As Duct Tape Marketing’s only certified consultant in the entire Dallas-Fort Worth (North Texas) area, I do live in Fort Worth, so I’m partial to this side of town.  However, I do love Dallas for two reasons:

1. Two fun college roommates in Big D – love spending time with them and their wives and kids (I never see enough of them though)
2. Galleria – we ain’t got it here in FW, so whenever my wife and I want a big (window) shopping getaway, we head to North Dallas

But as a Fort Worth guy, I love Cowtown for several reasons:

1. Fort Worth was recently ranked one of the best places to live!
2. Sundance Square – the downtown area of FW outshines downtown Dallas – by a longshot!  Even my college roommate’s Dallas-based company is opening an office in Sundance Square – and ESPN is doing their SuperBowl show from there as well
3. Tarrant County is home to the Texas Rangers and Dallas Cowboys – not Dallas County (actually, this season, we’ll let Dallas claim the ‘Boys!)
4. The Stockyards are uniquely ours!
5. My Mom was raised here – so I soon became a TCU Horned Frog fan (currently ranked #3!!!!)

As we continue to meet new prospective clients in this area (met one prospect in downtown FW’s B&N Starbucks on Thursday), and work with a host of business and private school clients in Tarrant County, we celebrate small business marketing in Fort Worth.  2010′s holiday season launches today and we in small business set our sights on 2011 – so here’s to many prosperous months ahead!

-Randy

Fort Worth’s Only Duct Tape Marketing Consultant

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After several requests from friends and different audiences at our various seminars, we have created a resource that will help you in developing your online personal brand – essential in today’s world so wrapped in social media.  Not that traditional approaches are void of value, but this opens up so many more opportunities to tell your story.  Whether you are an upcoming graduate, or you are in full-assault job search mode in between careers, develop your online resume with the low-cost help of social media!

Visit our PERSONAL BRANDING resource page and download the e-book called “Your Social Media Resume: Creating High-Value Personal Branding Content That Opens Doors To Better Interviews”

Here’s the story in summary form. Dave Carroll says that last year United Airlines damaged his Taylor Brand guitar (notice the “Bumpy Flight” response they’ve recently added due to all the publicity – nice job Bob T and crew!). Apparently after a year of trying to get some assistance from United Airlines to address the situation, he took his angst to YouTube and created the above video. From there, one might say the phrase “viral video” really applied. Dave’s video was spread all over the world. And most recently, it made Wolf Blitzer want to talk about it over at CNN – yikes for United!! And while the video was being spread about, so was something else … United’s brand. And not in a nice way either. For some reason, I’m guessing United didn’t post this on their YouTube channel!!

Well, I guess, just like any good story, there’s a happy ending. See Dave’s statement video from just over the weekend below:

So a lesson learned about Brand Management. Maybe if United had been participating in our $49 per month Marketing Strength Training Program, they would have heard us cover “brand management”!! (Ok, that was a cheap plug – but something you still should check out!)

Here’s to brand management everyone – may your brand not be used in a parody song like this one!

- Donny

Hailey is following some expert advice on personal branding – you can read a great article here (note #2 is Guest Blogging!)

Her article is great – and you can watch for it tomorrow morning!

-Randy

Ok, so we are now officially 3 full weeks into the new year – have you developed your marketing plan for 2009?  If you haven’t, it’s time NOW to jump in with both feet.   Don’t let these struggles from 2008 continue in 2009:

•  ”I don’t know who my target audience is so I’ll just advertise to everyone”
• “I know I need a website that works 24/7 but I can’t afford it”
• “I want to do email marketing but I don’t know what to write for each newsletter”
• “It seems like everyone is getting on Facebook, but I don’t know how to use it for my business”
• “Blogging seems like a good way to show my expertise but I’m not sure how to get started”
• “My brand is important but my logo and other marketing collateral doesn’t reflect my business”

The Marketing Twins want to help you in 2009 and we can address all of these and other marketing struggles you may be facing.  And we can do this in an affordable and practical way.  We aren’t stuffy, high-priced marketing executives who charge an arm and a leg (and in some cases both legs!).  We are a Fort Worth-based company and we were born and raised in Texas so we understand how to treat people.  We feel confident that we can help you face your marketing challenges so that 2009 is your best year yet!

So go ahead - get your goggles on, your flippers on the right feet, your snorkle adjusted . . . and jump in!! 

Randy and Donny Vaughn
The Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative
themarketingtwins@1429creative.com

www.MarketingTwins.com

Ate too much at all those holiday parties and family gatherings?  Me, too.  Ritualistically, nations like ours are forced to look in the mirror and scream, “D-I-E-T!”  It’s probably one of the most common New Year’s resolutions.

So you make that discriminating trip to the grocery store looking for the things that are “good for us.”  Your eyes are peeled for sugar substitutes, lower fat alternatives, and healthier options.  You reach for the traditional can of pop (oh, that’s for all you Northerners – down here in Texas, every soft drink is a Coke.  Like every tissue is a Kleenex.).  But your eyes are drawn to the striking logo emblazoned across the packaging next to your formerly favorite beverage.  DIET soda.  “It’s gotta be healthy” we say to ourselves.  You take a step down the aisle already feeling 10 pounds lighter.  But then, suddenly, like a hallelujah chorus belted out with a sudden angelic spotlight, there it is.  Sleek. Inviting.  And not only DIET, but it’s nutritious.  It’s DIET PLUS!

My wife and I have been Diet Coke fans forever!  My wife actually took one of her wedding pictures surrounded by cans and sipping on a Diet Coke (see above – isn’t she gorgeous . . . still looks that great!).  I have not had Diet Coke PLUS, but even I find myself a skeptic.  If I want nutrition or extra vitamins and minerals, I doubt I’ll consider Diet Coke my source for it.  The product’s web site claims that Diet Coke Plus, introduced in late 2007, “provides 15 percent of your RDI for niacin (a B-vitamin) and vitamins B6 and B12, and 10 percent for zinc and magnesium.”  I don’t think they are misleading, I just wonder why try and get your vitamins and minerals with a syrupy 16 oz. soft drink?

Apparently, the FDA took their time studying the new product.  One year later (and just days before Christmas – who’s the Scrooge?), the FDA slaps the wrist of the #3 carbonated soft drink brand in the U.S.

We are impressed by the lure PLUS options.  When we recognize the urgency of transformation and change – we look for any and every advantage we can get.  Similarly, you’re starting out 2009 looking to make some changes in your marketing.  You look around for ways to make better marketing choices and you start looking for substitutes or strategies that have worked for others.  The problem is that the packaging includes words you don’t understand nor can pronounce.  Some you’ve never heard of.  And then there are ways touted as the PLUS option!  You’re not sure what you’re getting, but you figure any marketing technique is a step.  You say, “Any marketing tool is good, right?”

Dieting is one of the most popular resolutions EVERY year and it’s that way for a reason.  Changing our marketing ways is similarly one of the hardest things to maintain and continue over the long haul.  You start quick trying a few new ideas.  You buy a new software, read a new book, listen to the latest marketing podcast.  You get excited, but just as quickly, you bottom out when they new strategy doesn’t produce immediate results.  If you’re not intentional, consistent and systematic, you’ll likely lose your way and revert to the things that got you into this mess in the first place.  Small businesses default back to our former ways and find ourselves content in doing nothing . . . until it’s time to look in the mirror again next year.

On our own, the majority don’t tend to do well with change over a sustained period of time.  Temptation creeps in and convinces us to turn back.  We don’t see the results instantaneously and we slug the mirror with our proverbial fist and shout “this doesn’t work for people like me!”  Discouragement can so quickly rob you of that motivation that propelled you from the start gate of change.  And somewhere around Day 41, your ability to self-motivate seems often trumped by the seemingly impossible challenge of carrying out a systematic, sustained plan.

Coaches and trainers typically provide much more significant results than doing it alone because there’s someone helping you implement a well-thought-out plan.  Coaches help you you make a comprehensive plan rather than gravitating to the loudest sales pitch or fad of the week.  And when the demon of reversion rears its ugly head, the coach is there to hold you accountable to the strategic plan you and the coach at one time had collectively determined best for you.  Remember that?  Oh, and if you never made a plan to make a significant change in strategy, well you’ll probably want to go back and do that.  A marketing plan is essential just as an architectural map is for the contractor building your dream home.  Imagine doing one without it.

Seeking the services of a marketing coach might be the most proven solutions for you.  Without the assistance of someone at your side,  Don’t make the same mistake in 2009.  As Fort Worth’s only Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coach, I’m here to help you make better decisions, choose the best plan, and keep you accountable throughout the year.

-Randy

During the holidays, we are bombarded by dozens of pleas for charitable giving.  Especially during a down economy, nonprofits and charitable causes are typically suffering from low response because consumers tend to give when they are not preoccupied with how to pay their mortgages.

But what if you are a small business owner?  Whether it is the holidays or year round, does your small business give to charity?

I think we can assume that most people and small businesses give charitably out of genuine concern and care.  People like to associate themselves with businesses that support meaningful projects.  It’s makes us feel good.  Thus, the marketing benefit is that this attaches a likability factor to your business.  And, yes, consumers are looking for reasons to like you (because they typically don’t like your prices).

Big companies have long employed charitable giving into their strategy of getting customers to know, like and trust them.  McDonald’s has a long history with Ronald McDonald House Charities and Subway is affiliated with the American Heart Association.  As a father of an adopted daughter, I love Wendy’s because of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (OK, so it’s their Frosty, too).

How will your business share your success to impact your community and the world?  Recognize the importance of rallying your team behind a passion greater than your organization itself.  Differentiate your organization by focusing on selfless acts of community service.

To see most common ways to participate philanthropically, visit my article on this same subject at the AMEX Open Forum for Small Business.

-Randy

PLUS:

Fort Worth Star Telegram’s Andrea Ahles offers a recent companion piece on how shoppers can be charitable.
Todd Schnick of Intrepid Marketing also weighs in on how giving back to your community is good marketing!

As we started this recent series, we made this definition:

Branding can be defined as a collection of values, ideas, personality, and history. Branding at its peak is when people associate YOUR NAME with the product itself. When you have a cold, how many people say, “pass me a kleenex please.” Kleenex is a BRAND of tissue, but its name has become synonymous with the product that solves a problem.

Here’s the complete series on BRANDING in one blog post – hope it is educational and helpful for you:

Part 1 of 5 (Branding Yourself)

Part 2 of 5 (9-part Branding Strategy)

Part 3 of 5 (Branding is like SHOWCASING yourself)

Part 4 of 5 (Your Branding Presence)

Part 5 of 5 (Managing Your Brand & Planning Your Brand Strategy)

If you missed it: Part 1 of 5 (Branding Yourself), Part 2 of 5 (9-part Branding Strategy), Part 3 of 5 (A Strong Branding Foundation) Branding is like SHOWCASING yourself, or Part 4 of 5 (Your Branding Presence):

Just as you’ve spent all this time, effort and energy into building your brand, there’s the relentless management of your brand that often trips people up. You might spend months meeting with the architect and making plans for a new house. You meet with all the right people and ultimately your house moves beyond brick and sheetrock to the beautiful masterpiece it has always been in your mind. Your new house is exquisite! You announce your open house and everyone comes for a visit. What fun to showcase your new loft!

But then fast forward a few months and it’s time for Christmas. You’d love to host a holiday gathering, but the first question your spouse asks is “have you seen how filthy this place it?!!!” You can spend hours building what is beautiful and dreamy. But without regular maintenance and upkeep, it’ll be hidden by the dust and grim that builds up!

In your own branding, you have got to remain on the forefront of the assault of protecting and maintaining your brand. Perhaps there’s new news that comes out in the local paper about your company and it’s not good. You’ve got to jump out there and defending your brand (and possibly doing whatever it takes to correct the mistakes if indeed there were any). Another cool way to stay on top of what’s being said about your brand is staying in touch with what’s being said about you. Through cool tools like RSS and Google News Alerts, you can stay on top of whatever is being written about your company’s name. Without this information, you are left unarmed, abandoned to the unknown as to whether or not good/bad things are being said about you. In the online world of blogs and forums of all kinds, things can be said about you without you having a clue – but with the right tools, you can know if there are conversations happening that mention your name. To their surprise (especially if it’s a blogging frenzy against you because of somone’s bad experience). You could stand back, aloof and saying to yourself, “who cares?” – OR – you can choose to engage in this blog discussion and try to clear the air a little. Nothing will shock the bloggers more than hearing directly from the one who has ulimate responsibility over your company’s brand name. This can go a long ways in repairing your brand image and you might even win a few converts because of your engaging personality!

As well, don’t let yourself (or others) get lazy in maintain a consistency about the key elements of your brand. Especially if you are launching a new logo anytime soon, make sure anyone and everyone who has access to the old logo knows to destroy the old logo! Lazy folks just use whatever is easiest to find and often dilute the efforts of your strategic branding strategy! If appropriate, post your “media kit” on your page so any external sources (media) can download the current logo, headshots of CEOs, or even brief biographical information.

Here’s a good link that reinforces the importance of managing your brand!

The final step in the branding strategy is to simply craft a PLAN! Make yourself a schedule – and know right up front that you can’t do it all at once. Small baby steps – but steps with a goal! Be strategic and systematic about it – it’s a long-term strategy to build credibility – it’s all about getting people to KNOW, LIKE and TRUST you.

Finally, here’s an article by John Jantsch, founder and creator of Duct Tape Marketing, that rounds out our 5-part series on branding! Hope you enjoyed it!   Thanks to the other Marketing Twin, Donny for keeping these posts going while I’ve been in Benin, West Africa.  I’ll return on Tuesday night so pray for a safe return.

-Randy

themarketingtwins@1429creative.com

p.s.  Did you hear the exciting news from the Double Take LIVE Broadcast on Tuesday?  If not, here it is:  On Wednesday, October 8th at NOON CST, the Marketing Twins will be interviewing for it’s 3rd Double Take LIVE Broadcast a Gold Medal winner from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  Stephanie Brown Trafton won GOLD in the women’s discus as part of the Track & Field competition.  Stephanie’s faith will inspire us all as she pulls back the curtain on what life is like as an Olympic athlete and how her faith rescued her Olympic dream!  You may have even seen Stephanie on the Oprah Winfrey Show earlier this week.  Mark your calendars for these two key dates:  Friday, September 19th when registration begins and Wednesday, October 8th for the actual call !!  Go to our UPCOMING EVENTS page for more details!

If you missed it: Part 1 of 5 (Branding Yourself), Part 2 of 5 (9-part Branding Strategy), Part 3 of 5 (A Strong Branding Foundation) Branding is like SHOWCASING yourself. With all the emphasis the past couple of weeks on the political conventions, consider this quote from the Republican National Commitee:

“The convention will showcase Sen. John McCain and his vision for America to the 45,000 convention participants joining us from around the country and the millions more participating from home.”

Branding is a necessary effort in the marketing process. Alone, however, it is incomplete without more substance and specific invitations (these political conventions can be viewed only as “fluff” by alot of people but they are intended to launch the candidates into a season of specifics and strategic moves that will compel voters in Novemeber). But coupled with an effective plan for closing the sale, branding can incorporate a gallery of your values, your history and your personality into a coherent and magnificent display that makes potential customers take notice! Thus all the fanfare at these conventions!

PACKAGING – While my political leanings lean away from Obama yet not completely toward McCain, I would cast my vote for the former in terms of packaging their brand. His brand is the subject of many critics (some say it’s just hype), but there is no doubt that his brand has resonated with millions. But I’m not even talking so much about his message which is open for debate and likely to cause some of you ulcers if we spend too much time talking about either side! I just think his packaging is crisp and clear and consistent. Even though I’m not an Obama supporter, I signed up to receive all his materials (and McCain’s too) because I like political marketing. I would cast my own vote for Obama in terms of marketing materials. There’s a consistent look and that is important in branding. The way that all of your marketing collateral fits together is essential in branding. Keep consistent!

Another critical element of branding might bring some of you back into this conversation. Just as logos speak volumes about your brand, nothing resonates more clearly with people than your STORY. John McCain wins this one. While the other side might think the RNC is over-using the POW angle, there is no doubt that McCain’s story resonates with many voters. It’s who he is AND it tells alot about his values! If people were to go to your website, or look around your store, do they get to hear your story anywhere? Do they hear what’s important to you, and the importance of your journey? Stories invoke emotional responses with customers and it’s an effective part of your branding. The use of audio and video clips to showcase your story is essentially essential!

You can also showcase yourself in the way your email signature reads, the way your voicemail sounds, or the way your Facebook profile page is arranged. While politics often get a bad name for manipulating voters or simply offering superficial imagery or lame rhetoric, take notice of how most of what politicians are doing can be considered branding. We can learn from how they operate (and then maybe do it without as much partisan among your prospective customers!)

ONLINE PRESENCE - We can’t even begin to give this section the time it deserves. But hopefully, if you are a regularly reader of this blog (or other marketing blogs), you’ll know well the importance of blogging, podcasting, email marketing, and so much more. Do you have a Facebook or Myspace profile? Do you Twitter or have a Linkedin page? What about local online profiles or other social media and social networking sites? Got any videos out on YouTube or some other video networking site? There is no doubt that one key to enjoying a strong Search Engine Optimization success is to having a strong online presence.

TRADITIONAL “OFFLINE” PRESENCE – Back before there was the internet, businesses would employ a number of effective paths toward positively branding themselves. In this category: sponsoring a Little League baseball team, hosting a charity event or being one its major sponsors, participating in civic organizations, conducting workshops, speaking a luncheons and special events, writing articles for industry publications or local papers, appearing on radio or TV shows, and so much more.

PUBLIC RELATIONS – Certainly some of the above can be lumped into a category most people call “PR” – and those rules are changing (see David Meerman Scott’s best-selling book for more details on how the rules are changing). In the old days, you created press releases and begged your local journalist to include it in their paper. Now, sophisticated readers are wanting news more often and certainly faster, so journalists are often searching for news . . . and for the most part, Google is their modern day informant! Electronic media allow companies to publish their own press releases to the web and if done right, the ones writing articles find them! The old “buy-beg” strategy for advertising and PR is gone: we now have so much more control. And because of the internet, our PR strategy can be much more limber and flexible to include so much more (without having to worry so much about expensive the 1/2 page ad space is!) With an effective website and corresponding blog, companies can brand themselves from a variety of angles. And they can make changes on a consistent basis to keep the content fresh and relevant.

This is of course another important area to highlight the importance of Search Engine Optimization. If prospects or journalists are interested in finding out about YOU, then if you are not getting top search results when someone Googles your name, then you are virtually hidden on the web – out of sight, out of mind! SEO is not magically achieved in an instant. If you think to yourself, “I need to get online so that when someone Googles me, they find me” and you think that’s going to happen overnight, then you need to better understand SEO and what John Jantsch calls “earned press” (this is a new terms for the inappropriate “free press” term – the former obviously indicating that a business can be rewarded for the hard work it takes in creating a strong online presence). We all enjoy “free press” – but let’s not fool ourselves . . . if we get top search results (in the Top 10 listings), we can pat ourselves on the back for the work it took to achieve such success.

David Meerman Scott recently likened this “online presence” to being a regular at the local pub or coffee shop. While some public relations is about promotion and announcements, having an effective online strategy may just be as low-key as hanging out at the local hangout. Simply participating in the conversation and community. You’re not necessarily overtly promoting yourself, but you are building credibility because you give people a window into who you are. As you regularly participate in the fellowship of the community, you increase awareness of your values and your personality (KNOW), you’ll engage in developing relationships that bring positive experiences (LIKE) and you’ll eventually achieve that level of loyalty where people put their complete confidence in you and what you offer (TRUST). If you don’t want to get to this level, simply walk into the coffee shop, don’t greet anyone, pin your business card or flyer to the community bulletin board and walk out. The community around you is happening – are you engaged in it? Or are you just concerned about telling people about what you have to offer?

So what’s going on in your community? Do you know? Do you participate? Or are you too busy promoting yourself in the name of PR that you don’t hear what’s going on?

Stay tuned on Friday for my FINAL installment in this branding series.  I’ll be returning from Benin, West Africa next week.

Part 5 of 5 (Managing Your Brand & Planning Your Brand Strategy)

-Randy

themarketingtwins@1429creative.com

p.s.  Did you hear the exciting news from the Double Take LIVE Broadcast yesterday?  If not, here it is:  On Wednesday, October 8th at NOON CST, the Marketing Twins will be interviewing for it’s 3rd Double Take LIVE Broadcast a Gold Medal winner from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  Stephanie Brown Trafton won GOLD in the women’s discus as part of the Track & Field competition.  Stephanie’s faith will inspire us all as she pulls back the curtain on what life is like as an Olympic athlete and how her faith rescued her Olympic dream!  You may have even seen Stephanie on the Oprah Winfrey Show earlier this week.  Mark your calendars for these two key dates:  Friday, September 19th when registration begins and Wednesday, October 8th for the actual call !!  Go to our UPCOMING EVENTS page for more details!