Branding Deep Dive with Ahmed Cheema

Today we’re talking to Brian Rafferty. Brian is the Global Director of Business Analytics and Insights at Siegel+Gale. Siegel+Gale is a global brand experience firm. They partner with the world’s leading corporations, nonprofits and government organizations to build brand experiences that are remarkably clear and unexpectedly fresh. In other words, simple. For 10 years they’ve released an annual report on the World’s Simplest brands. This year’s report surveys over 15,000 consumers in 9 countries, across 25 industries, covering over 800 brands in total.  

In this episode we dive deep into the world’s simplest brands report, why its so important to keep your brand simple, how big corporations with multiple business units like google and amazon stay simple, why Apple never really does well on the world simplest brand reports, how to strike the balance between digital experiences and human experiences, and much more. 

If you feel like your brand is way too complicated for your consumers, you’ve come to the right place.

Key Lessons:

1. Simplicity pays - since 2009 a stock portfolio of the publicly traded simplest brands in the global top 10 has outperformed major indexes by 1600%
2. You don’t need fancy design to be simple, you need to make it easy for your consumers to understand what your promise is and then to over deliver on that promise. The reason apple doesn’t rank highly is because people have high expectations of simplicity from apple and they don’t always live up to that promise. 

Links:

• Siegel+Gale
• World's Simplest Brands Report
• Siegel+Gale Linkedin
• Siegel+Gale Instagram

Today we’re talking to Dr. Aaron Ahuvia. Dr. Ahuvia is the brand love guy. He’s is the Czarnecki Endowed Professor of Marketing at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and a popular keynote speaker. He is the world’s leading expert on brand love, a topic of rapidly growing interest among companies looking for long-term customer relationships. His book, The Things We Love, explains the psychology behind brand love, and it has been named by Amazon as one of the best 20 business books for 2022. Dr. Ahuvia conducted the first scientific studies of brand love some 30 years ago and continues to lead research on this topic. A Stanford University study ranked him in the top 2% of all scientists worldwide, and he has hundreds of press appearances, including being a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Dr. Ahuvia works regularly with Google and has spoken about brand love at leading companies, including L'Oréal, Samsung, Maybelline, Procter & Gamble, Audi, General Motors, Microsoft, Ford, GfK Market Research, and many others.

In this episode we dive deep into why we love brands, techniques for actually making people love our brand, his perspective on how Apple develops brand love, and much more. 

If you want your customers to fall in love with your brand, this episode is a must listen. 

Key Lessons:

1. If you want to get people to love your brand, you need to employ personification
2. If you want to develop brand love, you have to get serious about it. Start measuring it.

Links:

• Website: https://brandlovecentral.com/
• Book: https://brandlovecentral.com/book/
• U of M Dearborn Marketing Program: https://umdearborn.edu/cob/graduate-programs/degree-programs/ms-marketing

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Today we’re talking to Valentin Radu. Valentin is a Customer Value Optimization evangelist and international speaker, defining a new category and helping retailers grow. 

He’s the CEO & Founder of Omniconvert.  Omniconvert helps eCommerce companies find hidden gems in their data, improve Customer Lifetime Value and Customer Retention & deliver personalized customer experiences across all channels.

He’s also written a book about customer lifetime value called The CLV Revolution coming out on September 20th 

In this episode we dive deep into  what customer lifetime value and customer value optimization is, why the old methods of spending unlimited money on customer acquisition doesn’t work anymore, how to actually improve your customer lifetime value, and much more. 

If you have customers but can’t figure out how to make a profit, this episode is a must listen. 

Key Lessons:

1. It’s not enough to simply know your customer acquisition cost, acquisition costs will always go up. In order to run a truly profitable business you need to understand how to maximize customer lifetime value. 
2. Customer Value optimization is about understanding who your customers are and why they purchase your products. Understanding this, allows you to take customers from apprentice to soulmate. 

Links:

• The CLV Revolution Book: https://theclvrevolution.com/
• Website: https://www.omniconvert.com/ + https://academy.omniconvert.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valentinradu/

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Today we’re talking to Molly Ruland. Molly is the CEO and founder of Heartcast Media which is a digital content agency focused on creating branded content that drives revenue and creates strategic relationships. She’s an expert in the podcasting space and I really turned this whole call into a consultation for my own podcast. 

In this episode we dive deep into how to monetize your content, properly placing CTAs in your content, different tools to make the content creation process easier, and much more. 

If you don’t know where to start creating content or are looking to monetize your content, this episode is a must listen. 


Key Lessons:

1. Your audience isn’t the only way to monetize, think about bringing on guests that can be strategic partners or potential clients. Develop a relationship, provide value, then make the ask
2. Optimize your titles for discoverability, not searchability. I put the episode numbers in my titles because I wanted my listeners to be able to go back and quickly find the episodes I was referencing, but its more important to hook new listeners with your title than it is to make it searchable for your existing listeners.  

Links:

• https://www.heartcastmedia.com/
• https://www.castmagic.io/?via=heartcastmedia
• https://www.tubebuddy.com/onelovemassive

Subscribe to the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@brandingdeepdive?sub_confirmation=1

Today we’re talking to Shachar Meron. Shachar has 20 years of experience as a branding, advertising, and marketing executive and has worked on 100+ brands, including well-known brands like TransUnion, Boeing, McDonald's, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, Nordstrom, Cars.com, Motorola, and Abbott Labs.

He currently serves as a Partner and Creative Strategist at Bluegreen Branding, where he helps brand and marketing leaders, primarily from tech and finance companies, create brands that stand out from all the noise.

Shachar is also a Senior Lecturer who teaches advertising and brand strategy at the University of Illinois, where he also earned his BS and MS in Advertising. Over the past nine years, he has won several teaching awards.

Before life as a lecturer, he co-founded BatesMeron Design, an indie agency focused on branding and marketing, where he helped grow the business to 30 clients and $1M in billings. Shachar also founded Redacted, which became Chicago's largest copywriter association in its first year.

He is a regular contributor at Brandingmag and was a featured speaker at AMA BrandSmart - the leading conference for brand marketers in the US -  in Chicago this April.

In this episode we dive deep into brand communication, running branding workshops, how to measure brand equity, and much more. 

If you don’t know where to start with your company’s branding, this episode is a must listen. 

Key Lessons: 
1. How to measure brand equity - how much of a premium are people willing to pay for your product? 
2. How to make someone a brand ambassador - think through how you’re providing value at the different phases of the customer journey

Links: 
https://bluegreenbranding.com/resources/
https://bluegreenbranding.com/insights/

Today we’re talking to Jordan Harbinger. Jordan is a Wall Street lawyer turned podcast interviewer with an approachable style and knack for securing high-profile guests. His podcast, The Jordan Harbinger Show, was selected as part of Apple’s “Best of 2018.”

Jordan is a legend in the podcasting space, averaging 10 million downloads a month. He’s an OG podcaster and has been podcasting for 17 years at this point. 

In this episode we dive deep into why he named his show the Jordan Harbinger show,  the nitty gritty details of how to properly host a guest on a podcast, how to come up with questions no one has asked before, and much more. 

If you’re looking to create a world class podcast or take your interviewing skills to the next level, this episode is a must listen. 

Key Lessons:

1. As a podcast host, if you have no input you’re commoditizing your product. As a podcaster, your co creating the episode with the guest, not just giving the guest a space to repeat the same talking points they’ve said on 100 other shows. 
2. As a host you separate yourself with your prep by reading the subtext. What’s not being said in the text, what being left out but would be an interesting story, ask yourself questions you would ask the person.
3. If you want to have a 1% podcast you have to put in 1% work. This isn’t something we directly talk about, but it’s clear from talking to Jordan just how much sheer effort he’s put into refining himself as a host, storyteller, and just general conversationalist. Being 1% is a mindset of never mailing it in and always finding ways to improve. He does his own research, has a variety of coaches to work on minute little skills, and responds when people reach out to him. Most people don’t even bother doing research. 

Links: 
Jordan's website: https://www.jordanharbinger.com/
Kobe Bryant interview:  https://www.jordanharbinger.com/kobe-bryant-dissecting-the-mamba-mentality/
Tim Grover interview: https://www.jordanharbinger.com/tim-grover-the-unforgiving-race-to-greatness/
Seth Godin interview: https://www.jordanharbinger.com/seth-godin-shipping-creative-work/
Mark Cuban interview: https://www.jordanharbinger.com/mark-cuban-tales-from-the-shark-side/
Howie Mandel interview: https://www.jordanharbinger.com/howie-mandel-a-conversation-about-mental-health-talent-and-perseverance/

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Today we’re talking to James I. Bond. James has been studying ordinary products turned into blockbusters for 35 years. Along the way, he uncovered a breakthrough -- something that he calls BRAIN GLUE, that makes your ideas "sticky" so they stick to your prospect's brain like glue. This activates the emotional side of the brain, where decisions are made, making it much easier to get them to say YES to your ideas and buy your products.

He’s written a whole book on the subject and in this episode we’ll be deep diving into why naming is important, numerous examples of the sales a slight name change can lead to, psychological tactics you can use to stick in your customers minds, and much more. 

If you want to learn more about product naming or or selling more products this episode is a must listen. 

Key Lessons: 

1. The right name can EXPLODE your business, don’t rush this part of the process. 
2. In your CTAs, give the customers the next step, don’t skip to the last thing you want them to do

Subscribe to the YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@brandingdeepdive?sub_confirmation=1
 

Summary:
In this episode we’re talking to Lauren Desouza. Lauren wears a lot of hats, she’s the host of Retain: the customer retention podcast, she’s an alumnus of Canada’s Next 36, and she’s the co-founder and CEO of ACE, a startup that uses AI to help people prepare for interviews and refining your communication skills. 

In this episode we dive deep into what retention marketing is and how to do it, the benefits of going through a founder development program, how to uniquely engage your customers, and much more.

If you want to learn more about customer retention or being a founder this episode is a must listen.

Key Lessons:

1. Customer retention isn’t copy paste. It’s not as simple as just implementing a rewards program because X company in your industry has one. See how you can uniquely serve your customers 
2.  If you’re nervous about becoming an entrepreneur or starting something, talk to entrepreneurs. It'll help you get over the hump and just get started. 

Links:
Gameball: https://www.gameball.co/ 
Ace Interview Prep: https://www.aceinterviewprep.io/ 

Today we’re talking to Scott Keyser, the Writing Guy. With the right words you can sell anything — a product, service, idea, or even a belief. But understanding how to formulate the right words is a riddle only few people understand.  Scott Keyser is one of those few.

A lifelong lover of the English language, Scott understands the power of words to move, bewitch and persuade. Since 2004 he’s helped over 5000 professionals find their voice, write Human and get the results they want from the words they write.

His clients include The Economist Group, all of the Big Four accounting firms, three international law firms and two barristers chambers.

Scott helped Ernst & Young to double its tender win-rate and increased an international outsourcing company’s tender win-rate from 14% to 71%, after just two days.

He’s the author of two groundbreaking books, winner takes all: on how to double your tender win rate, and rhetorica®. Wanting to share his secret with the world, he’s created a system of 15 persuasive writing techniques. They’re simple and they work.

In this episode we dive deep into why learning to write well is so important, how to find your voice, how to stop writing in passive voice, and much more. 

If you’re looking to improve your writing this episode is a must listen. 

Key Lessons:

1. Read your writing out loud - this is one of the easiest ways to make sure your writing is good
2. Give yourself permission to write more conversationally - imagine you’re explaining something to a friend. This will bring your voice into your writing

Links:
Write for Results: https://writeforresults.com/
Rhetorica: https://amzn.to/3KP19bz
Winner Takes All: https://amzn.to/3ZM0wDO