Creating a strong brand for your independent business
Module 3: Audience
Get to know your very best customer
Audience
Your best customer. Do you know who it is? Do you know everything you need to know about them to serve them so well that your competitors can’t win them away from you? You’re in luck. Pulling insight from his books on brand marketing, Adam introduces concepts to research and understand your audience, so that you can shape your brand to them, specifically.
At the end of this module, you’ll have the tools and understand to identify the customers you want to build your brand for. Use the worksheets and research tools to push forward.
Video lesson: Audience
Worksheet 2.1 Best customer characteristics
This one is simple. Think about your very best customer. Write down everything you have noticed that all of your best customers have in common, not just as customers but in the rest of their lives – to get to know them better.
Video lesson: Audience tools demo
Worksheet 2.2 Persona starter
Now we get a little more focus. Using the tools Adam has shared, research your best customers (links are on this page). Apply the information that you have observed or aligns with your knowledge to add details about your customer to this worksheet, so it’s all in one place and you will begin to understand your best customer’s life and needs.
Worksheet 2.3 Persona
We’ll finalizing your persona in this worksheet. Answer the questions below to assemble the research from Worksheet 2.2 into a narrative describing a typical day in the life of your best customer. Use details to bring them to life. Take advantage of the examples provided.
Resources for this unit:
Index brands starter survey, build on this as needed
Demographic survey template
Tapestry FREE ZIP code research tool and personas
US Census website
Social listening with Sparktoro
What is brand?
You thought it was easy to explain, but now you realize you don’t have a great definition for what–exactly–a brand is or what it does for your business. No worries, in this lesson, brand strategist and author Adam Pierno, will clarify what a brand is and how it will put your business on the trajectory for growth with the customers you want the most.
> Video (30+ minutes)
> Worksheet: Brand description
> Worksheet: Admiration
Audience
Your best customer. Do you know who it is? Do you know everything you need to know about them to serve them so well that your competitors can’t win them away from you? You’re in luck. Pulling insight from his books on brand marketing, Adam introduces concepts to research and understand your audience, so that you can shape your brand to them, specifically.
> Video (23 minutes)
> Worksheet: Best customer
> Video (18 minutes)
> Worksheet: Persona starter
> Sample brand survey
> Sample demographics survey
> Research tool: Tapestry
> Research tool: Census
> Research tool: SparkToro
> Worksheet: Persona 2
Know your competitors
Now that you’ve researched your best customers, you have to dig in to understand what other businesses are trying to win their business or what other companies they may choose in your place. In this lesson, you’ll gain tools on competitor research to assess the full view of your market and prioritize the companies most likely to compete for the customer you’ve selected for your brand.
> Video (24 minutes)
> Resource list: Competitor tools
> Worksheet: Competitors
> Worksheet: Key competitors
> Worksheet: Obstacles
What? I might need some help.
Have questions? That’s okay. This course combines tools and techniques used by Adam and professional brand consultants and agencies around the world. Videos to set the lesson for each module along with rigorous worksheets formatted for the way you work best.
Adam’s also provided links to research tools you can use at little to no cost to make sure your brand is based on sound logic.
You can reach out here. For technical or basic questions, Adam or a member of the team will get back to you no problem. For brand related questions, or coaching, let’s set an appointment to talk.
Your instructor and coach.
This course was developed and is taught by Adam Pierno, award-winning brand marketer and author. He’s worked with brands you know, like Bona, Domino’s, Dunkin’, Mercedes-Benz, Pocky, State Farm and Verizon, for more than 20 years. His books on brand and marketing strategy are taught at ad agencies, universities and Fortune 500 companies to make marketing simpler to understand and execute.
All of the brand expertise, none of the hassles
If you’ve worked with advertising and brand agencies, you know how much work falls on you and how much it all costs. Brand positioning can cost thousands or more. This course gives you the same tools for a fraction of that investment. With no sacrifice to your results.
This course is based on Adam’s book, Specific. It’s a straight-forward method to build your brand by putting your customers first.
