Were there enough hints in the title and sub-title to guess what John Gregory Olson and Jayme Soulati banter about today? You got it -- The Honest Co. and its trial and tribulations of being, well, honest. This is the Heart of Marketing.
Whomever names a brand Honest is striving for the holy grail, right? Especially in this disrupted age of category change agents, which, ahem, The Honest Co. definitely IS!
We're backing into this episode with cultural values and to say that if you want to be upright and honest with customers, then watch out for the packaging and ingredient vigilantes. They will have you for lunch.
What is a Brand?
Jayme let's John do the talking while she looks up the word 'cache' trying to catch the too-smart John in a mis-pronounciation that fails; alas.
Jessica Alba is a celebrity businesswoman with her own powerful brand, and the company she launched, The Honest Company, is struggling to reach IPO status. Hear what we recommend about branding, legal affairs, and the continuous struggle to keep it above board with all the eyes dotted and major claims that raise the eyebrows.
The Taylor Swift School of Heart Marketing
Taylor Swift is the talented 25-year-old entertainer and bombshell who continues to be the subject of thousands of stories, blog posts, news reports, videos, social media posts, images, TV specials, and that’s not even counting her music!
Jayme Soulati and John Gregory Olson, hosts of The Heart Of Marketing podcast, selected Taylor Swift as the topic of their debut episode not only because of her performing pizzazz, but also for her heart. She shows her love to concert fans by flashing them the heart sign using two fingers from each hand. And they flash her back!
To summarize: Taylor Swift is a brand influencer, category leader, champion, smart businesswoman and a smarter marketer.
What is Taylor Swift doing that turns actions into revenue?
John and Jayme explore her constant accessibility, her vulnerability, her fans-first mentality, the human touch of her brand persona, and the incredible connectivity she has with her fans on social media and in real life.
As Taylor grows, we watch her share her failures, become the butt of jokes, and still rise above it all to prove her naysayers wrong. This in the midst of switching music genre, uprooting herself to New York City, and becoming a musical force in front of our eyes.
The Heart of The Matter
To wrap up the Taylor Swift brand into a bite-sized portion for mid-tier marketers, Jayme and John explore how companies can Taylorize their marketing.
● Should your CEO be as accessible to customers as Taylor Swift is to her fans?
● Creating a likeable, credible brand by listening and responding to customers
● How transparency wins loyal customers
● Telling a brand story that resonates with your audience
We like our first episode a lot, and we hope you will, too.
You Subscribe, We Give
The launch of The Heart of Marketing podcast in February coincides with Heart Month. Help us support heart health awareness by subscribing to the podcast! Here’s how: we will give up to $500 to the American Heart Association – that’s $1 for the first 500 subscribers in February 2015. You subscribe. We give. Everybody wins.
You can always reach us for comments, questions, and topic suggestions for a future show.
Thanks for listening!