Have you ever wondered how I became The Brand Chef? It’s not a story I tell often, but in a recent  interview with Johnny Wright (Twitter: @unsecretshopper), better known as The UnSecret Shopper the TRUTH was revealed.

The request came out of the blue (proof of building a good personal brand), but after a few Twitter direct messages and a phone call-or-two, I decided Johnny had some great things to talk about and was very interested in learning more about The Brand Chef, marketing strategies and generally what I do… (go figure).

In 19 short minutes, we covered everything from marketing strategies, social media marketing, customer service (which Johnny is brilliant at, by the way), and we even talked a little about how I became The Brand Chef!

Here’s a link to his post of his full 1-hour show.  Or you can listen to just my interview below.

Enjoy!

The Brand Chef and Johnny Wright – The Unsecret Shopper Interview 7/24/10

Again, I’d like to thank Johnny Wright for taking the time and giving me the honor of being on his show.  It was a great conversation and I look forward to hearing / seeing more from him in the future!

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Johnny Wright can also be heard on 1350 AM, KRNT radio  in Des Moines Iowa.  Every Saturday at 8 AM.  Check it out!

Economic times are tough for marketing and advertising agencies. Businesses are backing off marketing budgets. Some are folding their hands and letting fate take their brand into the abyss. Heck, some are closing the doors all together. And that directly affects the marketing and agency professionals that depend on them for their own livelihood.

So what do you do in hard times? What do you do when times require tightening the belt or cutting back? Hopefully you do what we all tell our clients to do… “For God’s sake, keep marketing!” Without constant visibility, people (even customers you’ve depended on for years) will forget about you. To us marketers, that’s obvious, right?

Think again.

Over the last 18 months, I’ve heard marketing “pros” and agency staffers (from receptionists on up to CEO) saying some of the oddest things. Things like, “The work just seems to have dried up.” and “I’m not getting any callbacks.” or “Clients are ‘InSourcing’ all the work we’d do…”

Troublesome.

Solution: How about you “SPEND” your way through the downturn? YES, SPEND! And I don’t mean doling out your hard-earned cash for new equipment or some rock star biz-dev stud bolt. I’m talking about strategically investing what you DO have, time, into generating those ever-elusive new leads.

I’ve put together a list of five simple (and VERY economical) actions that marketers and agencies can do to churn up new business. And all you have to remember is “SPEND…”

S = Social Media Marketing: Many “traditional” agencies are still having a hard time figuring out the power of using social media for marketing. If your agency or marketing team hasn’t jumped into the social media waters yet, I encourage them to get in there! It’s inexpensive (costing little more than time – and we all know you have oodles of that) and it has outstanding targeting capabilities. You just need to find and join the right conversations.

P = Public Speaking: Can you think of a better way to position yourself as “thought leader” of your chosen field? Associations, civic groups and chambers are always looking for great information and presentations for their meetings. Think of standing in front of 100 business owners looking for marketing advice. It’s a captive audience and each time you present your message, it’s honed to a sharper and more effective tool for your other marketing efforts.

E = Email: Do you know what 93.6% of business owners do every morning when they walk into the office? They check their email! Why not be in front of them, IN their office, ON their desktop on a regular basis? There are plenty of FREE or LOW COST broadcast email services out there (my favorites are AWeber and MailChimp). Get a sign-up form on your website. Set up your target list. Create a reason for them to WANT to open and engage with you (remember you are a marketer). Then, and this is the MOST important part, KEEP DOING IT AND FOLLOW UP!

N = Networking: If the calls aren’t coming in then you need to get out and start introducing yourself to your audience again. Sitting in your office, looking through PeachTree or QuickBooks isn’t going to get people interested in what’s going on in your world; nor will it help your attitude much. Not interested in chamber functions or professional associations? Then get involved with your church or a board for a non-profit. I don’t think God frowns upon doing business between the pews as long as you thank him once-in-a-while.

D = Dial The Phone! This is one that should go without saying, but for some reason, those that choose “Communications” as a profession seem to HATE talking on the phone. Ridiculous! As I said above, FOLLOW UP! You’ve spent time working your social media, speaking engagements, emails and networking, now just give ‘em a call! You need to reach out and touch someone (more than once) before they’ll turn their attention to you. Sure, the phone is cold, impersonal and intimidating, but it can be the best lead generator in your office – if used correctly.

Guess what you do for a living. You market! You advertise! If you’re able to do it for your clients, then why is it so difficult for you to do it for yourself? Even if you only do a couple of the SPEND tactics, isn’t it better than sitting on your thumbs waiting for the phone to ring?

How do you generate new leads when times are tough? Do you SPEND your time wisely? If you don’t do it, someone else will.

Keep Cooking (at all times)!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Myopic Manager: “Hey, I need a video.”

Worker Wendy: (shocked) “About what, sir?”

Myopic Manager: “Something that will get us noticed.”

Worker Wendy: “For what, sir?”

Myopic Manager: “You know. Something catchy and, what’s the word? VIRAL!”

Worker Wendy: “Viral, sir?”

Myopic Manager: “Yeah! Put it on FaceTube! That’ll do it!”

***

There are so many things wrong with that conversation, I can’t begin to list them. But this was a summarized dialogue a friend of mine recently had with her employer. It seems as though, after 25 years in business, “said employer” finally purchased a ticket to the 21st century and realized he was wearing a suit made in 1989 – you know, padded shoulders, thin, cotton tie… the whole enchilada!

The inspiration for this time-traveling adventure came from a growing collection of customers asking why they couldn’t find their favorite “widget” on the Internet. They couldn’t find their website. They couldn’t “Like” their FaceBook page. Heck, if they didn’t get up off their butts and walk through the door, they couldn’t tell the company was actually still in business!

“So, where do you start?” she asked me. And that’s where my “Mr. Marketing and Branding” persona jumped out – somewhat abruptly…

“Are you kidding?” I shot back at her. “Your company is nowhere near ready for Facebook, YouTube or social media marketing. Why don’t reign in Michael J. Fox over there and start with basic TRUE Branding?”

I explained to her that TRUE Branding was the road-map to where her boss wanted to go. They needed to discover the truth about their company – the who, what, when, where and why of their brand and brand community (‘cause they obviously have one). Then they needed to do some deep research to find out what made their company / brand relevant to their brand community. After that they needed to focus on what made them unique in that community. If there was ten other “widget” makers in the vicinity, what were unique propositions to going to their shop? And finally the needed to figure out where that community spent it’s time engaging their brand. Obviously they needed a stronger Web presence, but were FaceBook and YouTube really going to be where the best engagement would take place?

I’m sure, by the end of our conversation, my face was red and the veins in my forehead resembled what that road-map may look like. But the takeaway was put perfectly when she called up her employer and said, “Sir, we really can’t skip steps when it comes to TRUE Branding and marketing. Let’s take a strategic look at what where we want to go and then my friend Andy can come by and work with us to get there”

*Sigh*

As Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and Elton John put it, “That’s What Friends Are For.”

I know this comes off as a bit of a rant, but there are a lot of companies out there that are still behind the curve when it comes to social media marketing. It isn’t so much using the tools of social media like Facebook YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn, but the brand and marketing strategy that powers these tools. And it’s going to take time and a lot of thought to get that road-map to the future figured out.

Contrary to what Michel J. Fox and Steven Spielberg told us in 1985, time travel is NOT possible; the flux capacitor hasn’t been built yet; Delorians won’t withstand the pressure of time travel; and Doc Brown is just another wild-eyed pedophile in an Einstein wig and lab coat.

But I digress.

Could I have taken my friend’s company (and their money) and thrown together a FaceBook page and a few videos for YouTube? Sure. But I wouldn’t have been doing my job as The Brand Chef if I did it without TRUE branding and a strategic road-map. And they wouldn’t have seen results from any of it – making us all look stupid.

Just to sum up…  You can’t jump from 1989 to 2010 with the simple activation of a Twitter account. Research, plan, integrate and engage with social media AFTER you’ve figured out where your brand should be going within the marketplace. Then make a commitment to staying up-to-date with your brand, your industry and your community.

Until Next Time (within the next 25 years)…

Keep Cooking (timely, relevant branding decisions.)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

A lot of people tease me because I’m “Always On.” If I’m not in the office, I can usually be found through any number of social media channels.  Whether it’s my Twitter page, my check-ins on Foursquare or my Facebook page; it’s not very hard to find me – for good or bad.

This last week, though, I decided I’d take a vacation. You know, the “relaxing, kick-back-n-nap by the pool kind of week” that many of us need to recharge the branding battery and focus.  Well, this is what I did…

I cleaned. Boy did I clean.  My house looks like we just moved in.
I gardened. It finally stopped raining in central Iowa, so I pulled about 100 lbs of weeds and found that my garden still survived underneath it all…
I played with the kids. I have three great kids that are on Summer vacation, so after I made them help me weed and clean, we had some quality family time.  Movies. Fireworks. Carnivals. Dinners out…

It really was a great week!

But I couldn’t stay away from social media, work and talking about branding. I tweeted and used social media to coordinate projects for work.  I scheduled meetings.  I went to business and sales improvement seminars…  (relaxing?) My coworkers tease me, but maybe this will show them that I should get MORE vacation days. I seem to be pretty darn productive when I’m not sitting at my desk. 

One of the activities I’m VERY proud of accomplishing this week was going on-air for the first time in 20 years with Michael Libbie and his Insight On Business webcast that airs daily at http://www.webcastliveone.com We talked branding, business, social media, banking, cause marketing and general current events.  I had a blast!

Below is the stream.  You may need to jump forward a minute-or-so to get through the set up, but it’s well worth the watch.  Maybe I’ll do more of these in the future!  (click here for the video in FaceBook and Feed readers)

Thanks again to Michal Libbie (@MichaelLibbie on Twitter). I had a great time. I hope to do it again soon.

Until next time -

Keep Cooking (great relationships and education for your community)!
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

When I started this little title contest I asked myself one, somewhat intimidating question.  “What if I didn’t see any entries?” It happened before. I was terrified, but with faith in my social media community, I posted anyway.

I checked stats after an hour – nothing.  I checked stats after three hours and there was a hit or two, but no entries.  Then, after a day, one trickled in…  then another and another… within three days, I had so many titles that I almost stopped the contest just to use ALL of the entries for future posts!

I was blown away to see the creativity and fun people were having with the opportunity.  From the sublime “Eat This,” to the off-putting “The Smurfs Were Communists,” each new entry gave me a little insight into the participant’s personal brand - funny… reflective… passionate… curious… driven… While not my intention, I learned a little bit about all of them, and I thank them all.

Which brings us to our winner:

“Flourish Where You Live.”

When Sheena Rae Lara (@SheenaMacGruber on Twitter) posted her title entry, I knew it was one I was going to have to look into some more – win or not. It had depth.  It had weight that made me think of a million things to write, and that, originally, was the reason for the post “Conquer Writers Block – Save The World,” and Sheena killed it!

So, like I said, my original intention was to take Sheena’s title and write my own post from it.  After some reflection (and basic curiosity), I decided instead of telling you about how I thought “Flourish Where You Live” applied to me, I’d let Sheena tell you.  Because without Sheena and the community in which we live, how could The Brand Chef truly flourish?

Flourish Where You Live

(Brand Chef) What possessed you to post your title for this competition?
(Sheena Rae Lara) I had been thinking about doing my own blog post on this topic and saw your contest and wrote it in.

(BC) So, what inspired your title?
(SRL) I tell people that my plan, when I was in college, was to leave Iowa. I ended up staying and doing well here.

(BC) It sounds like a personal calling or mission you try to follow, yes?
(SRL) Yeah, I think so. I think it’s a waste of energy wishing/thinking about living somewhere else. If you really want to get out of Iowa then take the steps do it, otherwise quit dreaming and start making Iowa into the place you want it to be.

(BC) How to you integrate your title into everyday life?
(SRL) Flourishing can be different to different people, but for me it’s about doing what makes me happy and adding quality to my life. If that means staying home and baking bread from scratch, taking my son to the park, heading out to dollar pints at Olde Main with good friends or working on creative side projects.

(BC) Are you “a local” or do you hail from outside our little, Midwestern bubble?
(Note to readers: I ask this just because Sheena and I had connected on Twitter a few months ago to discuss her interest in multi-cultural marketing.)
(SRL) I’m an Iowan, spent my whole life living in Iowa except when I backpacked across Europe for two weeks and lived in Rome for a semester. I love learning about different cultures and people!

So, of course, here come the branding questions…

(BC) If you could sum up your personal brand in one sentence, what would it be, and would your title be incorporated?
(SRL) Tough one! Adventurous and responsible, nothing is beyond reach with a little creativity and ambition.

(BC) What do you want the readers to know about you that isn’t evident through your social media activity or blog?
(SRL) Well, some people have picked up on the axe stuff. I’m a contributor to Best Made Company’s social media presence. I started their facebook fan page and contribute to their blog.

***

Well Sheena (and the rest of you), I just want to thank you for taking the time to participate in my little social media contest this week.

It IS through the community in which you live that the passion and love for your surroundings fosters TRUE growth.  Sure, I’ve lived in Boston, Kansas City and traveled to other countries, but I kept coming back to my community, my family, my friends in Des Moines, Iowa. Why? I think Sheena said it best,

“I think it’s a waste of energy wishing/thinking about living somewhere else. … quit dreaming and start making {where you live} into the place you want it to be.”

It warms my heart to see social media fostering new relationships and creating these communities around virtual commonalities.

This is where I live!  This is where I flourish! How about you?

Keep Cooking! (Wherever you live!)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

Sheena Rae Lara is currently the Graphic Designer for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University.
She is looking into pursuing a Master’s degree in marketing and transitioning her career into digital media/marketing with a multicultural emphasis.