A Branding Bar Story

Branding Bar storyTwo guys walk into a bar. Both spot a pretty girl, alone, seated at the bar. One borrows a megaphone approaches her and bellows into her ear, “I’m rich, good looking and I want you to marry me.”

The other simply walks to the bar, orders a drink and the young lady joins him and says “You are intriguing, good looking, possibly rich and I want to marry you.”

That, according to Taylor Graves of Nemo Design, one of the panelists at a National Speakers Association luncheon in Portland on November 13th, is the difference between advertising and branding.

The other panelists were Brian Berger of Everything is on the Record and Matt Watson of Watson Creative. All have won their spurs doing branding work for national and international clients.

My usual Friday lunch bunch loved Taylor’s story, especially Rob, our Brand Guru who we call Bubba because he hails from Georgia.

Bubba, wiping away tears from laughing drawled, “Thas one of the best ways I’ve heard it put in a lot of years. What else did these guys have to say?”

I said, “The format was self intros and credentials and then questions from the audience.”

Kate chimed in, “So, Fletch you got in trouble didn’t you?”

“No, Madame Sales, I did not. These guys knew what they were talking about. Each, in their own way said what Bubba and I have been saying about Branding for years. Let me give you some examples:

The first question from the audience was “How can you create a brand experience with a very limited budget?” (I’ve heard this question before. It is why I teach No Budget Branding TM).

Matt responded, “We put your business on the couch to learn about it. We work on positioning and strategy and business design because Brand is not a logo it is the emotion that comes from the people that intersect with you, your company and products and services.”

Taylor said, “Brand is about who you are, what gets you up in the morning. It has to be true to who you are or it just doesn’t work.”

Brian agreed saying, “You have to be true to yourself. You are the brand. Your success is based on the people you meet and the relationships you build.”

Someone asked, “How do you use Trust in Branding?”

Matt told a story about working with non-profit trying to raise money noting that when the first e-mail request went out to 30, 000 people the landing page had only a still photo and some copy and it generated about 700 sign-ups and contributions. But, the next time they included a video with founders and contributors talking about why they were involved. The responses jumped to 10,000.

As Matt said, “Your Why is the epicenter of your brand. Great photography and video get the story and the image across faster than almost anything else.”

Taylor, an international award winning photographer agreed. He said, “If you haven’t watched Simon Sinek’s video on TED about Why and the Golden Circle, do so. The thing is people want photos and videos to be authentic universal communications. If they are authentic you will generate trust.”

Brian added, “Storytelling is another way to get there. It uses the emotions to overcome clutter and can be passed along without devices.”

Matt agreed and noted that sometimes a small client is better served by concentrating on a very tight segment, spending more per contact than they might ever dream to make each contact an event.”

Rick, our Direct Marketing Maven said, “I know this story, instead of spending a five figure budget for wedding photographer, he convinced him to go to only the 10 top wedding planners in the country with a really classy custom wooden box presentation at a about $100 bucks each and the guy did 5 or 6 times his business, like well into six figures, the next year.”

Yes, I said. “That’s the story. Branding is not advertising. It is not logos. You can’t buy it. It is what prospects and clients think, feel and believe about you, your products and services whether they’ve ever met you or not.”

Jerry Fletcher has been doing the kind of branding these gents believe in for over 40 years. He is a Contact Relationship Magician focused on making the techniques of enterprise level marketing available to small businesses with low or no cash. His consulting website is www.JerryFletcher.com

Jerry speaks professionally on networking, marketing and Contact Relationship Magic across the Americas. His speaking website is: www.NetworkingNinja.com