What are the key differences between a brand that's easily forgotten, and a go-to brand?

That's what we're going to be discussing today with a brand creation expert, who is also an author, professional speaker, mentor, NED, and marketing practitioner who spent 10 years developing his proprietary Brand Bucket program. A warm welcome to the Strategic Marketing Show, Barnaby Wynter.

Topics discussed on this episode include:

• You say that “You need to build the whole of your business so it becomes a seamless journey towards your value proposition” - what do you mean by that?
• What are the key differences between forgettable brands and go-to-brands?
• What are some of the key branding mistakes that you see companies make?
• Can you turn a forgettable brand into a go-to-brand?
• Has the definition of what makes a good go-to-brand changed in the digital world?
• You also say “Stop shouting at people in the hope a few might be in your market” - what do you mean by that?

Full transcript:

How to become a go-to brand - with Barnaby Wynter.

The Strategic Marketing Show is brought to you by Insights For Professionals: providing access to the latest industry insights from trusted brands on a customized, tailored experience. Find out more over at insightsforprofessionals.com.

Hey, it’s David. What are the key differences between a brand that's easily forgotten, and a go-to brand? That's what we're going to be discussing today with a brand creation expert, who is also an author, professional speaker, mentor, NED, and marketing practitioner who spent 10 years developing his proprietary Brand Bucket program. A warm welcome to the Strategic Marketing Show, Barnaby Wynter.

Hi, David. Absolutely great to be here. Thank you very much.

Thanks so much for joining us. Well, you can find Barnaby over at barnabywynter.com. Barnaby, let's start off by quoting you. You say that “You need to build the whole of your business so that it becomes a seamless journey towards your value proposition.” What do you mean by that?

I think too often businesses develop a story that emanates from within the business itself. Where that then often falls flat is because it probably only resonates with the owners, or the founders, or the board or whatever. I think it's imperative that, if you're starting a brand journey or you're developing a brand journey and you want to resonate with the market, what you have to do is develop a value proposition.

What I mean by that there is a storytelling mechanic, which is really about the bias, it’s about prospects, and it's about the people who are going to use your product or service. Too often, businesses become so internalized that the storytelling is fundamentally flawed.

You have to build a value proposition - a story that actually resonates with the market - and then what you need to do is to build your systems and processes so that they absolutely represent your value proposition at every step of the journey. From being unaware, right through awareness (getting to understand what it is you're offering), right through to the purchase process, and ultimately, the usage of the product or service. All of that has got to be seamless, and it's all got to represent that initial value proposition: the story that the buyer was engaged with in the first place.

So how did you actually go about starting to build your brand story?

Once you've got that, what you then have to do define is what your benefits are to the buyers. Not what the features are, not how clever or cool the product is, but actually what the benefits are to the buyer. Now, they have a clearer picture. They kind of like you because you're like them, but now they understand how you're going to benefit them.

Then, the third real set of values that you need to define is what you want people to believe about your product or your service and what they're going to believe about the relationship they're going to have with your product or service. Ultimately, if you do that, you can use that to judge whether all of the touchpoints - all of the seamless journey - is really going to deliver against those set of beliefs.

Then the final value you need to define is what you want to be famous for. How are you going to make a difference to people's lives? What it is you want them to really have at the core of their whole belief about your brand story. Now those fundamentals - your behavioral style, your benefits, your beliefs, and what you want to be famous for - they all combine into an ability to tell your brand story really potently in the marketplace.

Love it. Really succinct there: value style, benefits, belief about your service. So, “what you want to be famous for”, now, that jumped out at me towards the end because some brand owners, some marketers, may think that it's not possible for their brand to be famous for something. They're not in an industry, perhaps, that makes it easy to tell a compelling story, or is that narrative incorrect?

I would, of course, make the case the narrative for that is incorrect. The “fame” is only In the buyer’s mind – the prospect’s mind. That's the only place you need to be famous. I think what you're doing is possibly attributing fame to the word “famous” in an incorrect way.

This is about saying, “This particular relationship resonates more with me as a buyer than any other relationship that I might have.” It doesn't matter whether you're buying a pump or oil rig, or you're buying a new car, or you're buying a new piece of confectionery, or a hotel, or whatever. It really doesn't matter. What you're aiming to do with the marketing and your brand storytelling is - in the mind of the person that is ready to buy from you (because they like you, because you're like them, and because they've understood what you're going to give them) - is to become famous in their mind.

Actually, what you want to be famous for is the thing that really solves their challenge and improves the quality of their life.

So when you say “famous in the buyer’s mind”, can you only really become famous in their mind after they make the purchase? Is it possible to become famous in your prospect’s mind?

I think that's a great question. My recognition of that - my experience of that - it is really only after purchase that you become famous. It's only after you've interacted a certain number of times and, if the nature of business is to sell stuff, then what that means is you've got to persuade somebody to part with their hard-earned cash and give it to you in exchange for your product or service.

It is only really at that point, where you really have placed your value on the table, you've done the value exchange with the money that they've earned. At that point, everything you've promised prior to that point has come to life, actually exceeded expectations (ideally), and really become part of their lives. At that point, I think I would class that as becoming famous in the mind of the buyer. Anything up to that point is probably merely opinion.

Therefore, often, people will label fame as being rather fickle and that's because it is opinion-lead, Whereas, if it's experiential and you're actually in a commercial relationship with somebody (they've given you money in exchange for your product or service) then ultimately, that's where true fame can be long-lasting and have merit.

We were having a little laugh about forgettable brands before we started recording. Obviously, we can't name brands that are forgettable because we would have forgotten them, but what are some things that some brands typically do that are potentially negative for their perception, that they need to turn around and learn to do differently?

Again, it was a great question. I think your question was “How do you move from being a forgettable brand to a go-to brand?” and I think that's what we were laughing about because, of course, we couldn't remember any of the brands we've forgotten.

I think that the critical thing is: the industry I joined 35 years ago was all about raising awareness of great value propositions - probably product propositions and service propositions as they were coming through. In times of limited media and limited engagement with the marketplace, often, raising awareness was enough to get enough interest for people to go and find out for themselves.

Today, in a world where no two people are consuming the knowledge economy in the same way, what you have to do is you have to take the relationship much further. I think one of the big mistakes that brand owners make is they spend an inordinate amount of money on broadcasting awareness that they exist, that they look cool, and that they behave in a certain way. What they fail to do is to take that on into a seamless journey right through to purchase.

What happens is, the broadcast media industry thrives on people who throw money at advertising, throw money at broadcasting, PPC, SEO, and all of that sort of thing. They throw money at that, and then they are despairing that they don't get that much business from it. All of the awareness they built dissipates into the air almost the following day. That's not a surprise, because what they need to be doing is taking that awareness and building it through a seamless journey - right through to purchase and, indeed, further beyond into the ongoing relationship.

I think that's the big mistake that a lot of brand owners make. I'm often sitting in boardrooms where people are saying “We’re doing all this activity, we're not really generating any sales.”, and I go, “But all you're doing is raising awareness and creating a bit of an image around your product or service. You're not really giving people a go; you're not helping them understand how your product or service is going to make a difference.”

I think that's where it all breaks apart and people then level criticism at the marketing industry for being all smoke and mirrors or cloud-based (and I mean that in terms of fluffy clouds, not an IT term) - that actually, ultimately, it's really not doing anything. I think that's the big mistake. Rather than saying “Look, here's a discreet target market who we know will love us. We're going to talk to them, and we're going to engage with them, and we're going to create for them a journey from initial awareness all the way through to long-term loyalty.”

Is it possible to have multiple different distinct target markets for a brand? Or is that going to dilute the impact of what your brand represents?

I'm gonna be controversial and say absolutely not. You cannot have different target markets. Now, let me contextualize that because I think the question comes from a historical position of “demographics”. In other words: we take a pie, and we divide it up into socio-economic groups. A, B, C, 1C, 2D, E, etc. – a certain age range, certain disposable income, certain postcode, and all that sort of thing. That tool was really created for the broadcast industry 30 years ago so that clients never realized that they were wasting 80% of the money they were spending on target markets that were never gonna buy from them.

In the digital economy - with the advent of the internet in ’95 and the way we consume knowledge and information about products and services now - we have to fundamentally change our approach to the prospect. 18 years ago, we moved to using psychographics as a tool. Now, psychographics is where the relationship with your prospect is born out of how they think, how they feel, what their beliefs are, what their experiences of your product and service are, what they're looking to do, how they're going to improve their quality of life, what kind of lifestyle they need, etc.

That profile will be true, no matter who the demographic is. You can be 82 and have that attitude, you can be 6 and have that attitude, you can be 18 and have that attitude, you can be 35 and have that attitude. What we do right now is we design a prospect profile that is entirely built around this psychographic profile - and there's only one for every single brand relationship. There are not multiple ones of those.

You also say, “Stop shouting at people in the hope that a few might be in your market.” Why? And also, what's the solution? What's the better way to do it?

There are some key facts to be aware of. 88% of all buying decisions start online. What's happened there is that the buying community is already on an inbound journey into a relationship. They're out there. They've identified a challenge, an issue, a problem, an opportunity, a way of improving the quality of their lives, and all of those sorts of things. Then what they do is they go online, and they go “What's available to me?” They're now actually beginning a conversation with the marketplace.

What they do is they then (if you're present) discover you, they investigate you, they ask their friends, they go to TripAdvisor, they look for peer-to-peer advice, they look at other products, they make comparisons. Actually, at the point they contact you for the very first time, Gartner says that they've made 57% of the decision to buy. They're more likely to buy from you on first contact than second contact. What actually happens at that point is you should be welcoming them into your system and process - bringing them into your journey, your style, and your way of doing things.

If you look at any given business plan (and I do this as part of our process), you'll find that the number of people you actually need is quite small to service most businesses. It's not millions and millions of people. Actually, if we know people are already looking for us - right now, on a keyboard somewhere in the marketplace - what we have to do is we have to facilitate that inbound journey into our business. We don't need to talk to anybody who's going about their lives not thinking about us. In truth, it is very rare for me to see a business plan where I can’t honestly say, hand on heart, probably everybody you need on your business plan is currently on a keyboard looking for you right now. We don't need to shout at everybody; we just need to welcome people into the journey that they are already on.

You also shared with me beforehand that you're just back from Disney. So, what makes Disney such a great brand?

For me, I'm afraid it's a weak spot. That’s my fourth trip to Disney World in Florida and I've probably been to Disney more than 10 times. Why? For me (parking to one side the childlike side of me which I get into) there is an absolute, deep understanding emanating from Walt Disney about brand relationship and it’s epitomized by Disney World.

Disney World is made up of four different parks, unless you count the water parks. There's the Magic Kingdom (Mickey Mouse land), there's Animal Kingdom (which is all about the world and nature in the world), there's Epcot (which is all about the future of the world), and then there's Hollywood Studios (which is more about the technical side of the world, and the filmic side of the world). When you go in there, you're immediately immersed - instantaneously immersed in everything Disney. The way they manage your expectation, from the moment you join a queue. You can walk literally 30 yards and be immersed in an entirely different world, whether it's Snow White, or a haunted house, or Guardians of the Galaxy, or Avatar, or what they've done in Florida which is they have built a Star Wars world.

If you love Star Wars, you must go to Disney and enjoy the Star Wars world. They've got a full-size Falcon with Storm Troopers walking around it, it’s in a village and there's people walking around. I mean, I am not into Star Wars. The films are great, I've seen them all, but I'm not particularly into it. But my goodness, when you are immersed in that experience, and right from the off, you forget everything about the world that's going on - and it's not so hot at the moment. You're immersed in this crazy microcosm of a world that's been created from someone's imagination.

My objective is that, if you bring me your business, I'm going to create that for your prospects - around your product or service and around your value proposition. That's why I love Disney so much. It's just such a phenomenal reminder of detail. There are so many “Walt Disneyisms” that really are important for businesses to remember and apply.

I think the key thing, for the listener or for the viewer, is: how can you get your target audience talking about your brand with the same passion that Barnaby talks about Disney?

I think that's true, and that's what I do. I try and convert that into what we do. We have a methodology that enables us to do that. We do that for businesses, and people get excited about being the buyer and being that prospect.

If you can do that, and take them on that journey, it's unbelievable. Disney is just so clever. It's just so clever. I thought that, now I'm getting old, I would go there and feel a bit grumpy about it. But, oh my goodness, the Avatar ride is unbelievable, and the Star Wars ride, etc. – you just get immersed.

You’re selling it to me. Let's move on from what works now to planning for the future. So, in your opinion, what's the biggest marketing trend, or challenge for marketers, over the coming year?

I think, quite clearly, the thing that's dominating the world right now is uncertainty and the fact that the price of everything's going up through the roof. The life that we've all got used to is becoming sort of unaffordable. In a commercial world, in the west, I believe it's now the responsibility of business owners to clearly communicate the value that they have created - to really be able to convince prospects, convince people, that we're actually on the side of the buyer, and that we’re with them all of the way.

Therefore, no matter what the absolute price is, the thing that we are offering them - in exchange for the decreasing amount of money they've got - will really improve the quality of their life. Because we've invested in a particular aspect, as a product owner or service owner, in making it cost-effective to access our value proposition in multiple ways. I think the key trend for marketers right now is to really dig deep into your organization, find the true value, and communicate it really well – and put that clearly in a context. The biggest challenge we have is, of course, climate change. So, do it with empathy for the planet and the people that live on the planet, but don't make that the headline.

We've seen this before, where people have jumped on the green bandwagon and all that sort of thing. Actually, what we've got to do is demonstrate our value: our value in terms of style and behavior, our value in terms of what our benefits are - so people can clearly say “I can see why it's worth buying this product or service over and above everything else.” - and thirdly, the belief structure, to say “Look, we're doing this to improve your lives as a prospect and your lives as a buyer.” Really communicate that.

That requires considerably more thought than fancy videos and clever ideas and trickery and all that sort of thing. It needs much more thought. The trend has to be smarter marketers working on smart brands to help people navigate what's going to be a challenging couple of years coming up right now, in terms of the available funding to buy things and maintaining a level of confidence in the world that we all live in.

I've been your host, David Bain. You can find Barnaby over at barnabywynter.com. That's “w y n t e r.com”. Barnaby, thanks so much for being on the Strategic Marketing Show.

Thank you very much, David.

And thank you for listening. Here at IFP, our goal is simple: to connect you with the most relevant information, to help solve your business problems, all in one place. InsightsForProfessionals.com