1 00:00:01,079 --> 00:00:04,979 Unknown: marketer of the Day episode 805 Today's marketing 2 00:00:04,979 --> 00:00:08,669 issues and solutions with the brand leader Kyle do furred? 3 00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:16,800 Robert Plank: Hey, we're back on the market or the podcast. We're 4 00:00:16,800 --> 00:00:20,850 here with Kyle du Ford from the brand leader.com. Kyle is an 5 00:00:20,850 --> 00:00:24,780 executive specializing in crafting outstanding experiences 6 00:00:24,780 --> 00:00:29,340 for global brands. He is a former magazine editor, he is 7 00:00:29,340 --> 00:00:32,670 going to be telling us about some surprises he's discovered 8 00:00:32,670 --> 00:00:35,550 in marketing. He's going to be telling us about upcoming trends 9 00:00:35,550 --> 00:00:38,580 and marketing and how it relates to you, Carl, glad to be talking 10 00:00:38,580 --> 00:00:39,900 to you. Thanks, man. It's 11 00:00:39,900 --> 00:00:40,710 Unknown: great to be here. 12 00:00:41,489 --> 00:00:43,889 Robert Plank: And it's great to have you here and so you have 13 00:00:43,919 --> 00:00:47,969 kind of been around the block dealt with powerbar Nike Dr. 14 00:00:47,969 --> 00:00:52,349 Martens Lululemon, you've seen everything I think I had a a 15 00:00:52,349 --> 00:00:56,699 noon tablet in my water the other day, so it's your 16 00:00:56,699 --> 00:00:59,369 everywhere you've seen any everything. So having 17 00:00:59,369 --> 00:01:02,489 experienced all this and having kind of moving to new things, 18 00:01:02,489 --> 00:01:06,299 what is your focus these days? What are as you passionate, 19 00:01:06,299 --> 00:01:08,669 fired up all that good stuff? Well, you 20 00:01:08,670 --> 00:01:11,250 Unknown: know, lately, we're just super focused on on helping 21 00:01:11,250 --> 00:01:15,210 brands post pandemic, you know, either reposition or, or get 22 00:01:15,210 --> 00:01:17,940 their message out there in a crowded, crowded space. We saw a 23 00:01:17,940 --> 00:01:20,850 lot of people jockeying for position the last year, maybe 24 00:01:20,850 --> 00:01:24,690 spending some time investing in, in new marketplace strategies, 25 00:01:24,690 --> 00:01:27,120 or product extension lines, or whatever it might be. And so 26 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:29,610 yeah, we're just focusing on brands, rebuilding brands, 27 00:01:30,150 --> 00:01:33,810 rebranding companies, and leading them into the next 28 00:01:33,810 --> 00:01:34,170 level. 29 00:01:35,009 --> 00:01:37,349 Robert Plank: And, and what does that look like? Because I feel 30 00:01:37,349 --> 00:01:40,829 like maybe I can kind of picture like, you know, some brands 31 00:01:40,859 --> 00:01:43,709 when, when there was like the lockdown the pandemic, maybe 32 00:01:43,709 --> 00:01:47,669 they upped their game as far as social media. But then as far as 33 00:01:47,669 --> 00:01:50,999 coming out of it, I have no idea what that even looks like, or 34 00:01:50,999 --> 00:01:53,969 what kind of things people are trying or what succeeding. So 35 00:01:54,029 --> 00:01:56,279 when you're saying like post pandemic and dealing with the 36 00:01:56,279 --> 00:01:59,669 branding, like what's like, how does that look? And like what 37 00:01:59,669 --> 00:02:01,499 sort of actions are being taken here? 38 00:02:01,979 --> 00:02:04,439 Unknown: Well, a lot of the major brands, you know, took a 39 00:02:04,439 --> 00:02:06,359 step back and said, you know, we're not going to have a lot of 40 00:02:06,359 --> 00:02:09,539 traffic and we have to shut down retail stores and we've made 41 00:02:09,539 --> 00:02:12,479 some layoffs, they a lot of them took it as an opportunity to 42 00:02:12,479 --> 00:02:16,319 kind of you know, refocus their efforts, take that downtime to 43 00:02:16,349 --> 00:02:19,379 focus their strategy, hone it in a little bit better, or really 44 00:02:19,379 --> 00:02:22,739 just to reposition, we saw a lot of rebrands in the marketplace. 45 00:02:22,769 --> 00:02:26,549 I think people have seen Kia and Burger King and some big 46 00:02:26,549 --> 00:02:29,909 examples of just really just shifting gears, you know, they 47 00:02:29,909 --> 00:02:33,839 had the opportunity to do so in kind of a vacuum almost. And 48 00:02:33,839 --> 00:02:36,749 then in kind of reemerging, some of them. We redid it, it 49 00:02:36,749 --> 00:02:39,839 relaunched while we were still in lockdown. So that was that 50 00:02:39,839 --> 00:02:43,739 was pretty fascinating. But then a lot of smaller businesses. It 51 00:02:43,739 --> 00:02:46,259 they kind of had to survive. And we know unfortunately, a lot of 52 00:02:46,259 --> 00:02:49,289 them didn't. But the ones that did, if they have the 53 00:02:49,289 --> 00:02:51,719 opportunity, they kind of said okay, well, I mean, the obvious 54 00:02:51,719 --> 00:02:55,259 example is a lot of the hotels and restaurants that were were 55 00:02:55,259 --> 00:02:57,779 being hurt, you know, they change to how they can get 56 00:02:57,809 --> 00:03:00,389 takeout or carry out or a lot of government regulations were 57 00:03:00,389 --> 00:03:03,029 changes, you take liquor out of the store, they had a market 58 00:03:03,029 --> 00:03:05,909 that somehow they had to let people know, you know what 59 00:03:05,909 --> 00:03:08,249 they're doing, they had to then let people know that they were 60 00:03:08,249 --> 00:03:11,939 still around. And, and it was it's a remarkable way that 61 00:03:11,939 --> 00:03:16,559 people use various forms of marketing, social media, local 62 00:03:16,589 --> 00:03:20,489 advertising came back in a big way. So it was just kind of kind 63 00:03:20,489 --> 00:03:25,139 of cool. But then really also what we saw was a lot of brands 64 00:03:25,139 --> 00:03:29,009 say, We're sorry, excuse me, a lot of people say I'm either out 65 00:03:29,009 --> 00:03:31,649 of a job or now I'm working for home and my kids aren't back, I 66 00:03:31,649 --> 00:03:33,599 have to stay home, I'm going to do something new. And there was 67 00:03:33,599 --> 00:03:38,969 just this explosion of new brands, influencer brands, Mom 68 00:03:38,969 --> 00:03:41,639 paw brands, people starting businesses out of their garage, 69 00:03:41,669 --> 00:03:45,629 Etsy took off again, Shopify, those kind of things. So a lot 70 00:03:45,629 --> 00:03:49,049 of folks just took that as an opportunity to really look 71 00:03:49,049 --> 00:03:51,209 inside and see what they want to do and say, I'm not going back 72 00:03:51,209 --> 00:03:53,279 to the office, I'm going to do my own thing, sometimes that 73 00:03:53,279 --> 00:03:56,099 necessity, and a lot of times just out of freedom. 74 00:03:57,150 --> 00:03:59,970 Robert Plank: Yeah, and it's it seems like every time there's a 75 00:03:59,970 --> 00:04:03,600 bit a big upset either like a world upset like if you're like, 76 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:06,810 you know, World War Two, they invaded computers, or even like, 77 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:10,380 your personal upset, or you might like go through a divorce 78 00:04:10,380 --> 00:04:13,620 or you might have like, like, lose your job. And then they 79 00:04:13,620 --> 00:04:16,710 kind of at first forces you to scramble and panic, but then 80 00:04:16,710 --> 00:04:20,460 eventually you end up on a path that you otherwise might not 81 00:04:20,460 --> 00:04:23,460 have, you know, barked upon. And as you're talking about these 82 00:04:23,460 --> 00:04:26,550 brands, it seems like it's kind of similar situation, right? 83 00:04:26,550 --> 00:04:30,570 Where there's kind of a pandemic and everything that happened, I 84 00:04:30,570 --> 00:04:34,350 mean, unavoidable but then you figure well, there's there's two 85 00:04:34,470 --> 00:04:37,350 choices to make. There's a fork in the road, there's either kind 86 00:04:37,350 --> 00:04:41,760 of give up or ignore it or bide your time, which look at that it 87 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:45,840 worked out or adjust and then so am I right in saying that, you 88 00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:48,750 know, a lot of these industries that were kind of hit before 89 00:04:48,750 --> 00:04:51,780 it's like now now they're they're like supercharged now 90 00:04:51,780 --> 00:04:54,630 they're making up for lost time because you hear now about how 91 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:59,100 like, it's hard to book a hotel room. airline flights are super 92 00:04:59,100 --> 00:05:02,070 high. So it seems though was like the ones that survived now 93 00:05:02,070 --> 00:05:05,400 they're they're reaping the rewards of all this last time. 94 00:05:06,089 --> 00:05:08,369 Unknown: Well, yeah, that's true, I wouldn't know I wouldn't 95 00:05:08,369 --> 00:05:10,409 go so far as to say it was a reward, they're still kind of 96 00:05:10,409 --> 00:05:13,709 making up, you know, the the losses they had in arrears. But, 97 00:05:14,339 --> 00:05:17,369 you know, take the car rental market, for example, it was very 98 00:05:17,369 --> 00:05:20,219 clear that nobody were renting cars, and the only way to 99 00:05:20,219 --> 00:05:23,729 survive, they had to consolidate and sell their fleets, which is 100 00:05:23,729 --> 00:05:25,889 common after a year or two of using the car anyway. But now 101 00:05:25,889 --> 00:05:28,289 they literally had to sell everything. And all of a sudden, 102 00:05:28,289 --> 00:05:30,629 it felt it felt like overnight, everyone started traveling again 103 00:05:30,629 --> 00:05:32,699 recently. And when they did that, there was no cars 104 00:05:32,699 --> 00:05:35,819 available anywhere. And I was literally looking at an article 105 00:05:35,819 --> 00:05:39,989 the other day, we're in Hawaii, cars were $800 a day, because 106 00:05:40,019 --> 00:05:43,079 the demand was so high, it was very basic economics supply and 107 00:05:43,079 --> 00:05:46,589 demand, you can charge more people were going to Home Depot 108 00:05:46,589 --> 00:05:49,889 and renting their trucks and, and using those around town for 109 00:05:49,889 --> 00:05:52,949 $19 a day or whatever, whatever it was. So yeah, I think a lot 110 00:05:52,949 --> 00:05:55,919 of businesses are now trying to kind of, you know, make up for 111 00:05:55,919 --> 00:05:58,499 lost time, which they had to it's out of necessity, but 112 00:05:58,499 --> 00:06:01,529 they're also hiring people back. And now the the job market, you 113 00:06:01,529 --> 00:06:03,869 can be a little bit more selective with who you hire back 114 00:06:03,869 --> 00:06:06,929 into the marketplace, you know, it's not just adding one or two 115 00:06:06,929 --> 00:06:09,449 here and there or even filling in a department. Now, you're 116 00:06:09,449 --> 00:06:12,119 actually you're bringing a lot of, in some cases, top level 117 00:06:12,119 --> 00:06:16,379 people back. And so just by this new influx of of the workforce, 118 00:06:16,379 --> 00:06:19,379 and a lot of it is, you know, blue collar, we know that to be 119 00:06:19,409 --> 00:06:22,799 the case, because of potential pandemic particularly hit hard, 120 00:06:23,039 --> 00:06:27,299 those smaller businesses or, you know, a lot of that kind of 121 00:06:27,299 --> 00:06:31,199 hourly employee sector, but a lot of folks who just didn't 122 00:06:31,199 --> 00:06:34,049 come into the office, they shut up office buildings down, you 123 00:06:34,049 --> 00:06:36,599 know, they had to make layoffs. And so now, they almost have the 124 00:06:36,599 --> 00:06:39,809 pick of the litter. And so it's very competitive in certain 125 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:42,629 aspects to get back into the business. It's, to me, it's very 126 00:06:42,629 --> 00:06:45,239 fascinating how everyone is handling this, but at the core 127 00:06:45,239 --> 00:06:47,999 of all of it is the message and how they're reaching their 128 00:06:47,999 --> 00:06:50,069 consumers how they're even talking internally to their 129 00:06:50,069 --> 00:06:53,609 business, you know, what their press releases look like? How do 130 00:06:53,609 --> 00:06:56,279 they, you know, open up on Sundays again? Or what are their 131 00:06:56,279 --> 00:07:00,479 hours change, you know, to a hotel or a restaurant, all that 132 00:07:00,479 --> 00:07:04,379 stuff is really comes down to branding, which is really just 133 00:07:04,379 --> 00:07:07,259 an emotional connection between a business and its people. So 134 00:07:07,589 --> 00:07:10,439 how you communicate that is at the utmost importance of 135 00:07:10,439 --> 00:07:11,069 surviving? 136 00:07:11,850 --> 00:07:14,550 Robert Plank: And how do you even begin to approach this 137 00:07:14,550 --> 00:07:16,830 like, because you're saying that, you know, it's all about 138 00:07:16,830 --> 00:07:20,310 the communication between the brain and this consumer. But 139 00:07:20,460 --> 00:07:23,760 with all the I mean, even even just a little bit of banter so 140 00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:27,420 far, I mean, there's so many factors at play, there's so many 141 00:07:27,420 --> 00:07:29,940 things going on, there's so many things to understand, or like 142 00:07:29,940 --> 00:07:32,430 you say, like, well, this event happened, because these past 143 00:07:32,430 --> 00:07:35,820 three or four cause and effect dominoes sort of fell, I mean, 144 00:07:35,970 --> 00:07:38,940 for us is, if a brand comes to you and says, you know, we need 145 00:07:38,940 --> 00:07:41,790 help, or we need to change things up, do you look at like, 146 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:45,120 what they've been doing? Do you? Do you go deep and and spend 147 00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:47,430 like weeks figuring out what people are talking about? Like, 148 00:07:47,460 --> 00:07:50,520 how do you even begin to attack this problem with all the all 149 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:51,450 the things going on? 150 00:07:51,779 --> 00:07:55,139 Unknown: I mean, it's a great question. What I found is that, 151 00:07:55,259 --> 00:08:00,299 in years doing this, a lot of businesses don't have a good 152 00:08:00,329 --> 00:08:03,119 internal communication mechanism to explain who they are 153 00:08:03,149 --> 00:08:06,539 internally. So give you a perfect example. Recently, we 154 00:08:06,539 --> 00:08:09,659 did a workshop for a company who they said, Listen, we want to go 155 00:08:09,659 --> 00:08:11,939 with you guys. We want to rebrand, but we we don't know 156 00:08:11,939 --> 00:08:14,579 what we don't know, we're going to take a backseat and just kind 157 00:08:14,579 --> 00:08:17,099 of hold off of it. So I just said, Listen, why don't you come 158 00:08:17,099 --> 00:08:19,679 in for a couple hours, just pay us for our time. And we'll just 159 00:08:19,679 --> 00:08:22,139 talk you through what you don't know, we can maybe help us help 160 00:08:22,139 --> 00:08:25,409 come up with a plan together. So that being said, you know, we we 161 00:08:25,409 --> 00:08:28,289 all started talking and there's a sea level group of people. And 162 00:08:28,289 --> 00:08:31,439 I asked them privately without the other ones hearing what 163 00:08:31,469 --> 00:08:33,689 their business was about describe your business for me, 164 00:08:33,689 --> 00:08:37,409 and you know, three words or less, and off all four or five 165 00:08:37,409 --> 00:08:40,289 of them completely different answers. I mean, completely 166 00:08:40,289 --> 00:08:43,109 different. And so the question from us was very logical. Like, 167 00:08:43,109 --> 00:08:46,349 if you guys can't come to a conclusion of who you are 168 00:08:46,349 --> 00:08:49,469 internally, how are you ever going to explain to either your 169 00:08:49,469 --> 00:08:52,289 current customers or potential customers? And so we're finding 170 00:08:52,319 --> 00:08:54,419 a lot of it is just asking the right questions to the 171 00:08:54,419 --> 00:08:58,229 stakeholders, going back to original mission and vision 172 00:08:58,229 --> 00:09:00,899 statements of businesses asking them, you know, are you really 173 00:09:00,899 --> 00:09:03,329 upholding your business values? are you achieving your goals? 174 00:09:03,359 --> 00:09:06,569 Has your vision changed right now, because of where you are, 175 00:09:06,569 --> 00:09:09,359 has your mission changed? A lot of people have changed 176 00:09:09,599 --> 00:09:12,689 completely because and some of it is just for Goodwill. Some of 177 00:09:12,689 --> 00:09:15,029 it is they want to go back into nonprofit or whatever it might 178 00:09:15,029 --> 00:09:18,629 be. And it's, but you have to understand who you are before 179 00:09:18,629 --> 00:09:21,179 you can ever tell somebody who you are. And if you don't do 180 00:09:21,179 --> 00:09:23,429 that the market is going to tell you who you are. And then if 181 00:09:23,429 --> 00:09:27,569 you're not ready to pivot or respond to that accordingly, you 182 00:09:27,569 --> 00:09:30,479 know, you're going to fall flat. So a lot of is listening to them 183 00:09:30,479 --> 00:09:32,699 and then listening to customers understanding who they are do a 184 00:09:32,699 --> 00:09:35,729 lot of market research, putting social media listeners out there 185 00:09:35,729 --> 00:09:38,939 and understanding how people are talking about their company or 186 00:09:38,939 --> 00:09:43,469 brand and then coming up with a strategic plan to execute on 187 00:09:43,469 --> 00:09:47,099 either putting efforts behind who they are and getting the 188 00:09:47,099 --> 00:09:50,039 message out kind of accelerating that message or rebranding, 189 00:09:50,069 --> 00:09:53,009 repositioning and coming up with a new way that their new 190 00:09:53,009 --> 00:09:55,919 business model can appropriately explain who they are to other 191 00:09:55,919 --> 00:09:59,249 people and in hopes that you get or retain customers. 192 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:02,460 Robert Plank: And what I'm hearing from a lot of this is 193 00:10:02,550 --> 00:10:05,850 how important it is to go back to the fundamentals. And also 194 00:10:05,850 --> 00:10:09,690 just an in like in business in life in general, it's like, it's 195 00:10:09,690 --> 00:10:12,600 really easy. And it's kind of scary to be like, as you were 196 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:14,610 explaining that what went through my head was like, 197 00:10:14,670 --> 00:10:17,460 there's like a dot way down here, like the starting point, 198 00:10:17,460 --> 00:10:20,040 right? And maybe like years ago, you figured, well, here's, 199 00:10:20,070 --> 00:10:23,460 here's what we're about, here's what we believe, vision mission 200 00:10:23,460 --> 00:10:25,440 statement, all that. And then you'd like went on this like 201 00:10:25,440 --> 00:10:28,230 trajectory, and it was okay for a while. But then something 202 00:10:28,230 --> 00:10:30,270 happened like pandemic or something else, they took like a 203 00:10:30,270 --> 00:10:33,180 big left turn, and now they're way over here somewhere else, 204 00:10:33,330 --> 00:10:37,260 but they're still acting on the original, the original starting 205 00:10:37,260 --> 00:10:40,620 point, and then it's this weird identity crisis, things don't 206 00:10:40,620 --> 00:10:43,380 line up. And then like you said, then the the end result of that 207 00:10:43,380 --> 00:10:47,100 is in the marketplace is kind of like making decisions for you 208 00:10:47,100 --> 00:10:51,090 and saying what you are for you. And that doesn't seem very, like 209 00:10:51,090 --> 00:10:54,120 strong, it doesn't seem like that, that exhibits like 210 00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:57,630 leadership. So then the it seems like what you and your team are 211 00:10:57,660 --> 00:11:01,200 doing this case is go back to that was bare basic fundamentals 212 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:03,900 and say, okay, like what you were doing before that worked 213 00:11:03,900 --> 00:11:05,850 back then. But now you're way over here. And now it's time to 214 00:11:05,850 --> 00:11:10,890 maybe re examined and say, if we were starting from scratch here, 215 00:11:10,890 --> 00:11:13,770 which in a way they are now here's here's what we would do, 216 00:11:13,770 --> 00:11:16,140 like deliberately, instead of things happening to us. 217 00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:18,120 Unknown: Absolutely. I mean, you couldn't be more on the head 218 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:20,970 with that. That's absolutely right. In many cases, too. It's 219 00:11:20,970 --> 00:11:24,450 almost they they drifted off and maybe started a new lane, which 220 00:11:24,450 --> 00:11:27,540 could be successful. But when they look back and go, No, we 221 00:11:27,540 --> 00:11:29,940 actually don't want to change our mission, we fundamentally 222 00:11:29,940 --> 00:11:31,980 want to believe in this, and they actually have to bring it 223 00:11:31,980 --> 00:11:35,430 back. And so we see that a lot instead of changing, which is 224 00:11:35,430 --> 00:11:37,800 totally fine. By the way to change your vision and mission 225 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:39,900 statements, we encourage brands to change their mission 226 00:11:39,900 --> 00:11:41,460 statement, depending on the marketplace. I mean, that's 227 00:11:41,460 --> 00:11:43,950 okay, your vision is long term, your mission is to hit your 228 00:11:43,950 --> 00:11:48,840 goals. And so we we, we look at that and say, Okay, well, one of 229 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:50,820 two things could be wrong. And like you said, you could drift 230 00:11:50,820 --> 00:11:53,730 off, and they may have to repurpose or reposition who you 231 00:11:53,730 --> 00:11:56,070 are. Or you could say that new thing we did isn't really the 232 00:11:56,070 --> 00:11:58,560 right thing. Let's bring that back to the center. It depends 233 00:11:58,560 --> 00:12:01,350 who you're you're answering to if you're answering to a CEO, at 234 00:12:01,350 --> 00:12:03,120 a smaller business, we're answering to a board of a 235 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:05,520 fortune 500 company, it all depends on what situation you're 236 00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:09,000 in, you know, I imagine I'm making this up, I have no idea. 237 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:11,520 But I imagine coke sales probably dropped a little bit, 238 00:12:12,090 --> 00:12:15,150 without fountain cokes being sold and gas stations, you know, 239 00:12:15,180 --> 00:12:18,210 having less traffic and so forth. I can imagine, you know, 240 00:12:18,210 --> 00:12:20,640 Coke probably had to do and Pepsi and all those other folks 241 00:12:20,640 --> 00:12:24,210 had to probably do something, did they just batten down the 242 00:12:24,210 --> 00:12:26,670 hatches? Did they just kind of reduce the workforce, they just 243 00:12:26,670 --> 00:12:29,700 slow the pipeline down, I actually don't know. But they're 244 00:12:29,700 --> 00:12:32,130 not going to change who they are fundamentally been in business 245 00:12:32,130 --> 00:12:36,180 for 120 years or whatever. So you know, whatever change may 246 00:12:36,180 --> 00:12:38,310 have been just a blip on the radar, and they're going back to 247 00:12:38,310 --> 00:12:41,370 where they are other businesses to use that same example came up 248 00:12:41,370 --> 00:12:43,230 with different flavors and different opportunities for a 249 00:12:43,230 --> 00:12:45,750 while we had some downtime, let's spin up a different 250 00:12:45,750 --> 00:12:49,170 machine and try something new. So it all depends where you are 251 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:51,510 it there really is no right answer. It's what do you want to 252 00:12:51,510 --> 00:12:54,840 do as a, as a business? Who do you want to be known as or known 253 00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:58,650 for? And do you have the right customer base for that? And if 254 00:12:58,650 --> 00:13:00,750 you can say yes to those things, then just go for it. And we'll 255 00:13:00,750 --> 00:13:01,830 help people do that. 256 00:13:02,730 --> 00:13:04,800 Robert Plank: That's huge. I mean, you're blowing my mind 257 00:13:04,800 --> 00:13:08,850 here that there might no mean pandemic or no pandemic, this 258 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:13,620 kind of side project or side, you know, just new venture might 259 00:13:13,650 --> 00:13:16,950 express itself. And then so when the if the side kind of 260 00:13:16,950 --> 00:13:20,430 experiment grows, then there's like that decision you made of, 261 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:23,730 okay, which is just temporary, do we go back to the tried and 262 00:13:23,730 --> 00:13:26,910 true or is this is something that's like new, and this was a 263 00:13:26,910 --> 00:13:29,580 surprise, we didn't expect this to take off. And what you're 264 00:13:29,580 --> 00:13:31,740 making me think of is, like, yesterday, I was talking to 265 00:13:31,740 --> 00:13:33,840 someone that was saying something along the lines of 266 00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:36,570 like, you don't have a knowledge problem, you have a thinking 267 00:13:36,570 --> 00:13:39,540 problem. And that, like, you know, like, you can have all all 268 00:13:39,540 --> 00:13:42,090 these techniques and all this data and all these like tricks 269 00:13:42,090 --> 00:13:44,340 in your back pocket. But sometimes you just have to, like 270 00:13:44,340 --> 00:13:48,090 slow down and stop and think about, like, where you are and 271 00:13:48,090 --> 00:13:51,060 the strategy and what you really want. And I mean, that's it's 272 00:13:51,060 --> 00:13:54,300 like the, the most like bare bones basic thing to say, but 273 00:13:54,300 --> 00:13:57,960 but it's huge. And like you said, it's never a one size fits 274 00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:00,990 all. It's about, like, what, where you're at and what you 275 00:14:00,990 --> 00:14:05,370 want and what the customers are responding to. And so, um, yeah, 276 00:14:05,370 --> 00:14:08,280 so you said, you're saying kind of go back to basics and think 277 00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:11,640 about that kind of internal communication and things like 278 00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:15,300 that. And so, the, and that the businesses that failed, were the 279 00:14:15,300 --> 00:14:19,620 ones that maybe like did not quite adapt. So is there 280 00:14:19,620 --> 00:14:22,740 something that like, we all need to be like on the lookout for 281 00:14:22,740 --> 00:14:24,930 moving forward? Like we talked about, you know, surviving the 282 00:14:24,930 --> 00:14:27,930 pandemic, but as far as like, things moving forward? I mean, 283 00:14:27,930 --> 00:14:31,320 it's it's such a weird, it's such a weird like, situation 284 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:34,230 we're in right with, like the economy and businesses reopening 285 00:14:34,230 --> 00:14:36,780 and like, Will COVID comeback or what will things even look like 286 00:14:36,780 --> 00:14:39,270 moving forward? So like, what are your thoughts as far as like 287 00:14:39,300 --> 00:14:41,220 the future and the way things are headed? 288 00:14:41,789 --> 00:14:44,219 Unknown: Well, I see a lot of businesses and probably 289 00:14:44,219 --> 00:14:46,919 rightfully so just kind of hold back some cash and reserves for 290 00:14:46,919 --> 00:14:50,369 a lot of things. So it's almost now that things are back to 291 00:14:50,369 --> 00:14:52,709 normal people are more gun shy than they were during the 292 00:14:52,709 --> 00:14:55,229 pandemic when they when they kind of wanted to take a risk 293 00:14:55,229 --> 00:14:57,629 and see like, hey, let's just throw caution to the wind and 294 00:14:57,629 --> 00:15:00,569 see what's going to stick. Now it feels like Now that things 295 00:15:00,569 --> 00:15:04,199 are getting back to almost normal, people are in businesses 296 00:15:04,199 --> 00:15:06,629 are kind of going well. Okay, what if this happens again, if 297 00:15:06,629 --> 00:15:09,119 What if something happens in, you know, in the wintertime, and 298 00:15:09,119 --> 00:15:11,189 this comes back a little bit, or if I have to lay people off 299 00:15:11,189 --> 00:15:13,379 again or whatever, or something else completely happens, a 300 00:15:13,379 --> 00:15:16,169 natural disaster, or God forbid, you know, the, you know, the 301 00:15:16,169 --> 00:15:18,989 pipeline that was held hostage recently affected us in the 302 00:15:18,989 --> 00:15:22,169 south pretty badly. And so I think they're holding back some 303 00:15:22,169 --> 00:15:24,359 cash reserves a little bit. And I think that's to a detriment, 304 00:15:24,359 --> 00:15:28,799 because now's the time to really put your differentiators out 305 00:15:28,799 --> 00:15:30,809 there and your value propositions let people know 306 00:15:30,809 --> 00:15:33,329 that you're still around, you're still strong, you're doing 307 00:15:33,329 --> 00:15:36,209 really, really well. So that's, that's kind of interesting. But 308 00:15:36,209 --> 00:15:40,139 now, where I'm also seeing a lot of a lot of people, it takes to, 309 00:15:40,589 --> 00:15:43,559 you know, take the things like tick tock and, and new ways of 310 00:15:43,559 --> 00:15:46,379 communicating which, you know, up until the pandemic started 311 00:15:46,379 --> 00:15:50,039 was most reserved for 15 year olds and younger. And nowadays, 312 00:15:50,039 --> 00:15:52,799 people are selling on tick tock and brands are on there. And 313 00:15:53,249 --> 00:15:56,699 it's kind of like, you know, the new, the new Instagram, the new 314 00:15:56,699 --> 00:15:59,399 Pinterest is everyone's trying to jump on this bandwagon. And 315 00:15:59,729 --> 00:16:02,339 it's working for a lot of folks. And so you're seeing a lot of 316 00:16:02,339 --> 00:16:04,829 people just kind of start to slice and dice their marketing 317 00:16:04,829 --> 00:16:09,209 budgets in a much different way than just traditional. A lot of 318 00:16:09,209 --> 00:16:10,829 people are going to the streaming services, which is 319 00:16:10,829 --> 00:16:13,469 great. And we just declare we don't do it marketing, visor, 320 00:16:13,469 --> 00:16:16,829 media bias. But I'm seeing that a lot. And the trend is people 321 00:16:16,829 --> 00:16:19,259 are just trying to get their message out in different unique 322 00:16:19,259 --> 00:16:21,869 ways. And the ones who are taking risks, I think, are 323 00:16:21,869 --> 00:16:27,059 really doing really a great job. So what I'm seeing coming is, is 324 00:16:27,059 --> 00:16:30,269 that twofold theory is people are holding back and nervous too 325 00:16:30,269 --> 00:16:33,509 gun shy to spend anything and hoping they can just ride out 326 00:16:33,509 --> 00:16:36,629 the storm. And, and then the other side is people just taking 327 00:16:36,629 --> 00:16:39,359 risks and saying listen, we might be we might be in a 328 00:16:39,359 --> 00:16:42,359 crowded space, we might be one of one or whatever it might be, 329 00:16:42,359 --> 00:16:44,429 but we're going to, you know, we're going to slim that pedal 330 00:16:44,429 --> 00:16:46,529 down and see how far we can take this thing. And you know, you 331 00:16:46,529 --> 00:16:48,929 can win on both sides. So it's just we want to help business 332 00:16:48,959 --> 00:16:51,989 businesses achieve their goals and whatever they might be, we 333 00:16:51,989 --> 00:16:54,389 might have some opinions here and there. But for the most 334 00:16:54,389 --> 00:16:55,529 part, that's what our goal is. 335 00:16:56,250 --> 00:16:58,710 Robert Plank: And opinions are good, right? Because you can you 336 00:16:58,710 --> 00:17:02,220 can take an opinion and say, oh my gosh, I'm seeing it a new 337 00:17:02,220 --> 00:17:04,890 different way, or I hate that opinion. I'll throw it out. I'm 338 00:17:04,890 --> 00:17:08,070 gonna do what I'm gonna do anyway, it's at least helpful to 339 00:17:08,070 --> 00:17:10,590 have that opinion. And I mean, risks sound fun, right? 340 00:17:10,620 --> 00:17:13,320 Especially calculated risks. When you say interest. Well, 341 00:17:13,350 --> 00:17:16,110 instead of being afraid and letting that control me, let me 342 00:17:16,110 --> 00:17:19,230 like think this through and then try this and look at the result. 343 00:17:19,230 --> 00:17:21,630 And not just throwing caution to the wind, but like doing 344 00:17:21,630 --> 00:17:25,620 something more outside the box. I mean, my mind was blown years 345 00:17:25,620 --> 00:17:28,590 ago when like Taco Bell came out with an app, and you can just do 346 00:17:28,710 --> 00:17:31,170 what you want. And then it's ready for you when you get to 347 00:17:31,170 --> 00:17:33,480 the drive thru little little things like that when when a 348 00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:37,740 restaurant has QR codes and fun things like that on the on the 349 00:17:37,740 --> 00:17:40,110 table. So I'm like, Oh, cool. They're like getting with the 350 00:17:40,110 --> 00:17:43,980 times instead of just doing the same old thing since since 1950. 351 00:17:44,010 --> 00:17:47,880 And so you mentioned about the things that you you and your 352 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:51,510 team and your agency do and in what you don't do. And so now 353 00:17:51,510 --> 00:17:55,920 that we've wet, wet people's appetites at about the brand 354 00:17:55,920 --> 00:17:59,970 leader.com Can you tell us about what you and your company your 355 00:17:59,970 --> 00:18:03,660 team does and what you don't do? And if someone's listening and 356 00:18:03,660 --> 00:18:06,690 watching right now today? How do they know if they're a good fit 357 00:18:06,690 --> 00:18:09,720 to go to your site and reach out and contact you all that good 358 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:11,430 stuff? Yeah, well, thank 359 00:18:11,430 --> 00:18:13,590 Unknown: you for that. Basically, what we say is we're 360 00:18:13,590 --> 00:18:17,310 a branding agency that focuses on strategy and design. So 361 00:18:17,310 --> 00:18:20,160 that's we do develop the things we design, if we're talking 362 00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:22,800 about digital and websites and things like that. But we're not 363 00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:24,780 a development house, we typically don't develop things 364 00:18:24,780 --> 00:18:28,680 that other people have designed. We're not a marketing shop, 365 00:18:28,710 --> 00:18:32,760 we're not, we're not a design company only. We are, we are a 366 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:35,070 branding firm, which means that really, really want to work with 367 00:18:35,070 --> 00:18:38,010 brands and getting their message across. Now a lot of times that 368 00:18:38,010 --> 00:18:40,320 is visual, that's their aesthetics, they're looking 369 00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:44,880 feel. But a lot of it is focused on voice and tone and proper 370 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:47,580 guidelines, like we talked about positioning and what archetype 371 00:18:47,580 --> 00:18:49,830 they are, and how they talk to their consumers, what their 372 00:18:49,830 --> 00:18:52,560 consumers are, what their competitors are, how to price 373 00:18:52,560 --> 00:18:55,140 products, where to where to put them. And the other half of the 374 00:18:55,140 --> 00:18:58,260 business is that kind of design element, we've got an amazing 375 00:18:58,260 --> 00:19:00,240 development, sorry, assuming that we have an amazing 376 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:01,800 development team too. I shouldn't say that, because it's 377 00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:04,710 my brother in law, right, run that side. But we have amazing 378 00:19:04,710 --> 00:19:07,740 design department. We've won some awards for our designs, 379 00:19:07,740 --> 00:19:10,590 really proud of those guys. And you know, we design everything 380 00:19:10,590 --> 00:19:13,890 from obviously logos to support the brand, but also, you know, 381 00:19:14,010 --> 00:19:17,580 color palettes and PowerPoint presentations and you know, full 382 00:19:17,580 --> 00:19:20,040 identity systems, including people still use them 383 00:19:20,070 --> 00:19:22,320 ironically, you know, letterhead stationery, that sort of thing. 384 00:19:22,650 --> 00:19:26,100 And then websites, We're known for our website design, we 385 00:19:26,100 --> 00:19:29,700 produce a lot of videos. And so yeah, we do we all do all those 386 00:19:29,700 --> 00:19:31,650 things, but we look at that in a way that says that's going to 387 00:19:31,650 --> 00:19:35,760 support who you are. We typically turn down business, if 388 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:38,100 they come to us and say we just need a new logo. You know, we'll 389 00:19:38,130 --> 00:19:41,220 we'll poke holes in that say, well, well, why or, you know, 390 00:19:41,340 --> 00:19:44,520 they say we went on a rebrand. Tell us what our new name is 391 00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:46,230 we're like, well, that's just not a rebrand, you know, we have 392 00:19:46,230 --> 00:19:49,080 to talk about all those elements. You know, we like I 393 00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:52,410 said earlier, a brand has an emotional connection with with 394 00:19:52,410 --> 00:19:55,620 your customer or potential customer. So, it's not just one 395 00:19:55,620 --> 00:19:59,430 thing, it's this kind of all the sum of the parts, you know, so 396 00:19:59,430 --> 00:20:01,890 it's yes, it is. Your logo, but it's also how you answer the 397 00:20:01,890 --> 00:20:04,320 phone. And you know how you position your product, how you 398 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:07,260 price your product, what clothes you're wearing, when you greet 399 00:20:07,260 --> 00:20:09,780 them at the store, and then things like that. So we help 400 00:20:09,780 --> 00:20:12,180 businesses understand those elements. Sometimes we help 401 00:20:12,180 --> 00:20:15,630 create those elements, they don't exist. And and we put that 402 00:20:15,630 --> 00:20:20,490 strategy thinking behind it to, to accelerate the awareness of 403 00:20:20,490 --> 00:20:23,610 that business in its own marketplace. So if you're a 404 00:20:23,610 --> 00:20:25,920 right fit for us, really, it's really anyone who has questions 405 00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:29,010 about that. We're always open to talk to people, if we're not a 406 00:20:29,010 --> 00:20:32,400 right fit, were open to telling people that we've got a great 407 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:35,250 downloadable guide online at the brand leader.com. It's called 408 00:20:35,250 --> 00:20:38,250 The Ultimate Guide to rebranding it, even if you're not 409 00:20:38,250 --> 00:20:41,010 rebranding, if you want to learn more about brands, it's a great 410 00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:44,610 resource for people just it's a free guide, take it, we love to 411 00:20:44,610 --> 00:20:47,760 tell people about knowledge, we know. And if you work with us, 412 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:50,280 great. If not, there's some good information there anyway, so 413 00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:51,750 anyone can call 414 00:20:51,750 --> 00:20:55,530 Robert Plank: us. Fantastic, but the brand leader.com to get that 415 00:20:55,530 --> 00:20:58,110 rebranding guide. And I mean, you made a lot of really good 416 00:20:58,110 --> 00:21:01,320 points there that that it's like, there's the big picture, 417 00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:04,230 right. And it's really, like you said, it's fascinating sometimes 418 00:21:04,230 --> 00:21:07,710 to see businesses like rebrand, or pivot and things like that. 419 00:21:07,710 --> 00:21:10,710 And what I'm getting from our conversation today is how 420 00:21:10,710 --> 00:21:14,310 important it is to stay curious and to stay on top of who's 421 00:21:14,310 --> 00:21:18,120 doing what because if, if you see if you see someone like 422 00:21:18,120 --> 00:21:21,870 Burger King, or whoever, you know, come out of the pandemic 423 00:21:21,870 --> 00:21:24,480 bigger than when they came in. And you say, Oh, that's cool. He 424 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:27,240 did that, how they do that, it's kind of almost too late, because 425 00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:30,660 you haven't been staying on top of all these, just all the all 426 00:21:30,660 --> 00:21:32,250 these things that they've been doing and all these kinds of 427 00:21:32,250 --> 00:21:35,100 marketing techniques. And so I like how you set that up where 428 00:21:35,130 --> 00:21:37,410 there's like the bigger picture, and there's more of like the 429 00:21:37,410 --> 00:21:40,890 emotional connection of lookout. So just a logo, just to name 430 00:21:40,890 --> 00:21:43,590 that's too small in scope, we need to be looking at the bigger 431 00:21:43,590 --> 00:21:46,500 picture. And the place to do that the way to do that is by 432 00:21:46,500 --> 00:21:51,090 going to the brand leader.com. And we will see you there, claim 433 00:21:51,090 --> 00:21:54,660 that report. See what Kyle has on that website, contact him and 434 00:21:54,660 --> 00:21:57,840 his team if you're interested in having that conversation, or 435 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:01,590 moving things forward to the next step. Anything to say Kyle, 436 00:22:01,590 --> 00:22:04,830 as we wrap up, wind down any final, like parting words of 437 00:22:04,830 --> 00:22:06,990 advice or something you want to say to just like wrap up this 438 00:22:06,990 --> 00:22:07,920 whole conversation? 439 00:22:08,550 --> 00:22:11,070 Unknown: Yeah, I mean, it thanks for that opportunity. I think 440 00:22:11,100 --> 00:22:15,270 most of it is just if you if you feel the need to change ask 441 00:22:15,270 --> 00:22:18,000 yourself, why is it because you've heard things in the 442 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,880 marketplace that are against you is your new competitor. That's 443 00:22:20,910 --> 00:22:24,990 you know, that's coming in and taking your market share. Have 444 00:22:24,990 --> 00:22:27,060 you been bought out? Or have you bought another company and 445 00:22:27,060 --> 00:22:29,370 acquired one you know, what is the reason that you feel that 446 00:22:29,370 --> 00:22:32,760 you need to change your look or change your position? Ask 447 00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:35,190 yourself that it's we don't want to do these things willy nilly. 448 00:22:35,190 --> 00:22:37,680 We saw GAAP tried to do that years ago and change their logo 449 00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:41,970 and people have had just a crazy fit. You don't want to just do 450 00:22:41,970 --> 00:22:44,640 something arbitrarily. So think about why you're even calling 451 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:47,370 somebody like us. And if you don't know why we can help you, 452 00:22:47,580 --> 00:22:50,160 you know, come up with a reason and there is no reasonable will 453 00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:54,120 tell you that there has to be a they're there to kind of do an 454 00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:57,630 expensive proposition that could change your business. You know, 455 00:22:57,630 --> 00:22:59,070 like a full rebrand would do. 456 00:23:04,170 --> 00:23:06,660 Robert Plank: This is Robert plank from the marketer of the 457 00:23:06,660 --> 00:23:10,410 day podcast which you can find at marketer of the day.com for 458 00:23:10,410 --> 00:23:16,050 more episodes, and d f y podcast.com. forward slash free 459 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:18,780 if you want to know more about running your own podcast or 460 00:23:18,780 --> 00:23:22,800 running a better or more fun or easier or less time intensive 461 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:28,020 podcast, go to D F ly podcast.com/free To find out 462 00:23:28,020 --> 00:23:30,030 more right this instant