One Planet Living: Can You Brand a Way of Life?
WE ONLY HAVE ONE PLANET!
According to Bioregional, an international, environmental non-profit organization, if we live like Europeans we will need 3 planets worth of resources. If we live like Americans we will need 5! Their goal is to find and support ways of limiting the number of planets we need...
Physical Product Brand Builders Must Consider the Cost of Sales
WHAT DOES IT COST TO SELL?
Probably the biggest challenge we faced in building the Barefoot Wine Brand was to understand the cost of sales. We are not talking about the cost of goods, which was relatively obvious, but the cost of sales, which was a lot less apparent and hidden in...
Resynergi Turns Single-use Plastics into Fuel
WOULD YOU THROW MONEY INTO THE LAND FILL – OR THE OCEAN?
A Rohnert Park, California startup has an idea to solve one of the problems regarding single-use plastics. As you are aware, the oceans and landfills are choke with them. They take thousands of years to decompose. And when they do, they form tiny little particles that...
Your Physical Product Brand Is Only as Strong as Your Distribution
“IS IT THERE YET?”
We like to say, “If you want to get paid for your idea, wrap it in a business; then wrap your business in a brand; and then build your brand until you sell it!” When we got started in the wine biz we thought, “Oh! The...
5 Essentials to a Successful Brand Ad
“WHAT ARE THEY SELLING?”
Advertising is expensive. So, why not do it right? Even when done to perfection, you’ve only got a split second to grab the attention of your potential customer. You must get noticed and understood, and communicate a clear call to action – all in a blink...
Being Treated Rudely Can Lead to a Sale …If Handled Correctly
“AND DON’T COME BACK!”
In the course of building your brand, you will come up against more than one rude and adamant naysaying gatekeeper. We certainly did! Interestingly enough, they all eventually came back and bought! But they might not have if we had handled it differently. Each situation is...
Fear Can Blind You from Seeing Solutions
CONFIDENCE BREEDS CREATIVITY
One of the most common questions we get from folks who are new entrepreneurs or brand builders is, “What keeps you going when you run into a wall?” Another is, “How do you handle the unknown?” Both questions are interrelated. If you don’t know how to...
5 Ways Physical Product Brands Can Stay Relevant
“THAT USED TO BE MY BRAND”
The folks who handle your company’s “complaints” about its branded products are a wealth of information. Even though many companies think of customer service as “complaint resolution,” we always thought of it as customer intelligence, or “customer intel.” But if you have the top-down paradigm, then...
Your Label Design Must Respect Your Customers’ Priorities
MAKE A STATEMENT ...OR MAKE A DEPOSIT?
We have a new friend who told us he spent 3 years designing a label for his new Spanish olive oil product. He asked us what we thought. We had to tell him it wouldn't work. Ouch! That hurt both of us! He created a lovely...
It Takes Time for the World to “Get” Your Great Idea
DON’T GIVE UP!
So many inventors, makers, and consumer product producers get discouraged when their great idea doesn’t fly right off the shelves. They think that just because of its compelling merits, a great product should be an instant hit. And maybe it should. And sometimes it is. But...
Your Physical Product Brand Must Scan to Get Reordered
“IT’S JUST NOT SELLING!”
It always amazed us that the big chain and box store buyers would measure our products’ success in their stores by one thing and one thing only: scans. That’s right, how many times our UPC code was read at the registers. Never mind any other impediment...
True Brand Building Success Requires a Long Attention Span
“BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!”
Today folks think it’s OK to have a short attention span. We have so much competing for our attention, we’re so busy, and we have such limited time. We tend to want the short answer, the bottom line, or “the one thing” … or we won’t...
The American Mule is Stubborn About Quality
IT’S WORTH IT!
We’ve often written about the danger you face when, as a physical product producer, attempting to hit the velocity price point. That’s the price where products in your category move the fastest. Even more dangerous is trying to hit the lowest price in your category. For...
5 Ways to Name Your Brand to Maximize Sales
MAKE IT MEMORABLE!
What’s in a name? Too many syllables probably, and impossible for the reader to connect the name with the product. We have seen too many “cool” brand names get left in the dust of the marketplace simply because they were too complex, too wordy, or too...
4 Ways To Get Strategic Allies Who Can Reduce Your Need for Capital
IF YOU GET RICH, THEY GET RICH
Probably the biggest advantage any start-up can have is strategic allies. These are the folks who get rich when you get rich. It’s that simple. It’s not so simple to identifying who they are and to develop the kind of relationships that are built on trust....
Selling Non- Digital, and Non-Personal Brands is Unglamorous and Rudimentary – But Rewarding!
“WHAT…YOU’RE SELLING A PHYSICAL PRODUCT?”
There’s too much talk today about building digital and personal brands and not enough about building physical brands. Yet most of what we consume are the physical products of physical brands. We have gotten so excited about digital products that we now have to use the...
Successful Product Producers Must Be Service Providers
SERVICE WHAT YOU SELL!
We meet a lot of inventors, innovators, makers and consumer brand builders. They all say they are product producers. But is that all that is required? When does your product require servicing? Right after you sell it! It is then that your customers begin to experience...
Happy Unique Year! Find Out What’s Different
START WITH WHAT YOU CAN’T CHANGE
The calendar is constantly changing based on the moon, dates of the month, days of the week, and when the year starts. This marble cake overlay can stretch and shrink selling periods in advance of holidays, and make certain holidays more or less significant. It can...