Driving Growth with Branding

Eric James Eden: 0:59

Welcome to today's episode. We are here with Laura, who is a branding expert. Thanks for joining us today, Laura. We appreciate it.

Laura Sauter: 1:09

Very nice to meet you and hello.

Eric James Eden: 1:11

You worked with many clients on branding. You've done agency. You've been doing this for many years. Tell us a little bit about the work that you do with folks on branding.

Laura Sauter: 1:23

Branding is, I think, a better understood concept than it was when I started doing this in the 90s. But mostly there is something happening that causes someone like me to come on to the scene and I call it the three T's Transition, trajectory and trouble. So those are trigger words for when a company is in a point of inflection and needing to assess their look and feel and how they connect with an audience that they are desiring to connect with. So the transitions in a business could look like new leadership or a big celebration, maybe a milestone. They are turning 50 or 100 years old or 25 years old, trying to succession plan and obviously a new company also needs that. That's a big transition is just launching. But typically there's a reason why someone like me comes on the scene.

Eric James Eden: 2:16

That makes sense. Tell us a story about some of the best marketing you've ever done.

Laura Sauter: 2:22

So I had the benefit of working with large and small companies. I'm going to give you an example of one of each. So, on the larger side, I would say it was a very large company that came to me via their ad agency and they had asked for a brand manual, a brand standards manual, and that advertising agency, which had the relationship with the company, did not have that expertise. So I was brought on and I can articulate a company's brand if they have one. In this particular case, even though they were a very large company, they didn't really have what I would consider a brand to represent in a standards manual. So it ended up becoming over a year-long project where I was able to create the brand using components that they had but they weren't using consistently, and roll it out company-wide. Now this is a very large company in many nations, huge, I think, 80,000 employees, and they had this little red bar that was used in signage and stationary. So I really articulated the red bar and rolled it out from PowerPoint to signage, to trade show graphics, to, obviously, advertising, which the ad agency was happy about, as well as all of their collateral look and feel, and it was like a funny oopsie, like they didn't even know they needed that. They had all this stuff rolled out to all these different department nations but it hadn't really been really well thought out, which is odd for a company of that size. And I was able to do a road show where I took the brand on the road and trained the individual marketing departments in the different locations on how to use this. And, yes, I did write the standards manuals for what I would consider the super users who are actually going to roll out these marketing materials, but also for the rest of the company, so that they'd know they had a brand and they wouldn't mess it up when they saw something going out, even something small, like a flyer for going to Betsy's birthday party down the hall.

Eric James Eden: 4:34

That's great.

Laura Sauter: 4:34

It was a very big project that at first I thought I was just going to help them out for a couple of weeks, maybe a few months, but it ended up being a giant process. On the smaller side, about four years ago I was approached by an interior design firm in Boston to help the owner with where he was at in his business cycle was very different than how he had served his business 20 years before. His name didn't represent the luxury, he was an interior designer, so he did beautiful whole home interior design renovations as well as the architecture of those renovations. His old name was very reflective of just renovating, not really looking at something from a whole house standpoint. The goal ultimately he was about 65 maybe at the time. The goal ultimately was to sell his company. He felt and I felt that by rebranding he would make his company more valuable to sell. I did the naming, the identity, the look and feel website, everything social media and I still work with him. About a week ago I got a call, very happy call, where he is going to merge with a larger interior architecture firm. He thanked me. He said I couldn't have sold this company this way at this value had you not done that work for me and helped me build my confidence to become the company that I knew I could be all along. The Inc hasn't hit the paper yet but in March which today is March we're expecting the dealers going to go through there's a transition period and I'm helping them with the announcement to the world that these two firms are coming together. And he feels that he has a very viable exit strategy for his business. He feels happy with the price and he's able to leave that legacy feel that we all want to leave as business owners. He's able to leave knowing that he can be known for that in his own right Interesting.

Eric James Eden: 6:42

So why do you think that result happened from the branding? I'm just curious. It's a great result. Why do you think that was the case and he was able to get a much higher valuation because of the brand? Why was that the case?

Laura Sauter: 7:00

I think again. Firstly, even though he had staff, the audience base saw the company as Jeff's company. Yes, it had a name which also didn't reflect the value that his company was providing for the marketplace, but they saw it as Jeff's company and first he wanted to neutralize it and make it more palatable to a buyer. It's the same thing with house when you're looking to sell a house, you want to take out your personal photos off the wall and allow someone to see themselves there. It was the same for his brand. No one would want to buy Jeff's house because it was Jeff's and if Jeff wasn't there, it wouldn't be valuable To create this brand beyond. Jeff was very important. To have a name that embodied the luxury services that his firm provided was very important, and then to market himself in a way that really truly conveyed the value of his services and the value of his connections was very important. It was attractive to a level of buyer that he wouldn't have been even able to connect with had we not done that first stage of work.

Eric James Eden: 8:19

That's really interesting and awesome. So the two stories the first one I think consistency in branding is really important and you can't do that without having a brand guide that everybody really embraces and understands and knows what to do and what not to do, because it can just Unfull, things can go off the rails really quickly if there's no guide that says these are the right things to do with. These are not the things to do right. So I think that's a great story that a big company with that 80,000 employees you were able to put that in place for them. And then the second story was helping a company choose the right brand so that they can get the right outcome to get acquired or merge with the ideal person. Like both, pretty inspiring.

Laura Sauter: 9:12

Yeah, and I think also for the second example, which is a smaller of the two, for him it was also a mindset thing, because he's leaving his company at some point, right, and he's his baby, and to do that mind shift for himself too which it took a little bit of back and forth between us that yes, you can be this and yes, your company can be this and yes, your brand can be this, and it lives without you. Even if you're not in the day to day operations, even if you're not here, the brand is here, the brand has legs, the brand has an essence, and that was something that took a little bit of adjusting to for him.

Eric James Eden: 9:59

Makes sense. So broadly, what advice could you give marketers or business leaders about branding? If you were sitting down with them for a coffee, maybe say give me your best advice about branding in today's environment. What would you tell them?

Laura Sauter: 10:17

I think it's something different to branders versus marketers. Branding marketers, I'd say branding matters and be consistent. I think marketing sometimes can be a little more fluid and a little more nuanced. In terms of campaigns, we're going to do the spring campaign, we're going to do the winter campaign. You can be a little more timely or a little try something on me, but with branding you really have to be consistent and it does take time to traction. So have patience and trust the process. For businesses I would say invest early, don't wing it and then figure it out later. I think, again, it takes time and it takes a little bit of heavy lifting and momentum, but really invest and invest with the right providers or people. So I have a project right now with a company that is really resisting the process and the client keeps just saying we can change it later, we can change it later. No, that's not branding. We really have to get this right right now and do it right and let it do its work, because it could take you places you can't even fathom if you trust the process. But he keeps thinking that he can change it later. Yes, five to 10 years later. Fine, let's talk. But we wanted to get this right the first time.

Eric James Eden: 11:45

Yeah, getting it right in the start is much less brain damage. Thank you for sharing these stories and insights with us today. Everyone should share this episode with your friends so they can learn about these branding strategies. Everyone, please rate, review and subscribe so we can continue to have great guests on the show like Laura. Please go check out her website. I'll link to it in the show notes so that you can learn more about her branding strategies agency Bell and. Thanks so much for being with us today, laura, and sharing these stories.

Laura Sauter: 12:19

Thank you so much and a pleasure.