build your brand and build your business

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Build Your Brand Build Your Business By Susan Gunelius President & CEO KeySplash Creative, Inc. www.KeySplashCreative.com 1

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Presentation delivered by Susan Gunelius, President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., at the Entrepreneur Magazine and UPS Growth 2.0 Conference in Miami, Florida on January 26, 2010. Audience included small business owners and entrepreneurs.(www.keysplashcreative.com) (www.twitter.com/susangunelius)

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Page 1: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Build Your BrandBuild Your Business

By Susan GuneliusPresident & CEO

KeySplash Creative, Inc.

www.KeySplashCreative.com 1

Page 2: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

What is a brand?

Page 3: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

What a brand is NOT.

Page 4: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

A brand is not a logo.

Page 5: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

A brand is not a product.

Page 6: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

A brand is not a slogan.

Page 7: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

A brand is not an ad.

Page 8: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

A brand is not a company.

Page 9: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

A brand is a promise.

• A brand promises something to consumers.

• A brand sets consumer expectations.

• A brand meets those expectations in every consumer interaction and experience.

Page 10: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Brands that don’t keep their promises fail.

Page 11: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

What is a brand?

Page 12: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

The Elements of Branding

TangibleLogo

Color palette

Typeface

IntangibleImage

Messages

Promise

Brand Perception

Page 13: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Tangible Brand Elements

• Elements of a brand that consumers can see and touch such as logo, typefaces, and colors.

AT&T uses Pantone Process Blue as the primary color and the AT&T Clearview font for its corporate identity, logo and marketing materials.

Page 14: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Intangible Brand Elements

• Elements of a brand that consumers indirectly attribute to that brand and anything that bears that brand name or association such as messages, image and promise.

Harley Davidson communicates messages related to freedom and has an image of camaraderie.

When combined with the tangible elements of the Harley Davidson brand, the brand promise is clear and consistent.

Page 15: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

3 Steps to Brand Building

• Consistency – messages, image, and so on must be consistent or consumers become confused and turn away from the brand.

• Persistence – brands are not built overnight.

• Restraint – don’t be tempted to go too far.

Page 16: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Brands are built by consumers, NOT companies.

• Companies put out the messages and nudge consumers in the desired direction, but consumers create brands through experiences and emotions.

It is essential that building your brand is a

top priority for your business!

Page 17: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Brands are built from Consumer Perceptions

• Communicating consistent messages

• Setting consumer expectations

• Delivering on those consumer expectations every time

Branding affects every part of your marketing strategy.

Page 18: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Strong brands develop over time.

• The strongest brands OWN a word or phrase in consumers’ minds.

• That is the brand’s position relative to other products on the market.

Page 19: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

What word does your brand own?

Owns Inexpensive

Reliability

Luxury

Performance

Owns

Owns

Owns

Page 20: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

If brands were people, who would you rather hang out with?

There is a reason the Mac Guy vs. PC Guy commercials are so successful.

BRAND POSITIONING

Page 21: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Great Brand Examples

Page 22: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Take the Brand Perception Snap Shot

• What 5 words do you use to describe your brand today?

• What 5 words do your customers use to describe your brand today?

• What 5 words do you want consumers to use to describe your brand in the future (i.e., your ultimate brand goal)?

Find the gaps and fill them!

Page 23: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

How to Build a Brand

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A.R.M.S.4 Steps to Brand Building Success

• Awareness• Recognition• Memory• Spreading the word

Page 25: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Slow Down!

1. Strategy first

2. Tactics second

What’s Twilight?Oh yeah, I’ve

heard of Twilight before. It’s that vampire book.

I have to read

Twilight. I keep hearing about Twilight. It

must be good.

Have you read Twilight yet? Everyone is

talking about it.You have to buy

Twilight! I’m telling everyone.

It’s so good!

UnawareAwareness

Recognition

Memory

Spreading the WordSpreading the Word

Page 26: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Know Your Competition

• It’s not enough to know what you’re doing.

• Research your competitors and know them as well as you know yourself.

Exploit their weaknesses

Differentiate your business from theirs

Establish your unique niche

Position yourself against them

Seek out opportunities

Page 27: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Develop Internal Brand Advocates

• Your employees are your most powerful brand advocates.

• Educate them about your brand.

• Give them a reason to want to advocate your brand.

If your employees believe in your brand promise, they’ll want to advocate your brand.

Page 28: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

The Role of the Brand Champion and Brand Guardian

What do you think of when you hear the names:

• Hugh Hefner• Martha Stewart• Steve Jobs

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The best brands have powerful brand champions and brand guardians

behind them.

Page 30: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

The 21st Century Brings Us …

The Chief Brand Officer

Page 31: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Building Brands Externally

Remember,

consumers build brands,

NOT companies.

You must set and meet customer expectations, or people will be confused and your brand will be meaningless.

Page 32: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Building Brand Loyalty

When consumers’ expectations and feelings about a brand are continually met or exceeded, they become loyal to it, knowing it will continue to meet those feelings and expectations in the future.

The develop confidence, trust, and security in the brand and choose it over other brands.

Page 33: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Brand loyalty can evolve into a Cult Brand.

Cult brands are loved by specific groups of die-hard brand loyalists.

Page 34: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Cult Brands can grow into Relationship Brands

• Relationship brands are built on experiences.

• They often fill a void.• Consumers self-select how

they want to interact with the brand by choosing from brand experiences.

• Often those experiences are shared among groups.

Page 35: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Relationship brands are powerful.

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People look for new ways to experience and share relationship brands.

Page 37: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

People talk about the brands they love.

• Word-of-mouth marketing is powerful.

• Loyal brand advocates are every brand manager’s dream.

• Remember that Breck Shampoo commercial, “And she told two friends, and she told two friends, and so on, and so on, and …”

Page 38: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Tools to Build a Brand

• Remember the 3 steps to brand building:

1. Consistency2. Persistence3. Restraint

Page 39: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Brand Promotions

• Sales, discounts, coupons, etc. are effective in boosting short term buzz about your brand and traffic to your business.1. Consistency: ensure your promotions promote your

brand promise rather than confusing it or undermining it.

2. Persistence: test promotional tactics to see which efforts drive the best results rather than giving up after one failed attempt.

3. Restraint: don’t let your competitors drive you to pursue promotions that run counter to your brand.

Page 40: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Marketing and Advertising Materials

• Brochures, point-of-sale collateral, signage, ads, direct mail, etc.– Consistency: Make sure your copy and design

match your brand promise.– Persistence: Research and know your

customers and target audience before you invest.

– Restraint: Timing and placement can make or break the effectiveness of advertising. Invest wisely.

Page 41: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Sponsorships

• Local events, organizations, teams, schools, publications, and so on.1. Consistency: Choose organizations to sponsor that

match your brand promise.

2. Persistence: Don’t invest in sponsorship and leave it at that. Extend your participation with advertising, promotions, event marketing, and more.

3. Restraint: Understand the audience related to the sponsorship to ensure it matches your target audience. Disjointed sponsorships won’t help and could hurt your brand.

Page 42: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Events, Trade Shows, Conferences

• Online and offline (virtual trade shows and webinars are growing faster than traditional training, professional events and trade shows)

• When the economy struggles, events, trade shows and conferences deliver highly targeted and motivated audiences.

Page 43: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Brand Identity Materials

• Logo, stationery, invoices, signage, etc.

• Make sure your brand promise translates into the tangible elements of your brand identity to ensure consistent and persistent communication of your brand to all audiences.

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Publicity

• Press releases, local news, radio and television interviews and appearances, speaking engagements, charitable events, and more.

• Make your business newsworthy by establishing yourself as an expert in your field and making yourself available for speaking and appearances.

• Get involved in your community.

Page 45: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Social media marketing offers the single largest opportunity for

entrepreneurs, small businesses mid-size companies, and

large corporations to build their brands

and build their businesses.

Page 46: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Social Media Marketing

• Social media is a term used to define the online communications tools of Web 2.0 that are rooted in conversations, engagement, and active participation.

• Social media marketing is any form of direct or indirect marketing used to build awareness, recognition, recall and action of a brand, business, product, person, or other entity.

Page 47: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

The Proof

With a multi-million dollar budget to spend as she pleased, Cindy Gordon of Universal Orlando Resort instead told just 7 people about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

And within just 24 hours 350 million people around the world heard the news.

All by telling just 7 people.

Page 48: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrary.tv

Gary Vaynerchuk grew his father’s local wine store in Springfield, New Jersey to a $50 million per year business with HALF of those sales coming from the Web.

How did he do it?

Through the power of the social Web.

Gary’s passionate and informative video blog posts on WineLibrary.tv quickly drew audiences from around the world as word spread about his contagious content.

Today, Gary is a sought after social media speaker, makes frequent appearances on television, and recently signed a multi-million dollar book deal where he will share his knowledge and experience of using social media tools to grow a small business.

And it all started with a blog.

Page 49: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Keys to Social Media Success

• Brand consistency in message and image.

• Set and meet customer expectations based on the brand promise.

• Let the audience take control.

Page 50: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

The Marriage of Building Brands and Business through Social Media

• Consumers have more options than ever thanks to the ease of finding information online.

• The social web has created an online conversation that most companies still don’t know how to leverage.

• Social media presents a unique opportunity for companies to engage with current and potential employees, position the brand as a brand of choice, and develop an ongoing dialogue that ultimately creates loyal brand advocates and guardians.

Page 51: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

What are the popular tools of social media?

• Blogs (Blogger, Wordpress, TypePad, MoveableType, etc.)

• Microblogging (Twitter, Jaiku, Plurk, etc.)

• Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, etc.)

• Social bookmarking (Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, etc.)

• Podcasting (iTunes, BlogTalkRadio, etc.)

• Photo sharing (Flickr, Picasa, etc.)

• Video sharing (YouTube, Google Video, Viddler, etc.)

• Online chats and telephone (Skype, Google Voice, etc.)

• And many, many more

Page 52: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

But where to begin?

Page 53: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Multiple departments can get a piece of the social media pie.

MarketingCreate Content• Blogs• Twitter• YouTube• Digg• StumbleUpon• Facebook• MySpace• You name it!

Customer ServiceDirect Dialogue• Blogs• Twitter• YouTube

Public RelationsCommenting• Blogs• Twitter• YouTube• Digg• StumbleUpon• Delicious• Other social bookmarking sites• Review sites like Yelp and Epinions

ExecutiveThought Leadership• Blogs• Twitter

Human ResourcesNetworking• Facebook• LinkedIn• MySpace• Bebo• Niche networking sites• Blogs• Twitter• YouTube

Page 54: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Step 1: Find Your Best Audience

• The social web gets more crowded everyday.

• Your efforts are for naught if you’re not spending time in the right places.

• Take time to find the people you want to communicate with, and then join the conversation.

Page 55: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Example: Playboy

• Playboy U Social Network• Twitter• Facebook• MySpace• YouTube• MetaCafe• FriendFeed• Blogs• Mobile content• And more

Surround people with branded experiences.

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Southwest Airlines

• Blog and Twitter profile include non-official and entertaining conversations by real employees in their own voices.

Notice a REAL person is tweeting with you!

Southwest Airlines can be found all over the social web.

Page 57: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Step 2: Content is Key

• What you say is the most important key to success on the social web.

• Be human, be honest, be transparent, be you! Personality is important to engaging with others in social media.

• Leave jargon and corporate rhetoric out!

Page 58: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Example: Walmart

• Written by employees

• Given flexibility

• Personal voice

• Readers feel like they’re “in the know”

• Employees feel like they matter

Page 59: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Jet Blue

• Another example of making a corporate brand more human by putting a name to the Twitter profile.

The Jet Blue Twitter profile always shows who is “on duty” and tweeting!

Page 60: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Step 3: Research, Research, Research!

• Check out what your competitors are doing.

• Find companies that are doing great things and copy them (no sense in reinventing the wheel).

• Find out what your target audience is looking for, what engages them, what keeps them coming back for more, and then give them more of it!

Page 61: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Comcast• Twitter profile, @ComcastCares, is a popular customer service site. The

fact that a specific person is connected to the profile increases the “human” factor and gives the profile a personality.

Look at all of this useful info! And to make Comcast more human, you can even check out Frank’s family website and blog!

Page 62: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Step 4: Give More than You Receive

• Don’t just publicize company news. Give more by creating interesting, useful and valuable content that can’t be found on a traditional Web site.

• Answer questions, ask questions, be engaging and real.

• For every hour you spend “publicizing” through social media, spend at least 3 hours engaging with people in your network.

Page 63: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Example: Whole Foods

• Most of the Whole Foods Twitter stream is @replies.

• Targeted content adds value: Additional Twitter profiles for specific topics (e.g., @WFMCheese, @WFMWineGuys, @WholeRecipes), for specific metro areas, and dozens for specific store locations.

• The Whole Foods blog provides recipes, industry news, green tips, and more.

• Additional company blogs by the CEO, about special ingredients and food podcasts.

• On Facebook

• Flickr photo profile

• ALL adding value and giving the Whole Foods brand a personality and direct dialogue with consumers.

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H&R Block

• Twitter profile and blogs which answer questions, particularly during tax season.

Page 65: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Step 5: Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

• Diversify your social media presence to connect with a broader audience and build your network.

• Just be sure to remain active in all your social media ventures.

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Example: Dell

• Dell operates several Twitter profiles targeted at specific audiences (e.g., @DellOutlet, which generated $2 million in direct revenue in the past year).

• Dell runs a number of blogs targeted at specific audiences (e.g., Direct2Dell is a highly popular blog for Dell consumers).

• The Dell Community is the Dell customer social network.• Dell is on Facebook and LinkedIn (a group for Dell

partners).• There is even a Dell forum.

Page 67: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Google

• Google has 102 company and product blogs to choose from (and growing)!

• Dozens of Google employees write blogs, too!• Google owns Blogger, YouTube, Feedburner,

Orkut, Jaiku, Google Docs (for document sharing), Gmail, Picasa, Knol, Google Voice, and more! Google should have a strong social media presence.

Page 68: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Social Media for Brand Building – A Two Way Street

• Brands and businesses get more exposure than ever thanks to the social web.

• By building a network through blogging, microblogging, social networking, and so on, your brand messages can be seen by a huge audience faster than ever before.

• Social media also gives you the opportunity to learn more about prospective customers and competitors than ever before by reading their online profiles, blogs, Twitter streams, and so on. It’s an incredible market research tool!

Page 69: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

How ALL Small Businesses Can Benefit from Social Media

• How do you and most of the people you know find information about business, products, and services?

• A key benefit to building your brand online through social media is the enormous SEO boost your business website can get.

Page 70: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

5 Ways to Build Your Online Presence, Your Brand and Your Business

1. Each new blog post is a new entry point to your website. If you published 1 blog post each day for a year, that’s 356 MORE entry points to your blog than your traditional website provides.

2. Google includes blog posts and Twitter updates in its search algorithm.

3. Your great social media content could get linked to by other social Web users through blogs, Twitter, and so on, which means even MORE entry points to your blog.

4. The more time you spend creating great content and building relationships with other people on the social Web, the more people will get to know you, trust your content, and link to it or share it.

5. All of that content creation, linking, and sharing means more entry points to your blog and website, which also boosts your site’s search engine rankings. And more traffic = more opportunities to build your brand and your business!

Page 71: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

For Brand Building Think Out of the Box

• Start a blog written by employees for customers. Leave comments on other blogs where your target customers spend time.

• Get on Twitter and be active!• Answer questions on LinkedIn.• Start a blog written by the CEO (no corporate rhetoric, please!)

like Zappos.• Create groups and fan pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.• Create a Facebook app.• Try vlogging (upload your videos to TubeMogul.com for instant

distribution to multiple online video sites and for tracking)• Start a weekly podcast (you can set up an online radio show

through BlogTalkRadio.com in minutes).• Find online forums and social networks where your target

customers spend time and join the conversation.

Page 72: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Most important!

• Test various social media marketing tactics but remember, success comes from persistence and actively participating over time.

• Ultimately, pursue the social media marketing tools that you actually enjoy and can stick with rather than spreading yourself too thin across multiple tools. Quality content and interaction is more important than quantity.

• Recruit employees to participate to share the time investment. Just be sure to train them on your brand promise and messaging first!

Page 73: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Build Your Band of Brand Advocates across the Web

• Network with your target audience and professionals with connections to your target audience across the Web for maximum exposure.

• Build relationships which lead to loyalty.• Loyal followers will talk about you and your brand.

They’ll advocate your brand, guard it, and promote it for you.

Bottom-line to social media success – active participation, relationship building, creating

amazing content and engaging other people who then become your band of brand advocates.

Page 74: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Think of it this way …

• If your social media participation is 100% self-promotional, then you’ll fail.

Imagine you’re in a conversation with a person and all he does is talk about himself. Imagine that he

never gives you a chance to speak throughout the conversation.

Is this someone you’d want to continue speaking with now or in the future?

Chances are you’d want to run away as far and fast as you can.

The same holds true for social media participation.

Page 75: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Whatever you do

• Take control of your brand• Make it their own, • Self-select social media experiences to

engage in with the brand, and • Become loyal brand advocates and brand

guardians).

Don’t be afraid to let consumers (and employees):

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That’s where the power of your brand comes from.

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Tips for Brand Building Success through Social Media

• Make it easy and non-threatening for your audience to participate.

• Create a 360-degree loop of information sharing.• Be accessible.• One sentence of corporate rhetoric will ruin

everything!• Don’t try to “do social media on the side. It takes

time and persistence. Commit or don’t bother.

Page 78: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Protect Your Brand• Trademark your brand name, logo, packaging, etc.

– Contact your attorney or visit USPTO.gov for more information.

• Invest in a great logo, brand design, Web site design, blog design, marketing materials and ad design, etc.– Hire a talented freelancer through a site like iFreelance.com,

Guru.com, Elance.com, or GetaFreelancer.com.

• Remember Search Engine Reputation Management. – Get your brand name in your domain name, Twitter ID, Facebook

profile, and so on before someone else uses it!– Monitor your brand mention online using tools like Google Alerts and

Twitter Alerts.– Flood the Web with your amazing content to ensure your intended

brand messages appear highest in Google search results and bury negativity.

– Invest in legitimate SEO help through sites like SEOMoz.org or an SEO consultant.

Twitter Alerts via TweetBeep: www.tweetbeep.comGoogle Alerts: www.google.com/alerts

Page 79: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

10 Next Steps to Build Your Brand and Your Business

1. Identify your goal for your brand and its ultimate position in the minds of consumers and against the competition.

2. Determine the word or phrase your brand should own in the minds of consumers. That is the heart of your brand promise.

3. Create messages, experiences, and images that consistently communicate that brand promise.

4. Find your best audience (or audiences).

5. Communicate your brand promise through integrated marketing tactics.

6. Join the online conversation across the social Web and build your band of followers and brand advocates.

7. Allow them to take control of their brand experiences.

8. Be real, be honest, be accessible, be engaging, and be true to your brand promise.

9. Test, analyze results, and try again.

10. Be consistent and persistent while exercising restraint.

Page 80: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

That’s how you a brand is created and

that’s how you use the social web to

build your brand and build your business!

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Most Important

JUST GET STARTED!

Page 82: Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Contact Susan Gunelius• Website: www.KeySplashCreative.com

• Blogs: www.KeySplashCreativeConversations.com and www.WomenOnBusiness.com

• Twitter: www.Twitter.com/susangunelius

• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/susangunelius

• LinkedIn: www.Linkedin.com/in/susangunelius

• Email: [email protected]

• Phone: 352-552-2371

Books by Susan Gunelius (available on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Borders.com & in book stores):