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Hope Schaefer - StoryBrand Certified Marketing Consultant & Copywriter

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Nov 27 2018

22 Immutable Laws of Branding: The Laws I Live By

Branding laws

If you’re looking for ways to accelerate growth so you’ll surpass your competition, 22 Immutable Laws of Branding is your ideal guide.

22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product or Service into a World-Class Brand

In his classic on branding, Al Ries simply states, “the most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness.”

So if you or your marketing team ever says, “Why should we limit ourselves?”

Remember, this is a red flag question.

Pause and immediately return to the fundamentals of building a brand, “the most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness.”

Focus and single-mindedness require discipline, especially when you see your competition broadening their approach.

But a narrow focus is the key to success in branding.

Ries shares fundamentals to help business owners avoid common branding mistakes:

  • “Today most products and services are bought, not sold.  Branding ‘pre-sells’ the product or service to the user. Branding is simply a more efficient way to sell things.”
  • “Nothing happens until somebody brands something.”
  • “Your brand is the single idea or concept that you own inside the mind of your customer.”
  • “What you think your brand is doesn’t really matter. It’s only what your customer thinks your brand is that matters.”
  • “You should limit your brand. That’s the essence of branding. Your brand has to stand for something both simple and narrow in the mind.  The limitation is the essential part of the branding process.”  
  • “Limitation combined with consistency (over decades, not years) is what builds a brand.”

Remember, the core of a failed product is usually a no-brand strategy issue not a no-good product issue.

A few famous examples of branding strategy missteps:

  • Little Caesars leaving their buy one, get one “Pizza. Pizza” take out focused business.
  • KFC trying to distance itself from fried chicken.
  • Holiday Inn trying to get into the upscale hotel segment.
  • Atari walking away from gaming and attempting to become a computer.

When you read The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product or Service Into a World Class Brand you’ll discover:

  1. How the power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope. (Law of Expansion)
  2. Why a brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus.  (Law of Contraction)
  3. How the birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising and why so many businesses get this wrong. (Law of Publicity)
  4. Once born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy. (Law of Advertising)
  5. The truth about why a brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer. (Law of the Word)
  6. How the crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity. (Law of Credential)
  7. Why quality is important, but brands are not built on quality alone. (Law of Quality)
  8. How a leading brand should promote the category, not the brand. (Law of Category)
  9. Why in the long run a brand is nothing more than a name. (Law of the Name)
  10. How the easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything. (Law of Extensions)
  11. Discover the counterintuitive truth that in order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands. (Law of Fellowship)
  12. Uncover the simple fact that one of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name. (Law of the Generic)
  13. Identity the very real difference between brands and companies. (Law of the Company)
  14. Understand how sub-branding can destroy your brand.  (Law of Sub Brands)
  15. How to know the time and the place to launch a second brand. (Law of Siblings)
  16. Why a brand’s logotype should be designed to fit the eyes.  Both eyes. (Law of Shape)
  17. How this simple fact proves a brand should use a color that is the opposite of its major competitors. (Law of Color)
  18. If there are no barriers to global branding, then a brand should know no borders. (Law of Borders)
  19. Why a brand is not built overnight, how success is measured. (Law of Consistency)
  20. What if brands can be changed. (Law of Change)
  21. Uncover if euthanasia is the best solution. (Law of Mortality)
  22. How to embrace the most important aspect of a brand. (Law of Singularity)

Three ways to overcome branding mistakes and create unity with your strategy and your messaging are to:

  • read 22 Immutable Laws of Branding.
  • attend a StoryBrand workshop (create a StoryBrand BrandScript).
  • hire a StoryBrand guide, which you can conveniently do at HopeSchaefer.com

Written by Hope Schaefer · Categorized: blog, books, Marketing · Tagged: 22 laws, Author, blog, book, branding, marketing, review, Ries

Nov 20 2018

A Review: Contagious: Why Things Catch On

contagious review things catch on

Why do some ideas go viral while others disappear overnight?

If you want to learn how to make your brand spread like wildfire, delve into Jonah Berger’s book Contagious: Why Things Catch On.

Berger uncovers the six principles or STEPPS needed to increase your chances of going viral:

  1. Social Currency: We share things that make us look good.
  2. Triggers: Top of mind, tip of tongue
  3. Emotion: When we care, we share
  4. Public: Built to show, built to grow
  5. Practical Value: News you can use
  6. Stories: Information travels under the guise of idle chatter

To increase your odds of building a contagious brand, ask these key questions and incorporate more of these basic principles or STEPPS today:

Social Currency

  • Does talking about your brand or idea make people look good?  
  • Are you making people feel like insiders?

Triggers

  • What cues make people think about your brand or idea?  
  • How can you grow the habit and make it come to mind more often?

Emotion

  • Does talking about your brand or idea create emotion?
  • How can you kindle the emotional fire?

Public

  • Does your brand or idea advertise itself?
  • How can you create a more public view of your product?

Practical Value

  • Does talking about your brand or idea help people help others?  
  • How can you highlight the value so others want to share the useful information?

Stories  

  • How can you embed your brand or idea in a narrative that people want to share?  
  • How can you make your story both viral and valuable?

Remember: Regular people with regular products and ideas have successfully created viral brands.  

Although Berger highlights success stories of Barclay Prime, Crest, Will It Blend?, andRue La La, he teaches you that word of mouth and social influence are not dependent on a large budget.  

If you want to learn to set the world on fire with your product or service, read the book Contagious: Why Things Catch On.


What books have you read lately that have helped you in your marketing? Comment below and share!

Written by Hope Schaefer · Categorized: blog, books · Tagged: blog, book, brand, contagious, review, viral

Nov 06 2018

5 of My Favorite Marketing Books

favorite marketing books

Michael Hyatt once said, “You are the same you’ll be in five years except for two things: the books you read and the people you meet.”  

James Altucher wrote, “Read every book, blog, website, whatever about what you want to be an expert in.”

If you saw the bookcases in my office, my bedside table, books on my kindle app and the history from my amazon prime shopping cart, you’d understand how I’ve taken Michael Hyatt and James Altucher seriously. I’ve spent the last several years immersing myself with masters of marketing.

I love to learn about marketing, copywriting, and business growth. (Ok, some might label this an obsession, while you fellow lifelong learners and marketers will clearly understand.)

If you’re looking for a spark of creativity, a fresh idea, inspiration, or mentoring from some of the top marketers past and present, consider checking these out.  

There are so many great titles out there, but these have been especially meaningful to me.

Book 1:  Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen

New York Times bestselling author Donald Miller uses the seven universal elements of powerful stories to teach readers how to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their business.

A few of my favorite quotes from Don Miller’s book:

“Almost all companies try to sell solutions to external problems, but customers are much more motivated to resolve their inner frustrations.”

“People don’t buy the best products, they buy the products they can understand the fastest.”

“If we haven’t identified what our customer wants, what problem we are helping them solve, and what life will look like after they engage our products and services, for example, we can forget about thriving in the marketplace.”  

Book 2:  How to Write Copy That Sells: The Step-By-Step System for More Sales, to More Customers, More Often

Writing copy that sells without seeming “salesy” can be tough, but is an essential business skill.  Ray Edwards teaches you to write fast, easy-to-read, effective copy. Copywriters, freelancers, and entrepreneurs will find this an indispensable guide to creating copy that generates sales like magic.

Two of my favorite quotes from this copywriting classic:

“We start with this: what are you selling and how does it benefit the customer?  You must drill this ‘big idea’ down to a single, clear sentence.”

“As the great copywriting legend Robert Collier said, you have to ‘join the conversation that is already taking place in the reader’s mind.’  You must speak to the person, expose the problem you are helping solve, and make a clear connection to the pain the problem causes. Person, problem, pain.”

Book 3:  Influence

In Dr. Robert Caldini’s book on persuasion, he explains the psychology of why people say ‘yes”- and how to apply these understandings. You’ll learn the six universal principles and how to use them to be a skilled persuader.  

One of my favorite quotes from this book is “The idea of potential loss plays a large role in human decision making.  People seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value.”  

Book 4:  Ogilvy on Advertising

A candid and indispensable primer on all aspects of advertising from the man Time has called “the most sought-after wizard in the business.”  Included are how to write successful copy – and get people to read it, the secrets behind advertising that works, eighteen miracles of research.

A few of my favorite quotes from Ogilvy on Advertising:

“The consumer isn’t a moron. She’s your wife.”

“The headlines which work best are those which provide the reader a benefit.”

“I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information.  When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.”

Book 5:  Loveworks: How the World’s Top Marketers Make Emotional Connections to Win in the Marketplace

Lovemarks brands maintain a laser-like focus on making and sustaining emotional connections with consumers. Loveworks showcases 20 real-world business that implemented Lovemarks with examples spanning markets worldwide in widely varying categories. Rather than using the common business language of war (target, penetrate, ambush), Lovemarks uses the language of love (mystery, sensuality, intimacy).

Author Brian Sheehan shares, “My book shows that Lovemarks thinking works-anywhere, anytime.  All it takes is having the brains to implement it, the guts to see it through and an abiding faith in emotion as your compass.”


I’d love to hear your insight about your favorites. Leave a comment below or send me an email at hope@hopeschaefer.com

 

Written by Hope Schaefer · Categorized: blog, books, Marketing · Tagged: books, favorite, marketing, read, reading

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