S1 Ep 7: Why Building Brand Is Your Secret Weapon When It Comes To Marketing

Welcome back to the Marketing Muscle Up podcast show. I'm Richard Turtungi, and on this podcast we're going to talk all about brand. Or marketing or marketing and brand? Which one do you need to grow your health and fitness and wellness business? I've got Ev that's going to quick-fire me a marketing muscle-up rep. How are you, Ev?

I'm great. How are you, Rich?

Excellent.

Excellent.

Yeah.

Great. And I am going to fire a question at you that I think will be helpful to a lot of people, but I think that in, you know, people often, you know, they've got businesses and they need leads. And so they often kind of jump straight into trying to get leads, which I think is where marketing fits in. You know, they'll get on Facebook ads or they'll, you know, try and do AdWords or that, or, you know, any kind of lead generation. But I think they skip a big part of how to make that work, which is brand. And it's something that we focus heavy on here at Comm. And so I want to ask you, why brand?

Yeah, let's get it done. And I'll try and do a quick one here, guys. So we've got a program called Comm Ninjas and there's an 8-part process to that. And the first part that we focus on that we've built is the term brand, making sure that you're identified, not lost in the marketplace, and identified to your audience and avatar, not lost to your audience avatar. An avatar is basically someone who you're wanting to go and attract to, like a, it could be a mom or a dad or a certain age demographic. And then after brand, we have personality, credibility, and engagement. So let's just go deep into brand for a second because you're right, Ev, that a lot of people wanted to produce leads. We all want to produce leads, don't get me wrong, like duh, let's get leads, let's get clients, it makes sense. However, I actually think brand become— is on top of marketing. And I'll take you— I'll tell you what I mean by that is that marketing is the concept of, you know, where am I putting this advert? It could be on Facebook or Instagram or wherever platform, it could be a flyer, right? But when you get the flyer in the mail or when you see the ad, what's going to happen is 2 things. You're either gonna— well, there's 3 things really. You're gonna click on it and do what you want that ad was supposed to do, convert. You're either going to ignore it and never see it again or just go out of your brain. And number 3, it's going to give you some kind of feeling or attention to it or recognition. And most people will never buy anything on the first round. I'll say that again. Like we're talking about 97%, 98%, probably 99% of people will never buy anything if that's the first time they've seen it. Yeah. The saying is, you know, you've got to see it 14, I think 20, 30 times really before you take some kind of action. You can see that in the analytical stats in a website. If you guys are following your stats on a website, you can go on the back and you can sort of see, is your homepage converting? Is your landing page converting? You know, we know a good conversion on a landing page, like a single landing page, is is in the very small single digits, very small single digits. And so if you're doing better than that, amazing. Now, if you're doing better than that, I'll tell you why you'd be doing better is because there's one thing that doesn't matter what you own or what you do, we're all controlled by this. We're all controlled by this. And it's called brand, brand equity. I'll give you a scenario. is that when you watch, uh, the tennis and you see a Roger or Sabrina there and they're, you know, doing their thing, playing the tennis at the wherever they are, the US, the Australian Open, whatever, they're playing tennis because they're the best in the world.

Mm-hmm.

But what they're doing is they're wearing certain clothing and certain shoes. If I said, who owns a pair of Nikes? Guarantee that every single person would that has access to listen to this podcast. And so we know what Nike is. But when you're watching the tennis, you're not buying, you know, the Nike shoes. Well, now you possibly can online, of course.

Yeah.

But the scenario I put to it, I, last time I traveled to the US, I've done this a few times in the US, I have a spare day up my Sleeve from coming out of LA, and and then I and then I go okay well let me go do a little bit of shopping. And this is not Joey asked I'm saying let's do the shopping. I go to a factory warehouse and because I know what I can go there and go there and get some really cool shoes. But the reason why I'm geared to that because I've watched the tennis and I've watched my favorite athlete and they're doing their thing and I go well I want to be a champion as well.

Yeah.

I've got to do what they're doing. Now, I go straight to this, I drive an hour out from LA and I go straight to this factory warehouse and I get to the shopping complex, all the different branding stores. And I literally go one place to like 2 or 3 places. And I go there and I go out the front of this Nike store and I see 50% off. And I go, well, great.

Nice. I

get 2 pairs instead of 1. Why? Because I've been brought through with brand. I didn't drive an hour out there to go and get my shoes. I drove there because I liked how it made me feel. I liked how it— I reacted to it. I liked how, how everybody else reacted to it. And that's brand. We all buy things through brand first, then we get the marketing done when we see the for sale sign, when we see the 14 days for $14, etc., etc. So brand is everywhere. And if you're listening to this podcast anywhere, just look around you. Look at your shoes, look at your clothes, look at your hats, your pens, your papers, your computer, your computer you may be on, your phone, which I guarantee you purchase through brand and then tell me that brand's not relevant in marketing, brand's not relevant in the fitness industry.

Yeah.

Brand is all we have. Now, we talked previously about me stuffing up and losing literally everything overnight through my website relocating and we've seen the flavors of that is that what I didn't have and Meet Your Personal Trainer did have, that had brand. And the relocation was just a lead directory. Nobody cared about the brand.

Yes.

And so when we lose the latest marketing hack or thing that worked and then now it doesn't work, well, the point is proven that brand will always keep winning. And so the brand, and we're talking about brand, it's not just a logo, by the way.

Yeah.

Logo is one part, but if we look at Nike and keep Nike as an example, it's how Nike makes us feel. Nike makes us feel confident, clarity, we feel powerful. And then you see the quotes of Nike, just do it. I mean, just do it has so many different feelings and emotion from somebody. And so look at your brand now, look at your logo and go, okay, what does it stand for? What does it mean? What is the mission? What is the vision? What is the personality of that logo and brand? Do people want to wear your hats. And I'm on this call, video call. If you're on audio, by the way, you can go to our YouTube channel and see some of these videos here. And Ev, I've noticed, is wearing a hat, UPFN, one of our clients' brands. And I also am wearing a hat too of Combrain.

I probably should have put my Com hat on, but I'm repping UPFN today.

Repping UPFN 100%. And we rep people that makes us feel a certain thing. We buy brands that make us feel a certain thing. And so look at your brand and go, is it the brand that is going to attract people into the door? Is it the brand that's going to help to get my leads on Facebook or AdWords or organic marketing going or not? And that's why I always come back to brand.

Hmm.

I can't skip this topic unless somebody says, Richard, just want to make a quick dollar. Well, I'd say, well, go, you know, go to the casino and put everything on red. You know, that's really what we're talking about here. If you don't lead with brand, you lead with the latest marketing hack. And the only thing that's ever going to last is brand.

Yep.

Now, if you take away your brand, let's take, I take my hat off and here I am, Richard, and I've got no brand anywhere. Well, my brand is Richard. What does Richard stand for? Who is Richard? Because then if I'm going to go put myself and say, come and train with me, well then if they don't like the way that I talk, if they don't like how I look, if they don't like what I'm wearing and I don't say anything, well, I'm still biased on brand. I mean, it's, it's not superficial. It's just how we are wired as human beings. We're all wired from something. I mean, do you shop at Woolworths or Coles, Ev?

I shop at Coles.

I shop at Coles too.

Also, yeah.

Why do you shop at Coles, not Woolworths for?

I, it's interesting because when we were young, we used to shop at Woolworths. My parents shopped at Woolworths. And then when I got to, you know, do shopping myself, moved out, that kind of thing, I was like, oh, I don't want to shop at the same place my parents do. And Coles seemed like the more kind of like upper.

You want to upper, you want cool, you don't want parents because you're—

oh,

parents, nobody's gonna be like their parents, right? So we move. So whatever reason you're doing it, you're doing it because the brand is, is, is the one that want to make you feel whenever you wanted to go to Coles because it makes you feel, um, unique, it makes you feel independent, it makes you feel like I'm standing on my own 2 feet. Yeah. That's brand. Now then, when Coles has specials, and we're a Coles shopper as well, when Coles have specials, guess what? We are now focused on the Coles specials. When Woolworths puts information in front of our face, we literally ignore it. Like, it's rubbish.

I don't shop for the Woolworths specials.

No. We all want the— I think the Coles is the dollar down or something like that. Like, it's all about coals. And so guys, in your fitness business, let's take note.

Yeah.

Do you have a logo? Do you have color branding? Do you know what the logo means? Do you know what it represents? Do you think your logo would be attracted to those people? Do your photos represent the way that you want to feel and your brand wants to feel? Do you feel that your brand is attractive to not you and, you know, your tribe currently? Do you think it's attractive to people that you want to start bringing into your world?

Yeah.

And then, and then do you actually have the proof in the pudding that your brand has clients? Do you have reviews? Do you have case studies? Do you have testimonials? And then finally, Do you actually have a decent community that will stand up and fight for you? And are they there backing at every move? Are they there wearing your hat? Like, it's got UPFN, one of our Ninjas of the Year. Like, do you have that or not?

Yeah.

Otherwise, what we go back to is we go back to let's Just start buying lead generation stuff, and then eventually they're going to ask you. They're going to go to your facility, and they might not like certain things like the equipment, and they don't have the right feeling. And so all we're selling then is we're selling items that can easily be replaced. If you think your treadmill is great, and they're buying the treadmill again, the treadmill is a brand, by the way, and you bought that treadmill for a brand. Yeah. Somebody else is going to open up, and they're going to have a bigger and better treadmill with a big TV. Or if you think you've got the best. equipment, then someone else can open up and have 2 of the best equipments. So it's like you're never going to be beaten. You're always going to be outbeat, sorry, on equipment and devices, but you'll never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever be outbeaten on brand equity. And so that's the reason why, you know, whenever we work with clients and whatever we say, it's brand equity first because it's the long game. Yeah. And, you know, we work with people who are in the long game, not short game. And we know the short game in the fitness industry is a phase Like, who has an ab roller, for goodness sake? I don't know. I mean, yes, they made a lot of money today, but we are here for the long haul and we want to make sure that we're leading with brand. And I always say, like, if we're gonna— you're gonna set up a business and you're gonna do all the work to find the latest hack and generate the latest lead, well, you might as well, you know, put out brand equity. Because even if you put out your ads—

Yes.

And even if you put out And I see a lot of time with landing pages, people don't change the URL. This is a bit of an ninja move. They don't change the URL in their— could be ClickFunnels account or whatever landing page system they have. And every time they put out an ad, you're advertising ClickFunnels. Change the URL to your URL because you remember 97%, 98%, 99% of people are not going to buy the first time. So at least you've got brand equity going in the marketplace. And that's where we talk about having an awareness branded video. We have a concept there, $5 a day, put it out there in the marketplace so people can start to see your brand, your brand, your brand. So when you are ready to put an advert out, when you are ready to buy my product kind of concept, when I am ready to go to Nike, I'm going because I've, you know, I've seen that brand multiple times and all you have to do, as I said, just look around, look what you've got, look what you've purchased, look at your air conditioning, Look at— I'm just looking at the lights, your camera, you've got your phone, your computer, your clothes, your jeans, your socks, your shoes.

Yep.

It's all brand, brand equity. Brand equity will always outbeat everything. And the greatest thing I love is that with brand equity, if you ever want to sell your business, right, people will buy your business on the return of profit, but they'll always— they'll also buy your business on the equity of the brand and the equity that you have built up as well. And that is a huge, huge way that you can, uh, that you can really get the most out of your fitness business if you do decide to sell it one day is through brand equity. So that's why I'm a big believer on brand. Um, and, uh, obviously when you look at franchises as well, people are buying a franchise based on the brand and obviously the systems, you know. So, um, yeah, never underestimate brand. Uh, treat it as your highest marketing skill set that you've got to build up.

I think so. I think what I'm hearing you say is, you know, brands is really, you know, it's wrapped up in like how you make people feel and do people want to be a part of that thing. You know, I want to be on the in club. You know, that's why I shop at Coles. That's why I'm wearing a UPFN hat. You know, I want to be like the part of the cool kids club. And I think that's really what brands should make you feel, right?

Totally.

Yeah.

Team, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Marketing Muscle-Up Reps. We're gonna bring these episodes to you so you can get these episodes in a quick bite-sized chunk. If you have enjoyed this episode, remember, subscribe and turn the notifications on whatever device that you're listening to this on. And most importantly, if you haven't yet given us a review and you've got some value, most importantly, I mean, we only want reviews if you're giving us value. That's cool. of the, uh, the swap here is just throw a review on the end there. And that's going to help other people to realize that, um, they can get help if they, uh, listen to the podcast. Thanks for jumping on today.

Thank you.

Bye now, guys.