Top of Mind Awareness.

With all this madness with the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) it is important to be reminded that this is the time to make sure your business is one of the businesses who have built that all-important top-of-mind awareness that will succeed.

Top-of-mind awareness creates recall so that when the ‘tomorrow’ customer becomes the ‘today’ customer, your business will be among the top three or four choices on your customer’s mental shopping list.

Focusing on branding and top of mind awareness really does work. We know that because that’s what the best marketers in the world do. How do you think Coca-Cola, Ford, McDonald’s, (local advertiser) and (local advertiser) became so successful?

Build your brand

Because they recognised, and continue to recognise the importance branding, that’s why. They know that top-of-mind awareness is what builds successful businesses – not short-term sales and promotions.

Let me tell you about the most famous of them all – Coca-Cola.

John Pemberton created Coca-Cola in 1886 and his total sales for the first year amounted to $50; he sold an average of 9 drinks a day. It wasn’t until 10 years later – after Asa Candler had bought the company for a mere $1,000 and launched a major advertising campaign to brand Coca-Cola – that Coke became America’s favourite drink. John Pemberton made almost nothing from his now famous recipe that today is worth billions. If it had been left to John, who had no interest in advertising, Coca-Cola would never have survived. Let me tell you now that Coke’s success had very little to do with its taste and everything to do with its marketing.

And here’s another interesting thing about Coca-Cola….

Defining moment for Coca-Cola

The defining moment in Coca-Cola’s phenomenal success story was the Great Depression of the 1930s. Instead of reducing its advertising spend, as other soft drink manufacturers did, Coca-Cola increased its advertising budget dramatically and focused on building its brand. It created the famous ‘Pause That Refreshes’ campaign in the 1930s that uplifted a nation at a time of depression and created the famous Santa campaigns that still continue today. Coca-Cola created the image of the Santa we know today – a jolly fat man in a red and white suit. Prior to that, Santa was depicted as a dwarf!

This pro-active marketing strategy saw sales grow substantially during the biggest financial crisis that America has ever seen and provided the foundations for the massive Coca-Cola empire that we know today.

There are always casualties

Has any anyone ever heard of Delahaye?

I thought not. And it’s not surprising because the company no longer exists. But Delahaye was the premiere luxury car manufacturer of its time – the 1930s rival to Rolls-Royce.

During the Great Depression, Delahaye eliminated its total advertising budget, instead relying on its reputation and high profile to attract customers.

Delahaye stopped advertising to save money. But it is wasn’t enough to save the brand! They soon went out of business, never to be heard of again.

Like Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Chevrolet and Ford are other companies that increased their advertising budgets during the Great Depression and came out of it unscathed.

Put bluntly, the companies that demonstrated the most growth and which rang up most sales were those that advertised heavily. The Great Depression offers classic examples of the power of brand advertising, even during times of economic crisis.

And guess what. Right now, your competitors are probably reducing their advertising exposure. This presents you with a great opportunity to take a larger share of the market while your competitors sit back and watch.

This blog was written by my business partner – previous owner of More FM and author of The Note Through the Wire – Doug Gold.

In April, via Zoom, I’ll be putting together 5 good folks and showing them exactly how to take their existing services that they sell face-to-face, virtual!

Do you want to know more? Just email me at mike@mikebrunel.com

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Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media.  He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.

He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every timeIt’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!