BBF130: Turn your Brand Equity into Brand Currency with Nicole Ertas

We’ve got a serious branding expert on the show this week, and what enthusiasm she has for the whole process. So much great insight here!

Nicole Ertas has been in the business for over 20 years and has worked with some massive global brands along the way, including Wrigley’s, Jim Beam and Nestle. She’s also written a great book called Freerange Brands which explains how the big brands are currently being challenged by the more flexible, dynamic, ‘freerange’ brands.

Nicole shared with us some great tips about how to build a successful brand, and also gave us a sneak preview of her easy-to-understand audience theory:

** A brand’s audience can be split into four sections: the ‘lords’, the ‘lovers’, the ‘hackers’, and the ‘hawks’. Any successful brand must pay regard to each of these different factions.

** The lords – These are the modern-day influencers, the people who have some kind of a following. The challenge for the brand is how to get their product talked about in the everyday environment these influencers inhabit.

** The lovers – These are the people who really want to connect with the brand and the shared values of the community.

** The hackers – The hackers want to participate and interact with the brand.

** The hawks – The hawks are there to strike if your brand lacks transparency or lets people down with their customer service experience.

** Before any kind of brand planning, first you must define your obsession: who are you and what do you do?

** Then from there you need to express why these values are different to the rest.

It’s all about translating these values into a customer experience and making your customers think about more than just price when they see your products. Values and experience are vital.

In this episode of Business Brain Food you will learn:

** How Heineken got it right with the repositioning of their brand

** The dangers of only talking about yourself

** How Urban Outfitters uses controversial tactics to succeed

** How to find your brand purpose

** Examples of the best brand experience

** How to measure ‘experience’

 
Resources mentioned in this episode:

** Nicole’s site: http://www.freerangebrands.com

** Nicole on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/freerangebrands

** Nicole’s book on Amazon here

** Facebook: facebook.com/businessbrainfood

** Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/businessbrainfood

** Twitter: https://twitter.com/bfewtrell

** iTunes: http://actioncoachanz.com/itunes

** Stitcher: http://actioncoachanz.com/stitcher

 
As Nicole says, “the best brands in this day and age are designed for unpredictability”

Also, if you are enjoying these Business Brain Food podcasts, then make sure to share them via social media sites or email the links to family and friends. A lot of time and effort goes into producing each of these podcasts with the goal in mind of the more people we can inspire about business the better. You can help us do just that!

Until next time, have a profitable day.

Cheers,
Ben Fewtrell
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