The Bigger Picture

Picture this. You have the perfect idea for an event, and you feel that it represents your brand’s vision to a T. Yet, there are so many steps to get from A to Z that you start feeling overwhelmed and as the date of the event looms nearer, you realize how many things you wish you had planned for. If you have ever felt this kind of stress before or are currently experiencing it, this is the blog for you.

When it comes to event marketing, there are multiple moving pieces. At times there are so many pieces that it may seem like there are too many starting points. To help set a starting point for you, let’s focus on the big picture and then hone into the minute details that will lead your brand’s vision to the picture-perfect moment.

The First Focus: Scheduling

Imagine event marketing to be like a photographer setting up the most picturesque scene. To capture the moment perfectly, at times working backwards is best. In this case, thinking about what you want the vision to look like as a whole then mapping out how to get to that end goal. Although this may seem unorthodox, this process will lead you to a track record of success while also allowing you to tweak the planning breakdown to fit your needs.

At Front Porch Marketing, we start with writing everything down, especially anything that is time-sensitive i.e. inviting VIPs, scheduling speakers, printing deadlines, and booking sponsors. This timeline allows you to envision a clear reality and identify immediate “strikethroughs” or ideas that should be nixed.

Next, identify your audience, define your message, and determine the experience you want to provide. Having a clear vision is important, because all of the smaller event details and decisions will flow from it.

The Second Focus: Seamlessness

Once you have the deadlines and your audience in mind, choose a venue, food, music, entertainment, format, and feel that aligns best with your vision. Stay true to the experience you want to provide, and these decisions will flow easily.

When it comes to your deadlines, also keep geography in mind. Although it may seem natural to book an event near your location, for your professional partners, sponsors, or guests this location may be new terrain. As such, ensure the professional partners and sponsors you choose to assist you are on board with your vision. Your caterer, photographer, videographer, etc. should also be well versed in what your plans and expectations are for the event.

The Final Focus: Structure

Now that your event is on the horizon, it is time to hammer out the final details. Here are some of my final tips on how to create that picture-perfect moment for your future events.

1. Create an overall schedule for the day and share with all of your professional partners and staff.
2. Double-check with your staff on their roles and make sure that all loose ends are tied.
   • Examples of closing loose ties:
     • Posting check-in times to all communication platforms.
     • Pre-inspecting uniforms.
     • Finalizing catering details with the company of your choosing and making sure no cross-contamination occurred.
     • Securing all entrances and marking them accordingly.
     • Making sure that the exits are not blocked by staff or their respected station.
     • Posting last minute schedule changes to all social media platforms.
3. Notify staff and members who should be called in case of an emergency or in the event that something needs to be addressed.
4. Do an event run through the night before to make sure that all equipment is running smoothly. Also do another run through at least two hours prior to the event.
5. Check that social media has been posted and is shareable throughout the event. (A quick way for guests to get plugged in is to post QR codes throughout the location or on deliverables.)
6. Center the company’s brand at the forefront of the event from color schemes to logos to swag.
7.  Brand the sponsored content and products by making sure that they are explicitly seen.
8. Label Wi-Fi passwords and make them visible.
9. Double-check that all mandated COVID protocols are being followed. Have disposable masks and sanitation stations readily available to increase accessibility and comfort.
10. Promise a good time (and deliver)!

In Conclusion

We love planning, executing, and marketing events for our clients! Most recently, it has been our privilege to partner with Faith Family Academy to create a socially distanced graduation ceremony that is expandable for future success. We look forward to executing more events in the future and are proud of the recent 2021 graduates.

I hope that these tips are helpful and got your creative juices flowing! If you need help planning an event come see us on the Porch!

There is no shortage of scientific research indicating the importance of familiarity and brand awareness in customer decision making. Advertisements appear everywhere we turn – from window decals to television and social media. Brand management is essential to differentiate yourself from the competition. Here are seven elements to successful brand management:

1. Construct a strong foundation.

Design and build your brand. A branding exercise can help you define essential elements of your brand. Explore who you are, what your vision is for your brand, and how it is relevant to your target audience.

2. Define your USP.

Once you understand how you fit into your target market, determine how your brand is different from the competition. This is your unique selling proposition (USP).

3. Build the cornerstone.

Use your USP and create a short message defining your brand position. The message should be subtle and easily recognizable to your audience. Use that message as the cornerstone of your marketing.

4. Manage your brand from the inside out.

• The best ambassadors for your brand are its team members. Collaborate and communicate with them. You need them to buy-in and be trained for any interaction to maintain brand consistency.
• Create standards and policies to use internally outlining how marketing materials are to be named, stored, and utilized. These include logos, slogans, previously used concepts, etc. Guidelines can help your brand maintain consistency and stay efficient in times of employee turnover.

5. Build a community. Develop relationships.

• Social media has become a principal source of customer service. Engage consistently and continuously with your audience to build a connection and a reputation for authenticity.
• Influencers can be a strong ally in growing your brand. As with any relationship, you have to make sure the influencer is a good match for your brand and then work to keep the relationship healthy and growing.

6. Protect your investment.

Your brand’s reputation is hard-earned. Once you’ve developed it, protect it.

• Set up Google Alerts so you may be instantly informed if there is news impacting your brand. Be vigilant on social media.
• Crises will happen. Take ownership. Be honest and transparent with the information you have and how you are working to mitigate any damages.

7. Update and polish regularly.

Track the results of any marketing campaign. If needed, polish existing fixtures and upgrade as needed.

We would love to help you design, build and manage all aspects of your brand!

Continuing in the pattern of marketing and travel metaphors, let’s look at the itinerary for your marketing efforts: your brand.

Is your brand getting you to where you want to go? If its not, maybe its time for a brand audit.

“Businesses don’t own their own brand, they are custodians of it.” – Small Business Marketing Expert Dee Blick.

A brand audit looks at:

• Current brand identity – This includes your logo, tagline, key messages, style guidebook, features/benefits, and color palette.
• Digital/social presence – Is your website easy to navigate? If your company has an ecommerce component, is it easy to purchase items from your site? Is your site optimized for SEO and is it mobile responsive?
• Electronic marketing – This includes your company blog, email marketing, and e-newsletters. (Email marketing gets a bad reputation these days but remains one of the most effective ways to reach your customer and increase your business.)

And the list goes on. Everything is a touchpoint: your collateral, your website, the way the receptionist answers the phone.

Ask yourself, “Does this resonate with our current customer? Does it resonate with new customers we want to pursue? Are these efforts in alignment with one another?”

A few years ago, Front Porch did a brand audit for The Remac Group, the parent company of four shoe and women’s apparel brands: J. Renee, Kay Unger, Phoebe and L’Amour Des Pieds. We looked at all four labels from top-to-bottom, looking for cohesion, consistency and alignment with business goals.

Want to know the results? Give us a call and we love to share more.

Even if you know you need to overhaul your brand, it would still benefit your company to conduct an audit. After all, if you don’t know where you’ve been, how do you know where you’re going?

How do you know when its time to rebrand?  Maybe you know that something is not quite right about your brand strategy. Perhaps your brochure copy sounds a little clunky and stale. Or your logo does not render well on mobile devices. Maybe the overall design of your website seems, well, old.

A rebrand can be a time-consuming (and potentially expensive) process.  Before you jump in, ask yourself a few key questions.

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

Does your brand look dated?

Design trends come and go. What worked for your company in say, 2006, might not work for your company now – especially if part of the crux of your business is offering the latest technology or ideas. The Apple logo is a perfect example.

Has your product or service changed?

Where you started out as a company might not be where you are now. A few years and a couple pivots later, your company might offer a totally different set of products or services. Does your brand reflect everything you offer today?

When Amazon first started, they were an online purveyor of books. Now they are an online (and offline) purveyor of everything. And their brand has evolved to reflect that change.

Has your customer changed?

Kids these days. With the hair, and the clothes, and their insistence on disposable furniture… Now, before we jump on the “Millenials ruin everything” bandwagon, consider this:

• Less than 60% of Americans live in the same state they were born in. That may seem like a lot, but according to US Census Data, it was almost 70% in 1950.
• People born between 1990 and 2000 are now more than 2.4 times more likely than the average American to be paying off student loans, and have a median income of $24,973; older millennials’ median income is still just $47,854.

How One Generation Changed The Way We Think About Furniture. Buzzfeed.com 

I can see why Millenials would prefer to buy a dresser from Ikea, rather then a matching bedroom set from their local furniture store.

Have your customer’s tastes and aspirations changed? How do they like to communicate? Does your brand speak to where your customer is now, or where they were 20 years ago?

Ultimately, when your brand doesn’t reflect who you are, it’s time to make a change. Is it time for a rebrand?

Earlier this week, I took my tennis-crazy son to the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in beautiful Palm Springs, California. Over the years, we’ve attended several professional tournaments of all sizes, but this one … it’s the best.

The desert weather is temperate and ideal. The mountain ranges on all sides provide a heavenly backdrop. The venue is world-class both in quality of infrastructure and use of technology. The food and drink offerings are unparalleled (Nobu has a permanent restaurant on site and the Moet champagne garden offers a place to lounge while sipping bubbly). The world’s best tennis players in both the men’s and women’s games come to play in both doubles and singles, and they are so well cared for that they mix and mingle with fans in an intimate setting.

This tournament has differentiated itself from its peers by being the best.

It’s a fascinating case study, because it wasn’t always so. In 1990, the tournament was in the red and in danger of being sold to a city overseas. Enter Larry Ellison of Oracle, one of the richest men in the world with a love for tennis, who stepped in and bought the tournament. Every year since then, he has improved it – building new stadiums, upgrading the grounds, bringing in permanent vendors, establishing strategic partnerships, offering increased prize money, and giving the fans an enhanced experience. He has turned the tennis world on its ear by being the same, but being different.

Differentiate Yourself

This mindset is an essential one for any business or entrepreneur. In your market, you must differentiate yourself from your competitors by doing what they do, but doing it better. Then you must seize upon this differentiator by positioning your brand as an industry leader, and creating a marketing plan to leverage your efforts.

Take a page from Larry. Do you think other tournaments are happy that he has set the bar so high? They aren’t! They fear they cannot keep up. Take on this mindset and separate yourself from your competitors. Then come see us on the Porch! We can help you stand out by positioning and marketing your brand and making it rock!

Dr. Stephen Covey taught us to, “Diagnose before you prescribe,” which is a simplified reason why you need internal research for your business. Also, the adage, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

The internal research process in a branding or re-branding effort gives an honest evaluation via an outside, unbiased third party of your strengths and weaknesses so you can dig into your brand’s core.

After all, the worst thing you can do for your brand is to market a promise that can’t be delivered.

Is there another way for you to know that your brand strategy, promise, positioning and message are going to be on target?

Internal Research On Target

Internal research allows us the ability to monitor quantitative and qualitative results and provides a foundation for our decisions. It removes personal bias and places the focus on tangible data.

The internal research process also builds internal alignment and engagement. Folks take ownership of your brand’s progression. Your team becomes brand champions.

Here’s a glimpse into questions we ask during internal research:

1. Tell me about yourself and your specific role within the company?
2. How long have you been with INSERT BRAND?
3. What do you believe current customers/clients think of INSERT BRAND?
4. What does INSERT BRAND do for customers/clients that others do not?

Not rocket surgery or brain science? Now, why would we put that bit on our blog and share on social media?

We on the Porch know a thing or two about internal research. Our seasoned, experienced team has been in-house as corporate, regional and field marketing as well as been in leadership positions at global and local agencies.

Think of us as your marketing department. We can help with branding. Our team can develop marketing strategies and plans. Our experts also execute on an on-going or project basis – website updates, identity refreshes, collateral development, advertising campaigns, event and trade show management and execution, email marketing, social media and so on and so on.

“Cuz you know what they say:” Here in the South, we don’t hide crazy. We parade it around the front porch and give it a cocktail.

Here on the Porch, social media marketing is king. A strong social media plan is key to a healthy, robust presence on-line – which in turn leads to increased brand recognition, increased brand loyalty, more traffic, and ultimately more customers.

Using social media to grow your business can seem like a daunting task. But it needn’t be! Here are our 6 top tips for developing a strong social media presence:

• Have A Social Media Plan for Each Channel. Please people, don’t just create one type of content and blast it across every social platform! Identify your audience and your goals for each platform – they are very different creatures. Ensure your posts are true to your brand and strike the tone you wish to convey. Develop a calendar and stick to it.

• Create Meaningful Content and Deliver it Consistently. Quality content that excites and engages is worth its weight in gold. Make sure everything you post is valuable, relevant to your audience, helpful, and/or entertaining. And get it out there consistently!

• The Key Word in Social Media is Social – Interact! Engaging with other users on a regular basis is key. Like people’s posts. When people comment, reply! Comment on other people’s posts. Retweet. Give people a shout out! Encourage communication and conversation.

• Optimize Your Content with Visuals and Links. Visuals grab people’s attention, so don’t neglect this important piece of the puzzle. Photos, infographics, memes, videos – all valuable tools. Mix it up. Then don’t forget to drive traffic back to your site! Always link back to your products and services.

• Blog, Blog, Blog. We can’t stress this enough. Develop blog posts that are easy to read,  highlighting ideas that are interesting and thought-provoking. Creating original content in the form of blogs is a win-win! Don’t become overwhelmed, blogs don’t have to be long. Just do it!

• Get Your Entire Team In On the Action. Everyone has a valuable point of view and cache of experience, so encourage everyone to help your marketing efforts. Get them to blog and share their expertise. At the bare mimimum, ask them to follow and comment on the social profiles of your company and your clients.

We always say, marketing is more of an art than a science, and that is true! Take the human approach when developing your social media strategy – it will pay dividends!

What should I blog about? I asked my friend, as we texted this afternoon. “Instant connections,” she said. “Whether it’s a business or a personal relationship. Like a friendship born in a seedy Grand Prairie volleyball warehouse.”

It’s true. We became friends three years ago in a cold, remote, loud volleyball warehouse where we spent an entire weekend watching our daughters play for the same club team. We bonded quickly over our disdain for the helicopter parents in attendance and the absurdity of the diet our girls were forced to adhere to. By the next tournament we had a wagon full of inside jokes that we shared … and we were off.

Today she is one of my very closest friends, even though our daughters are no longer close, and volleyball is but a distant memory.

What causes people to gravitate to each other? And what enables those authentic connections to endure? The same can be pondered in business – what causes people to gravitate to businesses or brands and maintain that loyalty?

Brand loyalty doesn’t happen by accident. Brands that cultivate loyalty find ways to emotionally connect with their customers. How is this accomplished? Here are three things to consider:

1. Focus on what your brand does best. If you try to be all things to all people you’ll end up being nothing to anyone. Be bold. Be unique. Differentiate your brand around what makes you, YOU.
2. Serve your customers. Wow them. Take care of them. Listen to them. Serve them. Give them reasons to come back to your brand again and again.
3. Determine what your brand stands for and deliver on your promise. You must become relentless in your dedication to deliver on your brand promise. Every day.

Creating authentic connections and maintaining a successful brand that brings loyal customers to your door is key. Does your brand measure up?

We are passionate about branding here on the Porch! If your brand isn’t speaking to your customers the way it should, give us a call. We can help.

The beginning of a new year is always a great time to have a brand review and create a fresh approach to achieving your business goals. Growth is always a goal for any business, but as your business grows and develops, you need to check and see if your brand reflects the business as it is today – not what it was last year or the year before.

Here are some tips for checking up on your brand for this year: 

• Does your brand reflect the personality and values of the company? If you don’t think it does, customers certainly won’t either. While the mission, vision and values of your company shouldn’t change often, shifts in your business or marketing strategy may affect the brand. A brand review gives you the opportunity to align it with your mission and vision so that you are connecting with the right people and growing your business year after year. Integrate your brand into everything you do – from answering the phones to your website design to your business cards – every customer touch point needs to be considered.
• Get feedback from external sources and be aware of how your company is perceived. People make decisions based on emotions so you need your brand to emotionally connect with your audience and feel assured that they know the who, what and why of your business.
• Review your brand standards and make sure every element translates across all delivery channels to ensure your brand is consistent.
• Define your key messages and make sure every member of the team knows what they are so they are aware of and can effectively communicate your brand attributes.

Completing an annual brand review will ensure that you are staying true to your brand, which will help ensure customers come back again and again.

Come see us on the Porch if you are in need of a brand review. We can ensure that your strategy and activities are aligned with your brand to maximize success!

I am always learning from my kids. While I try to guide them and nudge them in the direction I think is best for them, the truth is, being their Mother teaches me so much more than I could ever teach them.

Just this week, my high school age daughter was talking to my sons about the difficulties of middle school. Although there were tough days, she actually bore it pretty well, and came out of it with some very sage advice for her brothers on how best to navigate it. And I couldn’t help but notice that it sounded a great deal like the branding advice we give here on the Porch:

“Know Yourself” – It’s a broad, sweeping statement as it relates to being a kid, and the same is true of business; but it is the best piece of advice one can give in both instances. I sadly witnessed many kids trying too hard to be something they weren’t to gain acceptance from a particular group or person. Middle school sharks can sniff that behavior out, and savvy consumers can do the same thing! Embrace who you are and run with it. It is so much better than trying to be all things to all people.

“Be Consistent” – I almost got whiplash watching the roller coaster friendship ride, I can’t imagine how hard it was to live it. The one thing my daughter struggled with the most were girls who were friends in some circumstances but not in others. Friends need to know they can trust and count on each other, just as your customers need to know they can trust and count on you. Be consistent in your messaging. Be consistent in your interaction. Be consistent in your delivery.

“Be Original” – This advice may go against the survival instinct of any middle schooler, because fitting in is everything at this age; but I watched my daughter make original choices over and over again, and I think it served her very well. She chose electives and activities that truly interested her – not just those that “everyone else was doing.” As a result, she has a wide cross-section of friends, and she is a much more interesting person for having taken that route. Branding demands that your business also be original. You must stand out from your competitors. Make bold, original choices. You will be remembered for them.

“Have Depth” – This last one isn’t my daughter’s advice, it’s mine. My daughter has tremendous depth of character, and I admire it immensely. So do her friends. Your business must have the same layers of meaning and purpose to create a sense of emotion around your brand.

Know Yourself. Be Consistent. Be Original. Have Depth. Important branding choices for your business. Important choices for living your life.

Rock on, friends!