Viva’s Blog: 5 Marketing Tips (from Sunny)

Sunny, our first dog ever, arrived on the scene last week. As it turns out, puppies and marketing have a lot in common: both require research, a data-driven strategy, and disciplined execution of that strategy.

Marketing Tip #1: Establish trust.
Before you can ask a prospect to try your product, visit your website, register for a webinar or schedule a call, you must create trust.

Trust is about keeping promises. Communicating openly. Keeping your customers’ best interests in mind.

Once trust is established, then you can ask for engagement.

A dog has to trust you before you can ask him to sit on command.

Marketing Tip #2: Label it.
Walmart just named their new employee structure, “Great Workplace”. Target’s store brand is called “Up&Up”. Ritz-Carlton’s employees are referred to as “Ladies & Gentlemen”. Why do savvy marketers label their customers, brands, and work groups and then use those labels over and over and over again?

Pick an appropriate label and use it consistently. Our puppy training guide explains that expecting Sunny to sit after hearing “sit” a couple of times won’t yield the desired result. It’s about using the brand language consistently and frequently that results in consumers developing a positive perception of your brand.

Marketing Tip #3: Conduct research.
Why do we conduct research at the kick-off of nearly every brand strategy project? Because guessing is expensive. It takes thoughtful research and analysis to understand an audience. And, you have to ‘get’ your audience before you can effectively market to them.

Housetraining and raising a well-behaved dog also requires research. What and how often should he eat? What’s the ideal bedtime routine? Data-driven hypotheses are available. It’s our job to find and evaluate them.

Marketing Tip #4: Collect data.
Your challenge is to collect data and have the right people analyze it to glean customer insights that catapult your business.

We track when Sunny eats, sleeps and does his business. Without data, how are we going to know our “customer’s” schedule so we can adapt to it (e.g., take him out before he needs to go, not after)?

Marketing Tip #5: Stay true to your brand. 
It’s no coincidence that Sunny’s colors are red and black. (See our logo?) We have a brand identity system at Viva La Brand and maintain consistency, especially when it comes to sub-brands.