Basic Branding/Advertising/Marketing

for Small Business

Harold House

Greenport

April, 2011

Branding is:

For a person, it is “who you are”. For a company it is “what it is”

All companies have “attributes” which are descriptive words of phrases that describe your company

Please take a look at the 12 major brand archetypes (see attached)

The Brand Archetypes

1.      Innocent: Sense of wonder (like a little kid), ideas of paradise, ads for vacation destinations, museum of Television and Radio (LA and NYC), Chicken Soup for the Soul books, Whole Foods, “Teach the World to Sing” Coca Cola ad, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle, Forest Gump, Ikea, Baskin Robins, Ronald McDonald.

2. Explorer: Trying to find a better world, desires to travel somewhere or be on the move, usually a solitary activity. Ford Explorer, Jeep, Huck Finn, Homer’s Odyssey, freelancers, stumble upon, channel surfing. (Side note: Starbucks is named after a character in Moby Dick – it is an explorer brand).

3. Sage: Someone that transmits knowledge. It can be anyone throughout history, or it can be someone current. Oprah (and her book club); Persephone (and her understanding of the underworld and the connection of ordinary life and death). Also there are sage organizations such as universities.

4. Hero: Singular journey triumphing over evil. Usually someone who sees things different or thinks differently. Oedipus, Hamlet, King Lear. A long time ago the post man was a hero. FedEx is a hero brand as are the Armed Forces, Green marketing and Nike

5. Outlaw: Romantic figures in literature such as Robin Hood and Lex Luther. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, Bonnie and Clyde, the Godfather, Darth Vadar, Altamont (following the innocence of Woodstock). They have a positive and negative side. Brands include Harley Davidson and Captain Morgan.

6. Magician: They can transmit knowledge, but they are different from the sage because they can transform something ordinary into something extraordinary. Harry Potter and Yoda, Hotels (Travelodge), Cruise lines (Carnival), Mastercard’s “Priceless” commercials, energizer bunny, Ponzi scheme.

The Brand Archetypes

7. Every person/Regular person: We identify with and feel like we belong. Democracy, Seinfeld, The Dove Real Beauty Campaign. Basically brands that make friends with people, initial launch of Saturn, we all secretly want to belong and be accepted

8. Lover: Romance, intimacy, deep friendship (much deeper level of intimacy than every person), belonging. Cupid, Venus, Hallmark, Victoria Secret, Burger King

9. Jester: Trickster used to lighten things up. Shakespeare used these characters a lot. Advertising is a jesters’ career. Lots of jester stuff is male oriented (Budlight etc)

10. Caregiver: Selflessness and protection, moats, fences, police, Mother Theresa, Demeter (goddess of harvest), Florence Nightingale…Most Hospitals

11. Creator: Artist or innovator, painter, chef, crayola crayons, legos, cooking shows, Sherwin WiIliams Paint

12. Ruler: Leadership role, has control. Google and Microsoft.

Branding

Branding is a pyramid

Marketing

Mar-ket-ing      [mahr-ki-ting]  -noun

the act of buying or selling in a market

the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or

seller  to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing and selling.

Marketing – in simpler terms:

Everything you do to introduce your store, goods, services, products, etc., to the general public

It is what you say about your product and how you say it

It is how your display your product

It is “how you tell your story” AND TO WHOM.

“To Whom” is the biggest deal

Can you define the next customer who walks in your shop, calls you on the phone, sends you an e-m, etc.?

When that person is roughly defined, it is called defining by “demographics”.

Typical demographics are sex, age, employment, education, family, etc.

Advertising is telling your story

To ad·ver·tise   /ˈædvərˌtaɪz, ˌædvərˈtaɪz/  

–verb (used with an object)

to announce or praise (a product, service, etc.) in some public medium of communication in order to induce people to buy or use it:

to give information to the public about; announce publicly in a newspaper, on radio or television, etc.

How advertising and Marketing are linked…

This is the most complicated part so here are the steps: The first step was defining the “brand” and writing out the attributes The second step is shaping your business to be “in line” with the

attributes you selected The third step is deciding, demographically, who you want to reach

with your business – your “next” customer Advertising to that “customer” is finding him and others like him in

bulk and finding an advertising vehicle that is “common to a lot of him and similar hims” – writing an ad filled with your “attributes” that states or demonstrates your brand and making your “pitch” to the potential customers.

(whew – let’s look at that last one)

A little more depth

Advertising to that “customer” is finding him and others like him in bulk and finding an advertising vehicle that is “common to a lot of him and similar hims” – writing an ad filled with your “attributes” that states or demonstrates your brand and making your “pitch” to the potential customers.

Finding customers in “bulk” is the key and most of it is common sense. It is deciding where these folks are and where their concentration is most frequent

The measuring stick for this is based on a very simple and strict formula called the “CPM”.

CPM is the unit of cost in advertising and marketing.

CPM

This is really a division problem. It is Cost per 1,000 of your target. Cost divided by 1,000. $/1,000.

For instance I want to buy ad ad in the Peconic Shopper. It will cost me $100 and 1,000 people will see it. My CPM is $100.

CPM (cont’d)

Here are 3 publications with their “circulations and “ad cost” and cpm:

Dan’s Papers 25,000 $ 500 $20.00

Suffolk Times 12,000 $ 325 $27.33Newsday 106,000 $1200 $11.32

(don’t panic – I just made up the figures)

Where ever you decide to advertise you need to make that simple chart and figure out what is the best buy.

CPM (cont’d)

But what about the “appropriateness” of the readers?

Pub Run Appro. Cost CPM Target CPM

Dan’s Papers 25,000 3,000 $ 500 $20.00 $166.67

Suffolk Times 12,000 4,000 $ 325 $27.33 $81.25

Newsday 106,000 24,000 $1200 $11.32 $50.00

There is the general population and your target population. The more you target the more it costs to reach the customer.

Traditional Media & the Internet

You have three basic tradition media options on which to communicate your brand:• Radio, Television and print.• Secondary “traditionals” like billboards, bus stop signs, “drops” (Yankee Trader, Dans) are available in countless forms. • Direct Response, handouts, flyers, etc. are a different

group with an entirely different scoring system. The “Internet” is new vehicle and has advantages and

disadvantages of each of the above but is really direct response at heart.

Direct Response

Instead of figuring costs per 1000s of potentials, direct response is figured out by a formula that simple lets you set a price that you feel is justified in bringing one customer in to buy your product.

I am selling a widget for $30. I can afford to spend $10 to get you to buy so I spend $10 to take a cab to see you. I knock on your door. I tell you what I am selling. I tell you why you need it. I ask you for the sale. You buy and I take $10 from the $30 you give me and go find another door to knock on – but this time I don’t have to take the cab – I’ll already in your neighborhood.

That is direct response in its essence.

Traditional Media

Demonstrates the attributes of the brand

Functions under a “time frame” (length of time) to present the message or a “space frame” (column inches) to construct the message.

In radio it is all aural while the others are a combination of visual and aural or just visual.

The parts of “Internet Media”

If you have a website, you can think of it as your business that exists visually ONLY.

Where traditional media has space and time restraints and your brick and mortar business has walls and rent, your website is virtually limitless and you have all the space in the world to tell your story…that is the dangerous part as well as the blessing.

Demographics and the Internet

1. Traditional media uses only a few dozen demographic factors and then, through surveys and history, has a number of what are called Indexs (Dan’s Papers summer readers have a 190 Index for drinking Latte’s at Starbucks and 240 Index for driving a foreign made car).

2. The Internet has 10 times the data (thereabout)s about every one of us and the “demographic” characteristics can go out 144+ columns and almost every Internet user.

Got you both ways

1. Internet monitors know who you are by matching up your IP address, cookies, email and memberships and track you as you go. Almost every transaction is tracked, every site visit noted, etc., so your habits and patterns are very well defined as a consumer.

2. The Internet also notes the words you type into the search space when you go to find something so not only do they know who you are but when you search for something, they guide you based on what you indicate you are looking for.

It is a very good marketing opportunity for any small business

If you have a website, even just 1 page, you can describe your business so that the search engines (google, yahoo, etc.) say “aha!! That site is all about widgets and sells widgets” so the next time someone looks to buy a “widget” the search engine will suggest your site.Because the search engine knows all about you – particularly where you live – it also says “aha!! I’ll suggest the widget store right around the corner from him.

It depends on your product

If you make one custom canoe a year on special order it might not be necessary to have a site. If you make canoes by the boatload for the general market, your Internet marketing may really pay off – and here is how you do it:

Adwords

The most common way is to take advantage of people who type in search words.

I can set up a program on Google in their advertising section and here is the route in:

This page can be found at this link: http://www.google.com/ads/faq/

Natural and Paid Search

Natural search is when a user types in a set of keywords and figures your business is a logical choice for what the Internet user is searching for.

Paid Search comes about when a user types in a search phrase or words and your “ad” is set up to be relevant to that set of words. It displays an “ad” rather than or in addition to your website.

natural

paid

natural

paid

Social Media

Claiming followers on Facebook and Twitter is time consuming but for many it is well worth the effort “OVER TIME”. Twitter is a good advertising vehicle as it creates instant short text “announcements” while Facebook is much more visual. There are dozens of other community based social media sites and it is simply the way things are and are going to be so it won’t hurt to get your feet in the water.

Email

It is almost mandatory that if you have a business that you ask for email addresses every chance you get. If someone leaves their email it is a choice they made and they expect to hear from you.

It is the most overlooked “simple” tool in electronic media.

Summary

The brand comes first. Define it and stick with it. Enhance it and adhere to it.

Marketing is every effort you make to get your brand in front of your customers.

Advertising is a palette of options to use in getting your brand message known.

Contact

Harold House

631-833-1562

Hdh@opusonemedia.com