YOUR ASSOCIATIONS MATTER.
Inspiration for you this August.
George Foreman is a legend in every sense of the word in the world of boxing. His records and history are so enormous that we don’t even know which one to write and which one to leave out. Let’s just give a summary we found on Wikipedia.
“Foreman is the oldest living world heavyweight boxing champion in history, and the second-oldest in any weight class after Bernard Hopkins (at light heavyweight). Foreman retired in 1997 at the age of 48, with a final record of 76 wins (68 knockouts) and five losses.”
Foreman at some point had health concerns related to his weight, so he opted for a lifestyle of healthy eating that yielded results for his weight loss aspirations. When he first returned from retirement before the final retirement, he posited that his victories were due to his new lifestyle of healthy eating.
It was about that time that Salton Inc. approached him to be the pitchman for their fat-reducing grill. As of 2009, the grill which was named ‘George Foreman Grill’ had sold over 100 million units.
Salton paid him $138 million in 1999, for the right to use his name. Prior to that, he was paid about 40% of the profits on each grill sold (earning him $4.5 million a month in payouts at its peak), so he has made an estimated total of over $200 million from the endorsement, substantially more than he earned as a boxer.
One of the most critical elements of branding is association; with the right associations, your brand (whether personal or business brand) will attain greater results. Whether you stand in the place of Foreman or Salton, you need the right associations to accomplish more.
You may not be a celebrity like Foreman and you may not even be interested in brand endorsements, but the point is beyond all of that. The point is that at your place of work, in your career or business aspirations, on social media, and life generally, look out for the right people and organizations and align with them.
May you succeed.
Mapemond Academy Team.
NAMING YOUR BRAND RIGHT.
A brand name does not merely exist to reflect the idea of a business but to help in promoting and selling the brand to its target audience. If you have to keep explaining your brand name to people, you need to start thinking of another name. Your target audience should be able to connect with your brand name in some ways – pronouncing it, appeal, or nature of business.
You can use your business name as your brand name, but it is not a must. Therefore, if you have already registered your company and it is not suitable as the brand name, the company name can be different from the brand name. That is better than the continuous struggle to explain your name.
Think of the company Nestle and the brand names Milo, Nido, Goldenmorn, Purelife, Kitkat, Maggi, etc.
Think of the company Food Concept Limited and the brand name Chicken Republic.
There is the company Tech Premier Media Limited and the brand name Techpoint.ng
Think of the company Sundry Foods Limited and the brand name Kilimanjaro.
Think of the company Guaranty Trust Bank and the brand name 737.
Think of the company Transsion Limited and the brands Tecno and Infinix.
Same with Unilever and others.
Can you think of other examples? Service-based brands can also apply the same concept. It is important to mention that some companies become brands in themselves. However, our usage of the term “brand name” refers to the same thing as “trade name”, which means the name a company uses to promote itself to the market.
If your brand name is different from your registered company name, you will have to spend some money to trademark the brand name so that it belongs to you. By the way, even your company name is not really yours until you trademark it. In other words, the person who trademarks your company name has the proprietary right to the name even though the name is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
Your brand name is part of your marketing, eliminate unnecessary hurdles with your naming. If you are looking at building something sustainable, get the naming of your brand right, and work towards protecting the name by all means necessary and possible.
THE HAIR COURT. A JOB WELL DONE!
From when the idea was conceived, we were engaged to work with the owner in birthing this lovely brand. Covid-19 and lockdown obstructed the process a great deal, but the baby is born now in the city of Port Harcourt.
The salon received over 40 new customers (excluding personal friends and relatives of the owner) within the first two weeks, our marketing and sales strategies worked!
Here is a quick rundown of our work with this brand:
1. Brand strategy development
2. Marketing strategy development and implementation
3. Recruitment of stylists, technicians, and front desk staff.
4. Training of all members of staff
5. Setup of social media pages
6. Management of social media pages
7. Running of targeted social media adverts
8. Creation of free e-book for promo
9. General business support and advisory
The clients are already falling in love with the brand, but the journey just began. Branding is one thing, brand management is another.
We loved the client’s open-mindedness, nothing is as important as giving your business the right foundation.
We don’t do mere branding, we ensure that branding coincides perfectly with business model and strategy.
It has been an exciting project and it is another job well done!
Let’s work on your brand and position it better for the market.
THE ONE SKILL THAT IS DELAYING YOUR DREAMS.
We had a meeting with someone recently who has a brilliant idea. She has figured out most of what needs to be in place to execute the idea, but there was a giant wall in front of her – how to get the clients. We spoke with her to provide guidance but we gleaned some insights to share with you in your career or business journey.
Ideas and dreams are exciting.
Doing the groundwork could be fun.
Until it is time to sell yourself, product, or service, cold feet will show up.
Selling is not a skill for entrepreneurs only, it is a skill for everyone.
When you go to the visa office, it is a moment to sell yourself.
When you write application letters, you are selling yourself.
When you sit before a panel at a job interview, you are selling yourself.
When you share thoughts on social media, you are selling yourself.
Selling is a must-have skill for you.
Your dreams won’t come true if you don’t confront the challenge of selling.
Making two million bucks monthly is easy to calculate on paper until it is time to make the numbers a reality.
Confront the challenge of selling.
Selling is the bridge that leads to the land of milk and honey.
Find a way to kill that fear and sell.
Overcome that hesitation and sell.
Change your thinking about selling, you can learn and do it well.
The most successful people in the world are not necessarily those who are the best at what they do, but those who sold themselves better.
How badly do you desire success?
How badly do you desire to see your dreams come true?
Summon courage from within and confront the challenge of selling.
There are various options available to aid you – books, courses, seminars, coaching, mentoring, internship, and so on. Only you can make the move, so you can achieve better results.
What you desire for your career or business is waiting for you across the river called SALES (SELL YOURSELF).
We wish you success!
STOP LOSING CUSTOMERS UNKNOWINGLY.
Mr. Williams was lost in thoughts as he sat down at the wedding with the event brochure in his hands. He was impressed by the quality of the design, print, and everything. The brochure was for a one-day event, yet was of such top-notch quality. He left the wedding with a resolve to trash his company brochures and marketing materials and do them all over.
There is a message for you from Mr. Williams’ experience.
Take the outlook of your brand more seriously. From your flyer and brochure designs to every other thing that prospects and customers come in contact with.
When it gets to the point of bringing out money to make payment for products or services, customers tend to have some sort of resistance and doubts.
They suddenly want to take a closer look at your website, social media pages, and everything related to your business, their fears are legit, they don’t want to make the wrong buying decision.
At such moments, your branding speaks on your behalf, through your marketing communications and channel outlook, it appeals to their senses, exudes a sense of trustworthiness and likeability.
Get your branding and marketing communications right and stop losing clients without knowing it.
If you need a professional touch, talk to us!
#DoBusinessBetter
DO YOU FEEL RELUCTANT SOMETIMES IN MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS? READ THIS!
There is a silent and internal conflict that we have noticed with some entrepreneurs.
On one hand, they want their business to grow in leaps and bounds and be known across the world.
And on the other hand, they don’t push their business enough like they should because there is the feeling of “should I be bragging about what I am doing?”, “shouldn’t somebody else do the talking of how good my product/service is?”, and so on.
It’s a conflict between market and social ethics.
In social ethics, you don’t blow your trumpet – this is why some people have concerns when donors at orphanages pose in pictures and broadcast it.
In market ethics, you blow the trumpet as loud as you can with support from customers’ testimonials – this is why some who have a default marketing mindset to pose in pictures at orphanages to let the world know their efforts and probably motivate others to also reach out.
We have left out the category of people who pose in pictures at orphanages just for show-off or clout.
In social ethics, it’s offensive if you offer money to a family that graciously showed you good hospitality when you visited. If you must give money, you disguise it as gift for the kids or something else but not as a reward for the hosting.
In market ethics, it’s irresponsible and wicked if you go to a dear friend’s restaurant to eat without the intention of paying for it or mentioning first that you don’t have money to pay at the moment.
Please, don’t stay quiet or modest about your business endeavour. Throw shame out of the window. Kick fear and timidity out of the door. We are not saying overhype it or promise what you cannot deliver. We are saying you should be more courageous, confident, and ready to talk about your business with every opportunity that you get.
Summary: There is nothing wrong with blowing your trumpet in business. Blow it or be blown out of business. It is called brand visibility and marketing, not boasting.
We hope this was insightful.
We are here if you need our support. Just send an email to wecare@mapemond.com
HOW TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS BEYOND YOU
When it comes to small businesses on social media, the personal timelines of the owners have more content and engagement than the official pages.
We think this happens for several reasons that are understandable.
But we would like to remind you to note that you would need others to drive the entire social media bit someday while you focus on other things. So in whatever you are doing presently, do not neglect the official pages. We see many business owners not responding to comments on their official pages or responding days later.
If building a sustainable company brand out of the business is your desire, keep thinking about putting structured systems in place, think into the future, and put things in place in the bits you can gradually.
A question to ponder on,
Can someone take over the social media drive of your business and move it to a level beyond what you have been doing or at least keep it at the same level?
No matter the amazing results you are getting now, don’t stay stuck with self-employment modus operandi.
You can build something truly phenomenal. Go for it and make it last.
We are a voice from the future speaking to you.
If you need support to get it right, send us an email at wecare@mapemond.com
How to get customers to pay the right price.
When we got engaged as brand consultants by a client, 7 out every 10 customers complained about the price at our client’s venture. Presently, only 1 out of every 10 complain.
What changed?
We overhauled the visuals!
1. We designed a new logo.
2. We created a new brand color.
3. We pulled down the old signage and put up a new one with the new logo and colors.
4. We procured a higher quality of chairs that were more comfortable.
5. We redesigned and reprinted the handbooks given to customers.
6. We created a slogan to give customers a sense of purpose for coming there.
We intentionally created a better visual appeal and customers’ perception of price changed. The number of regular customers increased, the average monthly sales went higher. New customers come more often to check the place out because the visuals got their attention.
Take your visual communications more seriously, it influences how customers bargain with you.
If most customers are underpricing you or complaining, it’s most likely based on the perception they get from what they see or sense.
We will be glad to work with your brand to solve this problem, let’s get the conversation started via wecare@mapemond.com
#DoBusinessBetter
You need your own marketing channels
Imagine that you own a salon and employed someone to help manage it while you focus on your 8-5.
The manager made a request for a dedicated smartphone that will be used for social media management and other communications with customers, but you said no, the manager should use her own phone. You want to avoid the cost of buying a phone.
Customers call the manager’s phone line directly. She takes images with her phone and puts them up on her Whatsapp status to market the salon, they chat with her, and engagement with customers is increasing.
She moves on eventually to another salon and each time your customers call or chats her up, she mentions that she is no longer with your salon but directs them there, most of them insist to use her new salon. They have gotten used to interacting with her and her phone line cannot be passed on to your new manager.
The cost of losing some of your customers is higher than buying a phone that was meant to be an asset to your business.
Employees will definitely have personal interactions with customers, but the business itself should have its own communication channels – Whatsapp, Telegram, Phone Lines, etc – and devices that will remain even when employees move on.
Take your communication channels seriously.
#DoBusinessBetter
SO YOU WANT A SUPER MARKETING TEAM?
We listen keenly to business owners as they vent their frustration about the marketing team not raking in revenue as expected.
We engage them further in the conversation and it turns out that the business itself doesn’t have a clearly defined marketing strategy or plan.
They pass the buck to the marketing team to take initiative, forgetting employees can throw in the towel anytime, if they get too overwhelmed, but you are stuck with the business.
The business MUST have all its strategies in place, what employees are primarily engaged for is the execution since the business owner cannot possibly do everything by themselves.
If you leave your responsibility to employees, then you have to take what you see. Set targets to the high heavens, folks will keep exiting one after the other. Firing and re-hiring won’t help much until the actual issue is fixed. Think strategy.
What is your marketing and sales strategy for 2020?
We are here if you need support.