Why not contact JT,aka John Tantillo, branding and marketing expert to chat about branding, marketing and of course how best to “GO BRAND YOURSELF!” doc@johntantillo.com
John Tantillo branding and marketing expert makes the process easy!
Why not contact JT,aka John Tantillo, branding and marketing expert to chat about branding, marketing and of course how best to “GO BRAND YOURSELF!” doc@johntantillo.com
John Tantillo branding and marketing expert makes the process easy!
Most important factor in product rollouts: It’s customers! And how can inventions or rollouts catch on when there is no frame of reference to compare. When we consider our spotlighted invention, we start with one man’s need, the head of a company who loved opera and wanted to listen to it on long flights. But the thing about most needs, is that they are often universal and if you find a way to address the personal need, you’ll find that there’s demand out there. But even when they had their new device, the process of invention wasn’t done.
It was the marketing –the brilliant move to show how the device met the need— that did the rest. This is a lot like our friend with the shopping cart who hired people to push the thing around stores so that they could see how it worked and why they should adopt it themselves.
The point here is this: whether you are branding a small business, your career or virtually anything else, the thing itself must meet a need but then you’ve got to show the Target Market just how that meet has been met by you, your product or your service. Bottom line, it’s about sampling and sampling is by far the most effective form of marketing. Let people try something that meets some need of theirs effectively and you will likely get a customer. This means getting yourself in the door (career wise) or getting them, the potential customer, in your door (business wise) to sample.
One of the very first lessons I ever learned about sampling was witnessing the opening of Joe and John’s pizza in my neighborhood back in the mid sixties. What did they do opening night? Free pizzas for everyone! There were lines around the block. Joe and John knew the marketing truth about sampling (the place is still around all these years later) and so did Sony!
One final note on invention and marketing. Invention is about refining and responding even after the initial push. It turns out that Sony executive whose love of opera kicked off the Walkman absolutely hated the name of the product he inspired… But he was a wise marketer, because when he was told that the people loved it, he let it stand.
The audio version is embed below and for the readers in the group, here it is. Enjoy.
DID YOU KNOW THAT?
This is Dr. John Tantillo asking Did You Know That?…
The year was 1978. A Japanese executive wondered if there was a way to listen to his beloved operas on the long trans-Pacific flights he frequently took. He turned to his top engineer, Nobutoshi Kihara, for a solution.
What Nobutoshi delivered was groundbreaking: A lightweight cassette player that could produce extraordinary sound quality.
The executive recognized that what had begun as the solution to a personal need would have universal appeal. But right off the bat, he had a big problem. People simply weren’t used to wearing earphones and carrying their music around with them. The device risked becoming a flop. His team took to the streets, parks and subways of Tokyo. They got people to try the device. And when the people did, they bought. The product was its own best advertisement. Within a year the player was flying off the shelves around the world. The company was Sony. The player? The legendary Walkman. One of the best selling audio devices of all time and the one that kicked off all those gadgets that we now make a part of our lives. And now you can say: Yes, I know that.
Why not contact JT,aka John Tantillo, branding and marketing expert to chat about branding, marketing and of course how best to “GO BRAND YOURSELF!” doc@johntantillo.com
John Tantillo branding and marketing expert makes the process easy!
Can animal spokespersons work for your business?
Can animal spokespersons work for your business? Just ask Bell Environmental (BE) the NYC based pest control company who wanted to stand out from the competition. They decided to use “Man’s (and woman’s) best friend,” Dog to get the attention of a Target Market who had little interest in this product category.
Using their animal spokesperson, Roscoe, they alerted potential customers that there was a brand that could solve their bed bug problem in a compassionate but efficient way.
With the help of their direct, but creative promotional team, Bell Environmental did the impossible. They got consumers talking about bed bugs by using an animal spokesperson–Roscoe, the bed bug dog.
For the marketing oriented professional, The secret in promoting your business is to assess whether a spokesperson, whether animal or human will separate you with a benefit that resonates with your present and future customers. When you achieve that you will attain success.
Here is the advertisement that started it all.
But how do Fortune 500 companies utilize Animal Spokesmen to get through the clutter and get you to remember what these Madison Avenue icons are? Well here is the answer to the question–Can animal spokespersons work for your business? If you know the brand and buy it the answer is an overwhelming YES.
Why not contact JT,aka John Tantillo, branding and marketing expert to chat about branding, marketing and of course how best to “GO BRAND YOURSELF!” doc@johntantillo.com
Branding Essential, Know Your Target Market. This is a branding fundamental and an integral part of the “Go Brand Yourself! process. Said another way this approach is the strategy for your marketing success. Thoroughly understanding this branding essential is crucial. And It’s Knowing the wants and needs of your Target Market so that you can satisfy them. Plain and simple.
By systematically analyzing your Target Market you can pinpoint what they want and adapt a strategy that will resonate with them. Here is the Neil Cavuto Interview that discusses how one Barry Bonds who had issues a few years ago, should have re-branded himself and the pitfalls associated with his perceived brand. It’s simple: “when they say it’s not about branding, it’s really all about branding.” Just ask Barry Bonds. Or should I say, “Barry Who?” Would love to know your thoughts and your approach to GO BRAND YOURSELF!
Why not contact JT,aka John Tantillo, branding and marketing expert to chat about branding, marketing and of course how best to “GO BRAND YOURSELF!” doc@johntantillo.com
Ryan Lochte learns branding lesson: Go brand yourself to customers. How? By participating in a public relations disaster while in Brazil and then being dropped by two of his endorsement brands: Speedo and Ralph Lauren. Here is the Rita Cosby Interview that starts at 31:30. Would love to know your thoughts.
This change in endorsement status should not surprise anyone. Brands typically do not want to be affiliated with personalities that reflect poorly on their image. But is this so? What if the brand’s customers have no problem with the personality’s behavior in question. What should do they? The answer is nothing, because in marketing, it’s all about your customers and if the customer doesn’t see it as a problem, neither should you. Clearly, Speedo and Ralph Lauren believed that their customers did perceive a problem, and so they let him go.
In the world of branding the general rule of thumb is this: the wider the brand’s demographic appeal, the more conservative one must be in selecting an endorsement personality. This means that Ralph Lauren which has a larger target market than Speedo, should have ended their relationship with Lochte sooner than Speedo. This was not the case. Both decided that in their mutual best interest to part ways almost simultaneously. But the rule of customer needs always wins. As a result, the two brands terminated their relationship with Lochte. A Go Brand Yourself moment for the perpetually child-like Lochte.
So what’s next for Lochte. Go rebrand himself! This means undergoing a brand-over rather than a make over. Brand-overs start from within the personality and then make the necessary external changes based on the core personality feature. We may even have some hints of that when Lochte recently admitted to perhaps having a drinking problem. If so, this could be the starting point for getting back on the endorsement track and reinventing himself.
Here is the video that outlines the customer related issues that all of us must consider when branding ourselves.
Why not contact JT,aka John Tantillo, branding and marketing expert to chat about branding, marketing and of course how best to “GO BRAND YOURSELF!” doc@johntantillo.com
Ryan Lochte has learned a branding lesson: Go brand yourself! How? By participating in a public relations disaster while in Brazil and then being dropped by two of his endorsement brands: Speedo and Ralph Lauren.
This change in endorsement status should not surprise anyone. Brands typically do not want to be affiliated with personalities that reflect poorly on their image. But is this so? What if the brand’s customers have no problem with the personality’s behavior in question. What should do they?
The answer is nothing, because in marketing, it’s all about your customers and if the customer doesn’t see it as a problem, neither should you. Clearly, Speedo and Ralph Lauren believed that their customers did perceive a problem, and so they let him go.
In the world of branding the general rule of thumb is this: the wider the brand’s demographic appeal, the more conservative one must be in selecting an endorsement personality. This means that Ralph Lauren which has a larger target market than Speedo, should have ended their relationship with Lochte sooner than Speedo. This was not the case. Both decided that in their mutual best interest to part ways almost simultaneously. But the rule of customer needs always wins. As a result, the two brands terminated their relationship with Lochte. A Go Brand Yourself moment for the perpetually child-like Lochte.
So what’s next for Lochte. Go rebrand himself! This means undergoing a brand-over rather than a make over. Brand-overs start from within the personality and then make the necessary external changes based on the core personality feature. We may even have some hints of that when Lochte recently admitted to perhaps having a drinking problem. If so, this could be the starting point for getting back on the endorsement track and reinventing himself.
Here is the video that outlines the customer related issues that all of us must consider when branding ourselves.
Why not contact JT,aka John Tantillo, branding and marketing expert to chat about branding, marketing and of course how best to “GO BRAND YOURSELF!” doc@johntantillo.com
What’s effective in branding yourself: Satisfy needs with real benefits. Like many inventions and breakthroughs, today’s brand yourself moment is dramatic, but it was not just something that happens once and stands alone. There’s much legwork behind it.
A brand is built not born. And it is never built overnight. You may have that flash of genius, but usually, it is coming from the fact that a lot of time and effort has already been put into the problem.
That was the case with today’s brand who thought about the problem of air conditioning for years before he got it right. Of course, “the flash of genius” is what set the brand apart. After all, thousands of very bright people were working on the problem of getting air control right. However, today’s brand original would never have had it had he not known as much as was possible about the challenge.
And, that’s the point. Paying attention to detail and being prepared to put in the effort is critical for any breakthrough you are hoping to achieve.
Another lesson for us to consider is to be practical. Even when you experiment, our brand founder once said: “I fish only for edible fish, and hunt only for the edible game even in the laboratory.”
He means that he had a goal and stay focused on that goal until there was a solution. That’s what separated our brand–Carrier from the crowd. He was sure there was a solution, and it was just waiting somewhere out there for him to find it. It’s about caring about outcomes and finding a way to get there.
The audio version is embed below and for the readers in the group, here it is. Enjoy.
This is Dr. John Tantillo asking Did You Know That?…
One of the most important discoveries of the last two hundred years happened while a man was waiting for a train.
1906. The man, a young engineer recently graduated from Cornell had a problem. He was trying to help a Brooklyn printer manage humidity and air temperature so that ink would dry correctly.
He had refined certain parts of the air system, but controlling humidity still eluded him. However, that night he received what he would later call a “flash of genius”. Today that flash is known as the “law of constant dew-depression”.
You probably never heard of it, but this law transformed manufacturing and all of our lives. In that one moment, the engineer was able to combine all that he had learned from his printing problem into a singe brilliant solution.
The result was that manufacturers worldwide could vastly improve the quality of their products. But his invention didn’t stop there. Soon stores and theaters were clamoring for it. Then individuals. It even led to mass migrations. People could now live in places previously uninhabitable.
Everyone, it seemed, wanted air conditioning and Willis Haviland Carrier was happy to supply it.
As of 2007, the Carrier Corporation had sales of $15 billion dollars and 45,000 employees. All the result of hard work and that moment of incredible insight. And now you can say: Yes, I know that.
Why not contact JT,aka John Tantillo, branding and marketing expert to chat about branding, marketing and of course how best to “GO BRAND YOURSELF!” doc@johntantillo.com
Do you have relentless focus-Brand yourself like one artist. This idea of relentless focus is an important one. Basically, since no one can see exactly what needs to be done at the beginning, focus on the goal of making something better in a particular area is what’s important. For today’s personality brand, her passion for being a great choreographer, and for making a singing and dance performance better was visible all along from her early days cheerleading for the L.A. Lakers to her movie work to her pop career and to her judging on American Idol.
The point is that her passion and focus on dance and performance meant that she would do whatever she needed to do to make this area better. That’s the key. The truly successful don’t necessarily know how to do something better from the moment they start –take Steve Jobs— but they do know that they can and want to make it better and then nothing gets in their way of accomplishing this.
That’s what’s meant by relentless focus. Fact is, with this kind of focus which applies so much energy consistently to a problem or a challenge, solutions are sure to follow –no matter how long it takes!
The audio version is embed below and for the readers in the group, here it is. Enjoy.
This is Dr. John Tantillo asking Did You Know That?…
One of the shared characteristics of successful people is relentless focus.
Folks, I’m talking about the kind of passionate focus that always keeps the goal in sight.
Journey back to the 1980s. A cheerleader with dancing ambitions is discovered by a well-known pop star.
She begins to choreograph his dance routines and then moves on to the silver screen where she becomes famous for the keyboard sequence in Tom Hanks’ movie Big.
From there she launches a pop singing career herself –another big success.
Later she becomes a judge on a famous variety show, but all along her focus remains: how to deliver the best choreography possible.
She realizes that one problem has long bedevilled performers. How to sing and dance with a microphone stand without sacrificing sound quality?
In 2009, this inventive lady tackles the problem by designing a stand that is built into a hemispherical base. The result: singers can now move and the mic effortlessly comes with them.
Complicated dance maneuvers once impossible are now possible, all thanks to the mind behind the “Dynamic Microphone Support Apparatus.”
The mind also known as . . . Miss Paula Abdul. And now you can say: Yes, I know that.
Why not contact JT,aka John Tantillo, branding and marketing expert to chat about branding, marketing and of course how best to “GO BRAND YOURSELF!” doc@johntantillo.com
How to brand your business-First Brand Yourself! One attribute doesn’t a brand make and in today’s “Brand Yourself Moment” we discuss how one persistence and the value of not giving up played an essential role in the Go Brand Yourself process. Like most successful people, our protagonist failed, but he persisted.
There’s a lot of talk about corporate responsibility these days. But he was way ahead of his time. He took care of his workers and built his company brand and its individual brands from inside out. Purity of product and treatment of workers went hand-in-hand. He recognized that he needed to have his employees “on board” if every item that went out the door of the factory was going to be consistent. This personality also lobbied the government to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act –again re-enforcing the beliefs that shaped his products.
There were other aspects to the way that he built his business that are worth noting. Here’s a saying that applies to purchasing practices: “Deal with the seller so justly that he will want to sell to you again.” But most of all he stuck to his vision and built on it and understood that in a world where there were many competing brands, he needed to add a little extra special sauce to his and that was consistency! And that brand? Heinz, of course!
The audio version is embed below and for the readers in the group, here it is. Enjoy.
This is Dr. John Tantillo asking Did You Know That?…
Why do some people succeed while others fail? Let’s look no further than a young boy called Harry from Pennsylvania with a vegetable garden for a clue.
The year was 1854 and the boy, only ten years of age, had already created a business out of growing, grinding and bottling his own horseradish sauce.
By twelve, he owned a horse and cart and was delivering his products to grocery stores in Pittsburgh three times a week.
By seventeen, he was grossing over $2,400 a year –an impressive sum in those days. With a friend, he founded a company packing foodstuffs. The company went bankrupt.
Undeterred, Harry founded another company. He added a tomato-based product. Many competing formulas were already in circulation.
But Harry’s goal was doing foodstuffs better than anyone else. His motto: “To do a common thing uncommonly well brings success.”
And success came. His company not only produced a range of sauces that people loved, but Harry was a pioneer of sanitary food preparation and fair worker treatment.
Harry’s company has maintained his focus. Some products may have changed, but not the core belief.
And one of his most famous products is still going strong. Last year, two single serve packets for every single person on the planet were sold.
The product. Ketchup of course. And Harry? None other than H.J. Heinz.
And now you can say: Yes, I know that.
END
Why not contact JT,aka John Tantillo, branding and marketing expert to chat about branding, marketing and of course how best to “GO BRAND YOURSELF!” doc@johntantillo.com