By: Jack Winders
In what marks the first international edition of the 10-Minute Multitask, we were fortunate enough to catch up with marketing and branding expert, Lisa Genevese in beautiful Calgary, Alberta. With years of experience helping, assisting, coordinating and inspiring companies to use their brand to be impactful, Lisa founded BottomLine Marketing to continue helping companies capture their corner of the market.
“It’s always the ultimate goal to make a dollar, make two dollars and continue making those dollars,” says Andrew Young, host of the 10MM. As your company continues to find success, one of the byproducts is the opportunity to make an impact, and this is something Lisa not only understands, but encourages.
Having the opportunity to work regularly with impactful companies, Lisa and her team have conducted extensive amounts of research on how industry leaders are able to create impact. Their findings have led them to develop six principles that can be utilized by companies of any size, even if they don’t have a budget anywhere close to that of the big guys.
1) REMARKABILITY
“Remarkability doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have a remarkable product,” Genevese says. “Of course that helps, but if you don’t sell a product you can also have remarkable service, ”she continues. To illustrate remarkability, Genevese uses Zappos.com as an example of how selling a product (shoes), that itself is not remarkable, but providing a “Second to none customer service experience,” is what sets Zappos.com apart in the remarkability factor.
If at this point you are wondering, “What can my company do to be remarkable?” you are on the right track. In Lisa’s experience, when companies come to her and ask the same question, she directs their attention to their competition. Looking at the “4 Ps of Marketing” – product, price, place and promotion – being utilized by the competition is a great way to find your voice. Put simply, “Often what they are not saying is what you should be saying,” says Genevese.
2) PURPOSE
The second principle Lisa explains is purpose. For a lot of people, thinking of purpose often means “Giving back to charity or feeding starving children,” says Lisa. Although those are certainly great things, “If that doesn’t resonate with your company’s brand, it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what your purpose is,” she continues. “It’s really understanding why you got into the business, what you are trying to achieve and what obstacles you are trying to break down for your customers,” or in other words, focus on why you do what you do, rather than simply what it is that you do.
3) VALUE
The third principle, value, can be understood by asking yourself “What do your customers or clients have after they have used your product or service?” Genevese asks. For many companies, their marketing focuses on the product (or services) itself, rather than the benefit gained from using that product or service. For lisa, one of the best explanations of this point is a power drill. Although a drill is designed to make holes in a wall, the benefit is not the holes themselves, but rather what those holes allow you to do, such as hang a family portrait above your fireplace. That is how a drill adds value to a customer’s life.
4) BRAND ATTACHMENT
Brand attachment, in Lisa’s words, is “the most interesting” of all the principles because “brand attachment is the only metric that matches up with revenue when you look at a graph or a chart.”. Lisa explains a misconception of brand loyalty is that it matches up with revenue, but in truth, “the correlation isn’t there.” Brand attachment vs. Brand Loyalty is a mind-battle you might be playing with yourself. Who wins and what is the difference? According to Lisa, the differences lie in what goes into brand attachment. While using a product every day and supporting the brand are certainly aspects of brand loyalty, brand attachment is comprised of three distinct components: Affection, connection and passion.
For Lisa, “Affection is the simple things you do to surprise and delight your customers.” These little actions that keep your customers engaged with your brand and make them feel understood, cared about and welcome are what “affection’ is all about. Building off that, the connection component allows customers to see themselves in the brand and really feel that they are a part of the same team with shared goals and values. When someone is passionate about a brand, they want to share it with everyone they know. If you have ever found yourself in awe of or inspired by a brand, you have experienced the passion component first hand. Companies enjoying word-of-mouth marketing and brand ambassadors are great examples of how brand attachment can help grow a brand.
5) EMOTIONAL QUALITY
According to BottomLine Marketing’s Market with Impact ebook 90% of consumer buying decisions are emotionally based. With a brain that processes emotional sensory data 5 times faster than logical data, humans are highly responsive to emotion. In the context of your company, being able to convey excitement, awe, humor, anger or any other emotion through your marketing is a great way to generate earned media.
6) IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE
The last principle in the Lisa Genevese guide to marketing with impact, refers to the way that some brands are able to work their way into your everyday life and become your “go-to”. Truly immersive brands are the ones we couldn’t imagine life without. Drawing straight from BottomLine’s ebook, “It could be your iPhone, maybe it’s your Lululemon’s or Nike’s, or perhaps it’s Starbucks or Tim Hortons. How about that restaurant that’s been your goto for family celebrations for as long as you can remember? Or the dish soap or laundry detergent you use because no other one can measure up in the same way?” Whatever it is, an immersive brand is one you always find yourself going to in a given situation.
Whether you are a small business owner, marketing manager or simply interested in taking care of your brand, knowing how to market with impact is essential. With the six steps developed by Lisa and her team at your disposal, there is no reason your brand cannot market with impact today.
