Four States Small Business Blog

Earlier this year, more than 55 local businesses attended the BrandsFormation workshop to learn about Chuck Mefford’s 4-step system. The innovative approach is designed to help your business stand out and dominate mental real estate with your audience. They found the experience invigorating, inspiring, and left with plenty of actionable ideas for strengthening their brands.

Earlier this year, we partnered with branding expert Chuck Mefford to teach Four-State businesses how to develop their brand through his revolutionary BrandsFormation workshop. The overwhelming feedback we received from attendees convinced us that we need to make this event available to more businesses in our community, so we're bringing Chuck back for an encore!

There's an exciting event headed your way this fall - BrandsFormation 2018! After a successful event in March, we’re bringing the free educational workshop back to help even more Four State business owners develop their brand and improve their bottom lines. Scheduled for Wednesday, November 7 at 8:00 am., BrandsFormation 2018 is designed to help you transform your business from good to great.

It’s undeniable that we live in an omnichannel world where shoppers no longer distinguish between the physical and digital realms. Consumers expect to encounter brands across channels, and they’re bombarded left and right with marketing. That makes it awfully tempting for brands — especially relatively new brands and small businesses — to try to be all things to all current and potential customers across all channels.

More than 70 local businesses attended our BrandsFormation workshop earlier this month, led by business strategist and long-time Zimmer Radio, Inc. branding partner, Chuck Mefford. See what one business owner had to say about the event:

We talk a lot about the importance of branding on our blog. Your brand is what helps distinguish your company, products, and services from your competitors. A strong brand creates a connection between your company and consumers, and when it becomes familiar, your brand name helps increase your customer satisfaction and loyalty.

 When you develop a plan for marketing in Joplin, MO, or anywhere else in the world for that matter, you’re probably ready to do a few things. You’ll define a budget, choose the right channels to advertise on, select a schedule, and lay out what you want the creative to be. You’re just forgetting one thing — how the customer sees things. That’s not necessarily the same thing as identifying your target audience, which you need to do before you select where you’re going to advertise or how to build your message.

There are four parts to the BrandsFormation system that will help you turn your business into a brand that’s a household name in your community—the Four States area, or beyond: Strategy, Strategy-based messaging, Consistency, and Dominant Frequency. But the real heart of the BrandsFormation system is uncovering your “difference maker.”

Advertising is supposed to be a tool, and one that provides clear results for your business. You need to be seeing returns on your investment (ROI) for each of your advertising choices. If you aren’t, then why are you advertising? That’s just a waste of time and resources, not to mention a big waste of money!

One of the hardest lessons to learn in marketing is that building a brand takes time. While some lucky brands get struck by advertising lightning — e.g., TOMS, which first made headlines when it was barely a company, nearly tripling orders in one day and sparking even more news coverage thanks to its core cause — most companies have to work hard to carve out a place in their market. Even major brands, like beverage powerhouse Coca-Cola, have to build their momentum over time.