The Truth About Branding (And Nothing But The Truth)

AMC’s hit television drama Mad Men is famous for its depiction of the hard-drinking, hard-working Madison Avenue ad man—the Don Drapers and Roger Sterlings of the world who churned out corporate slogans over pre-noon cocktails and pulls on their Lucky Strikes.

The daughter of an ad man who grew up in the late sixties and early seventies, Big Fish Marketing CEO Robin Fisher Roffer says she learned the business “literally on her father’s knee.”

She’s also a renowned author and expert on custom branding, whose clients include ABC, ESPN, Sony, HBO, and The Disney Channel.

With her firm preparing to celebrate its 19^th year, Fisher Roffer talked with me about the power of branding and the role of custom media in reaching your target audience. 

When building a brand, how do you decide what approach to take?

I always start with what I call “The Holy Trinity of Branding,” which is authenticity, clarity and consistency. To be authentic, you really have to understand what your brand is at its core and what the mission is of your brand. It’s about telling the greatest story you can about the brand in a way that connects back to its target audience.

How is branding different today then, say, when your father was in the game?

It used to be about the product—you were selling the product. You were, at times, even chest beating about how great it was. What is now happening is that we’re all about our target audience. We’re going to stand in their shoes—do that 180-degree turn—and speak to them in a way that is relevant to them. The conversation is two-way.

If your readers are on Facebook and Twitter and Myspace, if they are using Google 20 times a day, you need to be there. If they are somebody who has a lifestyle where they love magazines, you have to know that. You need to be everywhere that they are.

But how do we know?

Research is important. There is so much available online for free right now that can give you insights to your audience. Specifically asking them questions and rewarding them for their answers is good. Just last week, I sent a survey to all of my subscribers asking them for their biggest question about personal branding. I got back hundreds of responses. And I just gave them the first chapter of my first book as a thank you.

Just a little carrot like that can help?

The future of brand marketing is to serve people. I’m saying to my target audience, “I care about you and I want to make sure that the content that I’m delivering is relevant. Therefore, if you’ll just answer this one question so that I can serve you better, you will receive something that will help you in your life.”

Wow. So, it really gets back to that two-way street? We’re not telling you what you need, but rather reacting to what you tell us?

Exactly. We create a magazine around our brand, we create a website around our brand, we put up a Facebook page and then we don’t listen. Our audience will tell us over and over again what they need and want and desire if we just tune in.

What about return on investment? How can we maximize value?

To lower the cost of content creation, find strategic alignments with brands that will elevate each other. Make sure that you are aligning with brands that have the same missions, the same core values, and want to reach the same core audience. That will give you a lot of free content and it will lower your cost.

What does that look like on a balance sheet?

We need to stop measuring things by dollars and cents.

Easier said than done, right?

It’s tough, sure. But that is old 20^th-century thinking. It’s old-school nonsense. To make marketing a revenue-generating aspect to your business is wrong-minded. It should be about building relationships and loyalty and connecting on a very deep level with your audience.

OK. So establish connections?

Look, I might drive a Mercedes or a BMW, but I can’t talk to it—unless I’m really weird. For the majority of us, it’s something we just drive. Once in a while, when a valet pulls up and we happen to have gotten it cleaned, we might feel good about ourselves. Beyond that, there is no relationship to the brand.

What’s ultimately going to make me feel more connected to one of these two brands is that they invited me to an event, that they give me a magazine that connects me with other people who have an affinity for the Mercedes or BMW lifestyle, that there is content within that magazine or website that draws me back again and again.

Now I am creating a community with other people who have these vehicles, these interests.

Money doesn’t matter?

I’m not saying to throw away the notion of ROI. I’m saying, lower your expectations and start measuring how much interaction you’re getting with your target audience. Are they commenting on blogs, are they signing up for newsletters, are they coming to events that I throw, are they talking to me more? Are they engaged in and interacting with the brand?

That’s still a tough sell.

Old habits die hard. You are going to have clients who are ahead of the curve, who get it, who are reading the right books and listening to the new thinking, and paying attention to how their customers are using media. But there will be others caught in the comfort of what worked in the past. Comfort is like a blinking yellow light that we just drive through. When we start to feel comfortable with what we are doing, that’s precisely when we need to change.

So how do I get started? What do I do?

You need to go somewhere outside of the office, where you can really spend some time and think. I always ask people: What’s your mission? What’s your purpose? Why are you here?

I bet that went over well the first time?

Inevitably people will pull up the old mission statement that is one paragraph long and no one can remember.

You mean that framed piece of paper on the wall in the conference room?

Yes. A mission statement, in my mind, needs to be seven words or less. Coke’s, for example, is “To Refresh a Thirsty World.” What more do you need?

That says it all.

You need an inspirational statement that gets everyone in the company on the same page and flying out of bed in the morning to do their job. That mission leads to the ultimate vision for the company and where it is going.

So, what, go back to basics then?

Go back to the core of the business that you do well. I always tell people: “stick to the knitting.” The best custom-branded solutions fulfill the mission of the brand. If your brand does not have a mission, tomorrow you need to stop what everyone is doing and pull them all into the conference room.

I can see it now. A red light goes off and a voice asks, “What are we doing here people?”

Exactly. What are we doing here people? I love it.