Mastermind Moments: Market Research

“The first stage of growing any business is about making sure we deliver profitably, productively, and with enough information to make great decisions.” - Bradley-ism

I was on a conference call yesterday with some people who really have the most amazing personal brands. You say there name and there is an instant reaction and comment that surfaces, in unison, when you mention their name - just brilliant, don’t you think?

One mentioned, “isn’t it interesting that we tell our customers what we think they want instead of listening to them?” It is something to hear some of the “song and dance” that goes on in the “dog and pony show” moments.

Market Research CAN be a competitive analysis, or a market study, a research survey or a poll. It also can be LISTENING to your customer and connections. They will reveal so much when you listen.

In fact, a client in a recent training seminar learned a great acronym for doing some face-to-face market research. It’s called F.O.R.E. - which stands for Family, Occupation, Recreation and Entertainment. If you find out the F.O.R.E. for each of your clients, you will have more research that you can be helpful with. At this training, they found that asking questions around this acronym gave them enough information to know that 23 or their current product offerings would be or help to this client.

Do you want one sale or the life long value of a client?

Do you want one person to do business with you or would you like their third party testimonial and to “borrow” from their credibility and access their entire connection network?

Research this week and let me know what you find.

People Are The Brand -

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections Coach

Buzz To Bucks: Inspired Action for your Personal Branding & Marketing

thebuzz101: digital dirt

At this amazingly large job fair at the Cashman Center off of Las Vegas Boulevard, companies and candidates vie for a little bit of each others time.

90 percent of the companies here no longer accept the “hand to hand” resume and rather encourage job fair participants to apply on line.  In fact, being “googled” is common practice according to many of the HR specialist and directors at yesterday’s fair.

Generation Y is the first to feel the “sting” of digital dirt.  What is really out there about you on the web?  Every week google yourself and look not only at the website - look at the images, too.

Is your college frat party photos online?  What about that cute, risque picture of you on myspace- is it the first to appear?  How about those silly family photos from the latest family reunion?

If you’re looking to upgrade your position or change careers or desire to be a person with impactful influence, take time to clean up any digital dirt about you.

First, take some time and be aware of what’s out there.

Second, post, post, post on blogs, book reviews, articles - to move those “dirty” things down.

Third, create a great profile on LinkedIn, Ecademy, Naymze, Facebook, My5MinuteNetworking –these social sites are well searched and will help also water down the dirt.

Happy Brand Cleaning!  People Are The Brand -

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Connection Alliance:  Personal Brand Coaching for Leadership, Career & Image Management 

Buzz2Bucks: Point of More Return

I’m on the conference floor of the Cashman Center in Las Vegas preparing for the largest job fair here.  Of course, I’m here to be “on hands” with four clients who are looking for that POINT OF MORE RETURN.

You know, some people call it the 80/20 rule also known as the Pareto Principle.  Other’s call it working with your strengths.  While others, call it working with your most “pleasurable and profitable” clients.  John Maxwell’s definition is what I’ll use for today’s post which is “do what your great at and stop doing all the rest”.

What does ALL THIS have to do with personal branding?  A heck of a lot!  So many, especially those who are working for a company or organization, believe that they don’t need to “personally brand” themselves because they BELONG to their company or organization.  Not true!  Personal branding taken to the simplest terms is your reputation.  Would you really let someone else manage your reputation?

Rob Cuesta, in his personal branding blog, does an excellent job covering just this topic.  He starts it with - “It’s an easy trap to fall into, believing that sales people don’t need a brand because they are promoting their company’s brand. It’s a very similar argument to the ones I hear from employees that they don’t need personal branding because they have their employer’s brand behind them or that the quality of their work and the hours they put in should say everything about them that needs to be said. Unfortunately, its also just as flawed as those other arguments.”  Rob is a fellow Reach Brand Strategist and you can read the rest of his post by clicking here.

What can you do to get more return on the contacts you have and connections you make?

First, know what you’re good and what others perceive that your good at.  It’s important to do get a 360 feedback on your clients, contacts, community, friends and family.

Second, know what’s important to them.  How you can help and support them.  Some people call it “giver’s gain” and it’s a catchy phrase yet do be cautious with it.  Just because you give don’t EXPECT to “gain” what you want.  Too many “assume” that because they have GIVEN to someone (time, referrals, expertise, etc.) then they should GAIN the same in return (the law of reciprocity). Yet, “gain” can mean - valuable friendship, strong contact, important info — it doesn’t mean a “mirrored gain”.

Third, strategically decide WHO you would like to stay in contact with or nurture a business relationship with.  Jim Collins in his book “Good To Great” calls it getting the right people on the bus.  While he’s talking about getting the right people for a company, for you, it means getting the right people to KEEP COMPANY with.

Well, the doors are open and there is much grip, grinning and grazing to be had.  Got to go –the p.s. here is TAKE ACTION on steps 1,2 & 3!

People Are The Brand -

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching  & Connections:  Personal Brand Coaching for Leadership, Career and Image Management 

Mastermind Moment: Live To Give

“You cannot give what you do not live.” - Adam-ism

Alright, you might see this quote and think that this is another “walk the talk” sermon. It’s not. It’s about having the resources (internal or otherwise) to be able to give what someone needs.

I have to go back to my recent viewing of the movie “Evan Almighty” and repeat the statement that Morgan Friedman says in the show - “If you ask God for patience, do you think he just zaps you with instant patience? Or, do you think God gives you opportunities to be patient?” (I have another post on this blog that gives the entire quote -word for word)

I was at a bookseller’s celebration of the newest and last book of the “Harry Potter” series Friday night. They had 17,000 copies of the book and were worried that they would not have enough.. When I arrived, there were AT LEAST, over 5,000 people in this store! Right after midnight, with the fury and bustle of the release, an announcement came across the store speaker system - a 10 year old boy was lost. The whole store came to a stand still. Those who were parents started directing and working with other patrons to “go check the bathrooms”; “look under the table”; “look at the cafe”. Others, just stood still, “frozen” in thought that they could be at the same location where a child could of been abducted. Luckily, the boy was found under a skirted table just as some parents “thought” might of happened. The ENTIRE STORE applauded.  Those who didn’t know where to LOOK; LOOKED to those who would know — the parents. The personal experiences of those “parents and guardians” was utilized as “expertise” by the others.

After my son’s shooting accident, I can tell you I LEARNED so much about prioritizing and being firm in the foundation of what is VALUABLE to you. I have sat through seminar after seminar and have been taught the finer points of time management and event maintenance in your life but nothing, absolutely NOTHING, compares to having to live it in real life.

So, when a coaching client or team asks me to help with PRACTICAL AND TACTICAL time management — I give from what I lived.

How ’bout you?

People Are The Brand –Happy Monday Morn!

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching & Connections: Personal Brand Coaching for Leadership, Career and Image Management

AskMariaElena! Taglines

“I know the importance of taglines as a way for people to remember you if you’re a company, restaurant or business. But, why would a person working with a company want a tagline?” -Tina

Tina, thanks for the great question! Feedback, questions and comments always help me know that there are people “out there” reading and listening. For other readers, if you would like to ASK YOUR QUESTION, please feel free to do so by emailing or logging your questions in at www.askmariaelena.com

Tina, your question is one that executives and up and coming leaders in companies often ask me. Even CEOs/Presidents of companies, tell me that “they are the company” so why do they need a tagline. A tagline for some is a memory hook - really what it is, is your unique promise of value. What makes you so special? What are you “known” for?

For example, my tag is “The Champion of Connections”. It’s been my tag for over seven years. It’s an easy tag because clients, connections and the community were already describing me as “the person who can get you connected” - so I assisted by shortening the description and making it easy for someone to use.

For you, how do people describe you? What do they say when they introduce you? One client I was working for was vying for a position with a major airline. She felt that her best attribute (what made her unique) is that she was very “emotional” (her words; not mine). She felt that made her sensitive, connected, responsive and approachable to those who knew or worked with her. She was the one that others described as the person who brought passion and direction to company meetings. She identified that “client” meant not only the external clients of the airlines (passengers & such) it also meant internal clients (her co-workers and vendors of the airline) and the community and colleagues. However, her term “emotional” comes with some baggage - especially when you are a female professional. Visions of PMS and “yelling” outbreaks sometimes “taint” that word. She began using the tagline that she was the “voice of reason”. When everyone became either heated or distracted by ancillary agenda items in the meeting, she would bring them back by reminding them of the original purpose and “passion” of the program or meeting. She did not use it in her “voice mail greeting” or “email signature line”, but every time she spoke at the meeting she would preface it with “as the voice of reason”. Pretty soon everyone at the meetings would describe her as “the voice of reason” the “one who keeps us on track”. That “tagline” was a much better description of her unique promise of value.

As a professional in your company and industry, how would you like others to describe you? Use that in forming a quick “easy to carry” tagline.

I write this to you from a conference room at New York-New York on Las Vegas Boulevard. I know you’ve heard the Vegas tagline of “What Happens in Vegas; Stays In Vegas”. Vegas has been called many things, from “Sin City” to “the adult Disneyland” and others that I won’t repeat in this post. Even children shuffling out of the M&M Factory across from New York-New York or the Coney Island Arcade, wear the famous tagline on t-shirts. Not knowing what it really means, parents explain that they come here to “visit their money” or this is a place of “fun activities”. Vegas shifted (and evolved) their tagline and use it everywhere because it’s a much better description of what they’re already known for and what they want to portray.

So, just like Las Vegas, there’s a mecca of different personal brands in a company. Even here on the gambling floor of New York-New York there’s a plethora of brands from “Coyote Ugly” to the “ESPN Zone” to the “New York Pretzel Factory”.  Each individual brand standing strongly on it’s own - - yet still a part of the greater brand of Vegas.  Out of Vegas, the ESPN Zone still has it’s very own strong, unique promise of value.

So, Tina, for you– even as a professional in a company.  Does your individual brand stand strong and makes you unique above the clutter of others in your company?  Whether you’re the “go to gal” or the “community connection”, it’s important for you to know what YOU uniquely offer.

Thanks for the great question!

People Are The Brand-

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA  The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching & Connections:  Personal Brand Coaching for Leadership, Career and Image Management 

thebuzz101: brand evolution

I’m typing this post looking up from the base to the pinnacle of the beautiful Luxor hotel in Vegas. Everything is already a hustle and bustle here in a city that truly never sleeps — and it is 6:30 a.m. here and the activity looks just as busy as any convention center gearing up for a major conference!

The Luxor is “re-branding” itself. It is moving away from the image of being an “British type Egyptian museum” and shifting to a more resort type, high end, trendy Vegas casino. Of course, they won’t give up their shape nor their shining light that can even be seen from space. The inerts are already going through a redesign with the new LAX club and the Nefertiti bar has already changed names.

While a host of people will call these moves “re-branding”, I much prefer the phrase BRAND EVOLUTION. Because, it truly is a next step in your brand so that it evolves to be a viable force or competitor in your industry. It is survival of the fittest and so a brand evolves.

Re-branding gives the impression that a curtain is brought down and the scene changes. Some will argue that’s what happens when you “re-brand”. Branding, however, is more than positioning. Branding is about the past and past associations and performances. The past cannot be changed. It is what it is. At the very closest, your brand is your reputation and you cannot go to the “man behind the curtain in the land of Oz” and ask him to bring the curtain down so that you can change your reputation.

You can evolve your brand by utilizing your history and tradition in ways that provide the landscape of success for the present and future. It is not about CONTROLLING conversations and it is about giving them something to talk about.

One might look at the Luxor from the outside looking in and say “they’re an Egyptian pyramid - how can they not be Egyptian?”. And while workers work furiously, here, to remove hieroglyphics from the walls and rename shops, bars and eateries in the casino, the columns and the architecture of the Luxor still stand. They are evolving - taking their great history and bringing it up to the present and future. They are also considering their other assets all within walking distance from the Luxor (walking distance in Vegas means walking with an A/C controlled environment and never having to set foot on Las Vegas Boulevard!). The MGM and New York New York - who both already have a family atmosphere and venue to attract the family visitor. The Luxor has over 4,400 rooms and is the second largest hotel in the U.S. They feel that they’ve been operating as a “dorm room” for the other casinos and according to them “not a very well run dorm room”.

They are ready to evolve their brand and let others know what is already here and reach out past their exterior image (sound familiar as you reach out past logos, stationary and the early “trappings” that defined branding in early years). They ARE the second largest hotel in the entire U.S. They are ranked in the top 50 resorts in the U.S. And, now, more than ever they want to be known for their outstanding service and amenities.

It’s a brand evolution here at “the Nile” on the strip! For you, what are YOUR brand attributes? What is working for you? What needs to evolve? What are YOUR evolution plans? More on brand evolution coming soon!

People Are The Brand -

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching & Connections: Personal Brand Coaching for Leadership, Career and Image Management

Buzz2Bucks: Public Relationships

Recently, I commented on a post about the “changing face of Public Relations”.  Steve Rubel wrote an article on his blog about “The Future of PR Is  Participation, Not Pitching”  So, true! So, true!  My comment is below - to read his post click here!

Steve,

I agree –traditional PR is evolving and it needs to. How many of us are still spinning vinyl records? The music hasn’t stopped yet the venue (or the medium) has. The same with PR. It is not about pitching. To be effective it really never has been about that. It’s about conversations. Having conversations with your clients, not about what YOU want to talk about, but what they are ALREADY talking about. In it’s true form, public relations is about your relationship with the public (however, you define who that public is). And, how do you have a “relationship” without having conversations? I’ve never seen that happen person to person (or mouth to mouth as I like to say) nor even company to group.

Social networks and blogging are another form of communication that’s utilized in the “here and now”. I also agree with your thoughts on being “transparent” and communicating as individuals.

Really, when you’re at the grocery store or bank — are you having a relationship with the big organization or is it the people who you see face to face (or belly to belly) that make up that organization. All business is local– it’s the person (or people) that you’re in relationship with there that represent that business.

My 2-cents worth! Thanks, Steve!

People Are The Brand -

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching & Connections:  Personal Brand Coaching for Leadership, Career and Image Management 

Mastermind Moment: Courage

“We want the right answers but few have the courage to ask the right questions?” -Clayton-ism

What do you want and why is it important to you? Two simple questions yet they are often left unanswered as we “busy” ourselves with the hustle and bustle of a Monday morning. It is the answers to these questions that will help direct your activities and your decisions for the day, week, month, year - your life!

Sometimes, we don’t answer and use the excuse of “lack of time”.  Other times, the real reason is lack of courage to spend time in our own thoughts and decipher what intuition is telling us “is next”.

So, this Monday morn to make it easier on your time and to harness that fresh batch of courage that was just freshly brewed — I’ve compiled 15 questions to help you “be more in the know” about the “brand called YOU”!

Click here to take the “Amazing Professional” quiz!

People Are The Brand -

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz To Bucks Coaching & Connections:  Personal Brand Coaching for Leadership, Career and Image Management 

Blogging and Marketing

Read a great post today by Scott Baradell in MarketingProfs Daily Fix about Blogging and Your Marketing Program - A Nice Addition or a Necessary one?  Click here to read the whole post.

Here are some of the valuable tips and my comments:

In many cases, you’re not going to be particularly reassured by the answers you get to your question. You’ll be given an assortment of “nice” reasons to blog, such as:

“It provides your company a voice” “It positions you as a leader” “It helps you build stronger bonds with key audiences” “It demonstrates that you’re listening” “It helps you to manage rumors and negative discussions” “It builds your brand” “It creates urgency and buzz”Hoo-boy. Try taking that nonsense to your CEO — you know, the guy who thinks marketing and sales are the same thing, and who’s still having his admin print out his e-mails for him. Here’s the reality: Blogging has been a nice addition to the communications programs of many forward-looking, marketing-oriented companies — companies that don’t need to see an immediate bottom-line result to know their program is working. Blogging is necessary for the following companies: 1. ALL online-only businesses 2. ALL companies that generate a significant portion of revenues via e-commerce 3. ALL companies that depend on the Web as a significant source of sales leads 4. ALL companies with a customer base of heavy Web users You MUST participate in blogging because: 1) Either, someone is blogging about you, and you need to be part of the conversation, or you have NO influence in this medium. Do you want those bloggers to overwhelm the messages you want the market to hear? I don’t think so.2) Or, no one is blogging about you, in which case you don’t even EXIST in this medium. It’s a huge missed opportunity to create (relatively easy-to-create) valuable content for your target market. One way to think about this is that many, many target customers don’t distinguish HOW you’ve published information, they just Google about you, and they find out about you through search.

It really is a GREAT POST - remember, you can read the WHOLE THING by clicking here! 

Scott,

I agree with your post and the reality that many marketers are facing in their business roles.

I also am asked the “why should I blog” question by clients and their board of directors. And, with 4 different generations at play in the workforce - it is often difficult for those who are not “web savvy” to understand the purpose and the presence of blogging.

Seth Godin, author of Permission Based Marketing & Purple Cow, said it best when he said it’s just another form of communication. I agree!

Nowadays, leaving messages on voice mail is considered “having a conversation”. A friend of mine’s 14 year old daughter logged in 3,000 text messages last month and he was shocked. While another friend commented, isn’t that just an electronic form of “note passing” - didn’t you do that as a kid?

Blogging is just another form of communication. If your target client (the clients that give you the most pleasure and profit) are “talking” on-line via emails and posts — then you need to be blogging. If not, you’ve missed a form of communication that will help you be heard and stand out above the competitive clutter.

People Are The Brand -

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz to Bucks Coaching &  Connections:  Personal Brand Coaching for Leadership, Career and Image Management 

thebuzz101: Brand Buzz

With 16 theaters filled to the hilt, midnight on Tuesday the buzz continued on “Potter Mania”. From wizard outfits, to patrons donning large, circular glasses, the Harry Potter brand mounts its next wave with the release of the new movie and the final book debuting next week.

This brand is worth well over $4 billion. And, is the third top selling book in all time history. In a world of tough competition, the Harry Potter brand stands out and above all of the competitive clutter!

So, as someone who coaches on buzz and creates strategic communication plans for individuals and businesses, this brand phenomenon intrigues me. Why? Because the brand is great at relaying stories. The adage goes “facts tell; stories sell”. What is YOUR story? Do you have a story that highlights you unique attributes; your foundational valuables; or even how you serve those who connect with you?

Stories help engage your referral sources. It’s much easier for your connections to “repeat a story” that you’ve told than unload a plethora of facts on someone over lunch, in passing or over drinks. If your story (or stories) are memorable, then others will “carry them” for you to their close contact network of colleagues and friends.

Think of all the “buzz” of the “next installment” or “the release on Friday the 13th”. All of those became mobile stories that people carried person to person (or mouth to mouth - as I like to say). At 3:30 a.m. after the first round of midnight showings, you could hear all the “buzz in the lobby of the theater” as Potter fans spoke of “what happened here…”; “I liked how this unfolded here….”; “what a great way they took this from the book here…”. They were incorporating their personal thoughts into the story.

As a lesson on buzz, ask yourself - do you give your clients, contacts and community the ability to add their 2-CENTS WORTH? Or, do you merely PILE what you want them to say about you on top of them?

From chat rooms, to blogs, to lobby’s and over suppers, there is a Potter buzz. For you, what feedback forums do you have for your connections? Do they have an opportunity to put their own personal spin in your story? If we go BACK TO THE BASICS and read Dale Carngie’s book, “How To Win Friends & Influence People”, one of the basic rules of engagement is that people FEEL VALUED and IMPORTANT. One of the way of accomplishing this is to LISTEN.

After all –can a billion dollar brand be wrong? Whether you like or dislike the whole Potter brand, you can see the strong buzz mechanisms in place. Take what you can from that and give people the stories to create that buzz. Look at Bill Marriott, CEO, of Marriott (the huge hotel-motel giant), and see how he blogs about customer service, satisfaction and customer champions. From guest comments to employee posts, he exhibits how INTERACTIVE communication builds a brand.

People Are The Brand -

Coach Maria Elena Duron AKA The Champion of Connections

Buzz to Bucks Coaching & Connections: Personal Brand Coaching for Leadership, Career and Image Management