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A whopping 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail. I usually cut myself some slack when personal resolutions start to waver, but I have a much harder time letting go of professional goals. One of my 2016 resolves is to listen to one new podcast a week to step up my game as a beverage marketing professional.
I decided to let you in on the resolution and share my January finds. All it takes is 35 minutes of your time. Are you ready?
The EntreLeadership Podcast – Branding Your Story (Episode #103 – listen from minutes 10-16):
Synopsis: Brand guru Donald Miller challenges you to rethink how you are telling your brand’s story. His theory: Companies should not be the hero of the story, but the customer. Brands that understand how they solve the internal problems an external problem creates for consumers (e.g., a broken pipe causes frustration) will excel.
Miller uses political campaigns as an example: G.W. Bush ran on the problem of high taxes (external problem) and “hit a nerve” when he spoke about Americans not being able to send their kids to college because all their money goes to the government (the internal problem high taxes create). At one time, Mitt Romney ran on the problem of national debt, but was unable to connect the issue to an internal problem. According to Miller, customers always make decisions based on which brand can solve their internal problem.
How It Applies To Beverage Marketing: Take wine, for example. Instead of marketing your wine as “food-friendly,” why don’t you directly address the problem your wine can solve for consumers? A food-friendly wine takes the guesswork out of wine pairings and restores confidence that you are serving the right wine at the dinner table, regardless of the day’s menu. No more agonizing Google searches and no more pretending to know more about wine than you actually do.
Marketing Smarts Podcast – How to Go Beyond Just Telling Your Brand Story (Episode from July 29, 2015 – listen from minute 9:30 onward)
Synopsis: Christian Lachel heads up the “experience design agency” BRC Imagination Arts and turns brands into destinations. In this episode, he talks about his work on the Guinness Storehouse factory tour in Dublin and the Heineken Experience. Lachel provides great insight into consumers craving sensory experiences with a brand, and how important it is to have an actual brand home in the digital era. Consumers take home an “emotional souvenir” from these experiences, which lead to an increase in brand preference of up to 80 (!) percent.
How It Applies To Beverage Marketing: Anyone in charge of creating meaningful engagements with consumers should listen to this episode. I walked away with good ideas on incorporating sensory experiences into tasting rooms, wine events and on press trips.
Six Pixels of Separation – To Understand Content, You Have To Understand Publishing (entry from September 24, 2015 – tune in for minutes 16:25 – 19:00)
Six Pixels of Separation has a podcast and a blog – this story comes from their blog.
Synopsis: Jonah Peretti, co-founder of the Huffington Post and founder/CEO of BuzzFeed, demonstrates how BuzzFeed content evolved based on available communication channels (from “The Email Forward” to BuzzFeed lists and quizzes). BuzzFeed has mastered the art of generating content that connects people and is a firm believer that content is not something people just “consume,” but something people use in their lives for a specific purpose: to laugh, to comfort one another, etc. Peretti encourages content marketers to look at what people say when they share your content and to use social listening to pinpoint what content your consumers really need.
How It Applies To Beverage Marketing: When was the last time you analyzed your content strategy based on consumer feedback? A lot of us fall into a trap and produce content we want our audience to read, but what about putting consumer needs in the center of our content market strategy? After this presentation, you’ll be more committed to creating content that serves a purpose. An increase in “Likes,” “Shares” and comments will follow suit.
Do you subscribe to podcasts that inspire you to step up your professional game? If so, share your recommendations with us in the “Comments” section.