The Heart Of Marketing

Bernadette Jiwa joins The Heart of Marketing to share ideas from her new book Hunch: Turn Your Everyday Insights into the Next Big Thing. In it she busts some of the myths we believe about “creative genius” and how innovation really happens. “We covet groundbreaking ideas and the people who have them,” Jiwa writes in the introduction. “We believe in superstars and visionaries, in the power of Eureka! moments and special circumstances that set great ideas and their creators apart. But when we dig deeper, we find that the secret of these visionaries isn’t necessarily their pioneering nature, but rather that they made connections others overlooked.” The good news is that YOU can learn how to make those connections and cultivate your intuition to transform your marketing and your business. Listen in to discover how. What you will learn: • How ANYBODY can develop the “ordinary genius” that turns everyday insights into the next big thing • Why hunches are more important than data in coming up with breakthrough ideas • The reasons why data and technology can actually be the enemy of insight • Three human characteristics that fuel intuition for birthing new business ideas • How a brand or an idea becomes meaningful (and why it’s critical to success) • How to make your brand story much more than just a storytelling message About Bernadette Jiwa Bernadette Jiwa is a recognized global authority on the role of story in business, innovation, and marketing. She is the author of five best-selling books on marketing and brand storytelling, including: • Marketing, a Love Story: How to Matter to Your Customers • Make Your Idea Matter: Standing Out with a Better Story • Difference: The One-Page Method for Reimagining Your Business and Reinventing Your Marketing • The Fortune Cookie Principle • Meaningful: The Story of Ideas that Fly Bernadette is based in Melbourne, Australia. She works with global brands like LinkedIn, Zappos, and Adidas to intentionally create products, services, and marketing that help them matter to their customers. She has been named one of the Top 100 Branding Experts to follow on Twitter. She also spoke at TEDx in 2012 about “The Secret to Spreading Ideas.” Her new book titled Hunch: Turn Your Everyday Insights into the Next Big Thing releases in the U.S. on June 6, 2017.

Organic influence is rarely addressed on this whole influencer relations spectrum. Most of the relationships brands have with influencers is all about the paid opportunity. You know, when a fairly large brand hires influencers to stump for that brand and the influencer gets paid to do so? There has to be a disclaimer for that or else the FTC will breathe down the necks of brands and influencers, too. That said, P&G launched a huge influencer campaign with mommy bloggers. The brand was touting its new diaper and moms were all over it. Turns out the diaper wasn't working and babies behinds were getting painful rashes. Ouch. P&G turned it up a notch and enlisted support from an entire cadre of mommy bloggers to listen and turn it all around. That's a good paid influencer story. What's a good organic influencer story? In this episode of The Heart of Marketing, Jayme Soulati shares her story about becoming an influencer in public relations via development of her personal brand as a blogger. You'll hear about how that happened and the result. This influencer thing? It's all the rage right now, and in Episode 86, we share some good thoughts about the topic, too. In this episode, we give a shout out to Mark W. Schaefer and his cohost Tom Webster on The Marketing Companion podcast who just realized the fun of audio emojis. John Gregory Olson is the KING of audio emojis and has been doing them for exactly 87 episodes! When you listen, think of what we say as this: 1. Does my business need a boost with an outside influencer to help share stories about my brand to their customers who may become mine? 2. Do I have a budget to spend on a paid influencer campaign? 3. Can I do organic influence based on my ability to parlay my personal brand throughout a wider net? If you're stuck with this whole influencer thing, give us a shout. We can help you on the show with some thoughts because 3 heads are better than 1!

Bet you didn't know that gems in this case means the real deal -- baubles, jewels, and even more to the point -- engagement rings! There's a young man disrupting the traditionally stodgy jewelry industry with his house calls, custom designs based on storytelling the romance, intricate one-of-a-kind wedding sets for the bride and groom, and an infusion into the family jewelry business (we hasten a guess). Zameer Kassam is a millennial with a Harvard Business School education. Slated to jump into his family jewelry business, he decided to sow his oats elsewhere. But, his designer mentality beckoned, and he began designing custom engagement rings for friends who took his nuptual business viral. You know how word of mouth works, right? Assam is bucking all the traditional roadblocks and taking the customer experience to the comforts of home. Using imagery, stories, interviews, and video all in the name of love, Kassam is developing a customer experience for life. He'll not only get the wedding ring to design, but what happens when it's the 10-year-anniversary, when the babies are born and when it's Mother's Day? Probably the most uncomfortable customer experience for a man is having to open that door into a jeweler for the first time to find the engagement ring. POUNCE! The poor guy is assaulted by lurking sales professionals wanting to lure him into an expensive bauble with no prior knowledge. Enter Kassam. He's taken the jewelry-buying experience to new and comfy heights. The professionals writing about him suggest it's a new way to do PR. I disagree, but not so much in this episode. We in PR have been telling stories for years; it's just the packaging of the storytelling that makes people think it's new. Thumbs up for Kassam, for sure. He's finally disrupting an industry so staid and old guard that hopefully those guys will sit up and take note. It's about time. How can your business disrupt the tried, true and tired? Think on it as you listen to this week's episode of The Heart of Marketing with John Gregory Olson and Jayme Soulati. Thanks for listening!

Resources

Read the Forbes post on Kassam's story.

A Word of Mouth episode to learn more about viral marketing.

On Digital Heart: Meaningful Experiences

Helpfulness and Branding on Soulati.com

No one has ever accused marketers of being liars, until you read the book, ‘Evolve, Marketing (as we know it) is Doomed,’ by Hessie Jones and Daniel Newman. In this guest appearance by Hessie, CEO of ArCompany in Toronto, Jayme Soulati quizzes Hessie to get to the bottom of whether marketers are liars, or not. It's an intriguing question with an even-more intriguing answer. Throughout the discussion, Hessie shares her keen insights from her breadth of experience in the corporate world circling around data analytics and marketing. Using the knowledge of those who contributed to her book, Hessie brings a perspective to the show about what's actually happening in marketing today.

Together, Jayme and Hessie share food for thought on the future and evolution of marketing in its current state of disruption. Listen to the end in the Heart of the Matter when John Gregory Olson chimes in to add his thoughts, too. Buy Hessie Jones's Book, Evolve

Buy Hessie Jones and Daniel J. Newman's Book right here, 'Evolve, Marketing As We Know It Is Doomed'

Episode Highlights • Why marketers can certainly be considered liars • Insights into the millennial think tank with several takeaways • A sense of where we are today; can you say ‘bubble?’ • Two examples of companies doing marketing well • Essential tips for daily marketing practice About Hessie Jones As a seasoned digital strategist, Hessie Jones continues to challenge the notion of complacency. With extensive experience in technology including start-ups, banking, advertising and social media, Hessie has held management positions at Yahoo!, Citi, ONE Advertising and Aegis Media.Hessie is the author of EVOLVE: Marketing (as we know it) is Doomed!

As an active writer for Switch & Shift, SAP, Talent Culture, Huffington Post, and Steamfeed, Hessie is a purveyor for understanding and adapting to change: in marketing practices, in communication, in understanding the evolving consumer mindset and behavior. Currently, Hessie is the Founder of ArCompany, helping companies realize the value of social intelligence and its impact on the inevitable next level of social business. She’s also a cellist, MBA guest lecturer, wife and hockey mom.

Everyone’s a publisher today, but not everyone is an expert at earned media. In my Chicago agency days, I sold news. I was considered a PR flack by the journalists who hated me (yes, they really did). Each of us newbies had to call George Lazarus, may he rest in peace, of the Chicago Tribune advertising column and feel his wrath. After that, we had arrived; but I digress. IKEA announced it has added veggie balls to its menu, and in the Wall Street Journal a tremendously large photo of the new menu item was featured alongside an equally large story. Why was IKEA, a privately held Swedish corporation, featured so prominently? Because it has all of the elements required for an international story in tier-one media, including: 1. international scale 2. Data and research in multiple countries 3. Trends (foods going vegan) 4. Size of company and revenue 5. Futures perspective and roll-out Other news stories may not have these elements to become hot news; however, when you’re exploring distribution of a news release, many of these factors should come into play. As my co-host, John Gregory Olson of JGO Digital said so eloquently, “Public relations is no longer about seeing a company’s thought leader on TV, it’s about buyer connectivity.” That’s the crux of the disruption in public relations that I’ve been living and breathing since 1984. It’s always going to be an exciting time in marketing, so carpe diem and put your best foot forward for yourself and your company. About the Co-Hosts I am Jayme Soulati, president of Soulati Media, Inc., a blended public relations marketing firm with national clients. I am a message mapping master, professional blogger, writer and strategist, John Gregory Olson is my co-host on The Heart of Marketing podcast, and he is the consummate digital marketer and keen strategist and planner. He has corporate and agency experience and now as CEO of JGO Digital, John rescues organizations from poor marketing. Resources IKEA Media Relations on a Slow News Day