Brand and Butter

Your Brand's Sweet Spot: How to Stand Out

• Tara Ladd • Episode 44

Share episode

You can find your market sweet spot by understanding your brand's unique positioning. In this episode we speak to the intricacies of brand differentiation and targeting strategies, ensuring your brand stands out in a crowded market. Now more than ever it's important to understand why consumers with similar motivations make different purchasing decisions based on identity and social aspirations.

Send us a text

Visit https://youroneandonly.com.au/
Follow YO&O on IG https://www.instagram.com/youroneandonly_au/
Follow Tara on IG https://www.instagram.com/iamtaraladd/
Connect with Tara on https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarajoyladd/
Sign up for the Design Mind Theory Email – See how other Brands use psychology to nail their strategies.

Speaker 1:

you're listening to Brandon butter a straight-talking occasionally in your face. No BS branding podcast for modern marketers and business owners. Here for those who want to understand the influence and power of branding and how pairing associations, consumer behavior and design thinking can impact what people say, think and feel. I'm your host, tara Ladd, the sometimes funny, sometimes vulnerable and often unapologetically blunt founder and creative director of Brandon Design Agency. Your one and only Hi, hi, and welcome to this week's episode of Brandon Butter.

Speaker 1:

A bit of a backlog at the moment, because I lost my voice for a couple of weeks, and well, you can't really record podcasts when you have no voice. But I'm back and hopefully on the mend, because I got dumped with COVID not long after that as well. So you know. Back into the swing of things. Today, though, I want to talk about something that I think a lot of people might like. It is the conversation around finding your sweet spot in the market and understanding your unique positioning, so I want to discuss a brand in depth, because I just freaking love everything about them, and I'll tell you who that is in a minute, but first I want to dive into the differences between demographics and psychographics. Now, looking at this from a outsider's perspective. Most people think that they know who their audiences are, when in fact I could guarantee you that most of them would have no idea about the in-depth, I guess the complexities of psychographics. Now I think I've gone back through one of our past episodes and I've gone through psychographics, but just to give you a bit more of a rundown, if you're new or you've popped in halfway around and you know can't be bothered to go all the way back, totally get it no judgment.

Speaker 1:

Then let's touch on what the differences is, what the differences are. Anyway, true, 101 over here. Demographics is well, it gives us the basics the age, gender, income and location, and that's pretty much surface level. And then when we look at psychographics, on the other hand, there are all those juicy details, the deeper motivations, beliefs and values that drive our decisions. So we're talking about lifestyle, interests, personality and the underlying desires that really make people tick. And so when you understand the psychographics, then you can tailor your messaging and your visuals and your entire brand experience to speak directly to them. So if we're looking at lifestyle, for instance, this is like how your customers spend their time and their energy and their money, and knowing that lifestyle helps you to create. Well, knowing their lifestyle helps you to create products and services that fit seamlessly into their daily lives. So you're providing a when you're doing a strategy, you're providing a framework on how you would communicate to them and where you would communicate to them. So when we understand the nuances of our people, then we look at well, brand strategy can kind of work two ways.

Speaker 1:

You want to make sure you have both internal and external brand. Now, internal brand is the culture that you lead, it's the mission and the vision and what it is that you stand for and how you drive action and all of these types of things, and it's essentially the personality of your brand. So you create that humanized approach. And if you are a personal brand, as I mentioned before, then you just go out and you be fully you. So when we're talking about this type of stuff with brands, what we want to do from a strategy point of view is to make sure that we've got who you are, what you do, what you stand for for, the wider objective of what you want to do as a business. And then, when we talk about positioning and perception, then you want to try and create your brand to appeal to the target market that you're trying to attract.

Speaker 1:

So sometimes stripping the I guess we're putting on the face of what you think it should look like isn't always the right thing. You want to make sure that you're attracting your key audiences with the right messaging and with the right visuals and all of this stuff that we talk about all the time. But when you understand the psychographics then you can kind of go into the nuance of emotion, which is what we choose by, especially when we're talking about you know internal drivers. Something like 95% of our decisions are driven by unconscious behavior from our subconscious brain. And so when we're thinking about it like that it's, that's the intuition. It's like how does this make you feel? You're going to choose how something makes you feel. On paper it could look incredible, but if something feels off, you're not going to go and choose that brand. So when we're talking about finding your sweet spot, you want to make sure that you've got all of those key elements that make you different in terms of your internal and your drive and your mission and your values and what you stand for. And then you want to bring in the whole audience segmentation around who you're targeting, why you're targeting them and what problem are you solving for these people?

Speaker 1:

Now, if you were like Mercedes as a car brand, then you'd be looking they definitely are positioned in that luxury car brand stage right. And then we look at Toyota, which would be more positioned to a family, affordable, and when you think about it realistically, you can then see how they have managed to market to an audience. You have the family jumping out the back of a Toyota. It's the first thing you think about. And then you've got Zoom, zoom, zoom by Mazda. I think they've. I don't know if they've retired that or not, but that's something that sticks with me. Volvo it's like you know bloody Volvo drivers, but they talk about the safety of it. And then, for some reason in my mind I think about which is ironic, because I got a Golf but like I don't have any more, but I did. It was the Volkswagen, had like that rally car but also luxury style, so it's kind of got this sporty everyday vibe about it. And well, that's the perception that lives in my head and I know that there are a lot that sit in other people's head.

Speaker 1:

But when we're looking at creating associations, this is when we dive into the type of people that we're looking at right. So if you're looking at a target audience that sits within the middle income earners and they've got a family, then you're going to target your messaging, your voice, your alignment, all of that is going to speak to the audience at hand. So if we're going down affordability, then your pricing aligns to that, how you position yourself aligns to that, the imagery that you use aligns to that. So you're going to use more family friendly, you know, looking that middle age where they're about to have a family, or affordable, reliable. These are the things that come to mind. But then if you're going to skew that to be more, I guess, mercedes or I suppose they can be a family car, but this is where you're looking at a different status.

Speaker 1:

And if you're looking at demographics, you're looking at all of the age, sex, location, gender, types of things. And I mean you say gender, not sex, but yeah, you talk about these types of things that play. They just don't go down into the depth of, I guess, the meaning as to why you would buy something. So, to give you an example, I stopped to think about how I could phrase that. But you have a two people, same, demo, same, I guess you know lifestyle, income, all of that type of stuff. But one are very showy and that's not a bad thing. They just are very egocentric in how they have people see them, whereas one is very lives within their means and a fine um buying whatever suits their affordability. Different drivers here, different internal drivers, and one of those is an egocentric desire, being that one's feeding the ego and one is not. So on paper you could have the exact exact same demos, but when we're looking at psychographics and what that means, then we're looking at things like personality and their beliefs and what they value.

Speaker 1:

And someone might want to be valued as high status and so that they would be more than likely to spend more money, even if they didn't have it, to fit within that social status area, whereas someone that doesn't really care about that type of stuff just would not put their money into something like that. So now you're talking about why someone would spend that money and why someone would not, being that they're the exact same on paper person. You know well the exact same demographics on paper. And so now we look at why does that person want to have a Mercedes? And then you start to look at subsets and cultures. It's because they want to fit within their friends, who may all be high income earners or whatever that may be, or that they want to look like that they're professional or they're stepping into a place where they're kind of leveling up before they get there, so that they look the part before they stepping into a place where they're kind of leveling up before they get there, so that they look the part before they. So there's all of these like drivers, and they're so important as to where you position your brand to make sure that you're saying the right things and you're in front of those people so that you get those purchases, and so you speak about the life that they would have if they had your brand, because brand is so deeply aligned with personality and identity.

Speaker 1:

So why do people buy a Mercedes? It's because their identity is X, y, z, like they have this whole perception of themselves and they're creating that narrative for you to see about them. This is the exact same thing with brands, and this is when you kind of see people that are materialistic versus not and authentic, or they're very you know, and then you start to categorize. If you think about it, you would have a friend that you go to when you're upset, or a friend that you go to when you want to have a party or a friend that you go to. That would give you a hard truth and if you're thinking like that, this is kind of like what you would think of when you're talking about types of people that you would target, so they would all have this similar trait about them that you would want to try and target.

Speaker 1:

So like there's like similarities and traits, attributes, internal, external motivators, beliefs and values, like all of these things are really important, especially when we're talking about the emotional drivers of a brand. And so, when we're talking about differentiation and finding your place in the market, you need to really look at what it is that these people want from you and how you can craft a message that will resonate with that audience. And so you can do this through things like a competitor analysis, where you can have a look at where you fit, what other people are saying and doing within your space, what their affordability is, because you can have two completely different people targeting, you know, different areas and their outcomes are different because they have different goals, and that's why you should never follow someone else's strategy. For me, and you want an only as an example. I never want to be one of these huge agencies that has, you know, 15, 20 people in them.

Speaker 1:

I want to stay niche, independent, very boutique and specialize in a very niche space where we're more likely to take on and cut and have a limit of who we work with and really drive home important well, not important, everyone's important but like really creatively driven, time-consuming projects that fit our, I guess, values with who we want to try and attract. So they're very value aligned. The work that we're doing is very high caliber and we're more than likely to do a less is more approach and have a wait list out the door as opposed to taking and doing a churn and burn. So that's just our direction. But if someone was to follow our strategy and they wanted to have this multi-person agency on a harbor with views of the bridge I don't know if we're talking about Sydney, but that would be a very, very different growth model and this is where people need to understand what your goals are are completely different to someone else's and you should never follow the same trajectory.

Speaker 1:

However, when we're looking at a competitor analysis, you can kind of see where someone's trying to position themselves, if they've done it correctly, of course, and then you can see what they're saying, what they're doing, what other people are saying, and then you can kind of go and see where you fit. Then, of course, we have the SWOT analysis, which is your strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, your positioning maps and your unique selling points and, of course, you've got, like your ideal client personas. So you want to go, like I just said, beyond the demographics and dive into the values and desires and pain points. To give you an example of how you would segment that out, you could have three different people. So if I was targeting a marketing manager and I was targeting a business owner and I was targeting a freelancer, which is pretty much our target market, if I was to give you complete honesty, all three of those people have or personas have very different wants and desires.

Speaker 1:

You know, business owner is very much emotionally driven in terms of you know what they're trying to grow and build and it's an emotional choice. Whereas and it's their money on the line, whereas someone that's a marketing manager would be looking into things that to help get them, I guess, a leg up or a bit of a reputation within their business that they're working for or they want to be seen as the professionals. Therefore, they're looking for someone that will help to advance them and make them look good. And then we're looking at, obviously, the freelancers, and most of them may want education, they want to know how to do things better, or they're maybe two steps behind us and want to get to where we are, or they're implementing something in a similar field, but not exactly the same, and they want to know, I guess, how we do it so that they can broaden their skill set. And how you would speak to each one of those different people, or different personas, is extremely different. And then you could even subset the subsets by talking to you, know individual wants and needs and tailoring that customer experience based on what they need and what they want. And that's when you really have to test the market and see what's hitting and what's not, and you'll do stuff and it'll fall flat on its ass, but a lot of the time, that's what's required in order to find it's called optimizing to find the you know, the key golden nuggets of growth, right?

Speaker 1:

So, coming back to what I was saying at the beginning, I have a brand that I absolutely love and, if you know me, you will know who it is, but it is Liquid Death. Absolutely love Liquid Death and when we talk about them, I talk about them because they have just completely reshaped the water game Like, so they are basically water in a can and so it's an unlikely success story because it's water right. But this brand has managed to not only capture the attention of a younger audience but also disrupt an entire industry by challenging the norms and injecting a healthy dose of guts and disruption into the market. So how they've done this right is their target audience is. They've done a lot of work.

Speaker 1:

So Liquid Death have recognized that the traditional bottled water market say that again the traditional bottled water market, there we go was saturated and bland and boring and they all failed to resonate with the younger consumer. And they saw an opportunity to appeal to them from a different, I guess, perspective and they saw an opportunity to dive into authenticity and humor and add a touch of rebellion which is so very different to what's already out there, and they've done it really well. And then we have, like, their bold brand personality. So they are like very ballsy in the way that they do things and so they've got this like a dark and edgy, humorous personality that is anything but ordinary. Um, they've got a skull logo, heavy metal, heavy metal inspired imagery and tongue-in-cheek slogans like murder, your thirst and death to plastic, which instantly separates them from their competition. And, adding to that, they also do really cool collaborations. So you've got like Travis Barker for Blink 182. We've got Burton Snowboard, so they do cool things with them, and they've got Steve-O from Jackass.

Speaker 1:

They've done some really cool things and when you look at who they've collaborated with, you can really get a vibe on the, I guess, on who they're trying to attract here. But then we're looking at their disruptive marketing. So they have campaigns that are unconventional and they've created like these viral videos. So, as I said, burton, they create like these skateboarding legends and have launched limited edition merch collaborations with bands and collectible canned blood. It's like this. Even it's a gimmicky thing, but like this whole thing. So they've got these really like outlandish tactics that have generated this huge media attention and created this like cult, like following amongst their target market.

Speaker 1:

And what's really cool about them is they're managing to like reshape our perception of what water is and they're kind of making it cool. So if you go into a lot of the people that originally took on their product were pubs and clubs. If you think about trying to drink, it's like challenging drinking culture because it's cool to have a water and their water is like branded like a energy drink, so it's very monster energy kind of vibe, but for water in a can, and not to mention that water doesn't come in a can. So, which brings me to my next point of like, authenticity and the social impact aspect, is that they're really driving that edgy image home by committing to like sustainability and social responsibility by using aluminium cans instead of plastic bottles, and then they donate to environmental causes and actively promote eco-friendly practices. So this is like authenticity and commitment to making a positive impact.

Speaker 1:

So, to further strengthen their appeal, so even their CEO, mike Cesario he said that they're not just a water company, they're a lifestyle brand and they're about fun and creativity and doing things differently, and it's evident that people are just loving this. Like they were like the fastest growing water brand on social media. Well, they're one of the fastest growing beverage brands in the world. It's not just like water, but they were. They overtook the highest water brand on social media in something like three months and they didn't even have a product. They launched with $5,000, an idea and a prototype and an ad spend of like 1500 bucks, and they just used this social kind of influence and disruptive marketing, a guerrilla marketing kind of approach, and blew up up, and so their success demonstrates that, even in a boring category like water, that you can achieve some pretty damn good results by understanding your audience and creating a unique brand personality, um, and just being a little bit creative and disruptive. So from the statistics from forbes have said that they have had sales grow over 2000% since its launch in 2019. That's like crazy.

Speaker 1:

And so, when we're looking at things from that wider lens of a brand strategy, this is why it's so important to dive into the nuance of you know, the motivators and the drivers, because people will buy with their heart. Literally, they will buy because their hearts are on their sleeve. So if you make them feel good or they feel like they belong, they will invest their money into you. And that's why it's always good for you to be authentic as well, because if you show up to be this person or this brand that you're not, you will find it so hard to step into that role because you've created this thing that you can't live up to. So that's why we always hear the words be yourself, because nobody else can be. This applies for the founder of the business, to cement the foundation of why the brand exists so the business exists in the first place and to wrap that storytelling into the process, because if you saw Mike Cesario, which is the CEO of Liquid Death, you would totally understand the alignment here. He's also an ex-adman, which makes total sense. So that's today's episode.

Speaker 1:

But I want you to think about how you can actually use data and insights of looking around and listening to the conversation that's happening to tap into a really niche area, if you can or sometimes. It's not that you have to have a specific niche, it's just that it exuberates who you are as a brand and nobody else can be you. So it's like your experience of where you've been in life or what you've done, and and then having like a team that sit under that. If you are a brand that has a team, like bringing them into, create that culture. This is why you see people leaving businesses to work somewhere else. When they have a great culture, it's because of it's the movement and the vision that they have as a brand that makes them want to align to that, because work is such a huge part of our lives. So that's a good rundown, I guess, of finding your sweet spot and how you can kind of try and approach it, and with an example there in the process.

Speaker 1:

But if this is something that you're interested in, then the laboratory is coming up soon the brand lab. So keep your eyes open because we are opening doors to that soon. Until then, you can jump on the wait list, which I'll pop the link in the show notes, but until then, nothing has really gone out just yet. I'm just letting you know this is what we're going to be diving into and off the back of the brain lab, where we were speaking about finding these biases and understanding how consumers think, act and behave. This goes into then creating the brand strategy. When you know all of these like cool little gems which you know what, it'll blow your mind.

Speaker 1:

So if this is something that you're interested in, I highly recommend jumping into the show notes and jumping on the wait list. Even just reading a couple of the emails that go out and some of the content that we'll be pushing out on Instagram will give you a bit of a glimpse as to what you can expect. But until then, I will chat to you all next week. Did you like that episode? I hope so, because if you did, why don't you head over to whatever platform you listen on and rate and review? It's much appreciated and helps others know what we're about. If you want to follow us.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Tara Ladd

Host