When your branding strategy accounts for the lifestyle of your average customer, we believe you are poised to take the strength of your message to the next level.

Let’s review two brands and consider the lifestyle of their respective audience.

What comes to mind when you think about the average Kashi All Natural Foods customer? More than likely, their average customer is health-conscious, well-read and possibly places a priority on environmental issues. Now let’s jump to a completely different brand – Monster, the energy drink company. I’m willing to wager that their average customer is relatively young, male and is tech-savvy.

An Kashi All Natural Foods consumer would be health conscious and environmentally friendly

Both of these brands communicate in a way that resonates with their core customer. For instance, Kashi’s marketing messages focus on wellness, great life choices, and guilt-free food options. Monster, on the other hand, has a far more aggressive stance. Their branding projects a no-holds-barred message that incorporates extreme sports, youth and edge.

I used these two examples to illustrate that branding is more than appearing different; it’s also about aligning your message with the lives of your customers. Those that are successful in doing so will be deemed less intrusive when advertising and marketing.

Here are three things to remember when aligning your brand with your customer’s lifestyle:

Be flexible

The archetype for your customer will change over time. Be sure that your branding strategy is flexible enough to move with larger trends affecting the lifestyle of these core customers. For instance, today’s mature audiences, baby boomers, are trending towards increased technology use. The way you reach them will be far different from the means to reach the prior generation of older customers.

Don’t give priority to your preferences

Let’s say you’re really not that big on being “green” but your average customer is. It’s to your advantage to place your personal environmental convictions, or lack thereof, on the back burner. Many businesses forgo sales in order to focus on the lifestyle and/or values of the small business owner rather than the customer.

Move into their world

In today’s world, it’s not enough just to know your product. You’ve got to know your customer. What do they like, where do they spend their time, what activities are they involved with? As you start to search for these answers, you’re likely to uncover new avenues for your marketing messages. It could be as simple as learning that your customers attend a particular music festival, or a new social media site. The point is, the more you learn about your core customer, the better suited you are to engage on what matters most to them and seen less as an outsider.

This post was originally posted on Fox Business by Walter Dailey

Read our follow-up post on Brand Advocates

1. Strategy-driven

All training and development programs should cascade down from the organization’s overall strategic goals. No programs are developed or implemented unless they produce results that are identified as critical to the business. There should be explicit alignment between learning objectives and business objectives. The goal is relevance.

2. Positive cost/benefit ratio

Training today is subject to the same measurements as every other business activity. It must show a return on investment, either in the long term or the short term. Though best companies realize that many training and development initiatives take years to fully achieve their goals, these time-frames are identified up front and the programs are re-evaluated on a regular basis in light of changing business drivers.

3. Supported by key strategies, systems, structures, policies, and practices

Organizations that receive a true return on their learning investments ensure that learning is aligned with and directly supported by key areas such as organizational structures, lines of authority, decision making, values, planning, budgeting, career development, information sharing, compensation, performance management, rewards and recognition, staffing, recruiting, and succession planning. These direct links help to both set boundaries and reinforce desired results. Without support, the best intentions can be wasted.

4. Driven through many channels

Leading organizations investigate and utilize multiple modalities to ensure that people get the right skills at the right time, in the right way, and at the right cost. Modalities such as classroom lecture and role plays, on-the-job application, blended learning, e-Learning, use of technology support tools, and coaching by co-workers are selected to match specific learning styles, business issues, budgets, and cultures. Don’t overlook the value of different approaches.

5. Maximize employee ability and potential through shared accountability

Best companies tap into the ability and potential of their employees through providing self-directed training and development. Employees are encouraged to identify their own needs, create individual learning plans, and seek learning opportunities. Depending upon the kind of culture an organization is trying to create, the responsibility for learning can fall on the individual, his/her boss, his/her peers, or the organization. This training best practice presupposes relevance.

#6. Work-related training

Knowledge and skills that are acquired through training and development programs must be relevant and useful, both to the organization and to the individual’s work requirements. Employees only participate in programs that will add to their current or future work effectiveness while contributing to organizational success. Training should save people time, not add to their workload.

7. Learning by doing

Best companies are training their employees by having them perform “real” tasks and projects in both a training environment and on-the-job. Learning is built around action rather than theory. Instead of a theoretical discussion about strategic planning or project management, for instance, participants develop a usable strategic plan or create deliverables for their project. Employees learn in their own way and at their own pace through assignments that get real work done.

8. Transferability of knowledge and skills back to the job

One of the most important elements of successful training and development is that it be easily transferred back to the workplace. The timing of the training, the relevance of the content, and the quality and appropriateness of the delivery method are all critical to transfer of training. Another crucial element is the maintenance of the new skill or knowledge once training has been completed. If not used regularly, skills and knowledge quickly atrophy. For this training best practice to succeed, use performance tests to prove and sustain knowledge and skill gain.

9. Linked to other people-related programs and departments

Best companies do not train their employees in a vacuum. In many instances, training is conducted by the same managers, who also perform evaluations, set performance objectives, and draft compensation and promotion systems for their employees. Even where the training is designed and delivered by a specific function or department, the programs respond not only to organizational needs, but also to individual needs as identified through appraisals, counseling meetings, assessments, and career development plans.

10. Continuous learning process

To drive lasting change in behaviors and habits, best companies ensure that learning occurs before, during, and after scheduled learning events. These companies encourage a work habit of reflection and learning. The process of doing, reflecting, learning, and doing again never ceases.

We recently had the opportunity to hear Jeffrey Hayzlett speak at a LinkedOC event. Jeffrey is the author of the best selling business book The Mirror Test, former Fortune 100 C-Suite Executive and a leading business and marketing expert. Jeffrey has made multiple media appearances on Fox Business, MSNBC’s Your Business and NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice with Donald Trump.

Hayzlett was in the OC promoting his latest book, Running the Gauntlet. The new book provides essential business lessons to help any one in leadership or others in business who are eager to make changes in their companies or business endeavors that will help them thrive.

The core of Jeffrey’s message is “Adapt, Change, or Die”. The most dangerous move in business is the failure to make a move at all. Today’s business environment is so competitive and volatile that you can’t afford to be satisfied with business as usual. Making changes now positions you to continue to compete in the future.

Here are some highlights we took away from his message to the audience.

You must be willing to adapt and change because if you don’t, it could kill your future business growth.

First, become an agent of change and if you are in a position of leadership, surround your self with others who embrace the spirit of change.

There are 5 Things that Stop us from Change and the Reason We Fail:

1. Fear. Plain and simple fear of change.

2.Tension. Change creates tension and we naturally seek to avoid more tension. You have to have healthy debate, its good for growth.

3. Lack of Transparency. Many leaders feel they need to only give their fellow team members limited info on the company status, financial position and other critical information. Jeffrey believes you should be willing to lay it all on the table.

4. Risk. Risk can lead to failure and no one wants to fail. Jeffrey says, “Whats the worst that can happen?” So maybe the new marketing direction doesn’t work the first time, so fix it and keep moving forward. As Hayzelett likes to say, “No one is going to die!” Accept and encourage mistakes! Mistakes help you assess your team and determine if you need to recruit people and skilled technicians.

5. Your Promise. Your brand is your promise delivered. So make sure you can deliver before you put it out there. Keeping your promise takes courage but you have to commit and make sure every one stands for the same thing.

Change is not an end in itself, but a chance to expand on success and to understand the “boomerang effect” of change. It means that there will likely be pain along the way to change so although you have made the move in the right direction, what comes back at you can be challenging and even scary. The key is helping others as well as your self embrace the change as a “better place to be” than where you have been. “If you think your best days are behind you, you will never have better days a head of you!”

Please come back soon for an interview we did with Jeffrey Hayzlett in association with the Orange County Chapter of the American Marketing Association [OCAMA].

Earlier in the day we shot a multi-camera interview with Bryan and Sally about her new book. The video interviews become part of Bryan’s web show, Behind the Brand, which JSP also is a part of producing. Sally’s book speaks about what she refers to as, ”The 7 Triggers that Fascinate”. One thing that sort of stood out that she said was, “we don’t have to learn how to be fascinating as much as we need to unlearn being boring”. Really practical concepts and content  from her book you can immediately apply to what you do in business.

Later that same evening we helped produce the live event with lighting, staging and 2 camera coverage of Sally’s message to an audience of around 200. I also had the opportunity to share with the audience a few comments about being involved with LinkedOC and a professional and the benefits of networking that have lead to some new client work and partnerships.

As part of the event, we decided to capture audience comments about the evening theme by asking some who attended, “Who or what brand do you find fascinating and why?” Check out our brief montage of comments, it’s pretty interesting!

We wanted to share out some of her insider tips from the event and her new book The New Relationship Marketing!

Mari mentioned some ideas to help build a large, loyal, and profitable business:

• Always use first names in conversation
• Focus on quality not quantity when building your mailing list
• Make your connections matter
• Who knows you is  more important than who you know
• Creatively nurture relationships
• Must have good tech knowledge combined with soft skills
• Become a center of influence
• Build a fan base

1. Create or Share Quality Content 

2. Nurture your relationships in order to make it a quality network

3. Consistency in your marketing efforts: Having a consistent look,feel,websites, e-Blasts, etc.

4. Learn to Cherry Pick. Collect, share, and keep only the best content.

Thank You Mari for your insight!

Follow Mari on Twitter and Subscribe to her Facebook Page!

The 5 Factors of Trust

1. Ability – Businesses have to demonstrate the ability to perform what they promise.
2. Concern -To gain trust from customers, they must demonstrate that they take care about their customers as well as their own employees.
3. Connection - How engaged a business is with their customers determines how strong the relationship is. Maintaining a strong connection with customers is key to gain their trust.
4. Consistency - Being consistent in all work areas shows customers that your product or service is reliable, dependable, and stable.
5. Sincerity - Sincerity and honestly is highly valued by customers, therefore by having those attributes, customers will feel comfortable doing business with a trustworthy company.

1. An attractive and professional design: If you’ve never designed a website, don’t start now. Hire a pro instead.
2. Clear and simple navigation: Your site’s navigation should meet the needs of your customers, not your organization.
3. Engaging, informative content: Content is king and includes graphics, video and images.
4. Error-free copy: This is a must.
5. “About Us” page: Complete with bios and photos allowing potential customers to “meet” you
6. Physical address, telephone number and e-mail address: Each is essential to building trust. Don’t make visitors have to search for them.

Your goal should be to make your potential customers confident that if they do business with your company, they won’t be disappointed. Entrepreneur Magazine recommends designing your site with trust in mind and once you have achieved that you’re more than halfway toward earning your customers trust.

The top 10 brands include 6 consumer electronics, 1 entertainment company, 2 technology/ web services, and 2 automotive makers. The more consumers are emotionally attached to a brand, according to the study, the higher the likelihood they are to purchase that brand’s products or services, go deeper into a product, and spend more to get that brand. If customers are emotionally attached, price will be less of a factor and they will adopt the brand as part of their lifestyle.

Three key factors that create emotional attachment to a brand are: they inspire, they engage, and they share core values with their clients.