Think of the last few things that you bought, big or small—a new phone, a pair of yoga pants, a new car, a pair of shoes, even a food item. All of these products have one thing in common: the company you purchased them from is selling you a lifestyle.

So what is a lifestyle brand?

Webster defines a lifestyle as an individual’s whole way of living, and a brand as (a) an identifying mark or label (b) the make of a commodity or (c) a special kind.

Wikipedia’s says: A lifestyle brand is a company that markets its products or services to embody the interests, attitudes, and opinions of a group or a culture. Lifestyle brands seek to inspire, guide, and motivate people, with the goal of their products contributing to the definition of the consumer’s way of life. They often operate off an ideology, hoping to attract a relatively high number of people and ultimately becoming a recognized social phenomenon.

In Forbes article A Survival Guide For Symbolic And Lifestyle Brands, they point out “(Lifestyle Brands) deliver strong social benefits through which a consumer will be able to subconsciously answer the question, “when I buy this brand, the type of people I relate to are…” they create a sense of belonging or disrupt the status quo. So, Nike aligns people who want to push their limits. Club Med connects those who wish to communicate; The Body Shop, those who value nature.”

If you are a lifestyle brand or if you aspire to be a lifestyle brand, you must fully grasp the lifestyle your customer aspires to and you must reflect it in thought, word and deed. You need to clearly communicate that you embrace the same ideals as your customer, but also define your product.
Consumers have started referring to brands as if they have their own personalities. Have you found yourself saying “That doesn’t seem like them” or “That was off-brand”? Case in point: a brand whose red cup can wage a war on Christmas.

In today’s constant barrage of communication, people want transparency, authenticity, and honesty. They want to admire and trust the brands they bring into their life. To create a lifestyle brand, you must:

1. Discover Your Brand: What do you want people to feel about your brand? Determine what lifestyle aspirations your brand fulfills, and communicate accordingly.
2. Create your Brand: Clearly define your brand personality. Your identity needs to be holistic. What is your brand’s whole way of living?
3. Communicate Your Brand {with confidence}. Be conversational. Our friends and family enhance our lives with their adventures and personalities. Consumers expect that from a lifestyle brand. Create experiences. Share your personality. Form connections. Express your personality on many different platforms.

“In designing a lifestyle brand, you have to know more than just designing clothes,” Tommy Hilfiger

Here on ‘The Porch we are making brands rock your lifestyle daily.

Friends, it may be time for a branding and marketing intervention: We love you. We value you. But sometimes, you need to recognize when it’s time to play in your own sandbox. 

We say it all the time on The Porch, “Branding and marketing are more an art than a science,” and our rockin’ Front Porch Marketing Team has spent more than a combined 80 years honing this art form to make a difference in our client’s businesses.

But we can only make a difference if our clients let us.

Our best clients are passionate, excited about their work, and open to new ideas that will enable them to leap ahead. We tell our prospective clients that we work best when we are partners, not vendors, and are treated like a member of their internal team. We believe in direct conversation and diving in the strategy debate while getting our hands dirty.

So … in the spirit of direct conversation (which is a foundation on which The Porch was built), here are a few recent examples of when you, Ms./Mr. business owner, leader or department head, should rock away from the branding and marketing table … rock far, far away friends:

1. You scribble your logo ideas down on paper and/or mock them up yourself on whatever design software du jour. Design software and a favorite font do not a creative director make. Our team of creative professionals work with our clients through a formalized branding process that crystallizes the brand’s vision and ensures that the brand puts itself out there in the best way possible.
2. You recommend a CMS platform for your website because that is the platform you use to manage your child’s sports team and its schedule. We develop and re-design websites constantly for our clients and their brands. We know what works and what doesn’t. Trust us to make these decisions that will accomplish your business needs and goals.
3. You are going to hire an intern or an admin to manage your social media. Both of those positions are vital to a company’s operations. But neither are qualified to take on something as important as social media. Why not go ahead and have your financial manager do it??? (See what I am trying to say here?)
4. You call a half day meeting with your business consultant, VP of sales and VP of marketing because your VP of sales doesn’t like a showroom sign created by the marketing department. Give the power to the people and let sales and marketing handle their feud that has lasted longer than the Hatfields battled the McCoys.

We believe collaboration is key. Bringing team members in from other departments for planning meetings and brainstorming sessions can add new perspective, create different ways of thinking and spark new ideas. Says Pharrell:

Remember, however, we branding and marketing peeps like to work “in a room without a roof.” So let’s work together! We are fully vested in getting your business the desired outcome. After all, if you aren’t successful, neither are we.

Rock on friends.

Chief Rocker Julie Porter can be followed on Twitter and Instagram and so can her company. Follow Front Porch Marketing on Twitter by clicking here, like us on Facebook by clicking here and follow our LInkedIn company page and Instagram fun.

Your brand’s reputation is among the most valuable assets your company has so how are you protecting your brand? It defines your company and helps it stand out from competitors.

As Warren Buffet said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it.”

This is especially true today with social media – what used to be a 24-hour media cycle is now a 24-second social media cycle.

Unfortunately, even with diligent, proactive risk management, a crisis can happen at any time. No company is immune to misconduct by employees, the sudden resignation or illness of a key leader, product recalls, accidental injuries/fatalities, natural disasters, etc. So, you need to prepare, anticipate and plan ahead – because it’s not a matter of if a crisis will occur, it’s a matter of when. The cost of a crisis to a company can be huge, and most crises require attention within the first 24 hours.

What can you do to prepare?

Create a crisis management plan to ensure a rapid and adequate response, maintain clear lines of reporting and communication and set rules for crisis termination. You must protect your brand.

Crisis management is NOT THE SAME as risk management. Risk management serves to minimalize and hopefully avoid crisis. Crisis management is actually dealing with a crisis.

To create a crisis management plan:

• Research your company’s record
• Identify all potential crises
• Create and prepare your crisis team
• Schedule media training sessions
• Stage regular crisis readiness simulations
• Assess and update crisis plans

Want to learn more?

Come hear Front Porch Marketing present on “Protecting Your Brand” at Danger Zone 2: Active Shooter Seminar presented by FBI Dallas Citizens Academy Alumni Association this Thursday, September 3, at the Charles W. Eisemann Center in Richardson, TX. The seminar is designed for individuals, business leaders, school teachers and administrators, church leaders and anyone seeking to gain knowledge should you ever encounter an active shooter in the workplace.

As a country, we are averaging one active shooter every three weeks. No location is immune from these events happening. Danger Zone is a great program with a proven track record of success that will greatly increase your chance to survive the ordeal.  For more information and tickets, click here.

A special shout out to our friend and advocate Rod Fullenwider at D&L Entertainment for including us in this event. We appreciate your continued support Rod!

I _______ summer!

Jumping into summer!

If you have children … there are two clearly defined summer camps. Working parents either love it or loathe it. ‘Tis the season for sleepaway camp, trips and being our kids social directors. You have sleepovers and playdates. Camps and sports. Staying connected to friends (as important as family time). Relaxed routines. The list goes on. We on the Porch have watched and listened to these two groups …

From the LOVE camp we saw lots of pictures, “100 activities to do this summer” lists, happy emoticons and summer forever, summer needs a speeding ticket and summer lovin’ taglines. I LOVE SUMMER.

From the maybe not so much love camp, the conversation was about sibling squabbles, last minute requests for supervision, open letters and sarcasm – Worst-end-of-summer; Enjoyable Summer Sarcasm.

The common thread between the two camps was that they had a plan. A SUMMER plan! Where the kids would be and when, who was watching them, vacations and a screen time system.

If you own a local business … again there have been two definite camps this summer. You have either thrived or you have suffered from the dreaded North Texas summer sales slump. If sales were swinging – congrats! If they were slow, perhaps there is something you can learn from Summer Mom. Have a plan. This can include anything from a summer sale to a special event, new product introduction or staffing change. Once you have it – rock it and chill!

Successful summer promotion from our favorite GEMs

The Porch rocked our brands this summer, but we were watching others. We saw some interesting approaches, which ran the gamut from closing the doors to aggressive promotions to strategic affiliations. There’s no escaping that the kids will be at home and families will travel during the summer months, so a dedicated summer marketing plan is always a rockin’ idea.

As for me, sign me up in the I LOVE summer column! I also LOVE fall. They are all my favorites.

As our Chief Rocker continually espouses, marketing is not a science, it is an art. There is no one size fits all. It is a continual effort to fine tune your strategy including your message and its delivery.

Like an actor playing to an audience, there is a relationship – the transfer of energy and interaction from stage to audience is palpable. If an actor correctly reads the audience’s cues, the energy feeds on itself. The same holds true of marketing a product or service.

As an entrepreneur or small business, you’ve done your demographic research for your target market – your audience. Don’t fail to use it. This is your chance to tell the story of your brand and your value to potential customers and to let them know what makes your product stand apart.

Content and delivery are both important. And as new apps and technologies are continually evolving, it’s important to remain relevant. There is an element of trial and error. Pay attention to shifts. If it’s not working anymore – move on! Remember to know and address your audience.

Melissa McCarthy’s blunt and physical brand of comedy is a sharp contrast to Helen Mirren’s more serious and dramatic performance. While both are wildly talented and entertaining, they each have different “brands” and vastly different audience appeal. Bridesmaids plays to a very different audience than Queen Elizabeth. Both are great. But, there is an audience for each.

Know your audience. Remember, you are telling the story of your brand. Focus on the artistry of conveying your brand’s voice and message.

We love our business and are thrilled by the predictions for expected global growth in video content. Take this statistic, for instance:

• According to Cisco, video will account for 69% of all consumer Internet traffic by 2017 (and some sources take this figure as high as 74%).

Experts indicate that video is the future of content marketing, and that trend is already in full swing. Nielsen claims 64% of marketers expect video marketing to dominate their strategies in the near future.

Our role is to develop clear, concise and engaging video stories for our clients. We know that in this age of information overload people want a quick visual message so they can move on.

In fact, even using the word “video” in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19% and click-through rates by 65%, as reported by Syndacast.

The icing on the cake?

Axxon Research reports seven in 10 folks view brands in a more positive light after watching interesting video content from them.

Videos are a great way to create an emotional connection with your audience and leave a lasting impact long after the video is over. And we love client stories with happy endings!

John Doty, owner of InMotion Imagery, is an Emmy Award winning director and editor who has now worked in broadcast television and video production for more than 25 years. His work has been recognized by, among others, the Telly Awards and The Press Club of Dallas.

Not only is he expert at creating the perfect script-to-screen visual communications tools for clients, but he also directed the construction of InMotion’s sound stages from blueprint to finish. He has led teams of industry experts in producing television programs, live national broadcasts and corporate Webcasts. He’s a member of the Dallas Producers Association.

Like InMotion Imagery on Facebook and follow on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and Vimeo as well.

I love it when people ask me about our brand and how the name came to be. We enjoyed our branding process immensely; and we as a team love it when start-ups come to us with their business concept and ask us to help them name, brand and market it.

Just yesterday we were presenting logo options to a client who commented that they were impressed by our process for naming, preparing a creative brief and then developing logo concepts. The leadership team had no idea how much time, energy and thought went into the process and were curious whether we thought other start-ups went through a similar process.

Unfortunately, the answer is no.

But they should! Naming your brand is an important process and must be tackled in a diligent, thoughtful way. Choosing a strong name requires that it:

1. Stands out from the competition (unless it’s more important to fit in)
2. Communicates the business you’re in
3. Reinforces your brand promise
4. Communicates your company’s distinguishing characteristics
5. Has long term viability
6. Is easy to read
7. Is easy to pronounce
8. Is simple to spell
9. Is short and concise
10. Is memorable

Do the work on the front end to analyze your brand, your business, your competitors and your promise to ensure that your identity represents all that you want and need. You will save time, money and energy down the road if you start off right!

It started as a typical day, moving forward, stopping at the store to pick up milk. I back out of the parking spot, turn the wheels to drive forward, and realize I’m stuck. In reverse. The gear shift is broken. After several scrapped knee-jerk plans (sit and wait, don’t move, don’t turn off the car, drive the car home in reverse) the final decision is made.

Tow it. Fix it. Move forward. 

During this brief, chaotic situation, it occurred to me that I take two beautiful abilities for granted; the ability to shift gears and the ability to move forward. Thank you, vehicle, for the head smack. How awful it would be to only move backward!! Unfortunately, we find ourselves looking backward far too frequently.

We can’t redo yesterday, last week or 10 years ago, so why do we spin our wheels in reverse?

Companies do this all the time. All the time. How many times have you heard or said:

• We will not carry zuladings because we tried and they don’t sell …
• We will not invest in social media (insert any marketing tactic print, radio, TV, community outreach, etc). We tried and it doesn’t work …

Decisions made from a rear view will hinder future success. 

A couple of real business examples:

1. In 2009, Starbucks breakfast sandwiches were a hard fast no. Too much aroma competition. “Coffee must win.”
2. For most of this decade, Michaels Arts and Crafts’ only mass reach tool was the weekly insert in the Sunday paper. The company would not invest in anything else because, “Only print worked.”
3. In late 2009 Domino’s Pizza changed its pizza recipe! After almost 50 years. “Yes, please” was not the initial response.

In all these cases, they didn’t let their rear view to deter them from moving forward. Yes, history can repeat and lessons should be learned; but what didn’t work once might work today because it is a new day, with a different landscape, different customers, and different needs.

Business strategy should always be forward-thinking and used to drive success.

Everyone has the ability to shift gears and move forward personally and professionally. If something is broke, fix it! By the way, I rode my bike to pick up my repaired vehicle. And you know what’s beautiful about a bike? It only goes forward.

Your company has gone through the branding exercise and has a clearly defined brand! Cheers to you! 

And by that I mean a simple, relevant customer promise that competitively gives you an edge. Check that off the list, right?

Absolutely! But before you move on to other things, have you thought about what you must do internally to execute the brand? To make it come alive? To become more than just a piece of paper? To ensure that your customers understand the brand as you intended?

Before you talk about your brand to the masses, you need to first look within to be sure you’re delivering on that brand throughout the organization. You don’t want to set an expectation that disappoints later. What are your customer touch points?

Think about ALL of them, like where your store is located to how well the product performs or even how clean the front desk is when you walk in the door. They’re all important.

Here’s an example. My parents, who are in their late seventies, recently had an eye doctor appointment which had been scheduled some months prior. When they showed up at the office, the staff told them the ophthalmologist wasn’t in – he was stuck in another city due to weather. What? Hello? Could the staff not call patients to reschedule before the trek to the office? Even though the doctor is an excellent ophthalmologist, his brand was tarnished that day by his people. If this happens enough, patients will leave.

Ergo, all companies need to identify and proactively manage their brand at all points of customer contact. Make a list of your contact points. Especially the less obvious ones like:

• the way your phone is answered
• how seamless your billing processes are for customers
• what your employees say to others about their job
• the attire of your salespeople
• the quality of your packaging
• the functionality and ease of navigating your website
• your response time for customer questions

Basically, everything you say and do as an organization reflects on your brand. If you’re experiencing problems at a touch point, they need to be addressed – you don’t want a seemingly minor issue to be the string that unravels all the work you put into building your brand. Assess each item on your list, and then prioritize those you need to change.

The goal is to eliminate negative experiences and keep or build on areas in which you’re strong. Strong as in communicating the brand promise.

Often, I’ll ask a client, “If you do everything right, what’s the one thing you want your target to remember about you? If we conducted research now, would they give that answer?”

This is the fun part, folks! Marketing rocks! Every company has struggles, but strategic marketing built on a strong brand is the impetus for success!

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a little tennis-obsessed. I love to play it, watch it, discuss it … it’s my thing. It keeps me sane and makes me happy.

So about three months ago, I got a phone call from someone who I knew only by name (a captain of a rival tennis team). She was forming a “dream team” of players that she felt had the potential to advance and win a city championship, then a sectional championship, and ultimately a national championship.

Naturally, I jumped on board, excited about the possibilities.

After easily winning our regular season flight, last weekend we played for the city championships. Unfortunately, in the month prior I’d been sidelined with illness and injury and wasn’t in fighting shape. My heart was in it and I played, but I didn’t play well, and I wasn’t able to get the win to help my team. Fortunately for me and for everyone, other members of our team won their matches and the team as a whole won the city championship and advanced us to sectionals.

Of course this experience clearly illuminates the importance of TEAM. Finding the right people at the right time to help with the right things – a perfectly constructed gathering of people fully able to collectively move the ball forward and achieve goals. Yin and yang. Strength and weakness. It’s applicable in tennis and even more applicable in business.

I am so thankful to our captain, Lynn, for doing the work necessary to put us all together.

Here’s what we all can learn from her about assembling a TEAM, I will call them ~ “Lessons From Lynn:”

1.  Every team needs a leader who knows what’s what. A good leader has been in the trenches and knows whereof they speak. They should have the knowledge and experience to know what lies ahead and what will be required.

2.  Experience will tell you what you need. Trust your experience to guide you in identifying the needs of your TEAM. Do you need a strategist? An analytical type? Someone wildly creative? A worker bee? What combination of strengths and personalities is going to get you where you need to go?

3.  Find your people. Find the best people you can to fill your roles. Don’t settle for “almost good enough. “Enlist help from recruiters (we are partial to Mom Corps Dallas, one of our superstar clients) and/or behavioral benchmarking software (we are partial to Shadowmatch USA, who we have worked with in the past) to aid you in your search.

4.  Don’t be afraid to remove people who aren’t a good fit. If someone’s work is not aligned with the efforts of the TEAM, don’t try to fit a round peg into a square hole.

5.  Delegation is key. Lynn didn’t even play during city championship weekend. Her role was to make the decisions, delegate, organize and support. The leader doesn’t have to be the star.

6.  Let people do what they’re good at. Diversity in skills and experience brings broader perspectives and different approaches to the TEAM and allows for efficient assignment of people to roles. If you have assembled your team well, who does what should be an easy decision.

I feel lucky to be a part of a fantastic tennis team, and an equally fantastic rocking work team at Front Porch Marketing.

Take a page from our leaders and assemble your own DREAM TEAM to get you where you want to go!