Episode 9- Mastering Brand Identity: A Deep Dive into Branding, Marketing, and Profitable Strategies

Unlock the secrets to elevating your business with a masterclass in distinguishing branding from marketing and advertising, as Dalin and I, Wayne Aston, dissect these vital concepts. With Dalin’s marketing prowess, we bring you a riveting discussion that will reshape your understanding and equip you with the tools for creating a robust market identity. Our conversation dives into the game-changing rebrand of Maverick's convenience stores, a testament to the orchestrated power of these three pillars when harmonized effectively.

We’re living in an age where a brand is the beating heart of your enterprise, setting the stage for customer loyalty and defining the narrative. This episode peels back the layers of how an influencer's persona can amplify your brand's voice and vastly improve sales figures. Moreover, we dissect the art of audience-specific marketing strategies, and with the help of real-world scenarios from the real estate and hospitality sectors, illustrate the importance of a tailored approach. A deep understanding of your business's identity is more than just good practice—it's crucial to crafting campaigns that resonate.

The landscape of Airbnb and nightly rentals comes under the spotlight as we navigate the intricacies of pricing strategies and market saturation. With the assistance of our guest expert, we reveal how a focus on quality and a commitment to the guest experience is essential in an increasingly competitive market. Our expert's advice is a goldmine for anyone looking to stand out and profit in the experience economy. This is a conversation packed with actionable insights for entrepreneurs eager to refine their business strategy and achieve sustainable growth.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:28

Welcome back to the show, guys. It's Aston Incorporated. I'm Wayne Aston, your host. Here's my co-host, dalin Aston, and Appreciate you coming back for another one. We are excited about today's content, so this is going to be highly focused on Dalin and his kind of expertise, his business acumen. Just to kick things off here, guys, we're going to be covering the differences between branding Versus marketing versus advertising.

Speaker 2: 0:59

Yeah, this is really an interesting topic and something that I am pretty I. Just like to say I'm kind of obsessed with, with marketing.

Speaker 1: 1:10

I love that. You're kind of obsessed.

Speaker 2: 1:16

Yeah, I mean just perspective. A lot of what I'll do in my free time is just read marketing books, which is, I mean, lots of people are like hey, what you know, what's a hobby? First I'm like well, I like reading marketing.

Speaker 2: 1:30

Kind of funny, but yeah. So over the past year I have worked at mark, at Harman Brothers marketing agency and this is, if you're familiar with, you know, squatty, potty or loomi deodorants, click funnels, chat bugs, I mean fiberfix. I can get in a lot of different companies. How are those? Are the marketing Jedi Behind these marketing campaigns?

Speaker 2: 1:55

so I started out the company as an intern, worked my way up, and I'm currently over the past year. I worked my way up to the vice president of business development and sales and you know before that I had started my own marketing company, rise marketing, helping small business owners with their e-commerce architecture, marketing strategy, like all that stuff you know, and so when we're talking about marketing versus branding, versus advertising, it's funny because lots of people will just interchange those words, you know, and they're used, essentially meaning the same thing, but they don't mean the same thing.

Speaker 1: 2:29

Oh yeah, I mean, you know, at first glance they feel like completely interchangeable words, like you? Can insert that word into the same sentence yeah and people would be. People would understand what you're saying. Oh, of course, but but I can, I can. I'm Really eager to unpack. Yeah, differences here, because I'm kind of dealing with you know, I'm at.

Speaker 1: 2:50

I'm at crossroads right now with my businesses where these three specific categories have a different specific Meaning and intention behind them and some really, you know really trying to work with some professionals right now to develop. You know, especially guys with a business startup. Yeah, like, honestly, yeah, like there's a few, there's a few interesting things to think about. If you're talking about a business startup, then you're you're working on establishing your identity in the market, yeah. And then you also hear about the big re-branding Campaigns, like Maverick. You know, we know Ernie Harker, amazing branding guy, and you know he assisted Maverick adventure. Well, it's Maverick adventure first. You know base camp, it's the sea stores. You know the gas stations. They, they were Maverick country store, which is kind of the Cowboy motif with the pitching post out front.

Speaker 2: 3:51

Yeah, and he's, he and.

Speaker 1: 3:52

Ernie transformed it, you know, with Chuck Norris and and an incredible campaign and full rebrand Into adventures. First stop is what it currently is, and so so now you know when I go to Maverick, I Actually go there because the bathrooms are clean. Yeah, they have more variety of you know, drinks and snacks and things than any other gas station. So they're different in that way, but the branding is like it's incredible.

Speaker 1: 4:21

Like I love the adventures, first stop I love that they have the Red Bull videos awesome base jumpers and the you know extreme Red Bull mountain biking teams, like you know, right here in Utah Playing on the big street. I'd love to stand in line in Maverick and, like, watch that stuff. So it's, it's an experience. Yeah, it's a totally different experience. Then, if I walk into an Exxon or Sonoco yeah, that's the typical old gas station, it's dirty and I want to gather they're great.

Speaker 2: 4:49

Well and Maverick is so powerful because I'm gonna use all three terms here. They have dialed their marketing in so well that they're branding and they're advertising Art have become tools that essentially just speak their marketing messages to their right people.

Speaker 1: 5:07

So that's a lot of stuff. Yeah, let's unpack it, let's like so, let's define for the listeners a clear definition. You know what in each three of these categories?

Speaker 2: 5:21

Yeah, so marketing? If we're talking about marketing in and of itself, I would say branding and advertising are functions of the marketing mix, right? So marketing in and of itself? We're talking about your messaging. We're talking about you know how you take your product to the market. It's you know. We're talking about finding the most effective way of Selling your product. That's marketing. It's the most effective way to sell.

Speaker 2: 5:48

Yeah okay, and now and now, advertising is paid, you know, using paid methods to get sales. So that supports Marketing. But marketing is not average, or let's see. So how am I trying to say this? So I'm trying to make it as clear as possible Marketing is Advertising, advertising is not necessarily market. Okay, okay right so. Advertising, like I said, is a function of marketing, is one of the elements of one of the elements of marketing, but advertising is not marketing.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Advertising is a specific function of my targeted function.

Speaker 2: 6:28

Yeah. So it's one thing. It's like hey, look, we're gonna, we're gonna, you know, if we have a product, we're gonna, you know, spend behind an ad, maybe Google ads or something, facebook ads or whatever. That's advertising a billboard, that's advertising a TV spot. That's advertising. Okay, yeah, but you're using the marketing messages that you've tightened up. Hey, we're talking at a higher level. This is who we're speaking to. You know the message that we're using to speak to that person. That's marketing. Is that clear? Yeah, and then we're utilizing this tool that is advertising, to reach those people that we determined in the marketing Segment of this. Okay, so, so how does branding fit? So great question. So branding is Really anything that builds your brand right, and and another thing that's really important is it can also tear down your brand, and so you have to be really careful from a branding standpoint.

Speaker 1: 7:23

Do you, do you equate? Is Branding the same as identity? I?

Speaker 2: 7:29

I'd say so, yeah, I mean, it's talking points, it's brand personality, it's brand colors, fonts, so so yeah, identity is a good way of putting it. I you know, he's like the DNA of a company. It's the DNA of a company, it's who you are facing a club, like an outside facing sense.

Speaker 1: 7:50

So it's an existential status. Yeah, brand branding is, is my DNA, my identity of a company that I create? Yep, and it gets evolving all the time.

Speaker 2: 8:03

It's gonna be the reason people talk about you, word of mouth. It's gonna be the reason people organically share your stuff. It's gonna be the reason you know you're gonna have. You know, all your outreach, pr, influencer, marketing all this stuff is gonna fall under this branding right, because I mean, if you think about it, going back to what I said about this can either build or destroy your company.

Speaker 2: 8:25

The right branding is super important because if you you know, if you're, if you have some brand, and then just an example if you have an influencer or something doing, some, you know, really pushing people back to you, but their brand is not in line with your brand, it's gonna turn people off. I mean, people are gonna go. You know a confused mind is always gonna say no, right, and so someone is gonna. You know an off-brand source is gonna push them to. You know, if you're having incongruencies with your brand, if you're on all these things, people are gonna be super turned off and and that's going to reflect your sales. Okay, so that affects your marketing, that affects your advertising, the success of every faucet of this so it's.

Speaker 1: 9:04

It feels like what I'm hearing you describe is that that understanding and getting clear about your brand or your corporate identity means you have to really be clear and know who your customer is. Yeah, who do I want to attract as a customer?

Speaker 2: 9:24

yeah fair yeah, yeah, absolutely well. So if you take Maverick, for example we've just been talking about this, you know what do they do they came in and they dialed in on. If you have read or listened to, your brand sucks Ernie Harker, right yeah, great book. He talks so detailed about who they're targeting. It's crazy, but that influences every piece of their messaging, their branding, that everything and then it dictates how they spend.

Speaker 2: 9:56

Yeah, I mean, it dictates their advertising. Advertising, the tool behind the messaging, behind who we're speaking to yeah, right. So if you have a clear idea of who you're talking to and this goes back to the marketing right, this is why I say branding and advertising are a function of marketing, because marketing in themselves is hey, what's our message? In order, in order to dictate a message that actually sells, you have to understand who you're speaking to. Yeah, so, if we're talking about, you know, an Airbnb model, then and I don't like to necessarily coin as an Airbnb model a nightly rental model, right, a hospitality model then who are we speaking to?

Speaker 2: 10:32

it's not everyone yeah if we're talking about selling water. Everyone drinks water. But just because everyone drinks water does not mean that you market to everyone. That is the fastest way to fail. Yeah right, you have to be so tight on your messaging. The only way to do that is to be tight on who you're speaking to.

Speaker 2: 10:50

Yeah, right you cannot market to every single person, because if you try, your advertising is not going to be effective. Yeah, advertising's goal is to make sales, right and again, marketing is to make sales, but it's a function of that, and so advertising is. You know, if you're putting a dollar into ads, your goal is to get your $2, $3, $4 out, and the number of dollars you're getting out is directly correlated to your marketing messages, which are above there, a step above advertising in itself advertising is just the method, yeah right, and then branding falls into that right, and so you can see how all of this gets confused.

Speaker 2: 11:29

Yeah, right, but an understanding of each saying, hey, yeah, I just, you know, I need a marketing plan, okay, great, well, let's, let's expand this and talk about what that actually means, you know. And so I mean, if we're talking hospitality, if we're talking real estate, whatever it might be, there are different functions of this marketing. It can be applied. That, I think, is super, super important yeah, okay.

Speaker 1: 11:55

So so what's really becoming clear to me too, as you unpack that whole box is no two companies are the same. Yeah, it's total snowflake. Total snowflake, like application, like like a business is as unique as a snowflake. It's as unique as a person. Yeah, and so if a company or a business is not clear about, who am I?

Speaker 1: 12:22

yeah it's feels impossible to create branding and then subsequently advertising and marketing. Yeah, plans and campaigns, yeah, that would effectively scale that business right. You know, for example, you know, for a real estate investor I mean, I think about my businesses and you know I'm clear about who my clients are. But I wouldn't, you know, I would be wasting my money on a TV ad or a billboard, like some of the traditional stuff that I can't measure. Yeah, like that would be a complete waste of time and money, right, whereas product driven like a, like widgets, like selling a sports drink, it's different, you know. You know Gatorade, that's an amazing branding, marketing and advertising machine. Yeah, I'm Brandon Will. I love Gatorade, especially his zeros. They could probably really get and garner and continue to scale with some of those more traditional TV spots, billboard type spots, because it's a different, it's a different conversation all together.

Speaker 2: 13:33

Yeah, and you're speaking to someone different. Yeah, yeah, and I think about that thing, right, and thinking about mine. I mean, there is a clear differentiation between how I market my properties and I guess let me rephrase that how I brand my properties than other properties in the area.

Speaker 1: 13:52

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:53

You know, and so think about that, what I just said, right, market versus brand, how I I dent, how I make my properties feel and who I'm speaking to, that drips into the marketing message is different than how a lot of people in the area do theirs right. So I mean mine, I've tried my best and I spared no expense. I mean I spent you know 23 grand on each unit, furnishing them, making them, you know, putting in some higher technology, put in you know branding mugs, right, yeah, so those type of things, having branding video in a digital You're seeing your company logo on multiple points inside of the unit and you walk in the unit and you smell.

Speaker 2: 14:33

And you smell the unit and you're going whoa, this is sweet. And just last week I had someone go to the unit and they had a shorter stay and they texted me and they're like hey, is this available for the next four nights? We have another hotel, but we would rather stay here, that's what they say we would rather stay here even though it was more expensive.

Speaker 1: 14:51

Yeah, so you think?

Speaker 2: 14:52

about you, think about well why, and it's because it resonated with them, because they were the type of person I'm speaking to. Yeah, and the reason that you know mine are more target toward hey, this is a luxury, this is a. This is, you know, I'm elevating your stay while you're here so that you can enjoy not only the environment here, because it's an extraordinary environment I want you to enjoy while you're in the unit as well. I mean, it's congruent with the amazing nature of where you are. Yeah, and I wanted that to be just the highest and most amazing experience possible.

Speaker 2: 15:25

And when I'm speaking to people who are, you know, in this level of, hey, I want to experience luxury, I want to experience elevated travel. They're going to pay more, they are going to resonate with that and want to come back, they're going to want to stay, they're going to want to pay more because they're getting the value out of it. I'm not trying to market towards, you know, people that are looking to just find the cheapest hotel. Yeah, I'm not looking for people that are like that. I would prefer them not to stay in the place, actually, you know, because it would mean I'm not and this is from a solely business standpoint but it means I'm not being able to charge as much as I would like to in an ADR standpoint, right, and so the message that you are telling through your marketing is super important, but I would say, as much as important as that is how you portray your identity as a brand. Yeah, you know, and if you have those two things aligned, the advertising piece is going to make sense. Yeah, you're going to begin advertising in the right avenues and the right places because your brand and your marketing are aligned.

Speaker 2: 16:25

Yeah, right, and so that because the message that are being told through your marketing is going to be aligned with your brand, yeah, because you know when you are, when you have a marketing message hit you through a method of advertising, and then you say okay, and you go to the place, you're experiencing the brand and if they're all aligned, then they're going to leave a good review, they're going to pay more and they're going to become a loyal customer. If one of those is not aligned see, this is super important to understand If your advertising is not aligned with your marketing message and your brand, there's going to be confusion, there's going to be friction and people are going to say no, yeah, but, and then same thing if your messages are not aligned with your brand and advertising. The same thing, you know. And so if your marketing and advertising are awesome, and then you get to the actual place and it's different, that's a motel six.

Speaker 1: 17:17

That's one of the Fleabag roadside motels.

Speaker 2: 17:20

That is a recipe for disaster.

Speaker 1: 17:22

Yeah, that's called false advertising.

Speaker 2: 17:24

That's false advertising. Yes, what are? You got going around right and I'll tell you right now, with Serbian B, verba, virbio, all these platforms, we are seeing a huge discrepancy with this. People don't understand the difference between marketing, advertising, branding and they miss these pieces. So people start going to these places because the pictures are good and the property sucks. What's funny?

Speaker 1: 17:51

is. There's this absolute correlation to everything you're talking about. And I go back to this thing we talk about in almost every episode the money and the relationship spectrum. The roadside motel operator cares about heads and beds and doing as cheap as they can. They'll offer a group on discount and they'll offer this discount a holiday. There's a discount for every holiday, so you can get in there for very cheap, the programming is cheap, the room, the facility itself is cheap, it all matches. And then on the flip side, on the relationship, you're in the luxury space of hospitality totally different, totally different branding, messaging.

Speaker 2: 18:36

Well, and you know, this is maybe another conversation, but I think it applies, because what Airbnb and the RBO, Verbo, what all these companies have done really well is they've given a platform for people to come in and do this do really well. But they've also created a platform where there's no regulation and so people are almost expecting no quality controls. There's no quality controls. So when you are sitting in the let's take mine, for example, mine are in Moab when you're sitting in a spot where you have countless properties around you there are 895 properties on Airbnb alone in Moab, just Moab. There's that many. That's not including VRBO, that's not including Expedia, that's not including Bookingcom, it's just Airbnb and there will probably be a lot that go across each platform. But when you have every other place in the area dipping to $100 a night, what is the consumer going to say? That marketing message is very clear. Oh, and then they see mine at $300 a night. What are people going to do? They're interested to go.

Speaker 2: 19:47

Well, if they're the majority of Airbnbers, the people that use Airbnb, they're going to say I don't know if I'm the cheapest one that looks nice. That's the problem with marketing to the mass. You're trying to cut through that with your branding and marketing, and that's part of why I don't really love Airbnb, Because it's allowing for the mind to succumb to this whole. Let me shop around and miss out, Because if you're looking solely from the top level and you're just looking at map on Airbnb, the human brain is, most of the time the people that I'm speaking to are, chances are pretty high they're going to go to a higher price point because they understand that it's a luxury, that it's oh, that's higher, that's more expensive. I'm probably going to get a better experience there. See, I'm most people.

Speaker 1: 20:34

I must be one of the weirdos, because I'm always looking for the most expensive one.

Speaker 2: 20:37

You're the weirdo, you're the person I'm targeting.

Speaker 1: 20:40

Yeah, I want the luxury experience, and so that's how I select when I'm on one of those, see.

Speaker 2: 20:45

but that is such a small percentage and even a lot of people like you are going to succumb when they go on Airbnb and they see everyone at a lower price. Yeah, airbnb tries it doesn't intentionally try it, but the nature of everyone being on there that are not hoteliers think, let me just drive price down, let me just. And then becomes a price war.

Speaker 1: 21:06

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:07

And then your compete. Your marketing message here that Airbnb portrays is one of let's drive the price down. Yeah, and I hate it. Yeah. So that's why, if you take control of your branding and your marketing, so we're looking at, hey, let's get off of platforms that elicit this type of behavior and only target people I don't want. If I get 4,000 views on my property and no bookings, that's a fail in my opinion that's a failure.

Speaker 2: 21:33

A lot of people say no, you got so many impressions. That's a failure, in my opinion. You're not getting any sales. Well, and why is that? It's because you're not. People that are going to align and resonate with your brand are not seeing it. The people, the only people that are seeing it. And again, this is I'm just saying this is kind of the general. You know, if you are targeting the right person, then they're going to buy.

Speaker 1: 21:56

So what's really interesting about this is is there's good news and bad news for anyone out there talking about starting an Airbnb business or a nightly rental business. The good news is, if you're really detail oriented and you're really committed to the experience economy for your patrons, then you can make a ton of money doing it.

Speaker 1: 22:22

So that's a natural byproduct of the value creation you bring. The bad news is is platforms like Airbnb, varbo, give the do it yourself for so much leash they can hang themselves really easy on. Yeah, yeah they, because there's no quality controls. It's a free for all. They list their properties. They're in for the money.

Speaker 2: 22:43

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:44

They're doing these discounted schemes, they're not putting attention to the details and their properties won't perform, and so yeah, so they're. They're the ones that are like ah, this sucks, man, this isn't a great platform. I'm not making you know what, what I you know.

Speaker 2: 22:57

this is what this was cracked up to be Well and you, I mean you have I'm in a lot of Airbnb groups on social media and it's a lot of, hey, let's help each other out, right?

Speaker 2: 23:10

It's kind of the idea, yeah, and I've noticed in the past couple of months, this is crazy, but a lot of people are getting on it on that site and they're posting pictures of ghost calendars. No one is booking and I'm going. What is happening? And if you think about it and it's a lot of people and people are going what is going on with Airbnb? Whoa, and this is a new thing, I've seen this a lot lately is what is going on with Airbnb? What is going on with these platforms? Why am I not getting bookings? It's because it's not because the model is broken. It's because of what you just said.

Speaker 2: 23:45

It's getting to a point where there's so many daily there are properties being added. You can add a property on Airbnb or any of those platforms in four minutes, maybe less. You can. Just you can throw it up and it becomes a branding, marketing and advertising function. All three need to be present in order to be viable property right, and a lot of these places, sadly, for one reason or another, cannot get there, and whether that's because it's just a shack they're trying to list, or it's a, you know, there's so many places in the area or you know. There's so many factors that go into this, but it's a function of marketing man it's crazy.

Speaker 1: 24:32

This is gold, guys. You know, if you're thinking about going and building a real estate portfolio and doing the nightly rental game, which I highly support, you should do. I think there's room for everybody who wants to do it right. I think the ones committed to providing real value can make good money. Good money for your investors, good money for yourself. Most importantly, you can create an amazing experience for your guests. That's really what the being part of the community in my mind. If that community mentality were really to rise, it would mean that you know properties like yours would be an example to everyone else's. Hey, there's more money to be made, but there's more responsibility on us to create that experience and put the attention into detail. Do you feel like we've adequately covered the three? You know, the branding versus marketing versus advertising?

Speaker 2: 25:23

We could go into the weeds, but I think-.

Speaker 1: 25:25

I'm feeling like we could get into OTAs you know, booking engines, but maybe we cut it and we go to OTAs on another episode.

Speaker 2: 25:33

Yeah, I agree, I think-. Because that's a good summary here Understand marketing, branding, advertising. Those things are going to be super important in any successful business. I mean, that's a lifeblood of any company and listen.

Speaker 1: 25:48

there's lots of Motel 6's that make money. There's lots of roadside Motels, if you want to be if you and there's a lot of in multi-family there's class A, B and C. There are C-class apartments that landlords make money If, if to me that that's not my gig. If I was going to do multi-family it'd be class A, but that's just my gig. Some people don't resonate with that top shelf kind of experience facing forward. There's money to be made for everybody.

Speaker 2: 26:16

Yeah, Well, and listen it. The biggest thing that I want to just leave here is marketing is the quickest way, or the most efficient way to make more sales. And I think you know again if you have amazing marketing and your brand is aligned, your, your service also supports that in marketing, then you are going to crush it. But if you have failure of marketing, then doesn't matter. You could have a great brand, you could have a great product, but it's never seen by anyone, it's never gotten out there, it's just, it just stays where it is, you know. So having great marketing, great branding, great advertising, those three things together is a formula for some, some great success.

Speaker 1: 27:09

Fantastic insight, man. I appreciate you bringing your experience and knowledge to the table. It's enlightened me today. It's got my years turning on where I need to be putting some different energies on a couple of the businesses and hopefully for the listeners out there, you guys got some real value out of this. If you're getting ready to do it, I think what down and drop today was gold. So thank you for contributing that and you guys stay tuned. We'll catch you on the next episode.