Marketing Series: Why People Make or Break your Marketing

Good marketing can only be done by good minds. In essence, it is People who can make or break your brand’s Product and Marketing. In this blog, I will go over why People are the true determinant of your brand’s success, and what type of People to look for to grow your brand and business.

The Power of People: 

There are three entities when it comes to People in the Marketing Mix. People who purchase from your business, people who support your business from the outside, and people who work in your business. When it comes to people who purchase from your business this would be your Target Market and Customer Base. For People who support your business this would be vendors and supportive industries like logistics and manufacturing as well as brand ambassadors or influencers. For the last element, “people who work in your business” would be employees. In order to have a successful brand, all of these entities must be running and operating well. 

Target Market and Customer Base:

Your Target Market is your ideal audience and your Customer Base is your opted-in audience that identifies with your brand and Product, without patronage from these audiences,  your business would not survive.  The reason is, without profits you cannot afford to pay suppliers, vendors, and employees. This would essentially stop production on your product. This is why it is important to have some start-up capital in order to get your business going until you can turn a profit and have your business supported by your customer base. 

What is the best way to navigate a relationship with loyal, semi loyal and potential audiences? It is important to build some sort of bond with this audience by providing value. Value can take many forms.  Your product could provide value, or you could provide value through your brand’s ethic, i.e. ethical and sustainable clothing. You can also provide value through tips, tricks, and recommendations based on your audiences’ tastes. You can provide amazing customer service and loyalty programs to continue to cultivate relationships. 

Vendors and Brand Ambassadors: 

When it comes to creating products, you will need to rely on vendors for supplies , manufacturing, and operations for your brand. It is important to understand these vendors. The goal is to create the mindset that they do not necessarily work for you, but rather work with you for a common goal. So it is important to create, and maintain good relationships with vendors. In turn your vendors might be able to get you access to better materials, better pricing on manufacturing, and optimized operations. You can maintain relationships by paying on time or early, being patient with vendors, sending cards and presents for holidays, and helping their business by referring other clients who will give the vendor business. 

Brand Ambassadors, Influencers  spokespeople, etc, do not directly work for your company; however, they can be an important part of your selling process. Therefore it is also important to cultivate and maintain such relationships. For example, in the cosmetics industry it is common to send out PR packages to Brand Ambassadors, and Spokespeople for them to review. It is also common that on top of product reviews, gifts like hats, mugs, etc are sent which can both be enjoyable for the influencer and a way to create brand awareness. Another brand, Revolve, has influencer outings and trips as a way to cultivate and maintain their relationships with Brand Ambassadors, Influencers and Spokespeople. Chanel often invites their top spending clients to exclusive shopping events and sends out exclusive gifts. There are many ways to maintain and reinforce these relationships 

Employees: 

Employees are the core of your business. They will be the people that help navigate selling. They cultivate and maintain relationships with vendors, and work with Brand Ambassadors and Influencers. By creating a great working environment you're laying the foundation for employee satisfaction. When employees are satisfied, they are willing to go the extra mile for your business. They will take initiative to improve things, and speak highly of their employee experience. Some ways you can show employees you appreciate their hard work is through verbal appreciation. This is easy when you have a small team. For example, each week you can give work related compliments to each employee. This could be about something they did well or anything they tackled that week. You can extend this to having each employee give a work compliment to their co-worker. This creates a bond amongst everyone on the team. You can also have company bond events, and issue bonuses, raises, and PTO time. The core keys to creating a good working environment is to hire  employees that enjoy the work they get to do and  to create a positive, welcoming environment for them. 

People are very important in your marketing and ultimately your success. Keep your customers happy and they can become an army of brand ambassadors that positively advocate to their family and friends about your brand and product. At the same time, your representatives that interact with the public, especially your target customers, create a powerful force that can affirm your customers’ buying decisions. This helps position your company, brand, and product as concerned, caring, and responsive to your target. Having a positive brand reputation can be just as important and persuasive as any product you sell. Pay attention to the people inside and outside of your company. Your success depends on it. 

Need help with pricing your product? Join “The Perfect Price” workshop on May 16th & May 23rd 2022 Where we will go over Costing, and Pricing your product. The Worship will also include Q&A and 1:1 pricing advice from Anna Livermore. For questions please contact: vmorainquiry@vmora.com

Have a Marketing plan already, but need help with producing your line? V.Mora can help you take your brand voice and turn it into products. We will help each step of the way to design, develop patterns, and connect with the right vendors for your project through our Production Development and Management service. Please contact us if you are in need of the Production Development and Management Services below:

• Sourcing 

• Technical sketches 

• Pattern Making

• Prototype making 

• Sample Making

• Fittings 

• Digitizing and Grading

• Marker Making

• Manufacturing

Please contact us at: vmorainquiry@vmora.com