Businesses that fail to differentiate become white noise. A terrible place to be in. Businesses that stand out and earn their way into the loyalty of their customers thrive and become the brands people put in books as examples. Don’t be white noise. If you don’t know how to differentiate, get help. You’ll be glad you did.

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00:00:00:00 – 00:00:18:03

Well, Paul, we’re back again. Let’s do it. Welcome to man Up to you, man. Same thing. Um, just trying to stay cool. It is absolutely as hot as fire outside. Well, this is where we’re at. And it’s not just hot as fire is. It’s the humidity where you can’t breathe. It’s like. It’s like you breathe in fire, you know?

00:00:18:05 – 00:00:41:04

That’s for sure. Yeah, that’s for sure. Well, so I have a question for you today. Sure. How do you stand out? Should you stand out? You have to. You do. You have to. You have to. You have to stand out in a crowded space or else you become white noise. Yeah. Mm hmm. You do. And it’s, um. And part of that sometimes is, you know, it’s.

00:00:41:04 – 00:00:58:19

It’s difficult. You know, we see a lot of advertisers that tell us that, you know, obviously, we want to stand down, we want something. We want to go to that edge. And, you know, in fact, we want to go over we want to really create something memorable so people know who’s actually who we are and we want to stand out and they’ll get there to that engine.

00:00:58:19 – 00:01:24:10

It’s like they want to retract. It’s like they want to come back a little bit. It’s like, wait a minute, now. You know that that might be a little bit too far, you know, And, you know, it’s like I don’t know whether it’s from, you know, not wanting to offend people. I don’t know whether it’s from there. You know, they’re kind of scared that, you know, they they won’t attract enough people.

00:01:24:10 – 00:01:43:15

Yeah. And, you know, but it’s yes, you definitely have to stand out, especially today in the you know, in the climate that we’re in. So how how do you go about that? I mean, is it something that you just have to reach more people or. No, I don’t think so. I think that that’s one of the things that we and I’ve seen a lot.

00:01:43:15 – 00:01:59:23

And, you know, of course, we both do, is that, you know, the first thing you have to do is you have to get very definitive and finite on who your audience is. Yeah, for sure. I mean, down to the finite. And and in doing that, you got to figure out who they are and, you know, what are they looking for?

00:01:59:23 – 00:02:22:20

What kind of people, how do they shop, how do they live? You know, where do they live? What’s their income? And the whole nine yards. And once you figure that out and figure out, you know, who they are and all those answers, you can figure out the best way to target those that audience. Yeah, correct. Um, and I think that, you know, a lot of people, they want to try to be all things to all people.

00:02:22:21 – 00:02:45:20

Sure. Yeah. And you can’t. No, I mean, it’s just not possible, you know? Yeah. Um, so I don’t, you know, and, and it’s more of a thing where and I kind of go back to, you know, the reason why they don’t want to go over that age. I think it could be because they they don’t want to offend anybody.

00:02:46:01 – 00:03:03:07

Yeah, maybe. I think I see that that happen more often than not for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know if, um. And I don’t. I’m not trying to, you know, look, I mean, let’s just all be honest here. I mean, you know, with, you know, in today’s world, you know, you’ve got there’s a lot of toes to step on.

00:03:03:07 – 00:03:27:21

Yeah. That you could accidentally step on. But, you know, let’s take and I know we’ve got we talk about this. Let’s take, um, the liquid death short. Okay. That’s that’s a great example of of a brand that was a product really, that became secondary, in my opinion, to the brand that, you know, it was basic water. Yeah. I’m not saying that it’s not good water.

00:03:27:21 – 00:03:45:23

I’m not saying it doesn’t taste good spring water or whatever it is. But, you know, they took a they took that and they branded that in a literal tallboy can. Yeah, right. That is edgy. Yeah. I mean, let’s face it. I mean, you know, you go to the store and you go to the Kroger, Publix, wherever you shop and you in it’s standard.

00:03:45:23 – 00:04:03:13

It’s like, you know what the heck you start. I think first time you’ve seen it, it’s on the wrong aisle. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. This is this is water, right? But I mean, it’s true, you know, And then all of a sudden you start looking into it and you realize, man, this is this is something totally different. I mean, what do you you know, this is water.

00:04:03:15 – 00:04:28:18

Yeah, so is it’s not so much being afraid to offend people from a standpoint of, oh, you hurt my feelings, but being afraid. There are too many businesses. Correct me if I’m wrong, there are too many businesses that are so generic and so general. Yeah. That they’re forgettable and they don’t ever speak to a market. They don’t ever speak to a niche.

00:04:28:20 – 00:04:51:08

No, they don’t. They don’t at all. So who would have thought that you could take water? Yeah, it’s what it is. And put it in the tub. We can. Yeah, right. And create this brand that is just unreal right now. Do you think that they knew who their audience was before they went to market? Oh, they had to have.

00:04:51:10 – 00:05:08:14

Yeah. And I, you know, I didn’t even know about I guess I’m not the target market. I didn’t know about liquid death until just recently. Right. Yeah. I mean, it’s, you know, it’s but I think they’re, you know, I don’t know, to me, I mean, maybe, you know, that’s different, but I feel like they’re probably more of the maybe rocker.

00:05:08:16 – 00:05:31:11

Yeah, I think so, you know? Yeah. Jesse Wroblewski told me about it. Yeah. Yeah. We just started looking into it a little bit, and I don’t know who did the campaign, but the guy did a great job. Whoever it was was phenomenal what they did. So, yeah, I mean, when I say, you know, not want to offend people, I’m not necessarily talking about just from a you hurt my feelings type deal.

00:05:31:11 – 00:05:49:21

I’m talking about, you know, kind of stepping over that edge and just being real edgy and, you know, in order to be to stand out in today’s market, you have to be edgy. You know, you have to be able to be willing to kind of go over the cliff, so to speak, and, you know, and really make a statement.

00:05:49:23 – 00:06:14:06

Well, is it edgy or just getting outside of the conventional wisdom comfort zone? It is. I mean, because I think you can make an impact without necessarily being I like, edgy in my mind. It’s like really trying to be different, um, trying to be a little bit abrasive, which, you know, liquid def certainly fits that. Yeah. I mean, you know, 2023 I don’t really know what edgy is anymore.

00:06:14:07 – 00:06:36:02

Yeah. You know, to be honest with you. I mean, if you look, you know, I mean, that’s kind of a I mean, I see edgy everywhere. And it, you know, where does it stop? You know, But I guess edgy maybe not be the best word, but it it is a decent word for it. Or maybe just, you know, just something memorable, you know, where you absolutely stand out.

00:06:36:02 – 00:07:03:16

Right. Nailed it. And if doing so, if that is a little bit edgy, then so be it. Yeah, right. I think I think you should push the envelope for sure. But I guess this is where my question comes from. Or maybe confusion is there are so many people that are so bad at doing anything of substance that is memorable, that edgy, just I don’t I can’t I can’t tell you the last time I saw something that was edgy.

00:07:03:17 – 00:07:18:03

I agree. I mean, so the thing is, is that, you know, we see a lot of people with great ideas and great products. Yeah, right. And they wanted to bring them to market in this vanilla way. And they want it just like everybody else. And it’s like, well, what do you want? Okay, first of all, let’s go back.

00:07:18:05 – 00:07:37:22

Start from the beginning. Okay? Who are you? Right. And what is your what are your beliefs? Well, you know, let’s talk about your authenticity and what you’re bringing to the table, why you bring to the table and what you stand for. Okay. When you can start there with somebody and figure out exactly you know what, let’s get back to the grass roots.

00:07:37:22 – 00:08:03:00

Yeah. At that point, then you can take that product and build a marketing campaign around that without a doubt. Okay. Yeah. And something that’s going to work. Okay. But if you don’t have, you know, I would say a mission, but it’s more or less of, you know, just an identity of who you are. Oh, you know, I agree with that, because let’s face it, I mean, I’m sure the guy could have easily brought water to the market.

00:08:03:02 – 00:08:25:10

Yeah, right. And, you know, we all need water, right? There’s a time important to. It’s important. I mean that in here. Yeah. Yeah, I think it’s got a little. This is Terrapin, by the way, and you introduce me to this. It’s passionfruit orange guava IPA. And dude, I, you know, I’m. I need to go and call from Athens, Georgia.

00:08:25:12 – 00:08:45:11

Good. Okay. You know, go. But go hear it all. But, you know, I don’t know. Can you get can you reserve a spot anyway, I it’s back to the subject at hand, you know, but it’s, um. But you know, he could have just said, okay, hey, I’m bringing water and we’re going to call it liquid death. And you know what the name is was and then just put it in a bland package and said, you know, let’s go, right?

00:08:45:12 – 00:09:10:08

Yeah, but, but have you looked on the water aisle of your supermarket and and there’s so many different brands of water. Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s like, well, man, I mean, you know, this is all you got, you know, you got some it comes out of a stream you get comes purified everything else. But I’m telling you, you know and when I saw it on the shelf, I thought it’s in the wrong place.

00:09:10:08 – 00:09:27:02

Sure. Yeah. You know, they need to move it out. And I you know, I thought about going and telling, you know, this is not working. But I looked closer and it’s like, wait a minute, there’s water on top and and there’s red, green, black. You know, there’s all kinds of stuff. But again, I mean, you know, it’s just you have to be willing to stand out.

00:09:27:02 – 00:09:38:07

You have to be willing to do your research. You have to, you know, to define your audience in a in a way that, you know, you know a lot about them. Sure.

00:09:38:07 – 00:09:50:21

And who they are. And and you got to have that to craft that message that resonates with them because there’s so many places to put, you know, the different elements of your campaign and placement, advertising and things of that nature.

00:09:50:21 – 00:10:07:04

Right. But in the absence of actually doing that work, of knowing who you are, who your target profile, your customers are and how to speak to them, then it just it really gets bland, really. That noise just absolutely destroys it for somebody else as well.

00:10:07:04 – 00:10:12:05

Yeah, it does. And I think a lot of people, they don’t think of it in that way.

00:10:12:05 – 00:10:36:14

And and sometimes you can have a great product taken in a market. Wrong branding, wrong marketing and it fails. Yeah. You know, and you hate to see that because the product itself was an actually good product. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And you know, on that same note, you can do a whole do a lot, right and put the right things at the wrong time and also that’s very true.

00:10:36:16 – 00:11:00:15

It’s a very good point. I want you to elaborate a little bit on that. So best example, I’ll give you a couple examples, taking a a billboard message. For instance, driving down the road, you see Billboard, If anybody puts a phone number on that billboard, you are taking potentially the right information and putting it the wrong time. I agree with that because nobody is going to pull over.

00:11:00:17 – 00:11:17:20

Well, and right your mobile, you’re a number two because they literally will have to back up. Yeah. In order to do it. So what am I going to go back? And then if you write it while you’re driving, you risk hitting a home or a house. Right. Or a car, unless you’re on the way to Myrtle Beach and there is a billboard every.

00:11:17:20 – 00:11:44:07

Yeah. That’s a little bit different. Yeah. That’s how you put it right there on each sun. Yeah. 500. Monroe Yeah, for sure. But yeah, I mean that’s an example of the right message. That is the right message, Yeah, for the right time. But at the wrong time. The wrong place. TV’s the same way. Yes, by and large video but there is just certain so we scrub.

00:11:44:09 – 00:12:07:12

I’m sure you’re just wanting to hear this. We scrub 92% of everything we take in within 72 hours. Okay, slow down a little bit. I’m okay. I’m going to get more beer. So we scrub 90% of everything we take in in the first 72 hours. Correct. So in and the reason we do is that subconsciously, yeah, yes, sleep is a great tracer.

00:12:07:14 – 00:12:30:00

So when we do that, we are getting rid of everything we don’t need anymore. Like you can’t tell me what what the weather was like three days ago because you don’t need that information anymore. But on the state championship game, you can tell me everything about that. Oh, absolutely. It’s meaningful. Oh, I can. And when the national championship game, I can tell you a lot about it.

00:12:30:00 – 00:13:00:16

Yeah, yeah, sure. So when we when we were putting the wrong type of information in certain marketing assets and placing them in advertising and things of that nature, we have to be very aware of who our target customer is. We have to be bold and create a message that’s going to resonate with them at that time, right? If we don’t, then they’re going to they’re going to forget us because they’re going to within 72 hours, they’re going to get rid of anything they don’t need or have not made a connection with.

00:13:00:18 – 00:13:20:09

Mm hmm. And if you don’t make that emotional connection, that relationship I know I talk a lot about that, but that’s how you’ve got to make it in that 8% or else you’re going to be part of that just noise of, Yeah, bad marketing. Yeah, I wasn’t aware of that. I didn’t, you know, I didn’t. I didn’t know those numbers.

00:13:20:13 – 00:13:40:12

Yeah, that’s interesting. I mean, it may not be exactly 90% when they say, well, 80% statistics are made up. Right. Well, I mean it makes sense. I mean, you know, and it just furthers the the argument of of, you know, standing out. You know, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of studies behind that that that support that.

00:13:40:14 – 00:13:57:20

But, I mean, you can again, you can just do those simple things like how many phone numbers can you remember? I can’t. Well, these well, I can’t remember anything. I can give you an entire minute and I don’t think I don’t know that I could I don’t know that I could. That’s bad. Yeah. So let me ask you this.

00:13:57:20 – 00:14:24:10

So how long do you think you have to make an impression on a potential customer or an audience? Well, there’s a little bit of variance in that. For instance, I mean, I I’ve I’ve actually been watching TV, watching golf before, and they’re traveler’s insurance. They do such a great job that I’ve seen my kids stop playing and watch their commercials.

00:14:24:12 – 00:14:44:14

Now. And it was the first time that they saw them. So how long it takes in order to make an impression depends on how well you have done your homework. Well, let me let me start over. How long do you think it takes to grab someone’s? So, in other words, okay, so let’s say that somebody is reading something, watching something that first initial 8 seconds.

00:14:44:14 – 00:15:02:12

Yeah, I think it’s it’s probably in that moment and I think there’s a lot of yeah, there’s there’s also a lot of studies that have shown that out as well. Right. But if you catch them I’ve also heard this it’s like well how long does something need to be like a video, for instance, man, I’ve watched five minute pre-roll videos.

00:15:02:15 – 00:15:23:21

Hmm. Or longer on YouTube. And the the pre-roll videos were almost better than the one. The video I want to watch. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s not. I mean, so it’s not the duration necessarily. It’s a content quality. It’s the quality of what you’re what have you done your homework and to some degree like yes, the production value, the production quality.

00:15:23:22 – 00:15:44:15

Yeah. But also it is, it’s the structure of the message is irrelevant to who you’re speaking to. Sure. And if you’re trying to speak to everybody going back to this conversation, I mean, look, yeah, I mean, there’s only a few things in this world that I think that everybody uses, right? Needs one’s water. You have that food, you know, you’ve got to buy food.

00:15:44:17 – 00:16:06:05

Um, now with that, you know, I’m talking from a supermarket. Sure. Okay. Now, you know, restaurants are totally different. Um, you know, light bulbs. Yeah, right. I mean, unless you’re don’t have a place for a light bulb. Sure. You’re homeless. Yeah, unfortunately, You know, you need those things, so, you know, those are more of a marketing to the masses type deal.

00:16:06:08 – 00:16:30:15

Sure. Where everybody needs. But. But you’re typical, you know. You know, you it typical. What do you call it? What’s the name of good or service. Good or service. And I’m going blank. I’m going to slow down. Um, you know, those things are you’ve got they’ve got to have an audience. Yeah. And you’ve got to have a, you know, a definite demographic that you’re marketing to.

00:16:30:15 – 00:16:54:09

Yeah, Yeah. So I mean, there’s a lot that really is well, and you can see it in certain things. I mean you can have a very across the board category that is just boring. Um, but then you can have somebody in that category that actually takes the time to be creative. Mm hmm. To be bold enough to stand out.

00:16:54:11 – 00:17:17:02

Yeah. Be a little bit edgy, and then that edginess doesn’t have to carry a negative connotation. Oh, I’m not. Not at all. But, you know, it’s more of a. Yeah, just not being afraid to be different. How about maybe that’s the way to put it. And I’m enjoying my. Our buddy Jesse earlier, he does that exceptionally well is he actually makes boring stuff interesting.

00:17:17:04 – 00:17:46:02

Yeah I think it’s mostly that comic books or something along those lines. Doesn’t he mean that, um, the supervillain. Super villains. Okay, there we go. Okay. Okay. But, I mean, that’s. It doesn’t matter what market you’re in, what category you’re in. If you do your homework, if you take the time to be a little bit creative and this is where this is really where outside help can be very helpful.

00:17:46:04 – 00:18:21:00

I mean, absolutely. Yeah. Get somebody to help you do some brainstorming, right. And get some get some really good ideas and then you can execute those ideas with with their help or with someone else’s help. But you got to start you’ve got to stand out. And, you know, advertising marketing has changed so much. If you actually go and look at the years years ago, when you look at the old car ads and anything really from the seven eighties, even nineties for that matter, it’s just, you know, back then you could kind of you could be more bland.

00:18:21:05 – 00:18:50:04

Sure. Maybe is the word and still be effective because it wasn’t there weren’t the choices were much more limited. Okay I mean yeah I mean yeah plenty of choices now. Now you get so many choices and you know, and it’s and it’s I mean any of the on any given product for the most part. Well and we talk about the choices that’s really from the the business side but you have so much more exposure from the consumer side you do they’re exposed to so many more platforms.

00:18:50:06 – 00:19:15:18

It’s even more important to stand out and to be be bold and not be bombarded with bombarded every single day, you know, and most of it I don’t remember. But we see brands like Liquid Def that do stand out, that do it well. Yeah, absolutely. So it’s not impossible anymore. Know what? Listen, if you’ve you know, and I don’t mean to toot this horn and I’m not we’re not getting paid to to talk about liquid debt.

00:19:15:18 – 00:19:35:06

Let’s make sure we’re clear on that. But if you’ve turned water in a tallboy can to 10 million. I think that’s the last I heard. Oh, is more than that. Oh, my case. Maybe it’s more than that then. I mean, one. So, you know, that just reinforces my point even more. You’ve done something, right? Yeah. I mean, you know, so you just I mean, literally, you know, it’s not like, what is it?

00:19:35:06 – 00:19:55:22

Dasani is owned by Coca-Cola. Yeah. Is that right? I mean, you know, that’s obviously, you know, it’s kind of a not as hard. Yeah, right. So, yeah, I mean, you know, and I think that if advertisers could get in more of that mindset and, you know, and really lay it out right from the beginning and really get the help that they need from the beginning, from people that are really good at what they do.

00:19:55:23 – 00:20:22:10

You know, then I think that they, you know, have a have a very good chance of being now based on all the pieces of the puzzle. Sure. Yeah, we know that. But it’s certainly a portion of it. You know, it’s it’s it’s it’s something that is that you’ve got to have if you don’t have a good foundation that’s hard to grasp, you’ll never make it.

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The brilliant satire mind behind AdWeak, Mickey Taylor, joined us for a fun conversation. Everyone in the creative space is thinking it, Mickey just says it.

Chad and Paul chat about what businesses can expect in 2024 and what they should do to prepare. – Have the right conversations with you customers. – Make sure your brand assets are in place. Get insights into essential marketing strategies in 2024 to gain open market share now.

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Alex B. Sheridan joins Bad Marketing Sucks in this episode to share his expertise on video content creation.

Jesse Wroblewski, a true marketing supervillain, joins the show.

Welcome to Bad Marketing Sucks, hosted by Paul Sterett and Chad Richards. Here's a little about us.