Building your brand is like planting seeds to start a garden.
As a florist, the goal is for all your local consumers to see your business name synonymous with buying and/or sending flowers. When I owned Beneva Flowers, we were recognized as having 70% of market share in Sarasota based on flower buying credit card purchase data. But how did that happen?
One of the most important things we did was partner with area schools and charitable organizations. We considered many items the schools needed and even started an initiative to have a classroom named after our business.
Every year we would be asked to participate in fundraisers and to run ads in yearbooks. Not only did I participate, I took it one step further…
Understanding we both need each other to survive, I came up with a program called Helping Hands. The way it worked was the school became responsible for getting the word out that Beneva Flowers would donate 5% of every transaction that the sender mentions the school or organization. It worked well for baseball teams trying to raise money for trips, marching bands, you name it. If the community was making an effort, we wanted to be a part of it.
These were the seeds we were planting and before too long, sending flowers and Beneva went hand-in-hand because local shoppers thought of Beneva every time they thought about flowers. Around town, the brand became synonymous with flowers.
Here is another example…
Most grocery stores still offer paper or plastic bags at the checkout, but an increasing number of climate-concious customers are opting for environmentally-friendly reusable bags instead. Publix is one of many supermarket chains that sells reusable shopping bags to consumers for 99¢. Because they are able to buy them in bulk, they probably pay about 5¢ for each bag.
Many people will look at those bags as insignificant little 99¢ products to sell, but a better way to look at it as an opportunity.
Using Publix as a hypothetical example, encouraging the use of reusable shopping bags not only helps the environment by cutting down on waste, but it is also an excellent opportunity to build their brand image as a respectful neighbor.
Just by having the Publix logo on the bag along with Earth-friendly reminders of working together to make a difference, you create positive brand awareness at an amazing value for just 5¢ per bag.
The simple fact that the bags are reusable give them marketing value even beyond the doors of Publix because people use the bags everywhere they go. What a great deal for a 5¢ investment.
This is how it should be looked at. Do you think that Publix sells enough 99¢ bags to offset the value of giving them away to customers as a 5¢ advertisement? It depends on the value you place on branding. Giving away these bags is unique and outside the commonly used channels.
I like the message they would be sending out as well as the intentions they would be supporting. Publix already has a brand that is known for offering a clean environment, excellent services, supporting the community - and yes, they even sell some groceries too.
Today, we are limited in ways to get a message out. Newspapers are not what they used to be, and television continues to lose market share to the internet. The best option now for most small business owners is online digital marketing targeted at consumers browsing the internet and WAZE advertising for people searching on maps.
Bloomerang Solutions can help you with both! We have solutions for every sized business from websites to Google pay-per-click advertising and SEO that will boost your web ranking. We can help you interact with your customers through surveys and social media. Call us at (941) 806-1911 and let’s get started today!