1216: Effectively Building Brand Awareness in a New Market w/ Shirnett Fleet

WEBVTT 1 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:10.070 There's a ton of noise out there. So how do you get decision makers 2 00:00:10.150 --> 00:00:15.230 to pay attention to your brand? Start a podcast and invite your ideal clients 3 00:00:15.509 --> 00:00:25.339 to be guests on your show. Learn more at sweetphish MEDIACOM. You're listening 4 00:00:25.379 --> 00:00:30.140 to be tob growth, a daily podcast for B TOB leaders. We've interviewed 5 00:00:30.140 --> 00:00:33.780 names you've probably heard before, like Gary vanner truck and Simon Senek, but 6 00:00:33.899 --> 00:00:38.210 you've probably never heard from the majority of our guests. That's because the bulk 7 00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:42.770 of our interviews aren't with professional speakers and authors. Most of our guests are 8 00:00:42.850 --> 00:00:47.649 in the trenches leading sales and marketing teams. They're implementing strategy, they're experimenting 9 00:00:47.729 --> 00:00:52.359 with tactics. They're building the fastest growing BETB companies in the world. My 10 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:55.759 name is James Carberry. I'm the founder of sweet fish media, a podcast 11 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:59.359 agency for BB brands, and I'm also one of the cohosts of this show. 12 00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:03.759 When we're not interviewing sales and marketing leaders, you'll hear stories from behind 13 00:01:03.799 --> 00:01:07.109 the scenes of our own business. Will share the ups and downs of our 14 00:01:07.150 --> 00:01:11.230 journey as we attempt to take over the world. Just getting well, maybe 15 00:01:11.829 --> 00:01:18.700 let's get into the show. Hey, everybody, Logan with sweetfish here. 16 00:01:18.939 --> 00:01:22.420 Before we jump in today, I want to let you know about another podcast 17 00:01:22.540 --> 00:01:26.980 you might enjoy, full of sales focused episodes. If you're a regular listener 18 00:01:26.099 --> 00:01:30.459 of BB growths, you'll probably enjoy the modern sales podcast with listen with all 19 00:01:30.700 --> 00:01:34.650 check out their episode value based selling done right. You can find modern sales 20 00:01:34.810 --> 00:01:38.609 podcast wherever you do. You're listening. All right, let's get into the 21 00:01:38.689 --> 00:01:42.849 show. Welcome back to be to be growth. I'm Logan lyles with sweet 22 00:01:42.849 --> 00:01:46.569 fish media. I'm doing today by Charnette Fleet. She is the chief marketing 23 00:01:46.689 --> 00:01:49.159 officer over at Uni World River cruises, Tremett. Welcome to the show. 24 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:53.040 Hi, thanks for having me. Absolutely we're going to be talking about a 25 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:57.200 shift that you guys made in recent years going after a new demographic. You 26 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:00.870 know, we've talked about category creation, we've talked about breaking into new markets. 27 00:02:01.069 --> 00:02:05.390 I think you're going to add a different perspective based on some of the 28 00:02:05.510 --> 00:02:07.469 things that you guys have gone through as a brand here in recent years. 29 00:02:07.750 --> 00:02:10.349 Before we jump straight into that, though, Shernette, I would love for 30 00:02:10.389 --> 00:02:14.310 you to give a little bit of context for listeners. Tell us a little 31 00:02:14.310 --> 00:02:15.780 bit about yourself and what you and your team have been up to these days. 32 00:02:16.219 --> 00:02:21.699 Sure. So, like you mentioned, I had up marketing for Uni 33 00:02:21.780 --> 00:02:24.259 World River cruises. You know, if you've never heard of the UNI world, 34 00:02:24.419 --> 00:02:30.689 we are the unarguably the most luxurious River cruise line on the rivers. 35 00:02:30.169 --> 00:02:34.729 We've been on the rivers for over forty years. We cruise all over the 36 00:02:34.810 --> 00:02:38.810 world, Europe, Africa, Asia, India, we are everywhere. We're 37 00:02:38.810 --> 00:02:44.319 fairly well established. We tend to go after an older audience, more of 38 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:47.719 a baby boomer. So I had up marketing for UNI old globally. We've 39 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:52.479 got a team here in Los Angeles, California. Now we've got teams all 40 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:57.800 over the world who help us market to not only consumers but actually for UNI 41 00:02:57.840 --> 00:03:01.949 world. About good eighty percent of so of our bookings actually come through travel 42 00:03:01.990 --> 00:03:07.150 advisors, travel agents. So a lot of the marking that we do and 43 00:03:07.229 --> 00:03:09.789 the relationship that we build are with those travel advisors so that they can in 44 00:03:09.909 --> 00:03:15.060 turn sell it to their customers. We've got a smaller system rand, but 45 00:03:15.139 --> 00:03:17.539 I'll talk about a little bit. Called you river cruises, and this is 46 00:03:17.659 --> 00:03:22.580 really what I'm going to talk about most today. You River cruises was a 47 00:03:22.860 --> 00:03:27.610 new brand that we introduced about three years ago and really the idea is it 48 00:03:27.889 --> 00:03:32.129 is a brand meant for a new generation of travelers, really going after the 49 00:03:32.250 --> 00:03:37.849 older millennials and the jenax travelers who haven't even thought about a river cruise as 50 00:03:37.849 --> 00:03:42.120 a possible vacation idea, but it's such a great fit for them. So 51 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:46.159 I'm now also been heading up that brand. That's been a lot of work, 52 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:51.639 launching a whole a brand new brand, kind of a brand new category 53 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:53.800 for a new audience. So we've been really busy with that over the last 54 00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:58.990 three years. Yeah, absolutely, and that's a great segue into our conversation 55 00:03:59.150 --> 00:04:01.669 today of, you know, entering an untapped market. We've got an entire 56 00:04:01.669 --> 00:04:08.550 series dedicated to category creation category design here on BB growth and I think a 57 00:04:08.590 --> 00:04:12.180 lot of those episodes have been very valuable in thinking about, you know, 58 00:04:12.300 --> 00:04:15.139 the overall positioning, the way that you you go to market. In this 59 00:04:15.259 --> 00:04:19.420 case, you guys aren't introducing a new concept or introducing a new category, 60 00:04:19.740 --> 00:04:25.290 but you are introducing a category that the buyers that you're going after, this 61 00:04:25.529 --> 00:04:30.449 demographic of older millennials and Gen xers, that they're not actively thinking about so, 62 00:04:30.810 --> 00:04:32.850 as you guys launched this brand and you looked at how do we, 63 00:04:33.370 --> 00:04:38.879 you know, not just go after somewhere where there is established demand, but 64 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:43.279 we're bringing a new category to market in some former fashion? What were some 65 00:04:43.399 --> 00:04:46.800 of the things that went through your mind and informed your approach in the early 66 00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:49.920 days? Yeah, so, like I mentioned, it was about three years 67 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:55.910 ago, in two thousand and seventeen, that really our leadership team started to 68 00:04:56.110 --> 00:05:00.350 realize that. And let me actually take a step back there to give you 69 00:05:00.389 --> 00:05:03.509 some contexts. Our Company is owned by a larger travel company, a family 70 00:05:03.550 --> 00:05:09.699 owned travel company called the Travel Corporation. They own about forty two different trouble 71 00:05:09.819 --> 00:05:14.180 brands, all different types of trouble brands. So there's a wealth of knowledge 72 00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:17.500 and experience in that team. One of the companies that we are parent company 73 00:05:17.540 --> 00:05:24.209 owns is called Kentiki. Kintiki does trips for adults age eighteen to thirty five. 74 00:05:24.250 --> 00:05:27.250 It's more considered like youth travel all over the world and one of the 75 00:05:27.329 --> 00:05:30.970 things that we saw from the feedback from those guests, when you ask them 76 00:05:30.009 --> 00:05:32.810 where they want to travel next, where they want to do next, oftentimes 77 00:05:32.810 --> 00:05:35.600 they would indicate that they wanted to do a cruise. So we knew that 78 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:39.920 there was some appetite out there for crews. We also had our experience just 79 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:45.439 operating a cruise line for for over forty years and realize that, you know, 80 00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:47.959 all of the benefits of taking a cruise, getting into these great like 81 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:54.750 European small towns and iconic cities, the ease of it, traveling all over 82 00:05:55.310 --> 00:05:59.750 but only needing to unpack once, and just the intimacy and the immersiveness of 83 00:05:59.790 --> 00:06:01.990 the excursions that you get to do when you're on the rivers. We realize 84 00:06:02.029 --> 00:06:06.060 that those are all things that younger travelers are looking for. Yet nobody in 85 00:06:06.180 --> 00:06:12.620 this space was going after those travelers with river crews, and so we kind 86 00:06:12.620 --> 00:06:15.860 of took we married our experience from Uni World we and took also our experience 87 00:06:15.939 --> 00:06:19.689 from other our sister brands like a Kaniki, and said we can actually create, 88 00:06:19.769 --> 00:06:24.329 we're in a great space to create this new product that has a more 89 00:06:24.370 --> 00:06:28.009 of a cooler kind of a cooler factor to it, just a little bit 90 00:06:28.009 --> 00:06:30.529 more modern and contemporary that really speaks to the younger audience but, you know, 91 00:06:30.689 --> 00:06:34.000 bring to life our knowledge on the rivers, and so that's really how 92 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:38.519 the whole idea was born. No one else was doing it. So it 93 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:41.319 was an exciting idea. But we also realize it was a big kind of 94 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:44.839 hill ahead of us because to do that you've got to not only create a 95 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:47.589 whole new you know, the product itself has to be right for that audience 96 00:06:47.829 --> 00:06:50.670 and then also you have to build awareness of the category. So it was 97 00:06:50.709 --> 00:06:55.470 a bit of uphill battle, but we felt like the the reward would definitely 98 00:06:55.509 --> 00:06:59.189 be there if we worked hard at it. Yeah, so I imagine we're 99 00:06:59.189 --> 00:07:01.100 going to be talking a lot about, you know, brand building in this 100 00:07:01.220 --> 00:07:08.860 conversation because again, you're not going after mature market where the demand generation strategy, 101 00:07:08.939 --> 00:07:12.819 Geez, that we all employ are necessarily going to just work right out 102 00:07:12.860 --> 00:07:15.290 of the gate. I imagine there's some trial and error and there's some trying 103 00:07:15.329 --> 00:07:19.129 to figure out how do we raise brand awareness, how do we establish our 104 00:07:19.250 --> 00:07:24.889 brand with these this new segment of buyers that don't know us from Adam. 105 00:07:25.050 --> 00:07:29.050 What were some of the things that you thought about? They're in the actual 106 00:07:29.250 --> 00:07:33.040 tactics of building a brand and building awareness to a brand new audience. Of 107 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:36.839 where I imagine you and your team first thought of. Okay, where do 108 00:07:36.920 --> 00:07:40.399 we start? In some of those early conversations. Okay, we're doing this, 109 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:43.120 we're building a product. How are we going to take this to market? 110 00:07:43.519 --> 00:07:46.230 Absolutely so I think there's two key things there. I think number one 111 00:07:46.389 --> 00:07:47.870 is your you've got to figure out what is this brand going to be about, 112 00:07:47.870 --> 00:07:51.949 what's going to stand for, what's the brand's identity, personality? You 113 00:07:53.029 --> 00:07:56.550 know what that was? That was we were starting from from zero and going 114 00:07:56.750 --> 00:07:59.699 up from there, and so which is very exciting as a marketer to get 115 00:07:59.819 --> 00:08:03.180 to build a brand from scratch. So for that process it's interesting. I 116 00:08:03.220 --> 00:08:07.220 actually, I'll be honest, you're actually leaned on some of my past experience. 117 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:11.019 Many, many years ago I worked for Virgin. People know and love 118 00:08:11.100 --> 00:08:15.410 the Virgin brand. It's just a really kind of cool and sexy and a 119 00:08:15.449 --> 00:08:18.649 reverent brand and it felt, it just felt right away that wow, this 120 00:08:18.889 --> 00:08:24.329 really this brand and and the way we were kind of approaching the design of 121 00:08:24.410 --> 00:08:26.480 the ships was meant to be kind of modern and cool and sexy. So 122 00:08:26.839 --> 00:08:31.560 we definitely leaned on that a little bit for inspiration. So that was number 123 00:08:31.560 --> 00:08:33.399 one. Is Really establishing what is this personality, what is this going to 124 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:37.120 brand and be about? Stand for the other part of it then again, 125 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:41.159 is the awareness. How do you build the awareness about this brand and the 126 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:43.750 category? Coming from UN world, you know, I don't know if people 127 00:08:43.830 --> 00:08:46.990 realize this, but the crews industry is still one of those industries where the 128 00:08:48.029 --> 00:08:52.710 majority of bookings go through travel advisors or they go through third parties. It 129 00:08:52.990 --> 00:08:54.549 could be a travel advisor, it could be an OTA, so that's an 130 00:08:54.629 --> 00:08:58.700 online travel agent, like like an online booking engine, right, like a 131 00:08:58.820 --> 00:09:03.500 travelocity or expedia. People may book through like Costco is a great example, 132 00:09:03.539 --> 00:09:07.019 right. People go book through Costco Travel. They may book through their credit 133 00:09:07.019 --> 00:09:11.009 card, like their platinum mx card holder, and they book that way. 134 00:09:11.289 --> 00:09:13.649 We work with all of those partners. So, you know, part of 135 00:09:13.690 --> 00:09:18.250 it was you got to train all of those third party partners and teach them 136 00:09:18.250 --> 00:09:20.970 about the brand. You have to educate them. You have to make sure 137 00:09:22.009 --> 00:09:24.840 they understand how this experience is so vastly different from any other crews line out 138 00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:28.399 there. So that was a big part of it. And it was just 139 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:31.840 teaching them about the brand, teaching them how to sell it to right. 140 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:37.240 So this is not a typical river cruise product. So one of the things 141 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:41.029 our partners really needed our help with was teaching them who their best clients were 142 00:09:41.149 --> 00:09:45.230 for this product. There was a lot of education that. We've had a 143 00:09:45.470 --> 00:09:46.629 lot of education, a lot of training that we've had to do with our 144 00:09:46.710 --> 00:09:50.990 partners of you need to match the right person with this right product, because 145 00:09:50.149 --> 00:09:54.139 very different than anything else that's out there. And then, finally, you 146 00:09:54.220 --> 00:09:58.539 know, part of it too is, especially when you're introducing a new product, 147 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:03.700 a new brand, a new category, it's just pure awareness, consumer 148 00:10:03.740 --> 00:10:07.730 awareness. So while we still rely heavily on our third party partners to actually 149 00:10:07.730 --> 00:10:13.450 help us with bookings, we it's on us to help build that awareness of 150 00:10:13.570 --> 00:10:18.529 the actual brand itself. So we have committed quite a bit of money to 151 00:10:18.769 --> 00:10:22.440 building awareness directly with consumers. We've tested a lot of different things, so 152 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:26.120 that's in the last three years. It's all a bit about testing, learning 153 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:30.600 and adapting, but it's really about, you know, driving that awareness so 154 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:33.000 when someone is ready to book their travel experience, they are they have top 155 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:35.669 of mine. Oh what about you river cruizes? I've heard about that. 156 00:10:35.750 --> 00:10:39.470 That's a really cool brand, regardless of who they book with, regardless of 157 00:10:39.669 --> 00:10:43.309 if they're going back to their third party, you know, they know, 158 00:10:43.429 --> 00:10:46.470 they have that awareness. That's super important. All Right, today's gross story 159 00:10:46.509 --> 00:10:52.500 revolves around search engine marketing and we'll be shining the spotlight on ages software, 160 00:10:52.779 --> 00:10:56.620 a company that makes software for manufacturing operations. Ages was one of the first 161 00:10:56.740 --> 00:11:01.779 companies in their space to invest in search marketing, but as competition grew, 162 00:11:01.220 --> 00:11:07.450 their performance plateaued. To counter this, they hired directive consulting, the B 163 00:11:07.610 --> 00:11:13.330 Tob Search Marketing Agency with unparalleled experience in in bent legend for bdb companies, 164 00:11:13.649 --> 00:11:18.320 directive was able to increase ages monthly online leads by four hundred and fifty seven 165 00:11:18.440 --> 00:11:24.039 percent, while at the same time lowering their costpro lead by a hundred and 166 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:26.919 forty seven percent. That I a hunch that directive can get these kind of 167 00:11:26.919 --> 00:11:33.190 results. TRY TO SO head over to directive consultingcom and request a totally free 168 00:11:33.269 --> 00:11:37.830 custom proposal. That's directive consultingcom. All right, let's get back to this 169 00:11:37.950 --> 00:11:43.149 interview. Yeah, I think no matter the market that you serve, whatever 170 00:11:43.470 --> 00:11:48.620 industry that you're in, whether you sell through third parties or you have, 171 00:11:48.940 --> 00:11:52.659 you know, kind of natural referral partners there for all of us. I 172 00:11:52.779 --> 00:11:56.259 think there are some sort of natural activators out there in the market that that 173 00:11:56.460 --> 00:12:01.769 you can go to I think you know there are definitely some some challenges along 174 00:12:01.850 --> 00:12:07.009 with the opportunity because they have they have the audience already that you're trying to 175 00:12:07.049 --> 00:12:11.330 reach. Right, but if you're selling a new product to a new demographic, 176 00:12:11.370 --> 00:12:15.370 there's challenges. If you're doing that through an intermediary, you know there's 177 00:12:15.570 --> 00:12:20.000 that much more to overcome, but sometimes that challenge is is worth the reward. 178 00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:24.240 I want to dig into something. You mentioned their Shernette talking about some 179 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:26.720 of the testing. Anything that you can share with us in trying to reach 180 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:33.549 this new demographic of millennials and Gen xers that that surprise you? You know, 181 00:12:33.669 --> 00:12:37.309 a channel that you thought, man, this is just this is going 182 00:12:37.509 --> 00:12:39.029 to be it, this is going to be a big driver of awareness that 183 00:12:39.190 --> 00:12:43.789 fell flat, or something that actually ended up being a big driver that you 184 00:12:43.909 --> 00:12:46.379 didn't see coming and it was, you know, fourth, fifth, six 185 00:12:46.500 --> 00:12:50.340 down the list. But after some other things, you've found some secret sauce 186 00:12:50.419 --> 00:12:54.379 in this channel or with this specific strategy. Anything in the testing there that 187 00:12:54.460 --> 00:12:58.610 surprised you? Guys, I would say you know, early on we had 188 00:12:58.690 --> 00:13:03.809 some really great opportunities to get a lot of eyeballs on our brand in a 189 00:13:03.889 --> 00:13:05.690 really broad and big way. So, to give you example, early on 190 00:13:07.009 --> 00:13:09.649 in our in our journey, we have the opportunity to be on the bachelor. 191 00:13:09.809 --> 00:13:13.600 So I everybody knows the bachelor, right. We thought US is fantastic, 192 00:13:13.639 --> 00:13:16.360 we're going to get in front of millions and millions of eyeballs. I 193 00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:20.200 think we had a good ten full minutes of airtime our footage on the show, 194 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:24.279 which is pretty fantastic given how many eyeballs are on there. So you 195 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:26.000 know, we early on we had a few opportunities like this. Or we 196 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:28.269 just thought all this is going to be it, and I think what we 197 00:13:28.309 --> 00:13:31.990 quickly realize as while those are great, at the end of the day it's 198 00:13:33.070 --> 00:13:37.549 just that sustained. It doesn't need to be the big wows. We really 199 00:13:37.710 --> 00:13:41.220 tightened up our strategy and really tried to quickly identify where, you know, 200 00:13:41.299 --> 00:13:43.220 we didn't have to be all things all people. We don't have to do 201 00:13:43.299 --> 00:13:48.299 these big national wow moments. Let's pick a few key markets that we know 202 00:13:48.539 --> 00:13:54.179 where we have the highest concentration of the audience we're going after and consistently and 203 00:13:54.299 --> 00:13:58.450 steadily just continue to get in front of them with frequency. So we really 204 00:13:58.490 --> 00:14:01.529 changed our strategy and that, rather than looking for those big wow moments. 205 00:14:01.610 --> 00:14:05.610 I'd rather pick for five key markets and just consistently go after them day after 206 00:14:05.649 --> 00:14:09.769 the day, week after week, month after month, and just chip away. 207 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:13.240 That seems to be working a lot harder for us and it's a lot 208 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:16.600 less expensive. So I think that's you know, you know the wow moments 209 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:22.000 are safety but they aren't necessarily effective. So for us it's just really tightening 210 00:14:22.039 --> 00:14:26.909 our tightening our target, tightening our demographic and just being really consistent. So 211 00:14:26.990 --> 00:14:30.070 I think that's key and then again going back to the list and learn adapt 212 00:14:30.110 --> 00:14:35.230 right. We also have really after our first two seasons of cruising, looking 213 00:14:35.269 --> 00:14:37.620 at who are the people who are actually booking this product? Who are they, 214 00:14:37.860 --> 00:14:41.460 you know, and how do they consume media and how do they consume 215 00:14:41.539 --> 00:14:46.340 information? And we found there like Gret like audiences that we weren't necessarily going 216 00:14:46.379 --> 00:14:50.379 after, but that we probably should be, and so that was really good. 217 00:14:50.419 --> 00:14:52.730 So just adapting. A great example is for us for the cruises, 218 00:14:54.049 --> 00:14:56.850 you know we're going after the millennials and Jactors. One of the groups we 219 00:14:56.929 --> 00:15:00.250 hadn't thought about is what about the millennials that are doing trips with their parents, 220 00:15:00.289 --> 00:15:03.169 right, or the younger millennials. So someone who's like twenty and they're 221 00:15:03.169 --> 00:15:07.240 taking a trip with their their parents who are fifty and they all want to 222 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:11.159 just go and have a good time. You know, when it's it's it's 223 00:15:11.639 --> 00:15:13.279 fun for that twenty year old because it's the right product for them. It's 224 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:16.039 also fun for the fifth year old and that was an audience we weren't thinking 225 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:20.590 about, but there's a lot of those adult children with their adult parents having 226 00:15:20.750 --> 00:15:24.070 fun trips together, and why shouldn't we go after those? So I think 227 00:15:24.070 --> 00:15:28.629 that's also just paying attention, staying on top of it and being able to 228 00:15:28.990 --> 00:15:31.549 optimize an adapt quickly. Yeah, there are some great things you just said. 229 00:15:31.549 --> 00:15:35.659 They're shown and I think for bb marketers listening to this, thinking about 230 00:15:37.100 --> 00:15:41.100 you know, you talk about the Family Unit and the folks who might not 231 00:15:41.259 --> 00:15:46.740 be the final decisionmaker who fit that target persona that you're talking about or is, 232 00:15:46.940 --> 00:15:50.529 you know, pinned up everywhere in your in your marketing area, but 233 00:15:50.610 --> 00:15:54.649 they may be influencing decisions as well. I think there's some carry over there. 234 00:15:54.889 --> 00:15:58.889 And then the other thing that you mentioned correlation to what we talk about 235 00:15:58.929 --> 00:16:03.330 day in and day out with other marketers, is is podcasting and I see 236 00:16:03.370 --> 00:16:06.919 a lot of people, you know, get so hung up on the audio 237 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:11.000 quality just has to be amazing. If it's not in PR style, narrative, 238 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:14.360 long form, you know, with a thousand cuts, and it doesn't 239 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:18.440 just absolutely wow people, then it's not going to deliver any results. And 240 00:16:18.710 --> 00:16:22.029 kind of similar to to what you're talking about, there are the big national 241 00:16:22.110 --> 00:16:26.830 media moments versus being consistent to the right audience. You know, we see 242 00:16:26.950 --> 00:16:33.019 consistency and podcasting as being a much stronger lever to success than necessarily just the 243 00:16:33.100 --> 00:16:37.940 wow factor in a podcast that doesn't have the longevity. So in an entirely 244 00:16:38.019 --> 00:16:42.059 different market, tirely different service, I'm seeing truth and in what you're saying 245 00:16:42.340 --> 00:16:47.169 is as it plays out in an entirely different area. What are some of 246 00:16:47.210 --> 00:16:51.929 the things that that you recommend to other marketers, Ronette, in measuring that 247 00:16:52.370 --> 00:16:56.769 brand lift? Because I talk to marketers every day and there seems to be 248 00:16:56.970 --> 00:17:03.399 this tension between demand generation and brand awareness that they you need to have both, 249 00:17:03.559 --> 00:17:07.480 but measuring the brand side of things comes with a lot of challenges. 250 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:11.440 Since, you know, you guys were very brand focused in making this shift. 251 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:17.230 Any advice to folks out there and how you've tactically measured that brand awareness 252 00:17:17.269 --> 00:17:21.349 and and that brand lift going into a new market? Yeah, it's good 253 00:17:21.390 --> 00:17:23.869 question. So my first my first answers. I have a few answers. 254 00:17:23.910 --> 00:17:30.059 My first hand answers. Manage up because, yeah, and I say that 255 00:17:30.220 --> 00:17:33.579 I say that the nicest way possible, and what I mean by that is, 256 00:17:33.339 --> 00:17:37.700 you know, I've been in marketing for over twenty years and this is 257 00:17:37.059 --> 00:17:41.299 to this day and for twenty years ago. Is always been the challenge any 258 00:17:41.420 --> 00:17:45.009 real high funnel. You know, broad brand awareness. It's hard to track 259 00:17:45.329 --> 00:17:48.609 and you have to manage that expectation, I think, internally and the people 260 00:17:48.609 --> 00:17:52.890 who are paying the bills and giving you your marketing dollars that Hey, listen, 261 00:17:52.930 --> 00:17:56.730 I'm about to invest this much money into brand awareness and we're not necessarily 262 00:17:56.769 --> 00:17:57.680 going to be able to track it back to what I'm doing and you know. 263 00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:02.640 So part of it's just managing expectation internally and helping helping the people you 264 00:18:02.759 --> 00:18:07.880 work with realize that. You know that, especially in a performance demand generation 265 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:10.720 world we live in, where you can track so many things online, that 266 00:18:10.839 --> 00:18:12.150 sometimes the things to build awareness. She just can't do that. So I 267 00:18:12.190 --> 00:18:15.349 think that's part of it. Just Nangi expectation. The other part of it 268 00:18:15.470 --> 00:18:18.869 too, is just, you know, I work really hard with my teams. 269 00:18:18.910 --> 00:18:23.869 Have done an amazing team here that I work with and and everyone's managing 270 00:18:23.950 --> 00:18:27.539 a different part of the consumer journey, a part of the funnel, a 271 00:18:27.779 --> 00:18:30.059 part of the B to be journey. It's a part of it. Is 272 00:18:30.099 --> 00:18:33.900 just bringing all those people together and making sure that we're working together to bring 273 00:18:34.140 --> 00:18:37.380 together all of our final kind of stats and seeing how they play off one 274 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:41.089 another. So, you know, while I don't do this for you river 275 00:18:41.170 --> 00:18:45.210 cruises, because it's not the best way to spend money for that brand for 276 00:18:45.369 --> 00:18:49.210 Uni world, we do do some, for instance national cable but advice that's 277 00:18:49.410 --> 00:18:53.650 very much high funnel brand awareness where I can't track that. But what I 278 00:18:53.769 --> 00:18:59.200 can track is all the people who are then searching for my brand on, 279 00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:03.039 you know, Google ad words. So you know, it's understanding those connections 280 00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:08.240 of while you may not see someone coming directly from a high funnel ad spot 281 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:11.190 that you're running, you can see an uplift and traffic to your website. 282 00:19:11.190 --> 00:19:15.509 You can see an uplift and searches for your brand terms. So but but 283 00:19:15.789 --> 00:19:18.150 to do that you got to pull all the pieces of the puzzle together and 284 00:19:18.269 --> 00:19:21.910 work together with all those groups. You can't have your brand awareness done in 285 00:19:22.029 --> 00:19:25.779 a silo from your midfunnel and your low funnel marketing tactics. You got to 286 00:19:25.819 --> 00:19:29.140 make sure that you're working together. I have different teams that works at work 287 00:19:29.220 --> 00:19:30.980 on that. It's my responsibility to bring them together, have them talk, 288 00:19:32.099 --> 00:19:33.940 have them communicate, have them look at steps together, and you can kind 289 00:19:33.940 --> 00:19:37.970 of tell a bigger story when you do it that way. HMM, that 290 00:19:38.210 --> 00:19:41.650 is such good advice. There s your net. Anything else? As you 291 00:19:41.730 --> 00:19:45.369 think about what you guys have been through in going after a new market, 292 00:19:45.410 --> 00:19:49.490 I think you've offered some some very tactical things, thinking about the personality of 293 00:19:49.529 --> 00:19:55.519 the brand, measuring awareness, connecting that to your demandion strategies and not doing 294 00:19:55.559 --> 00:19:59.720 any of this in a silo and also not getting stuck with, you know, 295 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:03.480 this one buyer SONA in mind, but adapting as you learn about who 296 00:20:03.559 --> 00:20:07.069 actually are your buyers over time. Anything else you want to add on this 297 00:20:07.190 --> 00:20:11.549 topic before we close things out today? You know, I think it probably 298 00:20:11.789 --> 00:20:15.869 just I would probably to say three things. You know for us. You 299 00:20:15.910 --> 00:20:18.950 know, obviously, if you're entering a market making sure that there's a need, 300 00:20:19.109 --> 00:20:22.339 a need for it or a space for it. So that that was 301 00:20:22.380 --> 00:20:23.740 number one for us. You know, there was. There was absolutely in 302 00:20:25.019 --> 00:20:27.619 an opportunity was untapped, so that that puts us an advantage to begin with. 303 00:20:29.339 --> 00:20:33.299 Number two, you know, we wouldn't be where we are today with 304 00:20:33.420 --> 00:20:37.730 the with you river cruises, if we didn't constantly stay on top of what 305 00:20:37.970 --> 00:20:42.529 we're learning and adapt and optimized quickly. You know, you can't. You 306 00:20:42.609 --> 00:20:45.170 know, if you're going to do something where you're entering a new market, 307 00:20:45.210 --> 00:20:48.849 it takes time. You know, if you think of a start up, 308 00:20:48.890 --> 00:20:52.000 which I oftentimes try to also think of this brand is a startup, even 309 00:20:52.039 --> 00:20:55.839 though we're a forty something plus you're old company. But you know, we 310 00:20:55.960 --> 00:20:59.000 have to think of it that way, which oftentimes start ups. They're not 311 00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:02.920 necessarily successful for the first five years or so, right, but you have 312 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:04.390 to approach like a start up, where you just have to keep hammering, 313 00:21:04.430 --> 00:21:08.390 hammering, hammering, hammering. Learn optimized, learn optimized, never take your 314 00:21:08.430 --> 00:21:11.750 eyes off of it. You know, you can't just set it and forget 315 00:21:11.750 --> 00:21:15.390 it. It's too infant as a as a brand, as a product, 316 00:21:15.470 --> 00:21:18.420 and so it's our responsibility to stand on top of it and have a team 317 00:21:18.500 --> 00:21:22.259 that can quickly change and move and, you know, not get stuck doing 318 00:21:22.339 --> 00:21:26.460 things one way, because I think these first five years are crew Shual to 319 00:21:26.660 --> 00:21:30.660 just kind of getting it right. It's not perfect out the gate and if 320 00:21:30.700 --> 00:21:33.730 you don't change and get it right, then it will never be right. 321 00:21:33.769 --> 00:21:37.049 So I think it's just having that ability in that mindset that you got to 322 00:21:37.450 --> 00:21:40.890 stay on top of it, stay with it. We keep changing and and 323 00:21:40.970 --> 00:21:42.410 I think, and I'll go by my third thing I'm going to say, 324 00:21:42.529 --> 00:21:45.210 and I think this goes to our actual brand itself, and this is what 325 00:21:45.250 --> 00:21:48.960 I pulled from my time at Virgin, is he's never be afraid to take 326 00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:55.240 risks. I remember Richard Branson, I believe that he would say it was 327 00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:56.480 a quote about what's the worst that could happen? You know, it's what 328 00:21:56.640 --> 00:21:59.920 like what if you eat? What's the worst could happen if you do it, 329 00:22:00.039 --> 00:22:00.829 you know, and it's what's the worst that happen if you don't? 330 00:22:02.390 --> 00:22:04.390 And just not being afraid to just take a risk. And I love what 331 00:22:04.509 --> 00:22:07.990 I love the most about you, river cruises, is this brand is just 332 00:22:08.269 --> 00:22:14.230 so unconventional and modern and cool and there's so many cool things that and we've 333 00:22:14.269 --> 00:22:18.819 done really unconventional things and not we've not been afraid to take risks, and 334 00:22:18.059 --> 00:22:22.980 so I think that's also if you're going to, you know, do this 335 00:22:22.220 --> 00:22:26.019 and really make a change, change in industry, bring something new, you 336 00:22:26.180 --> 00:22:29.940 can't be afraid. You can't let fear getting a way. You believe in 337 00:22:29.980 --> 00:22:32.170 it, you just got to go for it and we believe in it. 338 00:22:32.289 --> 00:22:33.930 We love this product. So it's exciting for us to be a part of 339 00:22:34.569 --> 00:22:38.769 helping it grow and helping build it and getting that energy behind everyone else again, 340 00:22:38.809 --> 00:22:42.609 who's also selling it for you. So back to the be to be 341 00:22:44.250 --> 00:22:48.400 make sure that that the enthusiasm character definitively hard to do that too, and 342 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:51.839 to bring that excitement to them about this brand. And I think that definitely 343 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:55.480 how blows and you have for it and the way that you've broken down some 344 00:22:55.559 --> 00:22:59.309 of the lessons learned along your journey today, Sharnett, if anybody listening to 345 00:22:59.509 --> 00:23:02.549 this would like to follow up with you or stay connected with you, a 346 00:23:02.630 --> 00:23:04.869 fellow marketer, what's the best way for them to reach out, stay connected 347 00:23:04.950 --> 00:23:08.430 with you or learn more about you? River cruises or Uni World? Yeah, 348 00:23:08.470 --> 00:23:11.349 so I think the best thing first. You know, we'd love to 349 00:23:11.390 --> 00:23:15.259 have you check out you river cruises. You can go to our website. 350 00:23:15.339 --> 00:23:22.900 Is You the letter? You by UNI WorldCom. You Buy univeraldcom. If 351 00:23:22.940 --> 00:23:26.619 you want to check out some of our great social content. You can also 352 00:23:26.529 --> 00:23:30.890 look at our Hashtag, Hashtag travel for you again, that's the letter you 353 00:23:32.210 --> 00:23:34.650 trouble for you and my name is Sharnette and you can always find me on 354 00:23:34.809 --> 00:23:38.009 Linkedin if you need to conduct to have a question for me, and I 355 00:23:38.089 --> 00:23:41.960 appreciate you giving me the time today to talk about this absolutely. This was 356 00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:45.640 a fun conversation. Thank you so much for being on the show today. 357 00:23:45.640 --> 00:23:52.119 Internet. Thank you as well. Have a great day. We totally get 358 00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:55.829 it. We publish a ton of content on this podcast and it can be 359 00:23:55.990 --> 00:23:59.869 a lot to keep up with. That's why we've started the BDB growth big 360 00:23:59.990 --> 00:24:03.430 three, a no fluff email that boils down our three biggest takeaways from an 361 00:24:03.509 --> 00:24:10.099 entire week of episodes. Sign up today at Sweet Fish Mediacom big three. 362 00:24:10.420 --> 00:24:12.740 That sweet fish Mediacom Big Three