Q&A with marketing veteran Marcos Bravo: Let’s Talk Branding

As Marty Neumeier (branding consultant in Silicon Valley) puts it: “Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.” 

 

Now, what does this mean for you? If you don’t interiorize what you say (aka you’re not delivering on your promises), your clients and employees won’t be fooled. You’ll be the one fooling yourself. 

 

Now, the world is shifting. The way brands communicate and behave has been disturbed by this unforgiving pandemic. And we must adapt and change.

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/LDMe_27JW1Q

 

As the folks at Deloitte noted in their “2021 Global Marketing Trends ”Purpose-driven companies inherently understand why they exist and who they are best built to serve regardless of what they sell today”. 

 

Now, what’s your business’s purpose?

 

If you still haven’t figured it out, don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Step 1 is acknowledging, step 2 is doing something about it.

 

I’ve invited Marcos Bravo, the brand ambassador of LiveChat, for a Q&A to help us understand how to build a powerful brand. In short, LiveChat is one of the biggest brands in the chat software market, serving companies like MacDonald’s, Mercedes Benz, Unilever, Adobe, or PayPal.

 

Going back to Marcos, he’s a veteran marketer and brand expert with over 20 years of experience in many industries. Storyteller, podcaster, marketing mentor, and icecream creator, let’s hear him out!

 

Q: What are the treats of a powerful brand?

Marcos: A clear voice and a unique selling point. Everything the brand does can be exactly the same as their competitors, but a powerful brand understands how to relate to their customers, how to make a difference by covering every aspect of the customer journey, from discovery to loyalty. The powerful brand can convert their customers into brand ambassadors.

 

Q: My product is not unique. How can I make it stand out?

Marcos: Knowing your competitors. If you understand the way your competitors sell their product, you can identify their UVPs, then you compare that with what is it that you offer that is better or unique and milk that. If you sell the exact same set of features, then use a different language. Talk to the target customers in a better or different way.

 

Q: What’s your take on the power of storytelling? 

Marcos: Storytelling is both underrated, and overrated. We turned a natural way of communicating into a marketing buzzword. Storytelling is something we have been doing for millennia, it is how the wiseman or the tribe elder will tell the stories to the younger generations. It was born and developed so nothing gets lost and stories are memorable, but after all, it is a great mix of ups and downs and twists. 

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/k7fUP9RQj3Y

 

Q: How can you become a better storyteller?

Marcos: You want to get it right? Try telling a story to a 5-year-old. If you manage to finish it you have this covered.

 

Q: Is content still king in all this noise?

Marcos: It is and will always be, as long as we define content as the voice we are using to talk as a brand. If it is just a SEO strategy and a way for us to make us “findable” we are doomed.

 

Q: How can you make your content stand out?

Marcos: Understanding the needs and expectations of your customer. There is no other way.

 

Q: What’s your preferred video marketing hack?

Marcos: The magic of the THUMBNAIL, how this badly designed and tiny graphic piece makes the difference between watching or not watching a video that took a huge effort to make.

 

Q: Influencer marketing: your 3 tips.

Marcos: Constancy, relatability, and entertaining.

 

Q: Marketing on a low budget: is it possible?

Marcos: Yes! And is the easiest because people and customers can see that it is a real and honest approach and effort. It pushes your marketing brain to be creative and humble. There is a big number of “celebrities” CMOs that made their job remarkable only because an unlimited budget, something not all of us will ever get.  

 

Q: Chocolate or salted caramel icecream?

Marcos: Salted Caramel. Just like life, nothing can be sweet forever, a salty twist makes everything more interesting.

 

My vote goes to salted caramel as well! Chocolate is overrated, people!

 

Now, I loved this advice from Marcos: “Try telling a story to a 5-year-old. If you manage to finish it you have this covered”. Sounds pretty hard. But if you nail this down, you’ll be over the moon with your brand.

 

If you liked this article, and you want to learn more about how to take your marketing efforts to the next level, how to design a website that converts, make sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel and follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

 

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Alina is a digital marketer with a passion for web design. When she's not strategizing she's doing photography, listening to podcasts on history and psychology, and playing with her 2 dogs and cat.

 

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