Photo of Gary Vaynerchuk via NPR

By doing exactly what they were doing before: giving that personal attention mom-and-pop shops are known for—except online.

When storeowner Gary Vaynerchuk created winelibrary.com and Wine Library TV, and began using Facebook and Twitter, he understood that he would have to do more than just have a social media presence.  He decided to provide real value to customers by building truly meaningful connections which he says, “is hard to do if you’re pushing too hard.” Especially because (as he puts it) his customers’ BS radars are good and getting better.

So how did he find the balance?

Check out his interview with NPR to find out.

-Bianca Abate

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Time for a personal anecdote:

I live in Upper Queen Anne. There are 3 choices to grocery shop: I can go to Safeway, Metropolitan Market, or Trader Joe’s.  No matter what’s on my grocery list or the distance, I always go to Trader Joe’s, which in marketing speak makes me a “loyalist.”

If you ask me why I love TJ’s so much, I could list a hundred things… the food, the artwork, the vibe. The fact that the employees know my name and ask me how my last snowboarding trip went. They actually want to be my friend and I look forward to seeing them and chit chatting about their day, as well as mine. I feel like I belong there.

Brand is the sum of all of these things. It’s the overall experience from the first impression the website makes to the final invoice in the mail. We absorb all of these interactions to form an impression in our minds. To be successful, a company’s goal should be to establish connections that truly resonate or real relationships with people that build collective momentum.

Brands can have good or bad reputations just like people do and reputations travel by word of mouth, just like we gossip about real people. But as overwhelming as it may seem to please the masses, if you’re an organization you just need to take a step back and remember the individual.

Just ask, what is that one connection, that one thing you can do to connect with one person? What is the one experience that defines your brand?

- Bianca Abate

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The brand that’s made me the happiest this year is Wolfgang’s Vault. I go there on a regular basis, often on Friday afternoons when I’m finishing up administrative tasks and need some ear candy. The more I listen, the more often I return. I’ve heard concerts by artists I wish I’d gone to and concerts from the same tours I saw “back in the day” by artists that hadn’t made it big yet. I started going to the site a couple of years ago to relive some great musical moments in my life—but now I’m getting much more.

I love that the Vault has branched out to newer artists and more recent concerts. Their A to Z list of performers is huge and inclusive, so I can experiment. There are artist interviews as well as concerts. There are lots of free downloads as well as ones you have to pay for. Plus concert listings in my area.

The website has improved steadily. It’s become increasingly easy to use and what Wolfgang’s Vault is adding, I’m enjoying. I must be in their target demographic—they’re hitting me in my soft spot and I love it!

What’s the brand lesson? Do one thing really well and build from there. Innovate around what you know and give your customers and fans an easy path to follow as you lead the way. If the substance is there and you demonstrate that you’re listening, you’ll keep your die-hards and win new ones.

Have a great 2010!

Beth Woolley

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A recent client of ours has almost twenty loosely related sub-brands, making their website difficult to navigate and leading to confusion in the marketplace.  The company was pushing the master brand, but consumers were left clueless as to what the master brand actually did and how it all fit together.

Purchasing decisions are complicated enough without making it hard for people to understand who you are and why you do it. If you can zero in on the specific role you play, you make the decision making process one step easier.  A defined brand strategy and brand architecture can enhance focus and clarity. As an added bonus, you can internally focus your budgets and energy more strategically.

So, how to get focused?

1. Ask yourself the fundamental questions of brand architecture:  is the right strategy to create a strong corporate brand or is it to create a portfolio of strong sub-brands—or a combo of both?  Always look at your brand architecture from the point of view of the customer, not how you are internally organized.
2. Clarify (for both employees and consumers) the roles that the various brands play and how they interplay.
3. Lastly, use your website’s navigation as a visual guide to communicate this road map.

-Bianca Abate

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Check out Briana Marrah and Joe LePla’s presentation from their recent workshop at the ALI’s Internal Branding Conference in Chicago.

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