078: Deb Gabor - Be The Best Brand in the World!
The best brands in the world make you feel sexy, invincible, and like a hero — and you can be just like them! When you start thinking about yourself and your business as a brand, it can open up all kinds of opportunities that you may have never seen before. Find out how to develop ‘the best brand in the world’ on this week’s episode.
Deb Gabor is the Founder and CEO of Sol Marketing. She is a brand dominatrix and investor pitch whisperer. At Sol Marketing, Deb has helped develop brand strategy for household names like Dell, Microsoft, and Goldman Sachs, just to name a few. Deb is also the author of the bestselling book, Branding is Sex.
After trying to become a doctor, Deb found herself being really, really bad at medical school. She decided to switch fields and study communication instead. While still in college, Procter and Gamble came to her school and she helped launch a test product called Fruitopia. This sparked a huge interest for Deb on the research involved as to why someone would buy a product. There are so many other drinks to choose from, what’s the person’s story and why would they pick this drink out of all others?
The best, most sustainable brands in the world are the ones who can create and convey a vision for the future and deliver on that promise. The biggest disruptions in business models tend to happen outside of the given industry. For example, big food innovations and disruptions that are happening right now are not coming from within the grocery market and food producer industry.
When it comes to branding, it comes down to a breaking point of “Brand or be branded.” You don’t own your brand, your customers own your brand. Your brand technically has two parts: The identity and the image.
The brand image is the part the customer owns. It’s their reflection back on you; it’s their perceptions and relationship with you. Most importantly, it’s their immediate experience with you. The brand identity is the part you own and control. It is how you show up. It is how you make promises and deliver on those promises to those you are serving. You have to manage both in order to deliver effective messaging. If you fail in these two areas, you leave your brand up to the control of your customers, and this can lead to broken brand promises.
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