Guy Richards / Ordinary Life with a Brand Strategist

Respect your Brand!

If you respect your brand, invest in it, police it from inconsistencies and hold to its values…it will draw people. Like two magnets stuck together.

If you disrespect your brand, starve it, care less about presentation and expand offerings from its sweet spot for quick money…it will push people away. Like two magnets facing the wrong way.

Perceived Value

Perceived value wins every time.

Do what it takes to send the invisible message of value from your product/service to your market.

Brand opportunity...Leadership or Followship?

Opportunity comes and goes, but the person who grabs it succeeds.

Tonight my wife screamed…”SPIDER,” and I had to quickly take hold of the opportunity, find something to swish it with before that little spider was under the baseboard and gone.

It had me think how all opportunity is the same way.

When opportunity comes, we…

1. Identify it
2. Weigh it out
3. Go after it or do nothing

I have realized that the brands that grab the opportunity, risk and all, are the brands that lead the market.

The brands that wait or always pass by opportunity are the ones that automatically claim followship.

What’s Needed / Relevant Brand Positioning

An insightful strategist will create a plan to stay relevant with the generations coming up the ranks (the youth) without losing the loyalty with the brand’s aging market.

It’s a fine balancing act to keep a support base while drawling younger generations into the sales funnel.

What’s needed is:

1. An external strategist who can see the whole picture. Inside perspective, outside perspective, breakdowns, the sweet spot, possible value propositions and how this brand compares to the competitive landscape.
2. A leadership team that can make quick decisions when asked.
3. A great design team that can translate the strategy to tangible pieces.
4. A management team that encourage excitement through the business shift.
5. Most importantly, an offering and experience that is “Positively Talkable.”

Little Wins

When you can continually win it creates excitement, even if it’s a small win. It’s because small wins are the footprints that lead to the desired “big goal.”

When we potty train our kids we reward with cookies as they keep their pants dry. The small win is getting through a day with dry pants, the “big goal” is making them self sufficient. Drug rehabilitation centers celebrate the small goals of day counting and milestone coins to help people live a life of sobriety.

The psychology is that if you can help a person focus on the step in front of them, before they know it they will be at the top of the staircase.

Momentum and the Snowball

Your business is like a snowball headed down a hill. The tighter the business systems and focus, the easier it is to catch momentum over time. The little flakes that the snowball pick up on the way are like small wins for your business that build it into a boulder.

But if you don’t pack the core of your snowball it will fall apart before it has the opportunity to catch momentum.

In short…pack your snowball tight!

The Misconception

I have never met a brand that has led their market from day one (unless they were the first in the market / I mean, they created it)

Most brands launch with a half-baked product or service but a desire for more. They just don’t have the relationships, capital or experience to lead the market.

But when a brand is willing to make decisions, get up when they fail, treat people right and never stop pushing their own limits, they slowly push to the lead.

Wherever you are at, make sure you don’t get complacent.

Apple, Domino's and the 2 questions

You are faced with 2 options when trying to grow revenue.

1. How do I get my products or services in the hands of more people?

And/or

2. How do I get more of my products or services in the hands of the same people?

Apple approaches growth through the second, by offering lots of great options and making people smile. Which causes their market to expand through positive word of mouth.

Domino’s Pizza approaches growth through the first, by gimmick advertising and cheap pricing. In hopes that their product is cheap enough that people will who barely know them will buy and maybe come back.

Lighting…the subconscious gimmick

Lighting is messaging, it grabs the eye and directs it to what it’s highlighting. It can be a tradeshow booth, product display or retail signage.

Either way, appropriate lighting is like having an unexpected chauffeured Roles Royce show up at you house and persuade you to come with them to their destination of choice.

It’s a vehicle that leads to an end…a subconscious gimmick that pitches a sale.

When the time comes to evaluate your [ADD WHATEVER HERE], make sure you budget for appropriate lighting.

Inside…AHH…good deal?

Everyone has an innate desire to get a good deal. Whether someone has a $50k budget for Tiffany’s or a $100 to spend at Kay Jewelers, it really doesn’t matter.

Deep down people want to know they made a good decision and friends to tell them how smart they are.

So, what does this mean? It means that sometimes it’s worth it to compromise with a client to win their positive word-of-mouth.