"Pushy" Branding
brought to you by s|i
"Pushy" Brands vs. Lets Just Be Friends! - Bad Marketing and the "F" Word
How to positively influence your band, and changing your perspective from "How can I 'GET' people" to "INVITING ('EARNING') friendships (as well as inspiring people to engage/interact/experience/trust/like your brand
Nobody likes being 'pushed' around, bullied, or pressured in life. The same applies to brands, and efforts to connect your brand to your target audience.
Much like the sandbox, where we learned a lot about life (sharing, caring, respect, friendship, etc.), the same goes for how you connect to your consumers, and related constituents. Whether you are airing a commercial you overpaid millions for, presenting print on a billboard or on a shelf, packaging or a label on your product, or take away materials for your business, you need to find ways to engage your audience, clients, and customers with respect.
Consumer's intelligence is much more advanced than the golden era ballroom dancing, or even disco dancing times of advertising, where one could place a subliminal message and 'trick' the public into believing they needed a product to become a better and more successful person, or that your product really is God's gift to our green Earth.
People are smart, so stop thinking of ways to 'trick' them, and think around ways to become their friend! "Friends don't push around or 'trick' friends (or let others friends get 'tricked')!"Friendship is free, ahh - the coveted "F" word, ha... Connecting your product/service/business to consumers/customers is holistically, and unfortunately for you, but fortunately for folks like us (siegel innovations), not free, cheap, or easy! We are (not sure about 'the other guys' who have been over charging you), however, graciously affordable.
Companies, organizations, non-profits, for profits, individuals, consultants, Fortune 500's, marketers, and 'others' hire 'creatives', marketers, brand scientists and artists (us!) to catalyze the consumer relationship, amplify awareness, and implement 'surpassing sustainability' (siegel innovations #1 value!) to help you as a strategic service partner, essentially go 'beyond existence' or 'sustainability', and energize your brand. (Okay, enough self promotion, we want to serve you and become friends, no apologies, give us a call at 513.295.3533, email at info@siegelinnovations.com, innovate@siegelinnovations.com, facebook, text, linkedin, or flying pigeon message. Anything but a tin can and string, as we are out of string, but left with a lot of tin cans, a we recycle, ha!).
You must implement what we label "Veritas" (Truth) to who you are, what you do, and what you're selling. You want to, no, it is essential for you to provide an engagingly participatory positive (just imagined Elmer Fud saying those three words together) experience. The greatest compliment and byproduct of a person not just giving you money, which is nice, is recommending your genius product/service to a friend. We call this in today's "Information Age", W.O.M.M., and if you are acronym inclined, this stands for "Word of Mouth Marketing", which is a fancy way of saying, 'telling your friends'. We like lehman's terms! Keepin' it simple, because we love you, really, we do, I just sent you a virtual hug, and this smiley face : ) just for you.
Why is this important? Well, we can instantly communicate in today's age of information, and "Information Age", and I am certain you may have heard of facebook, where we may even be friends, I placed this blog entry, you might have clicked on it (insert proof, evidence A, and testimonial here!), where on average people have 100-300 friends, which those people (and by 'those people', I mean facebook users) have similarly 100-300 friends, where around 10-25% actually like them, and the other greater part of their friends are 'loose friendships' (there's that "F" word again), meaning they are just friends out of courtesy, spamming (yes, I too am tired of hearing how they are tired, went to the store, ate a cookie, deleting the event I will never go to, ignoring the group or fan page for them - how vain/self righteous, or have an opinion on something I care nothing about), to connect to another friend, or they were bored.
Enough ranting, the point is they're "Pushy". If someone speaks of how 'great' they are, I am usually skeptical of such proclamations. If an ad (label, flyer, noisy commercial, website, blog, fan page, billboard, etc.) is telling me I need to buy their product, they're the best, better than their competition (which ironically gives their competition awareness, duh, or 4 out of 5 people I don't know, trust, or care about like the best - appeal to me because I either think /feel they are better looking than me or appeal to the standards most hold true for looking average so I related to them - or they have things I desire because society tells me I want/need what they have...), you are approaching your 'friendship building' poorly. You are setting yourself up to be the last kid picked for kickball.
We want to help you 'make more friends'. We want to show you soft and gentle, yet aggressively focused (we are not bipolar, just demonstrating with emotional inspiration how we will work hard for you, but share your message to your audiences appropriately!) ways to connect to the right people, the right way. Not by tricking your new found friends, which will not lead to long term loyalty, engagement, W.O.M.M residuals, or happiness. You can pursue 'one hit wonders' by selling to someone once, but we encourage 'development' vs. sales', 'utilization vs. use', and 'connecting vs. networking'.
Being pushy is not one of our principles. We like to look at our strategy of connecting like a boomerang. No, we're not Australian, but being the smart marketer, reader, and or consumer/friend that you are, you know a boomerang can be thrown (the right way), fly around/soar (on the right path), then return to you (safely, hopefully, not hitting you in the head). This "Boomerang Principle", is the way we like to fuel an idea, take it to implementation, innovate it along the course, and bring it back (similar to W.O.M.M., social media - or - 'social business' as we like to say, we just like changing words, are we cool Marketing Mavens, ha!). You don't want to throw things out there, have it go haywire, and return hitting you in the head. This would make you look bad in a meeting, and be a bad blemish on your rock-star resume, with your team, and also make consumers mad by hitting them with a boomerang. That's just not nice, plus, you might lose your boomerang along the way, as well as your marbles because you can't sell this amazing brand you lead efforts around.
Think in terms of not only what you like, but Human Factors and the creative Brand Psychology behind marketing you have been subjected or exposed to (sounds like a virus, and sometimes it is, think of 'viral marketing', negative connotation, but spreads the same from your mind - to influencing your actions, even body physically through movement/thoughts, etc. - wow this is getting deep,... 'human factor, psychology, behavior..."). I am not suggesting that advertising is bad, but am encouraging you to realize how fun, intelligent, and creative it is. Companies spend millions, heck, some billions, on influencing you to buy their product. As you know, this is not 'dumb money'. So, you better believe, they 'do their homework'! Data research, focus groups, R&D, commercials, marketing, consultants, studies, and more to back up the decision on a logo, shelf space, packaging, label, website, campaign, and more.
I invite you to notice while walking through your grocery store, driving down the highway (be careful, don't 'text and drive', or get too distracted by billboards now, we want you safe, as you are a friend!), looking at a magazine, listening to the radio, and the other interactions you have during your day to notice and take stock of the 'messaging' being bombarded to you. The 'text art', words, ideas, colors, shapes, pictures, sounds, effects, emotional connection, feeling, aura, and related feelings and inspiration you are left with after viewing/hearing/seeing/tasting/feeling whatever product/service you have engaged with either willingly or unwillingly. What are your thoughts/take aways/learning lessons? If they did a good job, you left the interaction with a good feeling, empowered, wanting more of what they were selling, recommended it to a friend (the most powerful 'marketing device' ever, think of someone who told you about a restaurant, then you went there!). Did they 'make a friend' or 'advocate' of their brand, or did they cause you to feel negative, bullied, pressured, or forced in some form?
So, play nice in the sandbox, make friends, hire us (insert plug and subliminal message here, not really, because I pointed out our self promotion), be of 'Veritas', remember people do talk (so what are they saying about your brand, do they care if your logo is in black/white or color, and if there is red in it, does that make them angry or think of a heart and love...), stay true to who you are/what you do/how you do it - adapting along the way as necessary, while aligning your work with your goals/vision to not merely exist/sell, but to 'surpass sustainability' and develop relationships/friendships that energize efforts with your constituents.
Nobody likes a bully, except the pushy bully themselves, and we all know what happens to pushy people, they end up alone and sad. We want people to call, email, and say nice things about you. Yup, "check", we can do that for you : ) ... there's that smiley face again, and what you will be doing after we put together an exciting plan of creative (not just boring) action for you, all while not overcharging you for stuffy overhead and boring same ol same ol marketing. That, and we like making new friends.
Luceat Lux Vestra!
Brian Siegel
Brand | Innovation Leader, s|i
www.siegelinnovations.com
brian@siegelinnovations.com
Tired of boring, overpriced, stalemated marketing?! Need a new or refined website, logo, commercial, creative campaign, slogan, tag line, jingle, marketing plan, social media strategy, or innovative insights for your brand?!
Contact us today for your Marketing | Branding | Innovation needs!
"Pushy" Brands vs. Lets Just Be Friends! - Bad Marketing and the "F" Word
How to positively influence your band, and changing your perspective from "How can I 'GET' people" to "INVITING ('EARNING') friendships (as well as inspiring people to engage/interact/experience/trust/like your brand
Nobody likes being 'pushed' around, bullied, or pressured in life. The same applies to brands, and efforts to connect your brand to your target audience.
Much like the sandbox, where we learned a lot about life (sharing, caring, respect, friendship, etc.), the same goes for how you connect to your consumers, and related constituents. Whether you are airing a commercial you overpaid millions for, presenting print on a billboard or on a shelf, packaging or a label on your product, or take away materials for your business, you need to find ways to engage your audience, clients, and customers with respect.
Consumer's intelligence is much more advanced than the golden era ballroom dancing, or even disco dancing times of advertising, where one could place a subliminal message and 'trick' the public into believing they needed a product to become a better and more successful person, or that your product really is God's gift to our green Earth.
People are smart, so stop thinking of ways to 'trick' them, and think around ways to become their friend! "Friends don't push around or 'trick' friends (or let others friends get 'tricked')!"Friendship is free, ahh - the coveted "F" word, ha... Connecting your product/service/business to consumers/customers is holistically, and unfortunately for you, but fortunately for folks like us (siegel innovations), not free, cheap, or easy! We are (not sure about 'the other guys' who have been over charging you), however, graciously affordable.
Companies, organizations, non-profits, for profits, individuals, consultants, Fortune 500's, marketers, and 'others' hire 'creatives', marketers, brand scientists and artists (us!) to catalyze the consumer relationship, amplify awareness, and implement 'surpassing sustainability' (siegel innovations #1 value!) to help you as a strategic service partner, essentially go 'beyond existence' or 'sustainability', and energize your brand. (Okay, enough self promotion, we want to serve you and become friends, no apologies, give us a call at 513.295.3533, email at info@siegelinnovations.com, innovate@siegelinnovations.com, facebook, text, linkedin, or flying pigeon message. Anything but a tin can and string, as we are out of string, but left with a lot of tin cans, a we recycle, ha!).
You must implement what we label "Veritas" (Truth) to who you are, what you do, and what you're selling. You want to, no, it is essential for you to provide an engagingly participatory positive (just imagined Elmer Fud saying those three words together) experience. The greatest compliment and byproduct of a person not just giving you money, which is nice, is recommending your genius product/service to a friend. We call this in today's "Information Age", W.O.M.M., and if you are acronym inclined, this stands for "Word of Mouth Marketing", which is a fancy way of saying, 'telling your friends'. We like lehman's terms! Keepin' it simple, because we love you, really, we do, I just sent you a virtual hug, and this smiley face : ) just for you.
Why is this important? Well, we can instantly communicate in today's age of information, and "Information Age", and I am certain you may have heard of facebook, where we may even be friends, I placed this blog entry, you might have clicked on it (insert proof, evidence A, and testimonial here!), where on average people have 100-300 friends, which those people (and by 'those people', I mean facebook users) have similarly 100-300 friends, where around 10-25% actually like them, and the other greater part of their friends are 'loose friendships' (there's that "F" word again), meaning they are just friends out of courtesy, spamming (yes, I too am tired of hearing how they are tired, went to the store, ate a cookie, deleting the event I will never go to, ignoring the group or fan page for them - how vain/self righteous, or have an opinion on something I care nothing about), to connect to another friend, or they were bored.
Enough ranting, the point is they're "Pushy". If someone speaks of how 'great' they are, I am usually skeptical of such proclamations. If an ad (label, flyer, noisy commercial, website, blog, fan page, billboard, etc.) is telling me I need to buy their product, they're the best, better than their competition (which ironically gives their competition awareness, duh, or 4 out of 5 people I don't know, trust, or care about like the best - appeal to me because I either think /feel they are better looking than me or appeal to the standards most hold true for looking average so I related to them - or they have things I desire because society tells me I want/need what they have...), you are approaching your 'friendship building' poorly. You are setting yourself up to be the last kid picked for kickball.
We want to help you 'make more friends'. We want to show you soft and gentle, yet aggressively focused (we are not bipolar, just demonstrating with emotional inspiration how we will work hard for you, but share your message to your audiences appropriately!) ways to connect to the right people, the right way. Not by tricking your new found friends, which will not lead to long term loyalty, engagement, W.O.M.M residuals, or happiness. You can pursue 'one hit wonders' by selling to someone once, but we encourage 'development' vs. sales', 'utilization vs. use', and 'connecting vs. networking'.
Being pushy is not one of our principles. We like to look at our strategy of connecting like a boomerang. No, we're not Australian, but being the smart marketer, reader, and or consumer/friend that you are, you know a boomerang can be thrown (the right way), fly around/soar (on the right path), then return to you (safely, hopefully, not hitting you in the head). This "Boomerang Principle", is the way we like to fuel an idea, take it to implementation, innovate it along the course, and bring it back (similar to W.O.M.M., social media - or - 'social business' as we like to say, we just like changing words, are we cool Marketing Mavens, ha!). You don't want to throw things out there, have it go haywire, and return hitting you in the head. This would make you look bad in a meeting, and be a bad blemish on your rock-star resume, with your team, and also make consumers mad by hitting them with a boomerang. That's just not nice, plus, you might lose your boomerang along the way, as well as your marbles because you can't sell this amazing brand you lead efforts around.
Think in terms of not only what you like, but Human Factors and the creative Brand Psychology behind marketing you have been subjected or exposed to (sounds like a virus, and sometimes it is, think of 'viral marketing', negative connotation, but spreads the same from your mind - to influencing your actions, even body physically through movement/thoughts, etc. - wow this is getting deep,... 'human factor, psychology, behavior..."). I am not suggesting that advertising is bad, but am encouraging you to realize how fun, intelligent, and creative it is. Companies spend millions, heck, some billions, on influencing you to buy their product. As you know, this is not 'dumb money'. So, you better believe, they 'do their homework'! Data research, focus groups, R&D, commercials, marketing, consultants, studies, and more to back up the decision on a logo, shelf space, packaging, label, website, campaign, and more.
I invite you to notice while walking through your grocery store, driving down the highway (be careful, don't 'text and drive', or get too distracted by billboards now, we want you safe, as you are a friend!), looking at a magazine, listening to the radio, and the other interactions you have during your day to notice and take stock of the 'messaging' being bombarded to you. The 'text art', words, ideas, colors, shapes, pictures, sounds, effects, emotional connection, feeling, aura, and related feelings and inspiration you are left with after viewing/hearing/seeing/tasting/feeling whatever product/service you have engaged with either willingly or unwillingly. What are your thoughts/take aways/learning lessons? If they did a good job, you left the interaction with a good feeling, empowered, wanting more of what they were selling, recommended it to a friend (the most powerful 'marketing device' ever, think of someone who told you about a restaurant, then you went there!). Did they 'make a friend' or 'advocate' of their brand, or did they cause you to feel negative, bullied, pressured, or forced in some form?
So, play nice in the sandbox, make friends, hire us (insert plug and subliminal message here, not really, because I pointed out our self promotion), be of 'Veritas', remember people do talk (so what are they saying about your brand, do they care if your logo is in black/white or color, and if there is red in it, does that make them angry or think of a heart and love...), stay true to who you are/what you do/how you do it - adapting along the way as necessary, while aligning your work with your goals/vision to not merely exist/sell, but to 'surpass sustainability' and develop relationships/friendships that energize efforts with your constituents.
Nobody likes a bully, except the pushy bully themselves, and we all know what happens to pushy people, they end up alone and sad. We want people to call, email, and say nice things about you. Yup, "check", we can do that for you : ) ... there's that smiley face again, and what you will be doing after we put together an exciting plan of creative (not just boring) action for you, all while not overcharging you for stuffy overhead and boring same ol same ol marketing. That, and we like making new friends.
Luceat Lux Vestra!
Brian Siegel
Brand | Innovation Leader, s|i
www.siegelinnovations.com
brian@siegelinnovations.com
Tired of boring, overpriced, stalemated marketing?! Need a new or refined website, logo, commercial, creative campaign, slogan, tag line, jingle, marketing plan, social media strategy, or innovative insights for your brand?!
Contact us today for your Marketing | Branding | Innovation needs!
Comments