By Brooke Foley, CEO, Jayne Agency In our fourth article in the Branding Toolkit Series, we asked readers to think about articulating what makes their brand different from others in their category. We know this is a polarizing question. And, we know women owned businesses are led by CEOs who have evolved believing that Marketing and Branding are the "feminine” parts of business and they should be able to handle those themselves. Except NO CEO – large or small, myself included, can do their own marketing without outside perspective. It would be like a surgeon doing surgery on themselves. Can you do it? Yes. Should you do it? No. Many of us tend to minimize how important our background (literally, our personal background) is as it relates to the companies we build and run. As women CEOs we tend to assume the details of our struggles and awakenings are not all that important. When in fact, they are the backbone of the companies, policies, brands we build. Maybe we aren’t comfortable in the limelight, maybe we lack confidence, or just don’t have a framework to value the details. But as we all know, devil’s in the details – and they matter when you are looking to create distinction and differentiation. A good brand methodology starts with the background. As we peel back the years of bad (or good) advice, we navigate past poor consultants (or good ones), through the automated things we learn to say about ourselves and our businesses, and we find the original "why in HER”, which is the CEO’s background. We can guarantee that every time it gets revealed, the unique aspects and logic of the rest of her team, the ups and downs of the company are tied into the why. And, it’s highly likely that HER why has everything to do with who her audience and position have the most connection with and the basis of a successful brand. HER promise is never about a commodity – but it gets relegated there through traditional marketing strategy fast. HER background is where we bring each of our beautiful business queens to really OWN her visible and invisible diversity. In 10 out of 10 diverse certified brands we counseled, HER most powerful differentiator started far before she was ever in business. What she believed she should "support”, suppress, ignore, or "hide” fueled her most valuable success. Here are four amazing stories of women who, when they really connected with the strength in their background found their most powerful differentiator – right in plain view. These are not my stories; some aren’t even Jayne’s stories. But they all share one thing in common: a WBE whose unique offering is the basis of the position and promise of the companies they own and operate. Revealing the "Yes, and” Heartfelt Positioning for a Product Promotions Company: As a small, WBE and LGBTQ owned company, Graphix 2 Go was at a crossroads. Multiple enterprise organizations had asked them to express who they were for procurement and competitive purposes in a highly congested category. One in particular requested a video. After multiple attempts and rejections of their message, they sought out clarity. Sitting in a Jayne Agency Brand Strategy Session, everyone introduced themselves. Somehow, they were all related. Extremely confident. SECURE. Except the two co-owners. And no one would talk about what made them different. What came out during the background exercise was that the two co-owners had been married for 20 years, publicly hiding their relationship because at one time it was considered a threat to the business. This "detail” was not to be incorporated into the business. But clients felt it. And wanted to be able to articulate the distinct difference. The whole team operated like a family, Denise and Kim’s family, because they were a family. And because of that commitment to family, the value proposition of superior customer service (Yes, and…) went far beyond making sure the right product got delivered. It led into highly valuable, ownable custom branded product solutions that came from the heart every single time a client called on them. This heartfelt differentiator led to a solid positioning, which impacted recruiting, retention, referrals, and contract extensions. Today, Graphix 2 Go, led by Denise Jones and Kim Harrington, Battle Creek MI, is a leading promotion products provider across multiple major enterprises and continues to create powerful impact as a family – not just a small - business. (Check out their YES AND video here!) Wrapping "Loving Arms” Around an Entire Enterprise: With two young children to support, as a single working African American mother, LaFarris Risby built up Risby Enterprises. Starting by getting certified to oversee four additional kids in her home to gain an income, she built her organization up to serve over 100+ children across preschool and childcare, into a full-blown enterprise. As the highly reputable organization grew for educating and nurturing children, LaFarris found herself at an inflection point. How to grow the real estate, school, child care center, thought leadership, radio show and other investments of the brand in an economical and wholistic manner. Digging into her background, every conversation ended in a recognition of "Loving Arms”, the brand dedicated to the school and child care center. That brand was with LaFarris her whole career – and her whole motherhood. By exploring how powerful her journey was, over two decades, she saw that her promise remained consistent. Persistent. Tenacious. To put loving arms around individuals, families and communities through education, superior service and more. As LaFarris relooked at her brand hierarchy, she saw that the whole ENTERPRISE fell under the brand of Loving Arms. She could now get focused on developing the other areas of the business, knowing that each one contributed to the success of the whole. LaFarris now holds one of the most prestigious leadership positions in her category - against giants. She’s the "only one” - and so is her company. Coming back to her authentic self, her personal accomplishments, LaFarris was able to brand naturally across many aspects of her growing organization. She found strength in solidarity – in HER background. To learn more about how she is driving her brand forward, contact LaFarris – ask about her radio show! Being Everything You Can Be Wins Against All Odds: Growing up in the family business, and leading it after your father, the founder passes, takes great strength. It takes more as a mother, and women owned certified business. As Edlong’s CEO, Laurette Rondenet found herself as one of the only diverse certified and women owned among "the big boys”, she also found herself in a spiral. She dug into who she was, a food scientist, what she and the company was most qualified for, as a means to move Edlong out of being in a sea of sameness, with a singular focus on diary. Eventually the tag line "Dairy Technologies” put Edlong in a category of one, specializing in many critical and alternative means for manufacturing dairy flavors, mouth feel, taste and sensations. Over time, Edlong became known as THE top choice for dairy related solutions. In time competition started aggressively moving into Edlong’s category of one. As they did, Laurette and her team once again dug into Edlong (and Laurette’s) history and separated themselves once again, by recognizing the opportunity and potential of being specialized in dairy technologies. The tag line "Everything Dairy Can Be” was more than just words, it is a call to action to drive creative problem solving from a scientific basis, that provides stability in manufacturing. Today, Laurette doesn’t just encourage Edlong to be all that it can be, she built a brand that challenges her right back, beckoning her, and all who engage with Edlong to reach their highest potential as well. If you want to know more about how Edlong’s brand has evolved, check out their social – it’s powerful across all channels. Finding the Essence: After years of building a powerful reputation and serving a loyal book of clients for another market research company, Sara Parikh and her team were left to figure out how to best continue serving their clients when their former employer took on new ownership. After considering her options, started Willow Research. At the start of her journey, without a true north, she sought out a brand strategy and identity. Funny thing about that… as we started with why her previous company was successful with her specific client base, it was also the primary reason they followed her as she and her team planted their new flag. The walk backwards was emotional, and heartwarming. Sara was known industry wide for not stopping until she uncovered the truth. The power of the truth helped her legal clients make their best case to juries. It helped her business clients understand how best to connect to and serve their customers. And it helped Sara to see her own foundation – and the foundation of Willow Research. As Sara planted not just her sign, but her two feet solid within who she was, her PROVEN background, and her team’s capacity to deliver far more than just "answers” but an unfaltering TRUTH, she separated her brand, both personally and professionally inside a highly competitive and commodity-based industry – Research. Today, Sara and her company and brand, Willow Research are nationally renowned for powerful strategic insights that help their clients win everything from court cases to greater customer engagement to favorable business outcomes. You can learn more about Sara and her quest for more in her thoughtful blog. In the stories above, a common thread weaves these resilient leaders together, as they all embraced their individual differentiation. Their unique details around who they are and how they lead through adversity, self-doubt, and challenging times to brands that are now evolving with them, reflecting them, keeping them safe through undeniable positions and promises that are founded in their details, details no one else can claim. To dig deeper into the advantages that come with being Latino, African American, Asian, Indian, stay tuned for our next blog. If you, or someone you know is looking to clarify their brand platform in the name of creating scalable, dependable, repeatable outcomes, contact us at [email protected].

In previous articles, Jayne Agency shared how to build a brand platform as well as constructing a 30/60/90 Day Plan to put a basic marketing program into action. The magazine article shared fundamental best practices to creating a strategic marketing plan. But once you have it, what do you do with it? How do you use it? First, let's recap. What is a Strategic Marketing Plan? A Strategic Marketing Plan aligns all marketing activities in a fiscal year against a business goal, which means it’s in service of helping you meet your revenue targets. The structure here is the same content structure used for our clients at Jayne Agency. Let’s get started. What do you do with a strategic marketing plan? There are two critical questions clients ask us EVERY TIME we start talking about how we might work together. Those two questions are: • How much will this cost? • How long will it take? The truth is, neither of those questions has a "easy to answer” outcome. HOW MUCH WILL THIS COST? An investment in your brand platform and marketing plan isn’t something that should ever "start and stop”. Even if you have government clients - which oftentimes we hear as a reason to "not invest in a marketing plan” is a misconception. Marketing is how you obtain your leads - whether you call it that or not. Having a strategic marketing plan means you are attracting qualified leads with intention on an ongoing basis. It means it’s not an accident that you secure the right clients over and over and over. Or could at one time - and now can’t. And every business needs that continuity. How much it will cost is entirely dependent on what you can afford. And affording what you need is a whole other conversation. But here is the context we give our clients. Year one you budget what you can. It might not be much - or it might be planned. You build your strategies around what is most important and crucial to invest in - meaning, what do you need to pay someone else to do, that you can’t get done yourself. And then, you need to consider the costs of your internal resources - including your time - so that you can plan properly to make sure it happens. In general, we follow this rule: if you want your company to grow (or even maintain) you need to invest 6- 12% of your gross revenue on marketing if you are able to fund that. If you can’t take that out of your cash flow, we have an optimistic way to look at things for the first few years of investing into your marketing so you can build it up over time. Speaking of time, let’s hit that next question: HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE? No marketing professional ever wants to answer this question. The real question inside this one is "how long do I have to wait to get a return on investment?” or even better yet - "how fast can I expect to secure a client?” - or better yet - "how long does it take from cutting a check out of my cash flow to converting into an invoice I can recognize revenue from?”    That’s a question that requires a realistic look at a few things. First, what is your audience’s sell cycle? And then, what are you doing as a business to recognize that sell cycle? That’s the answer to THAT question. Now, on to the question relevant to a marketing plan. Realistic expectations can be set by pragmatically looking at how long things take to get created, approved, and into the market. The next set of expectations is seeing how the market reacts. Month 1 - 2: Create a true strategic marketing plan (assuming you start crafting it within the 30/60/90 day plan, it ought to be in full swing as you pass the 90 day mark…) Month 3: Start putting key elements into motion, calendaring status and check ins, award outside partners if appropriate. Month 4: Start tracking and analyzing results. Even if it’s just to see how it increases visits to your website, or to take a moment to pay attention to likes on social, or to review what leads got qualified, it’s important to start.  For more funded plans that include paid media commitments or attendance at events, you absolutely want to start paying attention to how prospects are responding and reacting. More on this will be detailed in our next blog post. Look for trends and opportunities to refine messaging. Month 6: You can potentially start to see impact. At this point, it’s possible that a qualified lead that entered into your sales funnel during the first few weeks of using your new position and promise could be converting into a true prospect. You can start to see the logic of "how long will it take” starting to take shape here. However, this is NOT the benefit of investing in marketing. Yet. Month 8: Your qualified lead pipeline ought to be firming up. You should have a reasonable amount of leads that reflect the audience, want your specific position, and have value for your promise in your pipeline. If not, it’s time to start really paying attention to the "Increase awareness” part of your objectives and to relook at strategies. Maybe some tactics need to be adjusted. It’s likely at this point that a qualified lead (s) has/have converted into contracted clients. Month 10: Your qualified lead pipeline should start to form. Adjustments and modification, feedback from the sales team and from clients should be helping the marketing team (whether it's 1 or 100 ppl) start responding to refinements which are moving back out into the market. Month 11: You should be starting the strategic marketing planning process for the upcoming year with true data across each strategy with results against each objective. Your sales ought to be a good reflection of your strategic marketing plan. It is time to send out customer satisfaction surveys, although it might be early to get "final project” or "final delivery” feedback. Month 12: You should have a refined marketing plan based on a full year of investment and results. Hopefully a few of the converted clients allowed you to put a little bit more aside, or in more funded situations to be able to defend the spend, and increase it accordingly. How much should it cost and how long will it take are two questions that feel like barriers to entry. But when you break them both down, so you can manage your own expectations, it becomes a lot easier to start looking at marketing as a discipline vs. something you really dread engaging and investing in. The next blog post will go into greater depth on how to set up analytics and what to look for, what to do with information once you have it, and who should act on it.

Volume 3, 2020 By Brooke Foley, CEO, Jayne Agency Over the past several months, the Jayne Agency has shared a series about "Empowering the Most Powerful Supply Chain, the Diverse Supply Chain,” grounded in developing a solid brand platform. To read the previous articles, "Understanding a Brand Platform and Building Your Own” and "Really Digging into Audience and Insight,” please visit weusa.biz/jayneagency. What is a 30/60/90-day plan? This plan is nothing more than a well-organized to-do list divided into enhanced paths for impact. In this article, we will touch on creating a good 30/60/90-day plan and provide specific information on expanding the plan and monitoring it. How do I get started? We recommend you get started by having your brand platform document on hand. Identify any barriers, strategies and tactics you noted, then prepare to assign them as 30-, 60- or 90-day initiatives. How do I decide how to prioritize and organize things? Focus on resources, timing and brand-related revenue priorities. We recommend creating a spreadsheet with three tabs labeled 30, 60 and 90 days. Begin sorting the barriers, strategies and tactics into each tab, based on priority and chronology of when they need to be addressed. Add additional columns as needed to keep track of information like the start date, end date, activity owner, etc. How do I know what should fall under each initiative? 30 days To start sorting, ask yourself what things can be immediately adjusted with direct revenue opportunity. These will likely be 30-day initiatives. Common themes for 30-day initiatives include: • Gather feedback on new ideas by testing them with your primary audience, employees and friends. This feedback will create natural refinements and opportunities for revenue. • Address barriers that are operational, such as policy issues. 60 days The trick to creating a good set of 60-day initiatives is to create a second set of 30-day initiatives that can be accomplished in 30 days but need to be planned for on day one. For example, a 30-day initiative might be to build and approve a job description for a marketing director, while your 60-day initiative would be to select three candidates for the role of marketing director based on your previously created job description. Common 60-day initiatives include: • Recruit a candidate. • Review sales decks. • Create quick-hit audits for websites. • Kick off competitive reviews. 90 days Common 90-day initiatives include: • Review budgets. • Address operational and human resource barriers. • Formalize the primary versus secondary audience. • Kick off visual branding or naming exercises. • Kick off a strategic marketing plan. To learn more about each type of plan or each of the upcoming experiences that WE USA magazine and Jayne Agency has designed throughout 2020, check out weusa.biz/jayneagency. To view or download full article, please click here.

By Brooke Foley, CEO, Jayne Agency Welcome to the WE USA and Jayne Agency LLC Brand Platform Primer website link you can hang on to, reference, come back to and refresh any time you want.  Keep https://weusa.biz/JayneAgency bookmarked for easy access! So, what is a brand platform? A solid brand platform empowers diverse suppliers to invest confidently across TIME, MONEY and PEOPLE in ways that will garner dependable, repeatable and scalable revenue. A brand platform consists of 10 specific brand assets that, when created in sequence, provide business leadership with tools to manage all functions — specifically sales and marketing — with direction and alignment. The 10 assets are listed below, along with a few ideas on how to craft the assets on your own or with your team. -Background- The company background is like a rudder for a ship. Defining it helps guide the brand by creating awareness of how the its DNA came into present day. "How did your company get started?”, "What brought you to where you are today?” and "How did each of your leadership team members arrive?” are questions you should ask. Talk about the questions as a team. See if there are any common threads in team members’ histories. Use the discussion to learn new things about each other and document milestones of the company history along the way. Be careful not to make this a timeline, but an understanding of how the brand got to be where it is currently. -Goals/Objectives: Put them in writing. How much revenue do you want out of a marketing campaign investment? You need to know that amount to build a platform that will deliver on your goals. Go for the brass ring but set your actual course on what’s achievable. Objectives must be measurable! Objectives are how you confirm progress against goals. Some common objectives include increasing sales, driving awareness or educating consumers. -Barriers: Dig deep. Be vulnerable. What’s in the way of achieving your goals? What could compromise your objectives? Write out a list of barriers without feeling like you must fix them. Separate the list into marketing, sales, human resources and operations. Know what impact each function is having. -Strategy: Strategies are the commitments you make to invest in your marketing, so you can deliver on objectives and ensure your goals. Start by looking at your barriers. Specifically target marketing and sales barriers which — with a bit of creativity — can quickly convert into strategies. What initiatives do you need to invest in to meet your objectives? -Audience- List the groups you believe you sell to. Then, cross off those that do not pay you. If they have not been in your receivables list in the last two years, they aren’t your most strategically valuable audience. Who is left? What’s consistent across those still on the list? That’s your primary audience. Next is your secondary audience — those not directly paying you but still involved. Lastly, do you have nonpaying stakeholders that are critical? These people likely sit on the list that was crossed out. Nonpaying stakeholders could be employees, beneficiaries, partners and vendors, essential components of your supply chain, influencers, board members and even the greater public. -Insight: What’s a category truth? Something you can say is setting the tone across the category your audience is within. What is a common behavior you’ll see your primary audience exhibit? What needs remain unmet? How does your brand offer your audience a solution? -Position:Position is where you sit versus your category or industry. Once you know where you sit, you can determine how to defend your position. For example, in the automotive industry, Volvo has a reputation for safety, while BMW has a reputation for performance. You and your competitors all have positions. Knowing yours means you can defend it. -Promise:Your promise is what you can operationally deliver every single day. It’s not trendy. It isn’t catchy. It’s real, and it can be proven in a court of law that THIS IS WHAT YOU PROMISE TO DELIVER when you sign a contract or create a transaction of any kind with anyone buying from you. When you sell on promise, to the right audience and with the right positioning, you can sell on value versus commodity. -Support: When you make a promise, it’s important to be able to support it. Support comes from your years of experience, credentials, certifications, patents, client list, case studies, testimonials and processes. Well-defined support helps you demonstrate credibility, consistency and stability in your promise. It also provides reinforcement for your position in the marketplace. -Tone/Personality:Tone is the way you speak, the things you say and the words you use. Personality is the way you behave, the things you believe and the acts you demonstrate. The other nine assets listed above are technical and can be proven. Whereas the asset of tone/personality is emotional and subjective and makes your brand uniquely yours. It is what creates the emotional connection with your promise. When done correctly, it nails the emotional formula of the audience you are looking to secure. When you work through the 10 assets listed above, you have the basis of a brand strategy. There might be holes, or things you need to figure out. And there might be a to-do list coming out of that. Our next article talks about how you walk through a 30/60/90-day plan to close any gaps, including approaches for user research, mood boards and concept statements in safe do-it-yourself techniques. If you’d like to attend a workshop for a brand strategy session, Jayne Agency is providing as much access as possible. Contact [email protected], and we’ll help you find a workshop — so you can explore the 10 assets shared here. To view or download introductory article, please click here.