You're Never Too Big

The other day at the gym, I received a good lesson in brand awareness and advertising. I was in the lockeroom when a woman came over close to me, bent over and pointed to my shoes and said "Those sneakers are exactly what I am looking for! I need more of a square toe! What brand are those?"

For your reference, here is a picture of the shoes I was wearing:

Needless to say, I was pretty shocked and uncertain of how to respond to such a question asking me what brand these sneakers were. Was this a joke?

"Uhhh, these? They're just Nike?" I said, as if I was not sure myself. Did someone seriously just ask me what the swoosh on my shoe represented?

I consider Nike to be one of the largest global brands in the world (So does Interbrand, they rank Nike at #24 in the world). Not only are their products popular, but their swoosh logo is easily recognizable, and they are always doing tons of advertising. They have definitely kept up to speed with the digital media revolution, but they still appear in print, on billboards, etc.

You could say that maybe the woman wasn't a big athlete or sports fanatic. That could be a fair statement, except that she was working out, so she had clearly purchased athletic clothing and shoes before. Also, she belonged to a gym in New York City, so she must either live or work in the city, and must have seen some Nike outdoor media at some point in her life:

Nike Billboard, Times Square NYC. Click here to read more

But, it is a scattered media world and people generally focus on themselves and their interests. It's still crucial to keep on building awareness and targeting new consumers. And despite how big you might think your brand is, just remember that some people do not even know what Nike is. It is possible to not reach a consumer throughout their whole life, or perhaps you can reach them but not make any impact.

For that reason, always keep inventing and promoting yourself. Are you relevant to certain niche markets you have yet to consider? Then promote yourself, or as Nike says "Just Do It."

Jumping In to Your Personal Brand

Every brand has a story, and the one brand you will ultimately work for and represent for your entire life is your own. People have always needed to know who they are, what they stand for and their values, but in a digital world, it's even more important because all of your information is out there. Combine that with the fact that people have less than a 9 second attention span, and you really need to find a way to tell your personal brand story quickly, and in a way that people enjoy listening to.

I was puzzled when first asked to think of my brand story. I've only been in the "real world" for 4 years, and my entire life I was known as "the swimmer" - but then I realized, my swimming story is still who I am today. 

When most college students graduate they fear the future of responsibility and that they will never have fun again (no more $2 Tuesdays at the bar and sleeping through a Wednesday morning class). I found myself in a different position upon graduation, I was not worried about fun or responsibility, I was worried about whether or not I'd be able to survive on land.

I was a competitive swimmer my entire life and captain of my college swim team, and that was what I felt defined me. Without swimming, what would I do at 5:30 am when I no longer had swim practice? Without my teammates given to me, how would I make friends? Would I get fat? After all, I had exercised between 3-4 hours a day, 6 days a week since I was 10 years old.

What I quickly learned was that who I was in the pool translated very well to the workplace, and I quickly found myself loving and exceeding at my first job.

Who was I in the pool (and out?) - I'll tell you:

A leader. As captain, I was used to meeting the expectations of my coaches, as well as my more junior teammates, and knowing how to balance both. This skill translated well to working with a boss and learning to manage those working under me.

Leading my team in cheer as captain senior year

Creative. Swimming laps up and down a pool for 4 hours a day is not exciting. Sometimes I needed to make it fun by having everyone in my lane wear pink, or sing songs. Thinking outside the box helped me come up with creative solutions for my company's advertising clients.

Fun practice gear got us through our intense training trip in Hawaii in 2011

Disciplined. I learned through swimming the difference between giving 100% and 110% - I saw first hand that extra hours and practice helps you to win or get a best time.

"Fairfield" would have been much too complicated to spell, this was hard enough.

Team Player. Although everyone thinks swimming is an individual sport, it really is not. Winning my own race meant nothing if in the end my team lost the meet. I learned how to inspire others to do their best while working as work as a team to get the win.

"A" relay team at MAAC Championships, 2008

Risk Taker. The first risk I took was being the only one of my high school friends not to go to Penn State - I was going to Fairfield to swim. I knew no one at Fairfield, and had to learn to adjust to a new setting. I was a backstroker my entire life until my senior year of college when my team needed a  butterflyer, and then I took on that role. Trying new things made me willing to move from a sales team to a research team and then ultimately to a marketing team. I embraced each change excited to figure out just how good I could be at the next challenge.

Hiking a water fall on our 2009 training trip in Puerto Rico

I may have spent 12 years jumping in to a pool, but what swimming really taught me was not to be afraid to jump out.

My Childhood Addiction Rekindled Via Digital Marketing

I had an unhealthy obsession with Barbie as a child. To the point I continued to play with Barbies long after my friends had stopped, and I would hide my Barbies when my friends would come over so they wouldn’t know.

There are a few reasons I think I was possessed by the hot pink wearing blonde. First, I had a wild imagination as a kid. I never was interested in TV, but with Barbies I could create my own stories for their lives and entertain myself for hours. Secondly, my best friend since pre-school, Kari, also had this addiction so I had someone fueling the fire. Third, I loved and still love the color pink. Fourth, I could never get bored! Barbie always had a new car or a new job, the story kept changing. And lastly, my mom had built me a house for Barbie and a school for Barbie.  There was just no reason to stop.

Eventually, I did get bored with Barbie. Probably around middle school. But, when you love something you never truly let it go. My mother continued to buy me collectible Barbies, which I keep in the box. I always was interested in what Barbies my younger cousin had, and then digital marketing came around, allowing me to keep up with Barbie’s life (in an age appropriate manner) all over again.

November 2012 Birthday Gift from mom: Election Barbie with brown hair and green eyes, just like yours truly

Barbie and Ken got back together in a huge Valentine’s Day campaign in 2011. Naturally, my mom bought me the limited edition dolls. This was when I first discovered Barbie was back, and in my opinion, better than ever.

Photo from make. see. do. eat. blog

Fast forward to today when I have a more collectible Barbies and the Barbie Twitter handle is the only non-human on my “pals” Twitter list composed of my friends. Yes, that is correct. Her tweets are just that great.

The genius behind Barbie’s online success is that it’s not pushing a product, it’s bringing to life a person or perhaps even a celebrity, which pulls fans in. She tells you about her dates with Ken, selling her dream house, shopping with her sisters and asks for help deciding which outfits to wear. Mattel didn’t choose to promote products or reasons to buy the dolls, they chose to make a human connection with their consumers.

I could rave about Barbie’s digital marketing strategy forever. But instead, I’ll show you:

Barbie tennis image from https://www.facebook.com/barbie

Dreamhouse packing list from https://www.facebook.com/barbie

Tweets from https://twitter.com/barbie

The 5 Rules of Wearing Patterned Kneesocks

In my first post I explained that there is a market for everything, including patterned kneesocks, you just have to find that market. I also explained that one needs to stand out in a cluttered marketing world, just as I stood out in high school by “breaking the rules” of my high school uniform and wearing patterned kneesocks. There are important things to know before putting on your patterned kneesocks, just as there are a few important things to know before preparing a digital marketing strategy.

1. You can’t put it out there and walk away: So much of traditional media involves putting up an ad on a billboard, or on TV, walking away and waiting to watch your sales soar. Digital Marketing doesn’t work that way. You can’t put up a Facebook post, or content on your website without continuously checking how many people are commenting on it, reading it or clicking on it. Remember it is a blessing that you can be agile and change your strategy half way through if people aren’t engaging, but you have to spend the time and effort monitoring your content.
(So, always keep a spare pair of plain regulation kneesocks in your locker, incase halfway through the school day the principal sees your fancy socks and asks you to change.)

2. Try something new: There are so many platforms out there to converse with consumers, and you won’t know if it will work until you try. Now, this isn’t to say you should have a presence on every single platform that exists, but don’t hold back. Just because you as an internet user are not a fan of Twitter, doesn’t mean your customers aren’t using Twitter. The same goes for content, don’t be afraid to try something new.
(Don’t put on all your pairs of kneesocks at once and don’t be afraid to try out that bold new polka dot pair of kneesocks.)

3. Don’t just rely on the metrics: Everyone loves to see more likes and traffic on a page. Numbers are important. But the comments users leave, as well as what they are liking and what they are spending time viewing are equally if not more important than metrics. Take notice of this, and use it to figure out what resonates with your audience.
(Dear High School Disciplinarian: As more and more of us started “bending the rules” on our uniforms, it wasn’t to create a school wide rebellion. We were just teenagers trying to figure out who we were and what our style was. Thanks for giving us extra time to think about our style while we sat in detention for not following the dress code one too many times.)

4. Visual is everything. Aesthetics can make or break a digital experience. The text and content might be great, but if a consumer gets to the page and immediately feels overwhelmed or not enticed to stay on the page, chances are they will never get to the great content. This does not only relate to images and pictures, it is important for text layout as well. Keep it simple, well designed, eye catching and easy to navigate. Once you hook them, they will come back, but not hooking them due to poor visual design is an unnecessary reason to lose your audience.
(If you’re going to stand out by wearing patterned kneesocks, you better make sure that pattern looks good, because it is going to get noticed.)

5. Be yourself & show your human side: At the end of the day, it’s still about human interaction. People have computers, but people are not computers. They are still impulsive and gravitate towards what they feel strong emotions for. People still want to be loved.  Be personal, have a human (not a computer) respond to comments both good and bad. Show that you care about them so that your relationship is not one they ever choose to walk away from.
(I didn’t make friends in high school because I wore patterned kneesocks, but rather because of the loyal, fun and outgoing person I was. I like to think I’d still have the same friends with or without my patterned kneesocks.)

By the end of senior year, uniform violations were in full swing for the class of 2005. Take note of the uniform offenders: patterned kneesocks, colored undershirts, sweaters and sweatshirts. No one dared to try this until we knew we had already met all of our requirements to graduate. I am in the 2nd row, third from the left.