your prospects and customers including all its features.

It is the difference between the pain and gain prospects and customers want to be solved.

Emotional value, on the other hand, is all of the intangible, emotive and irrational things your prospects and customers want in addition to the functional value.

This could be things like their:

Wants;
Results;
Desires;
Aspirations;
Hopes;
Dreams;
Goals;
Fantasies;
And so on…

It can also mean the relationship that prospects and customers have with your products, services or solutions.

These emotions are the real true value of your product, service or solution and everything else is tertiary.

Prospects and customers want to feel these things more than they actually want something solved.

It’s the emotional value that creates a perceived value that allows your brand to charge a premium price for similar products, services or solutions to what your competitors offer.

The difference between functional and emotional values are both minor and “cosmetic” differences.

Therefore, a premium position is the combination of functional and emotional value.

The term positioning was arguably coined by Al Ries and Jack Trout in their book, Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind.

Positioning can be defined as the process of influencing the perception of a brand, so it has a certain position and related attribute (or attributes) in the mind of prospects and customers.

This position and related attribute (or attributes) could be based on price, quality, service or any multitude of other options.

So, why should you care about positioning?

Here is the reason.

We have recently seen a flood of new products, service or solution and subsequent marketing messages (even the human body can be used as billboard now).

But, attention is scarce and limited – prospects and customers can’t digest it all.

They see on average 362 marketing messages per day.

That is approximately 100,000 marketing messages per year!

It’s impossible to take all of that information in and process it.

“Ad blockers” on Facebook and native content are on the rise to combat this situation by both prospects and customers and brands, respectively.

Cognitive psychologist George A Miller said the human mind can only hold on average seven individual units of information in working memory at once.

99% of these messages will be missed by prospects and customers.

So, unless your marketing message stands out, as you can probably guess, it will be lost forever.

Therefore, positioning helps simplify a marketing message, make a good impression and break through all the other competing marketing noise.

Let’s look at how information is absorbed, and perceptions are formed.

I drive along Goodwood Road fairly often…

And Goodwood Qualify Meats have done an outstanding job on their re-brand.

There are endless tools to create emotional value, but Goodwood Qualify Meats have obviously used one – appearance.

That in my opinion instantly positions them as a premium.

Specifically, it’s the wood look.

It’s not just any wood.

It’s a stained mahogany look which implies associations with quality – i.e. premium.

The wood is arranged like a Tea Chest construction which also implies associations with quality – i.e. premium.

The colour brown represents quality – i.e. premium.

And finally, the typeset is congruent with all of the above.

I suspect none of this is by accident!

So hat’s off to Goodwood Qualify Meats for a job well done.