The ability to support building materials distributor marketing efforts is often overlooked despite many product manufacturers taking the time and effort to improve their own branding and marketing strategies.
Defining and documenting critical elements included in a strategic marketing plan sets the stage for a truly differentiated approach to success within your market.
In building materials B2B marketing and B2C marketing, two different persona audiences are attracted to products in the same way, but buy them completely differently. So let’s take a look at the situations and pain points each has while diving into some tactical approaches that can be implemented to support them in their buying journeys.
Luminus Partner & CEO, Tim Bouchard, is launching a daily work day refresher vlog (video blog) on YouTube starting March 4th. The Executive Marketers Minute will dive into topics such as branding, marketing, communication, design, digital, hiring, and more.
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Creative restlessness. The concept that launched Luminus when it was two hustlin’ freelancers is the same concept that drives the newest brand interpretation. Co-founders Tim Bouchard and Mike LaDuca have always been driven by feelings of creative restlessness. Feelings that mean good enough never is, and greatness is an ever-evolving target.
Way back when, Tim and Mike were a freelance team creating websites for local businesses. But as they grew, so did Luminus. And as Luminus carved out its place in the Buffalo marketing landscape and became a destination for rising professionals looking for opportunities to explore, expand and exceed expectations, we transformed from a web design agency into something much bigger.
A social media profile is a direct extension of your business, and potentially the first point of contact for a large percentage of your audience. Does your social media account look more like a ghost town than a business profile?
If you’re getting lonely on social media, it’s likely that you’re isolating your social media marketing efforts. Believe it or not, your social media campaign needs to be able to communicate who your brand is concisely and accurately.
Values are an extremely important aspect of a successful brand, and social media only emphasizes the necessity for strong values. Through cause-related marketing, it’s possible to build loyal and meaningful relationships with your target audience through social media.
We build brands and brands have a lot of components. Some are tangible and obvious: the logo, the website, the brochure. Some, though, are a little harder to grasp, and almost none are as difficult as the mission statement.
Mission statements are what I would call a “soft” deliverable. They’re internally focused, meaning they won’t be directly used to court and convert customers. They’re abstract, usually centered around values and aspirations than any concrete efforts. They’re not something you can use; they’re something you live.
So I’m not surprised when people hold up their hands when we’re discussing their mission statement and say “This is all well and good, but where do we actually use this?”
It’s a fair question, but it can be difficult to answer. Mission statements are malleable little pieces of text – you can use them almost any way you choose. There are four basic uses of a mission statement that usually come to mind, however.
Nameberry.com is a website totally devoted to the art of naming babies. There’s an entire active forum where parents who can’t decide on a name can interact with “Nameberries” who will help you brainstorm potential names for your newborn.
The Nameberries are awesome and seem to be very helpful. The names they pitch are sometimes a bit too unique for the people who are asking (Atlas, Story and Anthem are all great names but can seem a little mythic for a newborn), but they’re almost always interesting and help folks to narrow down what they really like and what they really want.
The whole process reminds me of naming a product. Babies are much more important than products, of course, but you’re still confronted with similar dilemmas.
The problem with all of these problems is that they’re impossible to solve, at least right away.
I ask new clients one simple question when I’m trying to figure out how to help them.
“Why do you deserve this?”
Here are three stories:
The first story is boring. The second story is weird. The third story is weird, but at least it’s a story, and that’s because it has conflict.
You passed middle school English class. You know that all stories are supposed to have conflict in order to qualify as stories.
Similarly, brands need some level of conflict in order to rise above the level of mere commodities and become something that people can actually care about. While storytelling and conflict can take a variety of forms within a brand, the most common way to introduce interesting, loyalty-breeding conflict into your brand is by creating an enemy.
But why would you want to harsh things up like that? Isn’t there a better way?
The good news is that no matter how nice you are and how good your brand is for you, your customers and the universe, you can absolutely find an enemy that you can define yourself against.