Steve Katz11.17.14
Both converter and supplier members of TLMI (Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute) gathered at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Hotel in Dana Point, CA, USA October 12-15, for the 2014 TLMI Annual Meeting. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Growing Your Revenue with Powerful Marketing and Branding,” and over two days, attendees were presented with strategies and tactics from marketing experts.
Opening the meeting on Monday, October 13, was Alex Goldfayn, market strategist and executive coach. His firm Evangelist Marketing Institute has a client list including the likes of Amazon, Sprint, Logitech and T-Mobile, and he helps his clients with all aspects of marketing their products and services. Goldfayn’s presentation was titled “Marketing for Revenue Growth: Simple, No-Cost Techniques to Grow Your Company,” where he led attendees through product ideation, and developing an aggressive mindset steeped in action.
Addressing the converters in the room, Goldfayn said, “You’re busy. But are you busy being proactive or reactive? Most of you are reactive at work, putting our fires,” he said. “Revenue growth is proactive.”
Goldfayn debunked what he said are common revenue myths – the thinking that revenue growth is time-consuming, difficult and costly. He contradicted a well-known adage, suggesting, “It doesn’t take money to make money.”
“If growth is the goal, marketing is the simplest, fastest, most effective way to do it,” Goldfayn said.
Among the no-cost strategies at a company’s disposal, Goldfayn keyed in on the power of customer testimonials and presented quick and easy ways to obtain them. “There is nothing you can say that is more powerful and relevant than what your customers are saying about you,” he said. Using a volunteer from the audience – Brian Gale of I.D. Images – Goldfayn demonstrated how a 5-10 minute conversation can result in a customer testimonial that creates an emotional impact on current and prospective clients.
Once you have the testimonials, the next step is to communicate them. Here, he said, is a case where quantity trumps quality. “Nothing should leave your office without a testimonial on it,” Goldfayn said. “Marketing is all about increasing awareness percentage. If they don’t know about it, they can’t buy it.”
To open Tuesday’s session, Rick Barrera, a marketing consultant and the author of Overpromise and Overdeliver: The Secrets to Unshakeable Customer Loyalty, asked the audience, “What is a brand?”
He gave his definition: “First and foremost, brand is a word in the mind. It’s a promise of consistency, it’s your reputation,” he said.
During his presentation, Barrera called upon label companies to heed his advice and “Overpromise,” urging businesses to develop “powerful, differentiated brand promises that separate you from everybody else out there that you compete with.”
Branding is critical, he said, because a label converter’s products represent major brands that care deeply about branding. “Each of you has a uniqueness that must be made clear to potential customers in order to differentiate from the pack,” he added.
Barrera stressed the importance of owning a word in the customer’s mind. For example, in the automotive space, Volvo is automatically associated with “safety,” while BMW owns “performance.”
“When you strip away every asset of a company, everything except the logo and the name, that’s a brand’s equity,” Barrera explained. He then reported some striking figures attached to the logos of some of the world’s top brands: Starbucks = $4.4 billion; Heinz = $7.6 billion; Budweiser = $12.6 billion; Nike $17.4 billion; and Apple = a whopping $98.3 billion.
When it comes to growing a brand today, Barrera suggests companies should be focusing on the millennial demographic. “In five years, millennials will be the largest group of consumers, accounting for over 30% of consumer spending,” he said. “They’re willing to pay more to be the first to get an item, and they want to interact with and have input into the products they will buy.”
Barrera pointed out how the most successful companies are masters of what he calls “TouchPoint Branding” – the art of making sure that every point of contact between a company and its customers is well-executed and fulfills an over-the-top brand promise. Without that promise, he said, you won’t get the attention in a competitive marketplace. “And once you’ve done that, you need to overdeliver,” he added. “Align your products so that they fulfill the brand promise, and your systems so that they fulfill the brand promise. Your employees – your people – have to be taught how to fulfill, reflect and amplify the promise. Customers then get excited by it, they become advocates of your company, and they tell other people about it.”
With branding, Barrera stressed the importance of consistency. “A confused mind does not buy,” he concluded. “Be consistent throughout the customer experience. Everything you do should be instantly recognizable as yours.”
–Steve Katz
Opening the meeting on Monday, October 13, was Alex Goldfayn, market strategist and executive coach. His firm Evangelist Marketing Institute has a client list including the likes of Amazon, Sprint, Logitech and T-Mobile, and he helps his clients with all aspects of marketing their products and services. Goldfayn’s presentation was titled “Marketing for Revenue Growth: Simple, No-Cost Techniques to Grow Your Company,” where he led attendees through product ideation, and developing an aggressive mindset steeped in action.
Addressing the converters in the room, Goldfayn said, “You’re busy. But are you busy being proactive or reactive? Most of you are reactive at work, putting our fires,” he said. “Revenue growth is proactive.”
Goldfayn debunked what he said are common revenue myths – the thinking that revenue growth is time-consuming, difficult and costly. He contradicted a well-known adage, suggesting, “It doesn’t take money to make money.”
“If growth is the goal, marketing is the simplest, fastest, most effective way to do it,” Goldfayn said.
Among the no-cost strategies at a company’s disposal, Goldfayn keyed in on the power of customer testimonials and presented quick and easy ways to obtain them. “There is nothing you can say that is more powerful and relevant than what your customers are saying about you,” he said. Using a volunteer from the audience – Brian Gale of I.D. Images – Goldfayn demonstrated how a 5-10 minute conversation can result in a customer testimonial that creates an emotional impact on current and prospective clients.
Once you have the testimonials, the next step is to communicate them. Here, he said, is a case where quantity trumps quality. “Nothing should leave your office without a testimonial on it,” Goldfayn said. “Marketing is all about increasing awareness percentage. If they don’t know about it, they can’t buy it.”
To open Tuesday’s session, Rick Barrera, a marketing consultant and the author of Overpromise and Overdeliver: The Secrets to Unshakeable Customer Loyalty, asked the audience, “What is a brand?”
He gave his definition: “First and foremost, brand is a word in the mind. It’s a promise of consistency, it’s your reputation,” he said.
During his presentation, Barrera called upon label companies to heed his advice and “Overpromise,” urging businesses to develop “powerful, differentiated brand promises that separate you from everybody else out there that you compete with.”
Branding is critical, he said, because a label converter’s products represent major brands that care deeply about branding. “Each of you has a uniqueness that must be made clear to potential customers in order to differentiate from the pack,” he added.
Barrera stressed the importance of owning a word in the customer’s mind. For example, in the automotive space, Volvo is automatically associated with “safety,” while BMW owns “performance.”
“When you strip away every asset of a company, everything except the logo and the name, that’s a brand’s equity,” Barrera explained. He then reported some striking figures attached to the logos of some of the world’s top brands: Starbucks = $4.4 billion; Heinz = $7.6 billion; Budweiser = $12.6 billion; Nike $17.4 billion; and Apple = a whopping $98.3 billion.
When it comes to growing a brand today, Barrera suggests companies should be focusing on the millennial demographic. “In five years, millennials will be the largest group of consumers, accounting for over 30% of consumer spending,” he said. “They’re willing to pay more to be the first to get an item, and they want to interact with and have input into the products they will buy.”
Barrera pointed out how the most successful companies are masters of what he calls “TouchPoint Branding” – the art of making sure that every point of contact between a company and its customers is well-executed and fulfills an over-the-top brand promise. Without that promise, he said, you won’t get the attention in a competitive marketplace. “And once you’ve done that, you need to overdeliver,” he added. “Align your products so that they fulfill the brand promise, and your systems so that they fulfill the brand promise. Your employees – your people – have to be taught how to fulfill, reflect and amplify the promise. Customers then get excited by it, they become advocates of your company, and they tell other people about it.”
With branding, Barrera stressed the importance of consistency. “A confused mind does not buy,” he concluded. “Be consistent throughout the customer experience. Everything you do should be instantly recognizable as yours.”
–Steve Katz