The Marketing Menu

This leads really nicely into the subject of today’s podcast which is about Positioning. But let’s tell the listeners a little bit more about how we decided to go into business and what we can offer with the training.

Yes, good idea! Well, it all started with me going to an incredible 4-day course called the Public Speakers University run by Andy Harrington, who is well regarded as one of the World’s Leading Public Speaking Experts. I was so inspired by what I learned that it got me thinking about what else we could do and I can remember getting back to my hotel room in the evening and, although I was completely exhausted, I was inspired and called you, Liz, to say what do you think about offering marketing training online.

And I remember that call very clearly! You were buzzing even though it was late and I was in bed! By the end of the conversation, I was completely on board and you were flying even higher.

It did seem a very natural progression from the training that each of us offer face-to-face, of course, but entering the online training world was new to both of us. And, boy, what a journey it has been so far.

It really has. But we’ve had luck along the way. A long-standing contact of mine was selling her online training business at exactly the right time and just happened to email me to say did I know of anyone who might be interested in buying it.

So, enter Nicky and Liz!

Yes, perfect timing! And I think that this perfectly illustrates the power of networks.

So, we then set about investigating exactly what we needed to do to launch an online training business.

From formally creating the business to researching the different platforms to be used. And, I must say at this point, my hat is off to you, Nicky, because you have done a completely awesome job on the technical side, from setting up the training platform to negotiating your way round webinar providers and stuff like landing pages and email automation. Just saying these things gives me a migraine!

Well, thanks Liz, it has been hugely frustrating at times and I have had some sleepless nights but I am really proud of how it all looks and operates. I’ve learned so much and the great thing is that I’ll be able to share this knowledge with clients now! It may be worth pointing out for those who may be familiar with our website the marketing menu.com that it has a little bit of a facelift, as has the branding for our podcast which people may have noticed over recent weeks.

Yep, I particularly like the mini me’s that we’ve created. Perhaps we should say a shout out to our wonderful graphic designer Mary for creating these, we will have some fun with these I’m sure.

So, let's explain the training. And listeners, we’ve had to apply all we‘ve talked to you about over the last months to market our own business!

Well, we couldn’t not, could we really?!

Practising what we preach! First, we put together an Action Plan and have continued to build on this with timely updates.

Of course, we did because we’re always stressing the need for action planning, aren’t we listeners?!

Haha! We then looked at our target market and decided that we wanted to develop the training to appeal to small business owners, who have been struggling with their own marketing, managers who employ someone to do their marketing, but would like to understand more about how it works and anyone who wants to brush up their marketing skills, and bring themselves up-to-date with new practices.

Next, we looked at Tone of Voice which helped us to convert the training materials into Marketing Menu speak. We already knew this because we’ve established it through the podcasts. For instance, the jargon-free, no Americanisms ethos.

Yes,

Well, as I’ve been busy writing an e-book, and I also took a call from a new author the other day, I thought it may be useful to talk about how to market a book. I imagine a lot of listeners have thought about writing a book and as we both have experience in this area, it would be good to share what we know.

So, writing the book is just the start. There is so much more after that. But firstly, we need to look at why write a book in the first place.

I have heard it said, and I can’t remember who it was, but it went “A lot of people say they have a book in them…and that’s exactly where it should stay”!

Harsh! But true. Is the story worth telling? Is it your personal story or are you writing a book to share your expertise? Either way, you have to know people will want to read it. And I’m not talking about novels here as they are slightly different so we’re going to focus on how you can publish a book related to your business.

I worked with an elderly guy who wanted to write about his experiences in the Marines. He wanted to leave something for his children and grandchildren to know about that part of his life. It was fascinating.

So, he didn’t want to sell it then?

No, just a memoir for the family. Published as a paperback for them to keep.

How lovely. Take my book for example. It’s partly about my story and what drove me to set up in business, but it also includes marketing knowledge and experience that I hope people will identify with together with some ideas they may like to put into practice.

I’m sure they will, Nicky. Self-publishing is so accessible to everyone now. But there are some basic rules we need to follow before we even think about launching it out into the big wide world.

What are those?

Think about how long your book will be. A standard business book in paperback will be between 50-60,000 words.

That’s a lot!

Indeed, it’s also so that when it is on a shop bookshelf, the spine width is comparable to others, otherwise, it would get lost.

What about an e-book?

Well, with a book for Kindle etc. it can be a lot less, even as little 7-10,000 words. And this brings up another important point. What is the purpose of the book? Is it because you want to raise your profile and position yourself as an expert or is it because you want to make some money.

I imagine that’s quite difficult!

It is! The business book market is very overcrowded, so that’s where marketing comes in. But just before that, it might just be worth mentioning the difference between a traditionally published book versus a self-published one.

There’s still some stigma attached to self-publishing, isn’t there? Like people don’t think it’s a ‘proper’ book.

Very true. And a lot of that comes down to the editing. Here’s another basic rule. Get someone else to read the book before you publish it. There will definitely be mistakes but you won’t be able to see them. But it’s important to say that the self-publisher is in control of everything: what to publish, costings, editing, design, layout, choosing and dealing with the printer, the print run, marketing, publicity, sales, packing and delivery of the books

And ultimately typos! The writer is too close to see it so always, always, always get it proofread. It just gives completely the wrong impression if all your hard work is ruined by something that could so easily be remedied but actually puts the reader off reading any further.

I could not agree more, Nicky! Goes for all marketing communication and material.

I think I’d add here that there is a big difference between proof reading and editing. If you can find someone who knows your subject well,

We thought following on from Podcast 007 which was all about Building a Brand, we’d have a look at some good, and bad, examples of this and what we can learn and take away for our own businesses.

Let’s get started then and perhaps it might be useful to just recap on what a Brand is?

Branding is your statement to the customer about what you do. You want people to know what they can expect not only from you and you need to think how you want your product or service to be conveyed. It's saying this is who we are and what we want you to know about us. A brand is the image you portray.

Yes, so we did discuss this in more depth in Podcast 007 and also about how some people get the logo mixed up with brand. Of course, a logo is just a visual representation. So, which companies are out there doing it right?

We thought following on from Podcast 007 which was all about Building a Brand, we’d have a look at some good, and bad, examples of this and what we can learn and take away for our own businesses.

Let’s get started then and perhaps it might be useful to just recap on what a Brand is?

Branding is your statement to the customer about what you do. You want people to know what they can expect not only from you and you need to think how you want your product or service to be conveyed. It's saying this is who we are and what we want you to know about us. A brand is the image you portray.

Yes, so we did discuss this in more depth in Podcast 007 and also about how some people get the logo mixed up with brand. Of course, a logo is just a visual representation. So, which companies are out there doing it right?

Well, I thought we’d start with our current favourite Airbnb!

Oh yes, I’ve converted you, haven’t I?

Yes, you have indeed, Nicky! I was a solid Premier Inn girl, and still am, think they give great customer service, think a lot of places could learn from the way the staff are trained, never stayed in a bad one, rave about them all the time. BUT then you introduced me to the benefits of Airbnb and I, have to say, I have been bowled over by the whole experience.

We’ve stayed in a couple of excellent places recently, haven’t we? And so reasonably priced. I also like the fact the booking procedure is so easy, and I always seem to be getting incentives to persuade me to book again or to recommend a friend.

It’s brilliant, and I love their story. Very briefly, two guys set up Airbnb because they felt people had stopped trusting each other and they wanted to create something that would stand for something much bigger than travel and ‘stand for community and relationships and use technology to bring people together.’

Well, they’ve certainly done that highly successfully. Their whole ethos for the guest and host is very clear and really does build on that trust issue. Did I read that one of the Airbnb founders actually lets out rooms in his house?

Apparently so! Which is encouraging – he has enough faith in his service to use it! They also wanted to make sure people were going into areas that they wouldn’t normally think of to stay, building on this sense of community. They used ‘Belong Anywhere’ as their slogan.

They really are cultivating that feeling. They say when travellers leave their homes, they feel alone. They reach their Airbnb, and they feel accepted and taken care of by their host. They then feel safe to be the same kind of person they are when they’re at home.

So, listeners, do you have any experience with Airbnb? Are they doing what they say? Does the reality live up to the brand image? Let us know what you think.  But also importantly think about what are you doing to show that you believe in your business? So, what have you got for us, Nicky?

Now,

We thought it’d be a really good idea to talk to listeners about how to brief a creative, by which I mean how to ensure you effectively get what you want when you are designing a new website, setting up some videos, or even doing some design and print. I don’t know about you but a clearly defined brief can have a host of benefits to a) the person commissioning the work and b) the creative working with that client.

Great idea, it so important. And we’ve got a giveaway for listeners too, haven’t we, if they listen to the end of this podcast?

Yes, we have Liz, but more on that later.

Okay then. So the creative brief could be said to be the foundation of any advertising or marketing. It’s the treasure map that creatives follow, and it tells them where to start digging for those golden ideas. Or at least, it should, if it’s any good.

We understand that people are really busy and it would be so easy to ignore the benefits of preparing a good creative brief. A combination of lack of preparation, increasingly tighter deadlines, bad habits, laziness, poor account management, bad creative direction, and ineffective training, all contribute to this becoming something of a necessary evil.

Yes, so if listeners have followed our other podcasts, and I’m thinking of Podcast 004 ‘What makes your customer tick‘, listeners may have created a buyer persona. Remember listeners, you can still download a copy to work on if you have yet to do so by going to our website www.themarketingmenu.com. This creative brief bit is the next step on from this, I suppose, and is certainly a good idea if you’re spending money with a creative and particularly if you want to get the job done, quickly and easily.

Yes, I suppose we should talk about the merits of doing one before diving straight in.

Yep, so a creative brief is a written explanation – given to a designer – outlining the aims, objectives, and milestones of a design project. It really is a critical part of the design process. It helps develop trust and understanding between the client and designer – and serves as an essential point of reference for both parties. Above all, the design brief ensures that important design issues are considered and questioned before the designer starts work.

That’s interesting because I know quite often people have an idea of what they want but quite often that idea can change once you start talking to others, and of course, different creatives will have a different take on things, and then I guess the goal posts may move so to speak.

Yes, and I think that’s a good point, Liz, because if you are paying others for their expertise, you need to get to know them first to understand their ideas and to see how the conversation rolls because different agencies will have a different way of addressing your issues if they’re savvy and I suppose ultimately you need to choose someone who understands your goals and aspirations and what your vision for that piece of work actually is.

And someone who ultimately gets your brand! So how can you use this idea for your business if you want to develop this area? I know several large companies who fail to take the time to plan this part of the brief and who ultimately risk losing loads of money going down the wrong path. How many times have you heard about websites, or adverts not getting buy in from the management team after all the creatives been done, and a whole lot of money wasted in the meanwhile?

I’m afraid far too many, Liz. I may be being rash but I think the little guys often get stuck with something they’re not entirely happy with because they just can’t afford to spend more money whereas in larger company’s marketers often get frustrated by the lack of buy in from management once they’ve done loads of hard work.

So, this is where the creative brief comes in.

We had such a good time the last time we did this and it was a very popular podcast. So, what's the first question?

Our first question is from Matt and he says: "Everyone keeps telling me I should be writing a blog as part of my marketing activity but where do I start?" Over to you, Nicky!

Well Matt, what do we always say at The Marketing Menu? You need a plan! But before we go any further, let's say at this point that blogging is indeed a very good platform to demonstrate your expertise, share opinions and raise your profile.

I agree. But you are so right about the plan. Doing a blog isn't something you can just throw together or do on the hoof. It needs some careful thought about what you are going to say and how often you are going to say it.

That's absolutely right – set a realistic target. Think about your workload. Don't announce you are going to do a weekly blog then find there's no way you can fit it in with everything else you are doing. You're better off doing one a month and making it a really good quality blog than scraping around for content more often just for the sake of it.

You said the key word there, content. It needs to be consistent with your other marketing content but the blog does give you scope to go into much more detail about what you are going to talk about than on other social media platforms.

So, what can Matt talk about in his blogs?

First of all, I would say avoid any sales talk. Use the opportunity to do some storytelling. Have a listen to Podcast 3 Crushing it with Storytelling for some great guidance. And remember your voice – we talked about this in Podcast 9 about Social Media. Other than that, use the blog to talk about what your business is doing, go into more details about some case studies or offer some opinion on what is going on in your industry.

Yes, we've talked about this before, haven't we? Positioning yourselves as experts and actually, blogs are a perfect way to that. As long as you're confident in what you are saying and can back it up with your knowledge, you can almost afford to be a bit contentious and offer an argument or alternative opinion.

As with any social media platform, they key is getting people engaged. I had a client who was an author who reluctantly started writing a blog after much persuasion when he realized that, as a writer, a blog was the perfect way to showcase the breadth of his writing.

It's very different though, right?

Yes, it is, but as he was submitting manuscripts to agents, the first thing they would do would be to search for him online. The fact that he had a back library of really well-written blogs helps showcase that he knows what he is doing. Only one problem though.

What's that?

He used to complain that no-one ever commented on his blogs but he would never go and read anyone else's!

Aha! And of course, the key to the success of a blog, as with all social media platforms, is audience engagement. You can't expect anyone to read your blogs if you're not engaging, and by that I mean reading and commenting, on what other people are writing.

Precisely! And when you read other blogs and leave a comment, hopefully, that will generate interest in your own because of how you have responded. So, think carefully when you are crafting your comment so people will want to know more about you.

Yes, think creatively listeners! And of course, you need to promote it. Now you could say the blogging platform, and Wordpress is a good example of this, is the base that you are trying to drive traffic to so if you've created a post you then want to circulate a snippet of the blog through those channels, like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.

I'd also add that if you can include your blogging platform on your websi...

Oh good, so yes, as we said, staying on top of our customer satisfaction is something we all need to do. But no-one is interested in lengthy time-consuming surveys or unwieldy telephone calls. I don't know about you, but several times I have been sent a quick Survey Monkey type questionnaire and given up after a few questions because they simply demand more input than I initially thought or they simply take too much of my time.

Yes, exactly that, so one thing I have to advocate is the use of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) which is a quick and effective way to keep track of your overall success.

 Sound interesting -  tell us more about that then?

 Yes, so the brilliant thing about the NPS system is that it involves one simple question, or two if you follow my example and it can be anonymous too which means you really aren't taking much of your customers time. Then at the same time, you can start to build some testimonials which you can then use in your marketing.

 We've said before about how testimonials are really important, especially when starting out as you're trying to establish your all-important credibility factor. Then if you're using online reviews on platforms such as TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, Booking.com, AirB&B, Facebook, and Checkatrade, for example, it's doubly important as this can affect your rankings too on these platforms. And businesses with higher star rankings are seeing increases in revenue as well as improved trust and loyalty with their customer base.

That's exactly right. So, diving straight into the net promoter score. what it does simply is it immediately categorises all customers into one of the three groups—promoters, passives, and detractors—allowing you to see right away whether a customer experience was a success or a failure—and why.

How does it do that?

 Well, you either do this by phone but it's easier to add a hyperlink to your final invoice where you direct people to a landing page on your website that captures the information through a form or using a tool such as Survey Monkey or I use Wufoo forms as then it notifies me when I get a response. There you ask one simple question, so write this down listeners — How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague? —Customers then respond on a 0-to-10 point rating scale and are categorised as follows:

Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fuelling growth.

Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings

Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.

To calculate your company's NPS, take the percentage of customers who are Promoters and subtract the percentage who are Detractors. And that gives you a baseline score that you can seek to improve upon over time if needs be.

So I suppose if you get anything above 7 you're doing okay and then if you also get a load of detractors, you need to do more to put things right so to speak? You could decide to go back to them at this stage and see if you can remedy any problems they may be having?

Yes, for sure, especially if people have been given the option to add their email address

You mentioned a couple of other questions that you add to this?

So, I believe ideally you want to dig a little more deeply from this question and this is done by simply adding the next question. So listeners, write this down cos it's a biggie. Your first question is "How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?" Then the next question is "Why?"  - this insight enables you to quickly identify issues that create detractors—and the actions you need to take to address them.

Oh, I like it, two questions and you're done. I can see that Net Promoter surveys are not traditional customer satisfaction su...

Excellent customer service should be at the core of every business, and there is no excuse in this day and age for falling at this hurdle. Yet so many businesses do, don’t they?

Yes, they do, and it drives me nuts. I’ve got worse as I’ve got older and will now complain whereas I used to be very British and not say anything at the time but moan like hell afterwards.

I think a lot of people still do that. Look at TripAdvisor or any social media channel, and they are littered with angry comments from people who’ve been at the receiving end of poor or even diabolical customer service.

Yes, for sure and I guess it’s a shame that we’re not all so vocal when it comes to shouting about good customer service but heh ho, so let’s begin by giving listeners some of our own good and bad examples so that we can all consider how we may get things right. You’ve got a great positive example haven’t you, Nicky?

Yes, I have so buckle in listeners – here goes, I must confess I blogged about this at the time so I would like to stress that I do also try to share good news stories when they’re due.

So, what happened then?

Well it was a Friday night and the tumble dryer had eventually packed up and balancing the broom handle was no longer working so I decided I had to finally replace it so recalling the catchy AO lets go jingle, I logged on. The fact I could upgrade so they’d recycle the old appliance and they would remove the packaging and then the fit machine for a small fee appealed as did next day delivery and timed four-hour delivery slots. All done, purchase and wait.

So that nicely highlights the importance of the customer experience starting right from the advertising through to the ease of using their website then? They made it easy for you?

They certainly did. But my experience did not end there.

Oh right, carry on then!

I then received a phone call that evening to check I was happy with my purchase and to confirm that I would receive a text by 7 am the next day with details of my timed slot, did I also know I could track the delivery in the event I should need to go out?

Did you know that?

Nope, but I thought it might prove useful as it was the weekend. I decided to forego the offer of an extended warranty. What do I know I may regret it, but PPI insurance oversell still resonates with me.

I know what you mean. What happened then?

The next morning, as promised, along came the text and yes, I did indeed need to use the tracking facility as an unexpected kiddie taxi ride loomed but then on top of this I received a security call from the driver telling me that they’d be with me in 15 minutes and to check the access arrangements. Delivered, unpacked and switched on 15 minutes later I was a happy bunny.

15 MINUTES? That’s amazing!

Then followed a text from the delivery driver asking me to rate their service, unsurprisingly I text back “brilliant”, a further text asked me if they could share this with their Facebook page if okay with me. Finally, the next day a quick net promoter score email asked me to grade their overall service and if I wished to answer six fuller questions an opportunity to be put into a free prize draw.

So, all in all, a brilliant experience that you are keen to share with others, just as you are now?

Absolutely. But then a week later and counter this with a visit to a very well-known treasured Dorset canteen for tea and cake, a pit stop during a mindless drive back from Cornwall with four teenagers.

Somehow I don’t think this is going to end well.

Admittedly we’re all a bit dazed having just had our first breath of fresh air in four hours, but we waited patiently at the “wait to be seated” sign and watched staff busy them...

OK, this is a bit lengthy but this is how the Chartered Institute of Public Relations explain it: "Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics."

I'd say that influences not only what we do in marketing but also underpins what we do in business too.

Absolutely right. It should provide the backdrop to all our advertising and marketing and is key to developing word of mouth recommendations and contacts. It's also cheaper and more effective than advertising or marketing.

So how is PR different to marketing?

Probably the easiest way to describe it is that your audiences are different. With marketing, you are pretty much targeting a specific market to promote your product or service. With PR, the messages are a bit more subtle and are aimed at audiences, also called publics, that are important to the organisation. They include customers - existing and potential; employees and management; investors; media; government; suppliers and opinion-formers. PR is as much about internal communications as it about the external.

Isn't it also about image and what your business actually stands for?

Yes and that's another crucial point to clarify for listeners. Your image is what your business actually is, you can't project an image that isn't real. It has to be based in fact – you can't just make it up.

So what tools are traditionally used in PR?

Very similar to marketing actually. There are so many ways to communicate with your audience. For instance:

Local, regional, trade & professional Press

Videos

Posters / Literature

Personal contact

Direct mail

Blogs

Events

Newsletters

Advertising

And not forgetting your website, of course! That's the first impression most of your audience will have on you so it's so important the message is right. PR isn't just about Press Releases, is it?

Oh absolutely not! Obviously, Press Releases are what most people think of when you mention PR. Here's an interesting exercise that I used with my students on a recent PR course. Have a look at your local newspaper and see if you can spot which are the news stories written by journalists and which are PR stories submitted by businesses and organisations like charities to give you a really good flavour of the type of stories your local media are looking for.

I'm sure that's something our listeners will be really interested in. How DO they get local media interested in their story?

Well, the first thing to consider is whether the story is actually newsworthy.

How do you mean?

Is it a story that is going to interest the general public. A good rule of thumb is would it interest the writer if they read it about someone else. What's the angle? Is there any significance to a celebration or event? Is it a human interest story? People love those. Look for something that will really make it stand out.

So if a business is celebrating an anniversary or significant achievement, or if one of their staff has an interesting back story, these would make good tasty content?

That's exactly right. People love reading about people. Just like we were talking about in podcast 3 about Storytelling. Editors will be looking out for something that is different.

So if I'm looking to get a Press Release out, are there any basic rules to follow?

Yes, you can use something called the 5 W's. Who, what, when, where and why. It's an old PR term but very easy to follow. Make sure you get this information in at the start ...

We all know the world is changing rapidly. We were only talking about this the other day, weren't we? When we talked about how technology has changed over our careers – and the fact we can remember the days before computers!

Yes, I know. So we both live and breathe Social Media now but 25 years ago I started my career on a Canon Typestar display typewriter which at the time I thought was cutting edge. Then 12 years ago a manager suggest we try blogging, I'd never heard of a blog at the time but fast forward five years and I was blogging, running email & Facebook campaigns and training charity groups on social media. So, I guess the point is, the digital world has exploded, and small businesses ignore the benefits of social media at their peril because ultimately, we never know where the next tool is going to come from, or what the developments from these channels might be. So, miss the boat and you are already behind the curve.

Communication has always been important, obviously in marketing. It's just a little faster moving nowadays – which can be an amazing commercial opportunity, but also businesses need to be mindful of the risks if they get it wrong or, worse, bury their heads in the sand. I guess the key to it is the interactive aspect. It has to be a 2-way dialogue, otherwise you're just making noise and talking AT people.

Definitely. Now we all know how a well-managed social media campaign can help you build your market whether that's simply to just increase communication with clients or drive traffic to your site or whether you're using it to gain feedback and customer insight, or possibly all those objectives at the same time.

The only real negative I can think of with social media is that to do it properly takes time and effort. Lots of time and effort. What's more, once started you must keep putting one in front of the other. You can't just stop when you think you've done enough.

Yes, it's all about consistency and we talk about that all the time at The Marketing Menu. Plus, there are simply 100's of channels, and obviously, others are coming on stream all the time so it's no wonder people get confused about which are the best channels to use.

True. Businesses need to find out which channels their customers are using. While it could be said that there is little need for an accountant say to be on Facebook, Facebook may well be the platform that people are on when trying to avoid doing their tax return for example. So maybe Facebook isn't the platform you'll prioritise, but it should be one you at least have a presence on, although you will more likely get a better return on LinkedIn say, which is still a social media channel, or at least increasingly so.

So, we would advise listeners to think of social media in the context of traditional marketing. For any marketing to work, you have to look at what we discussed in podcast 4, What Makes Your Customer Tick: Attention Interest Desire Action. So it's important to:

• Research your audience: Understand your demographics – what do they read, what do they do, where do they go, what are their hobbies

• Gain ATTENTION either through advertising or posts

• So you can arouse INTEREST - not by flogging things but by either educating or creating engaging content

• So that you increase DESIRE in your product or service

• Which will, in turn, lead to ACTION on behalf of your audience through increased interest and ultimately potential sales

Yes, perfectly put. It is ALL about raising awareness and influence but remember the more useful and interesting the content means you will gain more interest. But ultimately remember the old mantra of "be everywhere" should be replaced with "be where it matters". It all comes down to interaction: so how many people listen and talk back to you on social media (...

Perhaps we can help clarify what brand is exactly and what branding actually means.

Great stuff. I know several of my clients have thought that having a logo was the brand.

That's right, a lot of people do. But there is so much more to it than that. A logo is just a visual symbol really and usually has the name or initials of the company in it. It may also incorporate the colour scheme that has been chosen so that it will become instantly recognisable.

Talking of which, did you see that Cadbury tried to trademark the purple colour that it has used for its packaging for the last 100 years but lost a court battle with Nestle? That's how important colour can be in making a product stand out.

Yes, I also heard that KitKat were trying to trademark their four finger chocolate bar but that they were also unsuccessful. We certainly do associate brands with certain colours. But more of that later because we actually need to have a brand strategy before we can think about creating a logo.

Yes, back on track. So, branding – what is it? And how do you decide which is the right branding strategy for your business?

Well, basically branding is your statement to the customer about what you do. I think brand is who you are and marketing is your message. You own your marketing whereas your consumers own your brand. So you want people to know what they can expect not only from your brand and you need to think how you want your product or service to be conveyed. It's saying this is who we are and what we want you to know about us. A brand is the image you portray.

I like that, it's simple! So that's kind of like a mission statement and I guess you could say branding is why, marketing is how but what about strategy? It's not the kind of thing you just throw together when you start out in business?

No, it certainly shouldn't be! This needs some careful thought because you may well be spending money on a logo design which is going to go on your website, stationery, packaging and marketing materials. So you have to get it right.

What needs to be included then?

So, to start with, there needs to be some key questions answered such as:

What is your company's mission, aims and objectives?

What makes your products or services stand out from others?

If you already have customers, what do they think about you?

What qualities do you want your customer to remember about your company?

Listeners can go back to podcast 4 which was all about What Makes Your Customer Tick for some tips on how to find out what your customers think about your business.

Good idea. When you've defined what your brand is and what it stands for, you can then start creating some brand messages.

How do you mean?

What are the most important statements that you want your customer to know? Have these written and defined and they can be used a foundation for all your marketing materials.

I would also recommend creating what are known in PR as ‘Boilerplates'.

Sounds like something to do with trains!

I know, I have no idea why – it's probably a printing term! But basically, they are the statements about your company or organization that an Editor might find useful when you send a Press Release. But you don't put the information in the body of the Press Release. So, background information really. And I would suggest having a selection of 50, 100 and 150-word statements at the ready that can use whenever you need too.

So thinking back to podcast 5 about Networking, could they be adapted to create a juicy intro?

They could indeed! Because they say what you do in a succinct way. Any road up, back to branding – once you've created some key messages, what then?