Oct 28, 2022
Today I am very excited to have
Dr. Matt Johnson back on the show to talk about
Branding That Means
Business, a new book he
has co-authored with Dr. Tessa Misiaszek (who will be on the show
in a few weeks talking about her background and the aspects she
brings to this fascinating project). Matt was on the show in 2021
talking about his other book, Blindsight (which he co-authored with Prince Guhman, who
was also on the show last year.) Matt is a professor, researcher,
and writer, who received his Ph.D. in Cognitive
Psychology/Neuroscience from Princeton University in
2013.
His focus now is on bridging the
gap between science and business; to accomplish this, he works
across several fields including behavioral economics, consumer
neuroscience, and experiential marketing. A contributor to major
news outlets including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, and
VICE, and a writer for Psychology Today, he regularly provides
expert opinion and thought leadership on a range of topics related
to the human side of business. He advises both start-ups and large
brands and has served as an expert-in-residence to Nike’s
Innovation Team in Portland, Oregon. Matt is so much fun and a
wealth of fascinating information. We are going to talk about so
many awesome things today so you don’t want to miss
it.
Show Notes:
- [00:42] Today I am very excited
to have Dr. Matt Johnson back on the show to talk about
Branding That Means
Business, a new book he
has co-authored with Dr. Tessa Misiaszek.
- [02:48] Melina and Matt share
the similarities in their lives.
- [04:08] Matt shares his
background and how he found himself in the world of neuro and
behavioral science.
- [05:53] His second book,
Branding That Means
Business is written for
the business practitioner on how to build brands and how companies
can create enduring brands with consumers and
markets.
- [08:49] One of his goals when
writing a book is to write for as broad of an audience as possible
within popular science, but also for very niche behavioral science
readers.
- [11:11] Every experience you
have consuming content is potentially going to be featured in some
sort of written word.
- [12:22] Twitter can be an
amazing resource. Incredible business minds and academics are
sharing on Twitter.
- [15:15] The rule of the brand
is to create trust. Trust is an absolute game changer when it comes
to consumer dynamics.
- [17:55] When information or an
advertising claim comes from a brand you trust it is much more
System 1 oriented and it changes the decision-making process to be
much easier and free-flowing.
- [19:59] Building a brand is
like building a house. The goal isn’t to just build the house and
structure, but ultimately to build a home that creates a positive
emotional experience and a sense of warmth and
belonging.
- [22:39] Interactions within the
brain and how you feel about it — those associations are so
key.
- [23:16] A brand is an element
of the company. It is a tool of the company that adds unique value
above and beyond the products themselves and it helps the company
differentiate itself from industry
competitors.
- [26:36] We need to know what
our brand associations are so we can change them or embrace
them.
- [27:46] How the brand is
sculpted at the level of the brain and the consumer and how that is
aggregated over the entire market can be very
different.
- [30:36] After research, KitKat
completely changed its marketing in Japan and it had a huge
impact.
- [31:50] So often companies and
people end up really making things so much harder for us than they
have to be. If you let go and have the current take you then you
can get somewhere more meaningful.
- [34:28] Our job as the brand
manager is not to be the guardians of the brand image but as the
caretaker of it.
- [36:20] Micro and nano
influencers have smaller audiences, but because they are very
engaged followers that can be very effective.
- [38:14] Many people are willing
to partner with brands that mean something to
them.
- [40:26] Among younger consumers
there is a “learned allergy” to top-down advertising. This is one
of the reasons why TikTok has been so huge with product
advertising.
- [43:22] Organic marketing and
integrated content are becoming more and more
attractive.
- [46:14] If it is perceived to
be a small brand the expectations are that it is going to be a
brand that you really know, you could directly interact with it,
and you could possibly co-create with the brand. This differs from
big brands who should adopt this different
strategy.
- [47:59] Differentiation and
consumer perception are important. It really matters to consider
consumer perceptions in terms of those
expectations.
- [50:31] Melina shares her
closing thoughts.
- [52:20] Knowing what is going
on in the world and finding how you can relate your brand to the
current conversation is so key to using branding effectively in
your business.
Thanks for listening. Don’t
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show.
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