Marketing & Branding with Stefan Maritz 🎯

Hello and welcome to our March / April Issue

I know, I know - I’m more than a week late. Life has been, well - just life - busy but good. Everyone is healthy, my baby boy and wife are doing great and there are lots of exciting things happening on the business side, so no complaints.

I have however decided that it’s probably better to work with an interval for the newsletter, so moving forward, I will try to send these out somewhere in the first week of every month, that way it’s a little bit of a surprise for you while it gives me some breathing room to sit down and write something meaningful.

But, without further ado, let’s get into this month’s topic.

Today we are going to look at one of my favourite concepts that branches into all the elements that this newsletter is about - corporate branding, personal branding, content, marketing and even a little customer service.

Today, we are going to discuss the Triarchy of Brand Development.

What is the triarchy of brand development you might wonder. Well, I’m happy to let you know it’s something I made up to help people understand branding just a wee bit better. It’s not anything official and you won’t find anything about it on Google until I write a blog about it - so, theory police, please hold your horses and bear with me.

Behold - the Triarchy of Brand Development!

Both corporate and personal brands are built on three main overarching considerations:
1) What people know about you
2) What people think about you
3) What people say about you

These are all directly or indirectly influenced by the three pillars of the triarchy: Awareness, perception and experience.

Awareness:
Are people aware of your existence, what you do, where you are based, and what you sell? Awareness can come in different levels and ranges on a scale of non-existent to top of mind.

Perception:
What is the perception held in the mind of the individual about a person, group or company? The perception is influenced by a set of direct and indirect elements. Direct influencers are things like personal interactions with your brand, the content you post, your performance at work, etc. While indirect influencers are what they hear or read about you - perhaps a review on Google, or a recommendation from a friend or a family member.

Experience:
The physical experience someone has with the brand, with its touchpoints and with the people that represent it.

The inter-workings:

One cannot hold a perception about something you are not aware exists, and one cannot experience something without developing a perception of it. Yet your perception will determine whether or not you will ever experience it for yourself.

Wait…what… that’s confusing, I know - branding is.
But I’ll break it down for you with a little story:

Imagine you are in a foreign city where you have never been. You are walking down the street, admiring the architecture and landscape when all of a sudden you realise that you are hungry - like really hungry - like closest-restaurant-hungry. This realisation might cause you to look around to see if there are any restaurants nearby, and well, what do you know you spot two places, an Italian place (you know it’s Italian because the sign says so) and a local cafe.

At this moment you are now aware of Restaurant A and Restaurant B. You use the immediate information available to you to form a quick perception. Signage, a board displaying a lunch special, a few people sitting outside having a good time. At this point, you now have a basic perception about what might be waiting inside, but, you decide more information is required - phone in hand, you swipe up, find the good ol’ Google and run a quick search: Restaurant A has thousands of 4.7-star reviews with a top post that catches your eye, it reads: “Best Pasta I’ve ever had! Must try!”.

Restaurant B, on the other hand, has a large amount of bad reviews from unsatisfied customers. “Terrible service”, “What a waste of money”, “Do yourself a favour and avoid it”, “I want my money back”, “Do you call that food”.

Your brain does what your brain does best - evaluate the evidence around you. Restaurant A seems to be the best option at this very moment while your stomach is making the rumbles.

You now officially have a perception about both restaurants and your perception will determine what you do next.

Naturally, we all end up at Restaurant A - we order the lunch special from the kind owner with the nice smile who greeted you with an ice-cold glass of water on the hot day you chose her place. The food is splendid and you are happy.

Your experience has now solidified your perception. 

You leave them a 5-star review on Google “Wow! That was great”.

A few weeks later, a relative of yours tells you that they will also be visiting that very city where you enjoyed your exceptional lunch - you tell them about this restaurant where they HAVE to go have lunch - making them aware of it and planting a perception in their minds.

And so, the cycle continues. Strong brands are built on great experiences. They drive awareness and cultivate perceptions that spread like wildfire.

What you put out into the world about yourself, about your brand and about your business will determine your success. What do people know about you? What do they think about you? And what do they say about you to others after an encounter with you? This should guide everything you build, design, create, post, say and show the world. It should drive every marketing decision, and every piece of content and should drive you (and those who work for you) to deliver memorable experiences that people want to tell others about.

How will you make them aware of your existence?
What will you show them to influence their perception?
What will they experience when they engage with you?

If you build a brand for your company or for yourself - simply think about these three questions and strategise around them, and you will be surprised to see what comes out the other side.

And that is that for today folks. I hope I gave you something to think about and something you can apply to your business or personal brand.

Until next time!

Regards,
Stef