When people hear your name, they either know you or they don’t.  If they do know you, a set of impressions that influence how they think and buy come to mind.  Those thoughts define your brand. Your brand lives in your customer’s mind as a result of all the impressions made by encounters with your name, your logo, your marketing messages, and everything else that people see and hear about your organization, good or bad.
Something as basic as your business address contributes to how your brand is perceived.  For that matter, every time someone walks into your business and looks around, visits your website, meets an employee, or skims your ad, that person forms an impression that leads to a mind-set about your business.

You can build the most powerful brand in your target market by understanding a few key considerations:

• Know the brand image that you want to project
• Be committed and disciplined to project your brand well
• Spend what is necessary to get your message to your target market
• Manage your marketing & communications so that it makes a consistent & positive impression that etches your desired brand image into the mind of your target prospect

Seven Steps to Brand Building & Brand Management

1. Why are you in Business?  What does your business do?  How do you do it better than anyone else?

• Write out the reason that your business exists and the positive change you aim to achieve.

2. What do you want people to think when they hear your name?  What do you want current, potential employees, prospects, customers, suppliers, associates, competitors, and friends to think about your business?  The brand image held by each of these groups needs to sync with one another into a single identity — one brand — that people will trust and believe.  Consistency builds your brand.  Create a single impression for your business: consistent look, tone in your communications, level of quality, products and/or services.  Before you say “let’s try something new,” consider these key consistency factors.  What are the words you want people to use when defining your business?  Ask your employees, associates, and customers this question:  When people hear our name, what images do you think come into their minds?  If everyone is saying the same thing — and if those words are the words you want associated with your name — you have a well-managed brand.  If gaps occur, you have your brand-management work cut out for you.

• List words that you want people to link to your business and be certain that you live up to that desired image.
  Then lead people to the right conclusions by presenting those characteristics — that brand image — consistently and repeatedly in your marketing communications.

3. What are the advantages you want people to associate with your business?  Figuring out these benefits helps you land on the advantages you want to communicate in your marketing communications.  It also leads to your definition of the position you want to own in the consumer’s mind.

• List your advantages.

4. What’s the definition of your brand?  Look at your business through a customer’s or prospect’s eyes as you define your brand.  What do people say — and think — about your business?  Why do they choose your business and prefer to buy from you again and again?  How would they define your brand?  Branding makes selling easier.  Without a well-defined and well-managed brand you could spend over half of every consumer contact trying to introduce your business or make your case, but if your brand is well known you won’t need to spend as much time selling.

• Narrow your findings down to one concept — one brand definition — that you honestly believe you can own in the minds of those who deal with your business.

5. Build your brand through every impression that you make.  Clarity and consistency are keys to getting it right — each and every time! A well-managed brand creates a strong emotional connection, and a strong emotional connection fosters loyal customer behavior.  Protect and project your brand through every representation of your business in the marketplace.

6. With a well-managed brand, your company hardly needs to introduce itself.  Within your target market, people will already know your business, its personality, and the promise you make to customers — all based on what they’ve seen and heard through your marketing communications.  Without a brand, you have to build the case for your business before every sale.  Doing that is tough work in person and even tougher work online.  You can’t be there to make introductions, inspire confidence, counter resistance, or break down barriers. Your website is the first place people may look to learn more about you.  Make it a good first impression by having a well organized, easy to navigate, interactive site.  For example: have a brief web video to describe your services, testimonial or “edu-tainment ” elements and incorporate social media into your website.

7. Utilize experienced professionals, such as Peppershock, for guidance and assistance with your customized brand building & brand management.  Peppershock helps craft messaging and creates consistent & positive impressions that etches your desired brand image into the mind of your target prospect & produces results!

The end of each year brings a multitude of business opportunities for a broad spectrum of organizations. The bottom line is this; the majority of consumers are spending more money on holidays and events AND other businesses are ramping up their operations to take advantage of the increased spending. What does this mean for you? Whether your business is serving and selling to consumers OR serving and selling to other businesses… the opportunities are coming. Be ready to catch and make the most of them.

So what strategy do you take  to advance in the 2010 fourth quarter? Here are some excellent ideas and things to consider for increasing your profit.

1. Strategize: Prepare for the fourth quarter by laying out some goals and assessing the work that you already have booked for that time period. Consider effective methods to increase your network and awareness about your business.
2. Advertise: If retail is your business, the fourth quarter is a huge opportunity for you. If you don’t already have steady successful advertising results, start testing the market now for messaging that works. Consider newsletter publications or direct mail as great potential venues for testing your prospects and increasing awareness. Evaluate your website from a user perspective for ease of use, informational impact and ability to enable sales. Your website should quickly educate your prospects about what your business is offering and how it benefits them and also, provide a place to leave their contact information.
3. Community Interaction: The fourth quarter brings opportunities to get involved with your community through holiday events, fundraisers and charities. Seek out organizations and events that put you in front of your target audience.

Peppershock is sponsoring the Boise Chamber B2B Tradeshow, Small Business of the Year Awards Luncheon and After Hours event today at the Boise Center on the Grove. Stop by our booth for a chance to win a gift certificate or some super sweet Shock schwag.
Congrats to the Small Biz of the Year Award winners! We had an excellent time producing the videos again this year.

June 8, 2010

Contact:  Rhea Allen

Drew Allen

(208) 461-5070

rhea@peppershock.com

drew@peppershock.com

PEPPERSHOCK MEDIA WINS TELLY AWARD FOR IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION “I USE IT EVERYDAY” TELEVISION CAMPAIGN

Peppershock Media, a full-service advertising agency located in Nampa, Idaho has won a national-level Bronze Telly Award for excellence in television/cable advertising for its “Math Matters” television campaign. The Telly Awards was founded in 1978 to honor excellence in local, regional and cable TV commercials. Today, the Telly is one of the most sought-after awards by industry leaders, from large international firms to local production companies and ad agencies.

The spots were created after the Idaho State Department of Education approached them about creating a communication piece to promote awareness about the Idaho Math Initiative and the importance of math in many common Idaho jobs.

“Through these public service announcements, we were able to highlight the importance of mathematics education and the critical role the Idaho Math Initiative will play in better preparing Idaho students for the 21^st century,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna.

The spots feature 10 real Idahoans at their jobs, and how they “use it [math] everyday” in each occupation. The spots were broadcast on television, the Internet and in movie theatres across the State.

Peppershock also received a first place award in May 2009 from the Idaho Press Club for the campaign.

While participating in the Caldwell Chamber of Commerce Wine Tour last week, Drew and Rhea captured a few photos of the event and scenery. Few realize just how ideal the Canyon County landscape and climate are for the production of high quality wines. Rhea shared her experience saying, “While visiting Williamson’s Orchards and Vineyards we learned of a varietal called Viognier which is a white wine grape from France and is believed to be ancient. During our visit to Bitner Vineyards we learned that every vineyard has a special dog or dogs and theirs has been featured in a book! The views from their patio were beautiful. They have a bed and breakfast that would be a perfect place to stay on your way back to Boise from a live music event. Call ahead to reserve a room to stay or for a special event.” Drew shared his thoughts saying, “The people making the wine are hard working, passionate and very knowledgeable. Be sure to check out the Davis Creek Tempranillo.” Overall, the tour was a great experience with its’ awesome scenery and award winning wines from right here in Canyon County!

Startup Weekend recruits a highly motivated group of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more to a 54 hour event that builds communities, companies and projects.

Our own CEO, Rhea Allen, joined a team and worked all weekend helping to develop MyWordyBird.com The site’s tagline, “So you’re on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In…NOW WHAT?”  MyWordyBird.com suggests intelligent posts customized for you.  Think of it as Mad Libs for your posts.

Peppershock also sponsored this event and donated $1000 worth of our marketing services to the winner.  Spoiler Alert!  We’re happy to be working with Gofi.sh…the winner of this year’s Startup Weekend.  Congrats!

In case you missed the live broadcast of the final presentations, we did remember to hit record.  You can watch them here.

Director Drew Allen discusses his latest documentary on the Hagerman Fossil Beds with Samantha Wright of Boise State Public Radio.
Listen to the segment.

Every so often we produce something of such mass public appeal we just can’t help but want to package it offer it up to our community…

Be the first in your neighborhood to own a Hagerman Horse Documentary DVD.

And be sure to check back often.  We’re constantly stewing.  Peppershock Sauce coming soon…

Rhea Allen was the main guest featured on the Wright STUFF Radio on KIDO discussing all the fun aspects of Peppershock’s inventive office culture. The segment aired last Saturday at 11:00am. You can listen to the podcast on the “Listen Now” section of www.wrightstuffradio.com.

Listen Now!