Susan
More to marketing. Welcome to more to marketing. The podcast explores marketing, product and everything business. I’m your host, Susan, and today we’re going to be talking about how to navigate the complexities and create an award winning brand that actually can stand the test of time. I have a very special guest today, Zoe. Now Zoe has over 20 plus years of career experience. Navigating the always changing world of marketing. Zoe has has actually travelled around the world and has done this across 3 continents so she knows what she’s talking about. Over the last two decades and she’s been crafting strategies not just for startups, but for some of the biggest global giants that you’ve heard of, such as Nike, Adidas, Microsoft and Walmart to. Name a few. And while Zoe wears many professional hats, as all marketers generally do at the core, she loves to be a storyteller. She’s dedicated to building brand narratives that really resonate. It and brand is at her heart. Welcome, Zoe.
Zoe
Thanks so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here. It’s quite the intro.
Susan
Well, I would love. To hear more about you and also a bit about your career path too, please, if you wouldn’t mind sharing.
Zoe
Yeah, absolutely. So as, as you mentioned, I’ve had the the luxury of of doing this across many continents. So despite the lovely accent, I actually started my career in Europe. So I’m originally from Switzerland and I was raised in Spain. Daughter to a German mother and an English father. So quite the the mutt with a American accent living in Australia. So always start with that because it’s quite confusing, but it’s given me the opportunity to be able to understand diverse cultures and build that into some of the stories that we tell. So I started out in traditional advertising too many years ago when it was very much. I love Mad Men, Mad Men, Don Draper style on Madison Ave. So I worked with some of the greats, so worked at Grey advertising. Saatchi worked with publicists. And then transitioned into smaller brand building companies that focused on tech predominantly and also retail. So was very lucky to work with some amazing brands such as Intel. And as you mentioned Nike and Adidas and Intel really followed me from from three different companies. So I I. I always consider myself. A little bit of a of a tech geek. At heart, but as as you yourself mentioned, I I went to film school, so storytelling has always been in my blood and I find that telling those authentic stories really is at the foundation of building a strong, relevant brand. So and then you have moved out to Australia. Ten years ago and moved over to client side, where I was able to build brands from the inside out and. I always compare it to being able to raise the child versus just babysitting the child, where if you’re on the agency side you have to hand it back. Whereas working within a brand, you get to really go through the good, bad and the ugly. But you you have the insights that you might not necessarily have from the outside.
Susan
100% Agree it’s it’s one of those.
Zoe
So that’s neat.
Susan
Fun things where? In consultancy land you might be able to work on many many clients, but then you don’t have the control, so you can’t always direct that narrative or that story. You’re hoping that that will tell. But now that you are the client, you can do that and you can see it actually go to full fruition as well.
Zoe
Absolutely. It’s it’s been a real joy. So the the last four years working with Rebel Sports and most recently working at Alterna Leaf, which is a a very interesting space to be in here in Australia and a very young company which is. Grown to be now one of the leaders in alternative healthcare in Australia.
Susan
There’s definitely a whole pile of new. Types of products and services coming out that haven’t got a brand that’s established and as we all know, there are, there are many aspects to brands themselves. What have you found to be the most complex part when you’ve been trying to build a brand? And can you tell us a bit about the why behind that too?
Zoe
Yeah, and. And look, it depends on on the various industry and the brand itself to be honest with you, the there is when when it’s a young brand, it’s very much figuring out who you are and what you. Want to stand for? And then making sure that those values come through in the narratives that you’re when you’re speaking to your your customers or potential customers, the challenge is really because you are not heard of is how do you build that foundation and? Get people to understand what you do. That’s probably the biggest challenge that we have at alternate leaf is we’re regulated by a number of of governing bodies and it’s it’s quite hard for us to let people know what it is that we do without going into the detail given the the advertising regulations and limitations. So in this case, in this particular brand, we’re we’re currently in as we have. To be quite. I want to say that you careful and also quite creative in how we form those brand narratives to let people understand that we are here to help them, who it is that we are and what it is that we do. It’s it’s hard to even talk about us as a service given that we’re in. In the telehealth, you know digital health industry and then the types of treatments and products that you know are in the alternative medicine space. So there’s multiple facets to building a brand in in this particular industry. But one thing always stays the same and that is just being true to your core. I think that’s the the the one element that does not change no matter what brand you’re building is making sure that you you know you you’re true to your purpose. Why? Why do you exist? What is your purpose here? And then making sure that you live those values through the narratives that you have with your your customers? Don’t try and be something you’re not. Make sure that you are actually building that trust and authenticity, because then it will come. Quite frankly, it’s like don’t try to build the push the boulder uphill. It’s much easier to rely on what it is that you do best and just be very transparent and what it. Is that you?
Susan
Do I think one of the the biggest mistakes I see? Happening out there is just assuming your competitor is doing well and almost copycat style. Whether it might be even down to colours or through to similar messaging and not having that unique distinctness for your brand that you can stand behind yourself.
Zoe
Yeah, I mean we’ve we’ve seen that quite a bit because we are the leader in the industry here. We actually have a lot of copycats that that follow. Us. But to be quite honest, we we’re still, we’re still work figuring out how we best communicate what we do. So we see others copying us and potentially following us in the direction that’s not necessarily the right one. Exactly. Yeah. But, you know, I’ve you have to be original. You have to differentiate. I mean, that is the the only way that you are going to ever compete. Currently the the category that we sit in has you know dozens and dozens of competitors, albeit smaller, but they’re all saying the same thing. And a lot of them copying what we what we started to say and so it is being agile and. Understanding your customers and our, in our case it’s patients. So we tried to learn from our patients and we we’re still a fairly young company, but we have such rich data now we have over 150,000 patients that come to us. So we can learn from them what what are their needs, how do we best serve them. Where you know where are the tension points and then how do we overcome those? So I think that’s that’s really the key and that’s individual to each brand. So you can’t just copy another brand because ultimately the way you serve your customer is going to be different for each individual. Brand.
Susan
Exactly, and that that probably leads you into another question I have about how important it is building a brand within a company before. Expanding beyond just brand. So you’ve been working on this new startup within the digital health space. What steps have you gone through to to build it first and then look a bit beyond?
Zoe
Well, we’re we’re definitely. Still in that building phase, because it is such a young company, but there’s there’s key things that I’ve been working on since I’ve started and that is really establishing our customer segments and our personas. So as I mentioned, we have 150,000 patients, we you know are. Are doing market research to understand the actual category here in in in Australia? And identify where those gaps are so that we can really understand, you know, who are the people that we can best serve? How do we speak to them? Where are they? So these are all foundations again within the country that you’re in, making sure that you nail that first. But ultimately personas will change. Country to country but then also building out the other foundations like a customer value proposition. So once you know who your customer is and what they need. Making sure that everyone within the company is aligned to that that proposition and so it’s not just marketing. It’s you know your customer service team, it’s your tech team. Everyone is moving towards that same North Star which ultimately is going to help your your customers.
Susan
And I don’t think it can be. Overstated enough that have everyone in the company. Live and breathe these values and the brand, and to understand it because. Ideas can come from anyone internally as well. And if they really live and breathe the brand, they’re going to be feeling and resonating that when they’re talking to potential partners or clients or customers. So I think a lot of companies forget that even when they’re onboarding. Contractors, for example.
Zoe
You can’t. You can’t see me. But I’m. I’m nodding vigorously. Yes, it is it. Is so important, and that’s one of the things that you know, we’ve we’ve scaled up incredibly quickly. So and we’ve doubled the size, we have 800 people that now currently work. For the for the broader organisation and rallying all of those, you know team members to be living and breathing what it is that we stand for and and ultimately we are patient first and that is the the bedrock of of the why the brands multiple brands. Were built in the 1st place and so making sure that everything always ladders up to positive patient outcomes and a positive patient experience that’s at the at the core of what we do and why we. Do it every day. So we’ll we’ll even start some of our meetings by, you know, going through the. For NPS or going through surveys and and just pulling out what what what’s the most recent thing one of our patients said both good and bad. So that we always bring it back to to them.
Susan
Exactly. And that’s part of your key performance indicators there too. So always staying relevant to everyone. Just going down the same path when it comes to the. Score. You’re looking for or. The improvements you need to do so that process is in place that everyone can be involved in. I love that.
Zoe
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s it’s NPS. But then it’s also social listening and going broader. You know, we spend maybe too much time on Reddit as as communities have started building, but it’s it provides a wealth of knowledge to pain points that that patients might be having. And understand the various communities and how we can support those because again, Community is such an important aspect to every brand, but in particular in in healthcare, you know making sure that you are understanding the the broader Community needs and. You know. Health is such a. A personal important aspect of everyone’s lives. It’s very different to selling a. Pair of shoes or. A football I was working at Rebel. So yeah, it’s an interesting space.
Susan
And I suppose because you are so new and evolving and you’ve now got data, so you can do some analysis there as well as your surveys, your MPs, all these magical things that you can help with decisions and how to position your brand better, how do you ensure your brand stays relevant? In this changing environment all the time, because we know that technology has made an impact, which is why telehealth is now available, for example. So how do you keep? How do you keep the brand relevant there?
Zoe
It’s a it’s a great question and you know it’s one of the things that has really struck me, at least in in my time here is that the the industry evolves, the category evolves, but a patient’s needs really stays quite consistent. It’s a patient needs access to healthcare. They want to have a a positive and nurturing experience when they’re not feeling. You know, and what you know, what we’ve been able to do is allow them access to that from the comfort of their own home. So you can imagine if you’re in pain or if you’re having anxiety or lacking sleep, the last thing you want to do is get in the car and drive to a clinic and, you know, sit in the crowded waiting room and. And so, you know, telehealth and digital health in general allows that access. So there is there’s certain fundamentals of patients needs such as access and you know a positive experience that doesn’t really change. How that is delivered can always be optimised, and that’s why we’ve got such a massive team of amazing doctors. You know, we’ve got over 150 doctors and clinicians, both doctors and nurses, as well as an entire engineering team that’s building the spoke products to help. Create this access and make the experience seamless and frictionless. You’re not feeling well. The last thing you want is you know to have to your your credit card not to go through or something on the you know the the the payment portal not to work. It’s every little thing has to be frictionless and that’s where we spend our time. And really, you know, evolving the brand and being. Relevant. It’s not just. Saying what we do, but it’s really walking the walk. Everyone can kind of talk the talk, but we try to walk the walk.
Susan
I think that the biggest piece out of this particular question for me is the brand stays the same. It’s a product that’s evolved, but the brand doesn’t necessarily have to evolve with it because you’re still doing what you say you’re going to do as part of your values, your ethos. Of what your product or service is, it’s just changing how it’s being delivered or optimising it. So that’s a better experience, but the brand still remains the same and still has that trust that goes with it.
Zoe
100%. You said it better than I could.
Susan
How do you actually measure though the effect of branding efforts? A lot of people out there are focused on, for example, the MPs or the sales numbers, but what do you think is a better way to actually measure success of a brand?
Zoe
I don’t know if I’d use the the the word better. I’ll get into trouble. If I say that but.
Susan
Or an alternative way?
Zoe
I think I I think there’s yeah. No and.
Susan
We’ll call an alternative measure.
Zoe
It’s it’s, it’s. Such a good question and you know, I I actually just came back from a CMO conference where I I posed a very similar question to, you know. My fellow colleagues, because there is always this one. Going debate around short term results and long term effectiveness, right and you know immediate ROI versus long term brand building and me being you know brand advocate and evangelist obviously has me leaning a little bit more into long term. So there there’s lots of there’s lots. Of different ways that you can measure it. There’s a brand health tracker is the most obvious, and that was one of the first things that we implemented or I implemented here. When when I came on board was making sure we understand, you know, where what is our awareness, how many people within Australia know who we are. And then you know what it how many of them would consider of us would consider us those that know of us who would consider us. And then you you have the, you know, the continuous questions that go down the the conversion funnel of you know intent and and and purchase but ultimately being able to when you’re still a young brand measure. Brand awareness and consideration. Those are metrics that will hopefully year yield to long term results because obviously the more awareness you have, the more people you have looking at your brand, the more people you would have considering you. And then if you’re doing the right thing. They’ll convert and they’ll become future patients. So that’s that’s the. The the easy one that that you know there’s there’s great products out there that you can you can have an always on health tracker now as well as great companies and services that offer that on a quarterly basis. The other thing that we’re currently looking at doing is measuring brand equity. And that one’s a harder one to just basically sum up in a in a sentence, because every brand will measure brand equity. Differently and it’s a combination of brand consideration, awareness, you know, traffic, sentiment perception. So there’s there’s all these different areas that you can measure, you know, brand sentiment is another one that you can measure with social listening tools. As I mentioned Reddit before, that’s another great way is to to just listen. What’s out there in the in the universe? And then you overlay all of that data to get to that brand equity measure. And again, it’s not simple. It’s one that we’re still building out here at. Alternately, if we are bringing we’re we’re bringing in brand strategists, we have a great data team. I’ve built out a full team of. Of brand specialists that can monitor all of these channels and bring these insights together so that we then have more informed longer term strategies and and consistent strategies, which is the other key to to long term success.
Susan
100% and that that consistency piece is very important because it’s easy to lose sight and just jump on the latest fad or trend that might be coming along, depending on what your product or service is in. Many times you’ll see that there’s something that goes viral, say on TikTok or whatever it is, and brands make an urgent pivot because I think they need to be there, but they haven’t actually thought of the impact that it would have on their brand and woke seems to be one of the biggest ones that is in that space Ship.
Susan
Or rainbows? So these are the two themes that I see quite a lot that brands don’t think the impact it may or may not have and just do a momentary jump or toe in and then jump out again.
Zoe
Yep, Yep. It is very true and but probably you know I’m I’m guilty of doing it too, to be honest with you, I think we all fall in, in certain we we get wrapped up in the moment. I like to call it. You know, fail. Forward, but ultimately that consistency and thinking about the long term, is this really true to your brand? And I guess that goes back to what I was saying. Before. You know you can stay away. From fads by. Really understanding is this who the brand is and being authentic to who you are and who you want to be versus just hopping on the next thing that’s, you know, bringing you a whole bunch of followers and you know increased engagement for a short period of time.
Susan
And that short term could actually confuse your general base as well.
Zoe
Exactly.
Susan
It you’ve got this small cohort that you’ve now secured, but they don’t actually fit into any of your normal segments. So how will that impact your brand, the marketing efforts you do your products, your service, so there there needs to be more thinking through about, yes, it’s great that we might be able to go there. But should we be going? Yeah.
Zoe
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s been one of our challenges as regulations change and there’s certain words that we can no longer use, that’s there’s, there’s been quite a bit of of pivoting that has to take place in a in a regulated industry which which again makes us need to be quite agile and bring bring this talent in house. So that’s something else that I’ve really learned in in my time is having key people within your team in house allows you to be agile and pivot and be considered and and make sure that everything that you’re. You’re putting out is is not reinvented. You know you never want to throw out the baby with the bath water, but that the foundations are still there and you’re just. Learning. How to say it in a different way? So that’s that’s one thing that I’ve noticed over the last few months that you know. We’re probably guilty. Of as a brand ourselves is, you know, the working through what we can and cannot say and and still. Staying true to what our patients need to know about us so that we can help with their outcomes.
Susan
Exactly. And I think this is probably a good time for you to maybe provide some advice that you’d give to emerging brands looking to achieve those long term successes. You’ve learned a lot along the way here. What other tips or tricks or advice would you give? Particularly hindsight is a beautiful thing, but what could you share?
Zoe
Get the foundations right. Yeah, I think that’s that’s such an important thing. And when I say get the foundations right is understand your purpose, live your purpose, make sure that everyone within your your organisation understands what it is and is true to that. Understand your customer. It’s again. You. You, you, you don’t own your brand. Your customer owns your brand. So what they think of the brand is ultimately what your brand? Means and so you need to understand what is the problem that you can solve for your customers. It’s not just about, you know, a sales dollar. It’s it’s not just about revenue, it’s what is the difference that you can make. Why do they need you? And so I think that fundamentally is is at the core of understanding you know. The the purpose of your brand. What is your purpose? And then as I mentioned earlier, the understanding the customer building out those segmentations, how can you have those personalised conversations? In today’s day and age, you know the traditional form of mass media and, you know, big TV ads, you know, still a place for them, but more one on one. Personalised conversations has become more important than ever. So again, that customer segmentation and Persona work is so critical, especially in digital experiences where you can. Have those conversations. And and yeah, just building out your your, your brand platform and architectures, so consistency, make sure you have those brand guidelines and they’re implemented across all your channels. There’s a reason they exist, so make sure that you, you know your own channels and your paid channels and your earned channels are all saying the same thing.
Susan
Oh yeah.
Zoe
And it’s that’s that’s always a fun one, especially when you have multiple teams working on it. So it’s that consistency and that collaboration I think is is so important. So getting all of those fundamentals right and then looking at scaling is is really key. Otherwise it you know, it’s not that you can’t do it. It’ll just take longer and it’ll it’ll be more friction points. And as you mentioned before, you, you might you, you’ll cause some of the confusion if you’re chopping and changing who you are or what you. Want to stand? For following the next shiny thing over there, you customers won’t recognise. Who you are.
Susan
Exactly. I would love to know out of all the brands you’ve worked on, which one was the most fun and why? Like what? What brand campaign did you work on that that you just look back and go, oh, that was awesome.
Zoe
Ohh, that’s a really hard question because there’s so many.
Susan
You can pick a couple.
Zoe
Yeah, there’s there’s a few, you know. Surprisingly, Walmart and I know that, you know, it’s probably not the first thing that comes to mind when when people hear that. But I was involved in the Walmart Live Better campaign, which was all about going and interviewing Walmart employees whose lives had changed thanks to the company. Money. And I always thought Walmart was kind of. The devil you know. I just, just like you hear. A lot of bad stuff come out. Yeah. And so I was. I was a bit hesitant to work on that brand at first, but it was one of the most heartfelt, nurturing experiences of my 20 year career where I met some incredible people whose lives were fundamentally changed. By the organisation or someone within the organisation so you know we’ve got to travel around really small little towns in America that you know most people hadn’t heard of and just. You know, it was a very humbling experience, to be honest with you. So that was I, I think a very heartfelt time then the most fun. Honestly, any of the animal campaigns I I’m a I’m a big animal lover at heart and so working with various animal welfare projects or ASPCA. You know, just most challenging, you know items to shoot are kids and animals. And so I’d be crawling on all fours, barking at a dog, trying to get a reaction from the dog to bark back. There’s yeah. And look, that was. That was definitely the most fun time. I mean, I I used to have a a thing where I would try to get an animal into every campaign. That I. Did so, whether it was. A chicken or at one point I brought in a llama. I brought in a goat, you know, dogs and cats. And so that was my little my little Easter egg. It was almost the calling card of has always worked on this brand. So and then and then no.
Susan
Have you brought any now?
Zoe
I not not for this brand. No, but I’ve. I’ve amassed my own little zoo, so I I live in in the Noosa hinterland and I have my own, my own goats and and sheep and furry friends. So I’m I’m I’m getting my my furry fixed that way. But then also most recently at at Rebel. You know, working with the Matildas as part of the Women’s World Cup, you know, and interviewing Mary Fowler, that was another, you know, very humbling experience. I believe when I interviewed her, she was, you know, just I don’t even know. She had 20 yet. She was so young and so wise and what she was saying. So. I think that’s. That’s it. The people you meet, you know the talent that you get. To to work. With the ambassadors, the influencers, it’s. Yeah. I mean, I. There’s, I would. There’s no other industry I’d rather be in. So it’s more than more than one, but I mean, I could go on honestly for for days.
Susan
And like like I do have two final questions. I always ask you kind of touched on a bit, but what excites you most about brand? What?
Zoe
The brand is again the foundations of of telling a story. I mean, we all have a brand, you know, we all have our own personal brand. Companies have a brand, products have a brand. And so it’s, it’s your story that’s ultimately what a brand is, right and it’s what people take away and hear your story. To be and so at the heart of it, it goes back to me being a story. Teller. I I always found it fascinating to tell a story in 30 seconds. And again, this goes back to traditional advertising. But I was 12 years old watching TV to watch the commercials, not to watch the actual shows because I thought it was so clever of of certain brands that could tell such a concise. Funny, humorous, emotional, you know, fill in the blank here story in just 30 seconds. But then also, ultimately, my dad was a is a pop artist. He’s a he’s a well known British pop artist. And so he. Took brands and this probably influenced why I love this field so much, but he. You know, he he was surrounded by the likes of Andy Warhol and David Hockney. And so he would take, you know, Campbell soup cans and, you know, famous car brands and use those in his paintings so that, I’m sure, left a a mark on on why it’s become such a passionate mine.
Susan
It’s definitely that bringing in the art influence creativity into it and making something that resonates with people so it can be very exciting to be able to do that and see the fruits of the labour where people. Are wanting to. Be attached to that brand too so I can understand why. You love it so much.
Zoe
Yeah, absolutely.
Susan
My final question, I ask everybody and I do pre warn everyone. So what brand any brand in the world best represents you and why?
Zoe
Oh, I saw this question and I. Was like this is a very tricky 1 so I do have two and they’re very different. So the the first one is you’re probably going to. Chuckle. But is. And and it’s not just because I’m blonde, but it’s. I have a I have a young daughter. I I I was a young girl long time ago and I too had Barbies, and she loves Barbies. But as a brand they have evolved with the times and pivoted when they needed to pivot as. You know, cultural trends evolved and you know, women and and how people perceived women. Involved. And so I’m. I’m just really fond of how that brand is still relevant today, and almost even more so today given the whole, you know, Barbie craziness that happened a couple years ago when the. Movie came out. Exactly. And. And it’s just they they do it so well. The storytelling, you know, the Omni channel approach across everything that they touch, the educational aspects of it, the. Yeah, the empowerment. So like I’m I’m one of those moms that still really enjoys watching my daughter play with Barbie, and I allow her to watch the shows because it is. It’s teaching her about kindness. It’s teaching her that she can do whatever she wants, whether it’s an astronaut or a teacher or a gymnast. It doesn’t matter as long as she’s happy. So that’s one brand. And then. The other complete polar opposite is Yeti, so I’m a I’m a bit of a I’m a bit of a Tom girl, hence the the whole mini farm, but again, yet he started from as a as a as a, you know premium, cool and has just transformed into this really premium.
Zoe
Outdoor lifestyle brand I own way too. Many yetis that. I like care to admit my husband absolutely hates me. For it, he’s like, why do you need 5 Yeti coffee cups? But they’re so good, and the way that they’ve built that brand is, you know, the the market positioning, the strong. Brand identity and then quality and innovation. Right. They keep innovating and you know bringing in technology and then also staying down to. Earth. But they stand. They’re like. Yes, you know, you’re gonna have to spend an arm and a leg, but we’re worth it. And they, you know, they have such a a large following and built such a a community around them as a brand. So yeah, I mean those, those are probably the the, the two that are best reflect who I am. The stilettos and then the mucking the stalls.
Susan
I love it because they’re also both storytelling brands.
Zoe
They are, yes.
Susan
So it fits perfectly in with what you’ve shared with us today.
Zoe
That’s very on brand.
Susan
Thank you so much for sharing so much. I’m just going to do a quick recap of what I’ve learned today for everyone, so just bear with me for a minute so I’ll be back in just a second. So today we talked all about brands and brand is a story. So you’ve got to make sure that you know what your narrative. Is depending on what the industry and brand is that you’re trying to create because you wanna make sure it makes a. Difference and is. Different to everyone else in the mark. Yeah, you need to really know who and what you’re going to stand for. What that narrative is, and how do you go about that is you make sure you build the foundations. So when we’re talking about foundations, here is about the purpose we need to live it as well. So whatever the purpose is, you need to be able to live it and breathe it within the company. And that’s what the brand will resonate. It should also come back to being understood by your customer and stand for your customers as well, so it’s imperative. Also as part of the process to know who your customer segment is. That’s kind of important if you’ve got a brand out there and you can do that through customer segmentations, personas. Research is a great place to start. Then you can identify gaps. If you’ve got data that’s even better because that’s rich. Maybe even doing some customer value propositions that you know the company’s got alignment with the brand and the purpose for your customers. You can also. Go down the lines of how you can measure brand, so measuring brand you’ve got either the short term or your long term results, but ultimately you want to make sure that the brand’s got longevity and that’s what we’ve been talking about today. That story telling. So how you can help to measure this along the way is? A brand health checker where you look at the awareness, consideration, the intent to purchase all of those magical pieces. Then you can add in if there’s some measuring that you can do on brand equity itself and you add in different things like traffic perception, there’s whole pile of other pieces that you add in there and another tool that you can use to help understand how your brand is perceived out in the market is utilising social listening tools. There’s many different platforms out there. There we talked about Reddit today, but I myself have used in Australia there’s a another forum that’s done by consumers which is AUS bargain and Whirlpool. They’re always great places to go to hear what consumers are thinking about your products and services over time because they’re not necessarily always going to tell you and this will help you understand if they’re perceiving. What your brand is and what it stands for, and if you’ve got any issues or concerns that you need to start addressing or potential new ideas. It’s all about making sure that when you’re creating this brand that there is consistency because hopefully you’re going to expand and grow and get bigger and bigger with scaling. So you need to be able to help everyone within the organisation understand what the brand is, its purpose and you can use things like a brand. Platform and the architecture to assist with this. So they’re things like simple as it sounds, a brand style guide, because then everyone knows the colours, the fonts, the tones, the catch phrase. Uses the size ratios. All those pieces will help the consistency, so no matter what format you’re being seen in, there’s that consistent look and feel so consumers feel safe and trusted working with your brand. The brand itself should be true to your core, and that element should never change. Other things will change overtime, like today we talked about the brand stays the same, but the actual technology that helps support the product or service changes. But because the brand has that trust and it’s trying to help the consumer. And also remove any of the frictions. Therefore, it can be a better experience so that brands still has that consistency of still delivering but delivering in a different way. So again, trust and authenticity and the transparency that comes along. But if you’re owning a brand, it’s always important to be agile. Understand what your consumers are wanting and doing and saying about your brand. And sometimes, over time, you may need to involve your brand a little bit so evolution can be something very small. We’ve seen things like Nike over the years has changed slightly its tick. Coca Cola and Pepsi have constantly kept their colours the same, but they’ve changed them in different nuances to be more modern. But again, the core of the brand has stayed the same. There are things to consider if you’re further along the path, but just make sure that you’re true to your brand story and that you’re always. Telling that story in a way that is authentic and true and that everyone in your business lives and breathes it, no matter if they’re a. Contractor or not? Anything you’d like to add to that, Zoe?
Zoe
I think you summed. It up perfectly, Susan.
Susan
Wonderful. Thank you again so much for your time. I’ve really appreciated it. Thank you so much for having me. It was lovely. Everyone, don’t forget to link with Zoe on LinkedIn. I’ll have her details in the show notes so everyone can keep in touch and see the amazing work that you do and everyone else. Also don’t forget to add more to marketing to your playlist so you don’t miss out on future fabulous guests. More to marketing.
