MATE 010 – Bob Knorpp on building a successful brand, advertising and marketing strategy

Bob Knorpp is a consultant and a podcaster. He works with businesses to help them understand their brands and solve their big marketing problems. I met Bob on the sunny rooftop of his building in midtown Manhattan, where we discussed: what is a brand, how do you build a successful brand, how to develop effective content marketing and what happens if brands stop advertising? Bob is a self-taught marketing professional who also teaches a Master’s Degree at NYU.

Bob Knorpp recording MATE 010
Bob Knorpp recording MATE 010

 

Topics and links:

  • How to demonstrate your value using an effective elevator pitch
  • The start-up world gets too bogged-down with what their product does (i.e. the functional benefit) rather than understanding who their customer is and what your brand means to them (i.e. the intangible benefits). Think like the customer: “What’s in it for me?”
  • “A brand is not what you say to people in your marketing communications, a brand is how you do business, a brand is your identity …” ~ Bob Knorpp
  • “Your brand is not your logo; your brand is the experience of the consumer with your product or with your service. Your brand is built up through experience, after experience, after experience. And ultimately the logo is just a reminder of an experience that you had.” ~ Bob Knorpp
  • What happens if brands stop advertising?
  • Who’s doing brand advertising well? Apple, Zappos and Amazon.
  • Seth Godin talks about being remarkable … i.e. something people remark on. Make your product experience amazing and the brand looks after itself.
  • Why you need brand advocates and how to generate them
  • “A great idea for an ad does not bring people to your product. What it does is it might incite a little bit of trial, and if they’re not having an amazing experience with the product they’re never going to come back.” ~ Bob Knorpp
  • The fancy Himalayan Rock Salt phenomenon
  • Using borrowed interest to build your brand, and why it’s not always the best idea.
  • What is the difference between brand advertising and direct response marketing?
  • “No matter how many different medias come into play, we do three things in marketing. We either brand, we do direct response or we do public relations … So, we have three initiatives. Every other thing that we do in marketing is a media choice. So, there is no such thing as digital marketing or social media marketing … These are just media choices that we can execute any of the three core initiatives of marketing across.” ~ Bob Knorpp
  • Why does McDonald’s need to maintain brand awareness through advertising when they are one of the most recognisable brands in the world?
  • Has anyone ever tried stopping advertising and seeing what happens? Yes, Pepsi skipped their annual Super Bowl campaign in 2010 and it was catastrophic to their sales.
  • What is a notary republic?
  • “The biggest challenge for marketers is to stop what they’re doing and pay attention to what’s going on around them.” ~ Bob Knorpp
  • Where did the name for the podcast The BeanCast come from? (And Bob explains why The BeanCast is a stupid name for a marketing podcast!)
  • Here’s a photo of the beautiful Manhattan cityscape view Bob and I witnessed, as we recorded this podcast:
Our beautiful view of the Manhattan city skyline from Bob's rooftop, while recording MATE 010 in the sunshine. ☀️🏙️
Our beautiful view of the Manhattan city skyline from Bob’s rooftop, while recording MATE 010 in the sunshine. ☀️🏙️
  • We’re starting to see more and more branded podcasts (in fact Bob has been involved in producing a few). Can these be successful marketing plays?
  • How to create successful content marketing
  • What’s exciting (and terrifying) your right now? Cognitive advertising. IBM has coined the term and is experimenting with cognitive advertising using their Watson initiative.
  • What’s pissing you off right now? The evangelists for specific marketing techniques: single-channel experts (e.g. social media experts, word of mouth experts). These approaches are plain ignorant and don’t consider the need to achieve overarching marketing objectives, regardless of the channel used.
  • Who should I interview next? Mitch Joel. “He will not only be your toughest interview subject, but he will put you on the spot, because he is one of the smartest people I know.” ~ Bob Knorpp
  • Mitch Joel also has a great podcast called Six Pixels of Separation

 

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MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.

MATE 009 – Joel and Maria House on SEO mastery and how to travel the world with your business

Joel and Maria House are a Brisbane couple who are travelling the world with their SEO business. I asked them: what is SEO, why is it important and how do you master it? Joel and Maria share the key tips on how to structure your business to enable you to travel the world. And … we get really deep and meaningful to discuss life purpose, knowing your “Why”, and how to build a happy and fulfilling life. I met these fellow Aussies and recorded the first international edition of MATE at the WeWork coworking space in Dumbo, Brooklyn, New York, USA.

Joel and Maria House recording MATE 009
Joel and Maria House recording MATE 009

 

Topics and links:

  • Organic Google traffic provides the best business leads
  • What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?
  • The top 10 links on Google get almost 3/4 of all click-throughs
  • What is Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising?
  • What’s the difference between Search Engine Marketing (SEM), SEO and PPC?
  • If you’re not on the first page of Google, you don’t exist!
  • White-hat SEO vs Black-hat SEO
  • The business life rule of: “Don’t be a dick!”
  • Why Maria and Joel work as a small company rather than a big corporation
  • Everything in New York City is on such a grand scale
  • Marketing in New York City is much more aggressive, direct and competitive than in Australia.
  • The economics of running a business in the USA vs Australia. A business needs only to be mildly successful in the USA to make radically more money than in Australia, due to the sheer difference in population!
  • Coupons and loyalty cards are massive in America. Every retail business category (e.g. drug stores, supermarkets, department stores, etc.) has their own branded loyalty card.
  • Casper mattresses advertise everywhere (including: subways, outdoor ads, taxis, social media, etc.) and are super-stringent at tracking all their marketing effectiveness coupon codes.
  • What’s it like being married and working together?
  • Do you ever have challenges switching off from work, given that you live together?
  • Why doing what you love makes it easier to focus and enjoy life more
  • The key tips on how to structure your business to enable you to travel the world
  • Why travelling while working is the best way to set yourself up for life
  • It’s important to know your overarching goals (knowing your “Why”), because it helps you make better decisions.
  • Joel and Maria started their careers by building an eBay business, after learning how to do so using a course called “eBay Magic”.
  • Why there’s no college or university degree for SEO
  • How big is the SEO industry? Apparently it’s worth $65 billion!
  • Sometimes you can better grow a business by niching it rather than expanding it
  • What have you had to sacrifice to build the business/life you want?
  • Being outside your comfort zone is where all the magic happens
  • Joel talks about the Tony Robbins documentary, “I’m Not Your Guru” (produced by Netflix).
  • It’s not achievement in life that makes you happy; it’s growth.
  • It’s not achievement in life that makes us happy, it’s the journey towards it. It’s who we become—or the process of becoming—that we gain fulfilment from.
  • Happiness is derived from the pursuit of meaningful goals
  • Maria and Joel call-out Gary Vee to come on MATE podcast!

 

Special thanks:

 

Connect with MATE:

 


MATE podcast is a show about Marketing, Advertising, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Hosted by Adam Jaffrey: Digital Strategist and Entrepreneur. Made with ❤ in Melbourne, Australia.

MATE podcast is a production by branded podcast agency Wavelength Creative.