When you think of strong brands, what you are probably thinking about are brands with strong personalities. You see, big personalities are the key to differentiated and unique brands and your own personality can have a big impact on this.

I don’t mean just the loud and obnoxious survive. Far from it! The real success stories are brands that are authentic and stick to who they are and what they believe in. What matters is that the personality of your business is unique so you need to be aware of it before you can manage it.

So let me ask you a question or two. Are you scared to stand for something different? Do you instead try to benchmark against other businesses that do a similar thing? Do you feel like you need to pretend to be someone you are not?

The best brands are those that break the mould, are authentic and stand for something different. Whatever that may be. They are often true to the personalities of the people that manage them too. Think Richard Branson if you need a great example.

So lets start to knock down the corporate clone boxes and start to think about ourselves and our businesses in a different way. This is one of the reasons I broke free from managing multi million pound marketing budgets and set up Coo Marketing. I was sick of meeting marketing agencies pretending to have all the answers. I was sick of the slick professionalism that covered over the cracks of no substance or strategy. In a nut shell I wanted to be me and help you be you.

It’s great when you are in your flow. I hope you are in yours too.

The moral of the story is this…

Be yourself and let your brand be itself too. The personalities don’t need to be the same but it helps if you like the personality of your business! Be loud and proud (if that is your style) but promise me that above all else you will be authentic in whatever you want your business to be.

Love and laughs.
Claire

Remember the days of simple advertising? “BUY THIS PRODUCT NOW” was the basic message when marketing must have been easy… Things are very different now. Your customers are bombarded with messages, there are infinite ways to research products and services and everyone is more savvy to the ploys of the marketeer…

To fight in the new marketing jungle, you have to remember a key point. People will only buy when they are ready to buy. There is no point hammering the old sales routine until you are blue in the face. Simply align your marketing efforts to be ready the moment that your customer is ready.

What does this mean in practical terms?

1. Don’t give up. Just because someone has not bought from you straight away does not mean they will not do. Follow up!
2. Be prepared with all the questions a potential client or customer may ask you. Spend time working out what the usual questions are and have a way of explaining them simply.
3. Be clear what makes your product or service different. If this is clear, your ideal customers will come.
4. Have a system for recording people who have shown an interest in your product or service. In the future, this list will be your gold mine.

The moral of the story is this…

Marketing efforts take time. Be patient. Be consistent and put your self in your customers shoes. Would you buy straight away?

In 2009 I began a voyage to re-invent Coo Marketing. To begin the process, I took a dose of my own marketing medicine and conducted some market research because I did not know which way to go so I simply asked my clients and contacts….and in flooded the answers!

Market research helps me constantly evolve Coo Marketing to meet your needs and it can help your business too. I help clients with their market research too and it has certainly provided some interesting results. From staff satisfaction surveys to client satisfaction surveys and product and design tests, you have to be brave enough to ask the questions then listen for the answers.

If you are at a cross roads, simply ask the right questions to your customers and the answers will come. If you need help to do it professionally, just shout.

The moral of the story is this…If you have a question about your business, ask externally for the answers. Don’t guess. Learn from the answers and you will always be moving forward.

You know when you are organizing a party there is a lot of preparation that goes into it? You plan, organize and get busy. Then even more effort goes into having the party itself. Sometimes the party goes well, other times you wish you had not bothered. Then you are left with the tidying up at the end. Sounds familiar?

Well having a party is a bit like a marketing campaign. Lots of work goes into the preparation…sometimes the activity is great but sometimes it resembles a damp squid. Either way there is one thing that should always happen and that is the tidying up at the end. In marketing speak this is evaluation.

What happened? What did you expect to happen? How much did it cost? How could you improve on it next time? What did the punters say? Was the response what you expected?

If the campaign or activity did not go perfectly, don’t panic. Just learn from the experience and vow to do better next time. Did the right people get attracted? Was the timing right? Could you run things more efficiently next time?

The best marketeers in the world are obsessed with evaluation because evaluation ensures that you are constantly moving forward and becoming better every time.

So please promise to spend time evaluating every piece of marketing that you do. This way you will get closer to your consumers and improve your results every time…..So how was this blog for you?

Questions have all the answers!

As a marketing consultant, I certainly get asked a lot of questions. What do you think my existing customers will think if I do this? What would new customers think if I did that? The answer is often very clear and simple. ASK THEM!

You see long gone are the days when you could tell your customers what product or service they should buy (oh how marketing must have been easy then!) Things have got more complex. We are bombarded with messages so the hard sell should be left in the used car sales yard.

Now we need to entice customers to us by firstly really understanding them and their needs. When you view marketing like this, it really is quite simple. You constantly ask for feedback then adjust you business accordingly. By doing this you are forced to keep on top of the game.

Constantly ask for feedback to your ideas, products and services. This way you will meet your customers needs which is the holly grail of a long term growing business.

I ask questions all the time and found that clients and contacts ask me frequently for free marketing tips so I did just that. If you would like free tips to keep you on the marketing straight and narrow, sign up by adding your name in the box on my home page.

Go on then!

Here is a simple question that you may struggle to answer. Who is your target market?

If you are serious about stepping up your marketing game, it is one of the most important questions to answer. The problem is when business owners answer this question with broad reaching statements such as “women in the UK”, “dog owners” or “businesses in the north”….THEY ARE ALL TOO BROAD!

The key benefit to identifying a smaller target market is so that you can get your message across in a clear way. If your target is too broad, your message will be scatter gun and un-focused. Less truly is more when it comes to targeting.

Imagine you have a high end service business. Your target market may just be a handful of customers. Focusing your effort with laser precision at these targets will do more for your business than generic broad marketing. Makes sense?

Imagine you are selling a new chocolate bar. Focusing your vision on a very specific target market within the multi-billion chocolate market will get you off on the right footing. Leave the wide generic targeting to the guys with £multi-million budgets.

So I leave you with this final question that will focus your business and also reap rewards if you spend some time thinking about it. Could your target market be more targeted?

Less is more. Fewer targets mean a more focused message and a more focused business that will convert more people to buy. Who said marketing needed to be complicated?  If you need help, click below.

Target Market

If I asked you who your core target market was, would you be able to answer it? I mean really answer it in detail? One of the most powerful marketing strategies on this planet is understanding who your key target is and being as specific as possible.

In marketing babble terms, it is about finding your “niche”. Finding where you sit amongst all your competitors and finding out what makes you different. The more unique you are and the more specific on who your target market is, the better. You will suddenly find that competitors are less of an issue and you have people coming to you rather than the other way around.

So worth investing some brain power on? I would certainly recoo-mend it!

Challenge yourself to see how well you know where your businesses niche is in the world. Write down the answers and then check that your whole business is geared up to fulfilling the needs of your particular niche. If you need help defining your target market, coo can walk you through it. It is one of the most powerful marketing principles if you can get it right.

I had a really interesting call this week….It went something like this….

“Hi Claire. I met you at a networking event. I would like to employ your services. How much will it cost and how long will it take?” Hmmmm…..I could have said “Lots and forever!” but I figured this may put him off…..

The thing with marketing that some businesses forget is that it should be an ongoing part of your business. Not a one off. It takes time and you have to be in it for the long term if you really want a sustainable growing business.

There are businesses that like to launch with a big bang & have glamorous launch parties then seem to disappear as quickly as they arrived. These are the businesses that treat marketing as a one off activity. “We will have a great big launch promotion then we will be on the map”. Sorry guys but this is just not good enough anymore.

Marketing needs to be chipped away at over time. You need to constantly be searching for solutions that will add value to your customers, not just putting your name out there and presuming that customers will flood towards you so in summary it is a marathon not a sprint.

Think about marketing like you do book keeping. It is something that needs to be done consistently and continually (unless you want to end up with a carrier bag of receipts at the end of the year and not enough income!)

If you would like coo marketing to help you on the marathon sign up for free marketing tips.

Do you know one of the simplest concepts that has built some of the biggest brands? Consistency. Do you think Coca Cola just can’t be bothered changing their font every so often? Do you think Virgin just love the colour red more than any other?

Big brands know what little brands need to. Your brand can become your biggest asset therefore treat it with care.

Do you sometimes change the colour scheme of your corporate literature on a whim?
Do you know how to ensure your printing always looks the same?
Does your business look a bit schizophrenic if you put all the branded material in one place?
Does your writing style always feel the same?

Developing a strong, meaningful brand is a long term process but so many smaller brands treat it as if they are shopping for a new outfit…I think I fancy a purple one this time….

If you want your customers to take your brand seriously, you have to take your branding seriously too.

So….Once you have a brand that works, attracts the right customers and stands for something…don’t mess it up with inconsistency. Coo Marketing work with numerous clients to develop meaningful brand identities that are scalable and can grow. Consistency of branding is half the battle.

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