Use your brand’s personality to engage consumers with your marketing campaigns.

It’s 2013 and your target audience is getting hit by every marketing medium under the sun. From social media, web, TV, newspaper and mail, consumers are barraged with “Buy Now” “Save More” and “One Day Only” at an alarming, and often exhausting, rate.

So why should marketers care about all this? Well, because their strategy is just one of hundreds that consumers see every day. In 2012, Consumer Reports reported that at least 247 ads were seen each day by consumers. With so many promotional messages, consumers have begun tuning out these messages, and unless marketers can find a way to breakthrough all that clutter, their campaigns will fall on deaf ears, and glossed over eyes.

So what do you do about it? Get a personality. Yes, it can be that simple. The best way to stand out from all that competition is to be drastically different from them. Here’s how:

Show your people.

Show consumers who you are. Feature your best people, your new people, and anyone else on your team who can put a voice and a face to your brand. Help your consumers see that your company isn’t just a machine wanting something from them. Instead, demonstrate how your company is like them, how your mission is a benefit to them, and how the people behind the scenes are working to make their life easier and better.

Engage consumers!

In this day and age there are so many great ways to engage consumers. Of course social media is a part of that, but direct mail campaigns are also incredible at inciting responses from consumers. Direct mail goes beyond one-dimensional postcards. Today’s technology has enhanced direct mail; pieces now include impressive sensory enhancements like audio, pop-up design and light modules. They feature personal URL’s, or custom web landing pages based on your customer’s interests and previous interactions with your business, and web keys that encourage consumers to visit specific pages of your website. All of these techniques engage consumers through impressionable marketing campaigns that are hard to ignore.

Lighten Up!

Marketing is all about reaching out to people and the best way to become a people person is to drop the stuffy corporate tone. People connect better with wit, sarcasm, and humor because that’s how we are in real life. It’s easier to build rapport with consumers when authenticity is the rule of thumb.

Do your marketing campaigns have personality? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Image courtesy: www.flickr.com/photos/jaaronfarr.

Brand awareness is crucial to all companies. It is through brand awareness that companies build the future of their business by increasing their potential customer base. You might be thinking, “tell me something I don’t know”.  The truth is some companies believe that brands will build themselves. In order for potential customers to buy into your brand and your message it is imperative that what you put forth is memorable and relevant. Of course that comes with some risks. There is no guarantee that what you put out there will resonate with your potential audience.  That is why it is important to have an acute understanding of who your potential customer is and who you would like to convert to a brand loyalist. Once you determine who your target audience is, then the key thing is to position your brand in a way that speaks to that audience. Memorability is key. Getting people to talk about your brand is critical. How many times have you found yourself talking about a commercial or an ad that you thought was funny or tugged at your heart strings?  Think about that next time you plan your brand awareness campaign. Create something that resonates and stays with your audience. Something that will ensure they’ll be talking about your brand next time they’re hanging out at the water cooler.

One of the more memorable Pepsi ads in recent years was the commercial with two truck drivers running into each other at a truck stop. The Coke driver and Pepsi driver bond over a good song and soon the Coke driver is enjoying a Pepsi Max. Once the Pepsi driver tries to capture the moment with a picture on his cell phone, the love-fest ends and a fight ensues.

It reminds me of something my brother told me when he was working for Pepsi making deliveries. He told me that if he was ever caught drinking a Coke while wearing his uniform or driving the truck, he would be immediately fired. I found this really hard to believe, after all, this is the land of the free. While it seems a bit harsh to be fired for drinking a competitor’s product, I guess it does make sense on some level. When you consider the millions of dollars most major companies spend each year on supporting their brand, why wouldn’t they be strict about protecting it?

At the Cupertino, CA headquarters of Apple there is a store just for employees. Every Apple employee, from the maintenance team to senior developers, are able to purchase Apple products like Macs, IPods and software for about 75% off retail. It’s not a profit center but rather a place to create and reward their greatest brand ambassadors, their employees.

I began to think about brand ambassadors this past week when I was trying to replace our cable company. I called one of the satellite service providers hoping to get more information about installation and how satellite TV services works. Instead, I was given an extremely aggressive sales pitch. The goal of the sale person was clearly to get me signed up to have a rep come out and evaluate our location for service. He said that the installer would come out and answer all of my questions before installing anything. Oh, and the only way that he could send a rep out was if I signed up for the service and did a credit check. I explained that before I had the installer come out I wanted to get some questions answered. No luck, it wasn’t going to happen. It was all or nothing. Now, regardless of their branding efforts, their millions of dollars in ad spending and what have you, I will always think of them as the aggressive, unfriendly brand.

Other than marketing, your sales team needs to be your best brand ambassadors. Knowing that they are probably in front of your customers and prospects most often, what are you doing to ensure your brand is being protected and represented well?  Here are a few things to consider.

Emails

I am sure you have received emails from someone where the font is a script of some sort and it is in purple or red. Or maybe the email signature has a smiley face or seasonal graphic of some sort. This may be cute when emailing grandma, but they don’t reflect well on your brand. Companies should set standards for email use that apply to all employees with an email account, including the CEO and the shipping manager. Font styles, size and color should be consistent. Furthermore, the email signature should be consistent in style and layout.

Presentations

When your sales reps give a presentation, who is writing it? Many companies do not have sales support staff, so they often write and create their own presentations. Be sure to have a consistent Power Point presentation template for everyone. The layout, colors and general branding should be the same to ensure brand continuity.

Messaging

Similar to the last point, all communications need to be consistent in style and messaging. Be sure everyone talks about your product and service in a similar way. Letters to your clients and prospects need to include the same language, i.e. tag lines, benefits/features, quotes, whatever.  A sales person once asked me to proof a letter she was sending to a group of prospects. The letter was on the wrong letterhead, used a bold-script font and had inconsistent spacing. It was a mess and didn’t look like any of the letters we send out.

Your sales team has one goal in mind, to sell. They don’t want to worry about branding, presentation styles, fonts and letter spacing. This can all be easily done for them with templates. That being said, it’s important your team is as passionate about your brand as you (hopefully) are.  I doubt very much the CEO of the satellite company I called wants his prospective customers to be pressured and to have what can only be described as “stressful” sales experience. But if he does, shame on him.