Unlock the secrets to elevating your business with a masterclass in distinguishing branding from marketing and advertising, as Dalin and I, Wayne Aston, dissect these vital concepts. With Dalin’s marketing prowess, we bring you a riveting discussion that will reshape your understanding and equip you with the tools for creating a robust market identity. Our conversation dives into the game-changing rebrand of Maverick's convenience stores, a testament to the orchestrated power of these three pillars when harmonized effectively.
We’re living in an age where a brand is the beating heart of your enterprise, setting the stage for customer loyalty and defining the narrative. This episode peels back the layers of how an influencer's persona can amplify your brand's voice and vastly improve sales figures. Moreover, we dissect the art of audience-specific marketing strategies, and with the help of real-world scenarios from the real estate and hospitality sectors, illustrate the importance of a tailored approach. A deep understanding of your business's identity is more than just good practice—it's crucial to crafting campaigns that resonate.
The landscape of Airbnb and nightly rentals comes under the spotlight as we navigate the intricacies of pricing strategies and market saturation. With the assistance of our guest expert, we reveal how a focus on quality and a commitment to the guest experience is essential in an increasingly competitive market. Our expert's advice is a goldmine for anyone looking to stand out and profit in the experience economy. This is a conversation packed with actionable insights for entrepreneurs eager to refine their business strategy and achieve sustainable growth.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the show, guys.
It's Aston Incorporated.
I'm Wayne Aston, your host.
Here's my co-host, dalin Aston,and Appreciate you coming back
for another one.
We are excited about today'scontent, so this is going to be
highly focused on Dalin and hiskind of expertise, his business
(00:20):
acumen.
Just to kick things off here,guys, we're going to be covering
the differences betweenbranding Versus marketing versus
advertising.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, this is really an interesting topic and
something that I am pretty I.
Just like to say I'm kind ofobsessed with, with marketing.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I love that.
You're kind of obsessed.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, I mean just perspective.
A lot of what I'll do in myfree time is just read marketing
books, which is, I mean, lotsof people are like hey, what you
know, what's a hobby?
First I'm like well, I likereading marketing.
Kind of funny, but yeah.
So over the past year I haveworked at mark, at Harman
Brothers marketing agency andthis is, if you're familiar with
(01:11):
, you know, squatty, potty orloomi deodorants, click funnels,
chat bugs, I mean fiberfix.
I can get in a lot of differentcompanies.
How are those?
Are the marketing Jedi Behindthese marketing campaigns?
so I started out the company asan intern, worked my way up, and
I'm currently over the pastyear.
(01:31):
I worked my way up to the vicepresident of business
development and sales and youknow before that I had started
my own marketing company, risemarketing, helping small
business owners with theire-commerce architecture,
marketing strategy, like allthat stuff you know, and so when
we're talking about marketingversus branding, versus
advertising, it's funny becauselots of people will just
(01:53):
interchange those words, youknow, and they're used,
essentially meaning the samething, but they don't mean the
same thing.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Oh yeah, I mean, you know, at first glance they feel
like completely interchangeablewords, like you?
Can insert that word into thesame sentence yeah and people
would be.
People would understand whatyou're saying.
Oh, of course, but but I can, Ican.
I'm Really eager to unpack.
Yeah, differences here, becauseI'm kind of dealing with you
(02:21):
know, I'm at.
I'm at crossroads right now withmy businesses where these three
specific categories have adifferent specific Meaning and
intention behind them and somereally, you know really trying
to work with some professionalsright now to develop.
You know, especially guys witha business startup.
Yeah, like, honestly, yeah,like there's a few, there's a
(02:45):
few interesting things to thinkabout.
If you're talking about abusiness startup, then you're
you're working on establishingyour identity in the market,
yeah.
And then you also hear aboutthe big re-branding Campaigns,
like Maverick.
You know, we know Ernie Harker,amazing branding guy, and you
(03:06):
know he assisted Maverickadventure.
Well, it's Maverick adventurefirst.
You know base camp, it's thesea stores.
You know the gas stations.
They, they were Maverickcountry store, which is kind of
the Cowboy motif with thepitching post out front.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, and he's, he and.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Ernie transformed it, you know, with Chuck Norris and
and an incredible campaign andfull rebrand Into adventures.
First stop is what it currentlyis, and so so now you know when
I go to Maverick, I Actually gothere because the bathrooms are
clean.
Yeah, they have more variety ofyou know, drinks and snacks and
(03:47):
things than any other gasstation.
So they're different in thatway, but the branding is like
it's incredible.
Like I love the adventures,first stop I love that they have
the Red Bull videos awesomebase jumpers and the you know
extreme Red Bull mountain bikingteams, like you know, right
here in Utah Playing on the bigstreet.
I'd love to stand in line inMaverick and, like, watch that
(04:08):
stuff.
So it's, it's an experience.
Yeah, it's a totally differentexperience.
Then, if I walk into an Exxonor Sonoco yeah, that's the
typical old gas station, it'sdirty and I want to gather
they're great.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well and Maverick is so powerful because I'm gonna
use all three terms here.
They have dialed theirmarketing in so well that
they're branding and they'readvertising Art have become
tools that essentially justspeak their marketing messages
to their right people.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
So that's a lot of stuff.
Yeah, let's unpack it, let'slike so, let's define for the
listeners a clear definition.
You know what in each three ofthese categories?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, so marketing?
If we're talking aboutmarketing in and of itself, I
would say branding andadvertising are functions of the
marketing mix, right?
So marketing in and of itself?
We're talking about yourmessaging.
We're talking about you knowhow you take your product to the
market.
It's you know.
We're talking about finding themost effective way of Selling
(05:14):
your product.
That's marketing.
It's the most effective way tosell.
Yeah okay, and now and now,advertising is paid, you know,
using paid methods to get sales.
So that supports Marketing.
But marketing is not average,or let's see.
(05:35):
So how am I trying to say this?
So I'm trying to make it asclear as possible Marketing is
Advertising, advertising is notnecessarily market.
Okay, okay right so.
Advertising, like I said, is afunction of marketing, is one of
the elements of one of theelements of marketing, but
advertising is not marketing.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Advertising is a specific function of my targeted
function.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah.
So it's one thing.
It's like hey, look, we'regonna, we're gonna, you know, if
we have a product, we're gonna,you know, spend behind an ad,
maybe Google ads or something,facebook ads or whatever.
That's advertising a billboard,that's advertising a TV spot.
That's advertising.
Okay, yeah, but you're usingthe marketing messages that
(06:21):
you've tightened up.
Hey, we're talking at a higherlevel.
This is who we're speaking to.
You know the message that we'reusing to speak to that person.
That's marketing.
Is that clear?
Yeah, and then we're utilizingthis tool that is advertising,
to reach those people that wedetermined in the marketing
Segment of this.
Okay, so, so how does brandingfit?
(06:41):
So great question.
So branding is Really anythingthat builds your brand right,
and and another thing that'sreally important is it can also
tear down your brand, and so youhave to be really careful from
a branding standpoint.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Do you, do you equate ?
Is Branding the same asidentity?
I?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I'd say so, yeah, I mean, it's talking points, it's
brand personality, it's brandcolors, fonts, so so yeah,
identity is a good way ofputting it.
I you know, he's like the DNAof a company.
It's the DNA of a company, it'swho you are facing a club, like
an outside facing sense.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
So it's an existential status.
Yeah, brand branding is, is myDNA, my identity of a company
that I create?
Yep, and it gets evolving allthe time.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
It's gonna be the reason people talk about you,
word of mouth.
It's gonna be the reason peopleorganically share your stuff.
It's gonna be the reason youknow you're gonna have.
You know, all your outreach, pr, influencer, marketing all this
stuff is gonna fall under thisbranding right, because I mean,
if you think about it, goingback to what I said about this
can either build or destroy yourcompany.
(07:57):
The right branding is superimportant because if you you
know, if you're, if you havesome brand, and then just an
example if you have aninfluencer or something doing,
some, you know, really pushingpeople back to you, but their
brand is not in line with yourbrand, it's gonna turn people
off.
I mean, people are gonna go.
You know a confused mind isalways gonna say no, right, and
(08:18):
so someone is gonna.
You know an off-brand source isgonna push them to.
You know, if you're havingincongruencies with your brand,
if you're on all these things,people are gonna be super turned
off and and that's going toreflect your sales.
Okay, so that affects yourmarketing, that affects your
advertising, the success ofevery faucet of this so it's.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
It feels like what I'm hearing you describe is that
that understanding and gettingclear about your brand or your
corporate identity means youhave to really be clear and know
who your customer is.
Yeah, who do I want to attractas a customer?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
yeah fair yeah, yeah, absolutely well.
So if you take Maverick, forexample we've just been talking
about this, you know what dothey do they came in and they
dialed in on.
If you have read or listened to, your brand sucks Ernie Harker,
right yeah, great book.
He talks so detailed about whothey're targeting.
(09:17):
It's crazy, but that influencesevery piece of their messaging,
their branding, that everythingand then it dictates how they
spend.
Yeah, I mean, it dictates theiradvertising.
Advertising, the tool behindthe messaging, behind who we're
speaking to yeah, right.
So if you have a clear idea ofwho you're talking to and this
(09:38):
goes back to the marketing right, this is why I say branding and
advertising are a function ofmarketing, because marketing in
themselves is hey, what's ourmessage?
In order, in order to dictate amessage that actually sells,
you have to understand whoyou're speaking to.
Yeah, so, if we're talkingabout, you know, an Airbnb model
, then and I don't like tonecessarily coin as an Airbnb
(09:59):
model a nightly rental model,right, a hospitality model then
who are we speaking to?
it's not everyone yeah if we'retalking about selling water.
Everyone drinks water.
But just because everyonedrinks water does not mean that
you market to everyone.
That is the fastest way to fail.
Yeah right, you have to be sotight on your messaging.
(10:19):
The only way to do that is tobe tight on who you're speaking
to.
Yeah, right you cannot market toevery single person, because if
you try, your advertising isnot going to be effective.
Yeah, advertising's goal is tomake sales, right and again,
marketing is to make sales, butit's a function of that, and so
advertising is.
You know, if you're putting adollar into ads, your goal is to
(10:42):
get your $2, $3, $4 out, andthe number of dollars you're
getting out is directlycorrelated to your marketing
messages, which are above there,a step above advertising in
itself advertising is just themethod, yeah right, and then
branding falls into that right,and so you can see how all of
this gets confused.
Yeah, right, but anunderstanding of each saying,
(11:02):
hey, yeah, I just, you know, Ineed a marketing plan, okay,
great, well, let's, let's expandthis and talk about what that
actually means, you know.
And so I mean, if we're talkinghospitality, if we're talking
real estate, whatever it mightbe, there are different
functions of this marketing.
It can be applied.
That, I think, is super, superimportant yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
So so what's really becoming clear to me too, as you
unpack that whole box is no twocompanies are the same.
Yeah, it's total snowflake.
Total snowflake, likeapplication, like like a
business is as unique as asnowflake.
It's as unique as a person.
Yeah, and so if a company or abusiness is not clear about, who
(11:52):
am I?
yeah it's feels impossible tocreate branding and then
subsequently advertising andmarketing.
Yeah, plans and campaigns, yeah, that would effectively scale
that business right.
You know, for example, you know, for a real estate investor I
(12:12):
mean, I think about mybusinesses and you know I'm
clear about who my clients are.
But I wouldn't, you know, Iwould be wasting my money on a
TV ad or a billboard, like someof the traditional stuff that I
can't measure.
Yeah, like that would be acomplete waste of time and money
, right, whereas product drivenlike a, like widgets, like
(12:37):
selling a sports drink, it'sdifferent, you know.
You know Gatorade, that's anamazing branding, marketing and
advertising machine.
Yeah, I'm Brandon Will.
I love Gatorade, especially hiszeros.
They could probably really getand garner and continue to scale
with some of those moretraditional TV spots, billboard
(13:00):
type spots, because it's adifferent, it's a different
conversation all together.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, and you're speaking to someone different.
Yeah, yeah, and I think aboutthat thing, right, and thinking
about mine.
I mean, there is a cleardifferentiation between how I
market my properties and I guesslet me rephrase that how I
brand my properties than otherproperties in the area.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
You know, and so think about that, what I just
said, right, market versus brand, how I I dent, how I make my
properties feel and who I'mspeaking to, that drips into the
marketing message is differentthan how a lot of people in the
area do theirs right.
So I mean mine, I've tried mybest and I spared no expense.
I mean I spent you know 23grand on each unit, furnishing
(13:47):
them, making them, you know,putting in some higher
technology, put in you knowbranding mugs, right, yeah, so
those type of things, havingbranding video in a digital
You're seeing your company logoon multiple points inside of the
unit and you walk in the unitand you smell.
And you smell the unit andyou're going whoa, this is sweet
(14:07):
.
And just last week I hadsomeone go to the unit and they
had a shorter stay and theytexted me and they're like hey,
is this available for the nextfour nights?
We have another hotel, but wewould rather stay here, that's
what they say we would ratherstay here even though it was
more expensive.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, so you think?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
about you, think about well why, and it's because
it resonated with them, becausethey were the type of person
I'm speaking to.
Yeah, and the reason that youknow mine are more target toward
hey, this is a luxury, this isa.
This is, you know, I'melevating your stay while you're
here so that you can enjoy notonly the environment here,
(14:46):
because it's an extraordinaryenvironment I want you to enjoy
while you're in the unit as well.
I mean, it's congruent with theamazing nature of where you are
.
Yeah, and I wanted that to bejust the highest and most
amazing experience possible.
And when I'm speaking to peoplewho are, you know, in this level
of, hey, I want to experienceluxury, I want to experience
elevated travel.
They're going to pay more, theyare going to resonate with that
(15:06):
and want to come back, they'regoing to want to stay, they're
going to want to pay morebecause they're getting the
value out of it.
I'm not trying to markettowards, you know, people that
are looking to just find thecheapest hotel.
Yeah, I'm not looking forpeople that are like that.
I would prefer them not to stayin the place, actually, you
know, because it would mean I'mnot and this is from a solely
business standpoint but it meansI'm not being able to charge as
(15:28):
much as I would like to in anADR standpoint, right, and so
the message that you are tellingthrough your marketing is super
important, but I would say, asmuch as important as that is how
you portray your identity as abrand.
Yeah, you know, and if you havethose two things aligned, the
advertising piece is going tomake sense.
(15:50):
Yeah, you're going to beginadvertising in the right avenues
and the right places becauseyour brand and your marketing
are aligned.
Yeah, right, and so that becausethe message that are being told
through your marketing is goingto be aligned with your brand,
yeah, because you know when youare, when you have a marketing
message hit you through a methodof advertising, and then you
(16:10):
say okay, and you go to theplace, you're experiencing the
brand and if they're all aligned, then they're going to leave a
good review, they're going topay more and they're going to
become a loyal customer.
If one of those is not alignedsee, this is super important to
understand If your advertisingis not aligned with your
marketing message and your brand, there's going to be confusion,
(16:31):
there's going to be frictionand people are going to say no,
yeah, but, and then same thingif your messages are not aligned
with your brand and advertising.
The same thing, you know.
And so if your marketing andadvertising are awesome, and
then you get to the actual placeand it's different, that's a
motel six.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
That's one of the Fleabag roadside motels.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
That is a recipe for disaster.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, that's called false advertising.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
That's false advertising.
Yes, what are?
You got going around right andI'll tell you right now, with
Serbian B, verba, virbio, allthese platforms, we are seeing a
huge discrepancy with this.
People don't understand thedifference between marketing,
advertising, branding and theymiss these pieces.
(17:16):
So people start going to theseplaces because the pictures are
good and the property sucks.
What's funny?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
is.
There's this absolutecorrelation to everything you're
talking about.
And I go back to this thing wetalk about in almost every
episode the money and therelationship spectrum.
The roadside motel operatorcares about heads and beds and
doing as cheap as they can.
They'll offer a group ondiscount and they'll offer this
(17:43):
discount a holiday.
There's a discount for everyholiday, so you can get in there
for very cheap, the programmingis cheap, the room, the
facility itself is cheap, it allmatches.
And then on the flip side, onthe relationship, you're in the
luxury space of hospitalitytotally different, totally
(18:05):
different branding, messaging.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Well, and you know, this is maybe another
conversation, but I think itapplies, because what Airbnb and
the RBO, Verbo, what all thesecompanies have done really well
is they've given a platform forpeople to come in and do this do
really well.
But they've also created aplatform where there's no
regulation and so people arealmost expecting no quality
(18:27):
controls.
There's no quality controls.
So when you are sitting in thelet's take mine, for example,
mine are in Moab when you'resitting in a spot where you have
countless properties around youthere are 895 properties on
Airbnb alone in Moab, just Moab.
There's that many.
That's not including VRBO,that's not including Expedia,
(18:50):
that's not including Bookingcom,it's just Airbnb and there will
probably be a lot that goacross each platform.
But when you have every otherplace in the area dipping to
$100 a night, what is theconsumer going to say?
That marketing message is veryclear.
Oh, and then they see mine at$300 a night.
(19:13):
What are people going to do?
They're interested to go.
Well, if they're the majority ofAirbnbers, the people that use
Airbnb, they're going to say Idon't know if I'm the cheapest
one that looks nice.
That's the problem withmarketing to the mass.
You're trying to cut throughthat with your branding and
marketing, and that's part ofwhy I don't really love Airbnb,
(19:37):
Because it's allowing for themind to succumb to this whole.
Let me shop around and miss out, Because if you're looking
solely from the top level andyou're just looking at map on
Airbnb, the human brain is, mostof the time the people that I'm
speaking to are, chances arepretty high they're going to go
(19:57):
to a higher price point becausethey understand that it's a
luxury, that it's oh, that'shigher, that's more expensive.
I'm probably going to get abetter experience there.
See, I'm most people.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I must be one of the weirdos, because I'm always
looking for the most expensiveone.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
You're the weirdo, you're the person I'm targeting.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, I want the luxury experience, and so that's
how I select when I'm on one ofthose, see.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
but that is such a small percentage and even a lot
of people like you are going tosuccumb when they go on Airbnb
and they see everyone at a lowerprice.
Yeah, airbnb tries it doesn'tintentionally try it, but the
nature of everyone being onthere that are not hoteliers
think, let me just drive pricedown, let me just.
And then becomes a price war.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And then your compete .
Your marketing message herethat Airbnb portrays is one of
let's drive the price down.
Yeah, and I hate it.
Yeah.
So that's why, if you takecontrol of your branding and
your marketing, so we're lookingat, hey, let's get off of
platforms that elicit this typeof behavior and only target
people I don't want.
If I get 4,000 views on myproperty and no bookings, that's
(21:02):
a fail in my opinion that's afailure.
A lot of people say no, you gotso many impressions.
That's a failure, in my opinion.
You're not getting any sales.
Well, and why is that?
It's because you're not.
People that are going to alignand resonate with your brand are
not seeing it.
The people, the only peoplethat are seeing it.
And again, this is I'm justsaying this is kind of the
general.
You know, if you are targetingthe right person, then they're
(21:26):
going to buy.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
So what's really interesting about this is is
there's good news and bad newsfor anyone out there talking
about starting an Airbnbbusiness or a nightly rental
business.
The good news is, if you'rereally detail oriented and
you're really committed to theexperience economy for your
(21:50):
patrons, then you can make a tonof money doing it.
So that's a natural byproduct ofthe value creation you bring.
The bad news is is platformslike Airbnb, varbo, give the do
it yourself for so much leashthey can hang themselves really
easy on.
Yeah, yeah they, becausethere's no quality controls.
(22:11):
It's a free for all.
They list their properties.
They're in for the money.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
They're doing these discounted schemes, they're not
putting attention to the detailsand their properties won't
perform, and so yeah, so they're.
They're the ones that are likeah, this sucks, man, this isn't
a great platform.
I'm not making you know what,what I you know.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
this is what this was cracked up to be Well and you,
I mean you have I'm in a lot ofAirbnb groups on social media
and it's a lot of, hey, let'shelp each other out, right?
It's kind of the idea, yeah, andI've noticed in the past couple
of months, this is crazy, but alot of people are getting on it
on that site and they'reposting pictures of ghost
(22:51):
calendars.
No one is booking and I'm going.
What is happening?
And if you think about it andit's a lot of people and people
are going what is going on withAirbnb?
Whoa, and this is a new thing,I've seen this a lot lately is
what is going on with Airbnb?
What is going on with theseplatforms?
Why am I not getting bookings?
It's because it's not becausethe model is broken.
(23:13):
It's because of what you justsaid.
It's getting to a point wherethere's so many daily there are
properties being added.
You can add a property onAirbnb or any of those platforms
in four minutes, maybe less.
You can.
Just you can throw it up and itbecomes a branding, marketing
and advertising function.
All three need to be present inorder to be viable property
(23:41):
right, and a lot of these places, sadly, for one reason or
another, cannot get there, andwhether that's because it's just
a shack they're trying to list,or it's a, you know, there's so
many places in the area or youknow.
There's so many factors that gointo this, but it's a function
of marketing man it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
This is gold, guys.
You know, if you're thinkingabout going and building a real
estate portfolio and doing thenightly rental game, which I
highly support, you should do.
I think there's room foreverybody who wants to do it
right.
I think the ones committed toproviding real value can make
good money.
Good money for your investors,good money for yourself.
Most importantly, you cancreate an amazing experience for
(24:24):
your guests.
That's really what the beingpart of the community in my mind
.
If that community mentalitywere really to rise, it would
mean that you know propertieslike yours would be an example
to everyone else's.
Hey, there's more money to bemade, but there's more
responsibility on us to createthat experience and put the
(24:45):
attention into detail.
Do you feel like we'veadequately covered the three?
You know, the branding versusmarketing versus advertising?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
We could go into the weeds, but I think-.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
I'm feeling like we could get into OTAs you know,
booking engines, but maybe wecut it and we go to OTAs on
another episode.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, I agree, I think-.
Because that's a good summaryhere Understand marketing,
branding, advertising.
Those things are going to besuper important in any
successful business.
I mean, that's a lifeblood ofany company and listen.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
there's lots of Motel 6's that make money.
There's lots of roadside Motels, if you want to be if you and
there's a lot of in multi-familythere's class A, B and C.
There are C-class apartmentsthat landlords make money If, if
to me that that's not my gig.
If I was going to domulti-family it'd be class A,
but that's just my gig.
Some people don't resonate withthat top shelf kind of
(25:43):
experience facing forward.
There's money to be made foreverybody.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, Well, and listen it.
The biggest thing that I wantto just leave here is marketing
is the quickest way, or the mostefficient way to make more
sales.
And I think you know again ifyou have amazing marketing and
(26:11):
your brand is aligned, your,your service also supports that
in marketing, then you are goingto crush it.
But if you have failure ofmarketing, then doesn't matter.
You could have a great brand,you could have a great product,
but it's never seen by anyone,it's never gotten out there,
it's just, it just stays whereit is, you know.
(26:32):
So having great marketing,great branding, great
advertising, those three thingstogether is a formula for some,
some great success.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Fantastic insight, man.
I appreciate you bringing yourexperience and knowledge to the
table.
It's enlightened me today.
It's got my years turning onwhere I need to be putting some
different energies on a coupleof the businesses and hopefully
for the listeners out there, youguys got some real value out of
this.
If you're getting ready to doit, I think what down and drop
today was gold.
So thank you for contributingthat and you guys stay tuned.
(27:03):
We'll catch you on the nextepisode.
Welcome back to the show, guys.
It's Aston Incorporated.
I'm Wayne Aston, your host.
Here's my co-host, dalin Aston,and Appreciate you coming back
for another one.
We are excited about today'scontent, so this is going to be
highly focused on Dalin and hiskind of expertise, his business
(00:20):
acumen.
Just to kick things off here,guys, we're going to be covering
the differences betweenbranding Versus marketing versus
advertising.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, this is really an interesting topic and
something that I am pretty I.
Just like to say I'm kind ofobsessed with, with marketing.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I love that.
You're kind of obsessed.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, I mean just perspective.
A lot of what I'll do in myfree time is just read marketing
books, which is, I mean, lotsof people are like hey, what you
know, what's a hobby?
First I'm like well, I likereading marketing.
Kind of funny, but yeah.
So over the past year I haveworked at mark, at Harman
Brothers marketing agency andthis is, if you're familiar with
(01:11):
, you know, squatty, potty orloomi deodorants, click funnels,
chat bugs, I mean fiberfix.
I can get in a lot of differentcompanies.
How are those?
Are the marketing Jedi Behindthese marketing campaigns?
so I started out the company asan intern, worked my way up, and
I'm currently over the pastyear.
(01:31):
I worked my way up to the vicepresident of business
development and sales and youknow before that I had started
my own marketing company, risemarketing, helping small
business owners with theire-commerce architecture,
marketing strategy, like allthat stuff you know, and so when
we're talking about marketingversus branding, versus
advertising, it's funny becauselots of people will just
(01:53):
interchange those words, youknow, and they're used,
essentially meaning the samething, but they don't mean the
same thing.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Oh yeah, I mean, you know, at first glance they feel
like completely interchangeablewords, like you?
Can insert that word into thesame sentence yeah and people
would be.
People would understand whatyou're saying.
Oh, of course, but but I can, Ican.
I'm Really eager to unpack.
Yeah, differences here, becauseI'm kind of dealing with you
(02:21):
know, I'm at.
I'm at crossroads right now withmy businesses where these three
specific categories have adifferent specific Meaning and
intention behind them and somereally, you know really trying
to work with some professionalsright now to develop.
You know, especially guys witha business startup.
Yeah, like, honestly, yeah,like there's a few, there's a
(02:45):
few interesting things to thinkabout.
If you're talking about abusiness startup, then you're
you're working on establishingyour identity in the market,
yeah.
And then you also hear aboutthe big re-branding Campaigns,
like Maverick.
You know, we know Ernie Harker,amazing branding guy, and you
(03:06):
know he assisted Maverickadventure.
Well, it's Maverick adventurefirst.
You know base camp, it's thesea stores.
You know the gas stations.
They, they were Maverickcountry store, which is kind of
the Cowboy motif with thepitching post out front.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, and he's, he and.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Ernie transformed it, you know, with Chuck Norris and
and an incredible campaign andfull rebrand Into adventures.
First stop is what it currentlyis, and so so now you know when
I go to Maverick, I Actually gothere because the bathrooms are
clean.
Yeah, they have more variety ofyou know, drinks and snacks and
(03:47):
things than any other gasstation.
So they're different in thatway, but the branding is like
it's incredible.
Like I love the adventures,first stop I love that they have
the Red Bull videos awesomebase jumpers and the you know
extreme Red Bull mountain bikingteams, like you know, right
here in Utah Playing on the bigstreet.
I'd love to stand in line inMaverick and, like, watch that
(04:08):
stuff.
So it's, it's an experience.
Yeah, it's a totally differentexperience.
Then, if I walk into an Exxonor Sonoco yeah, that's the
typical old gas station, it'sdirty and I want to gather
they're great.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well and Maverick is so powerful because I'm gonna
use all three terms here.
They have dialed theirmarketing in so well that
they're branding and they'readvertising Art have become
tools that essentially justspeak their marketing messages
to their right people.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
So that's a lot of stuff.
Yeah, let's unpack it, let'slike so, let's define for the
listeners a clear definition.
You know what in each three ofthese categories?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, so marketing?
If we're talking aboutmarketing in and of itself, I
would say branding andadvertising are functions of the
marketing mix, right?
So marketing in and of itself?
We're talking about yourmessaging.
We're talking about you knowhow you take your product to the
market.
It's you know.
We're talking about finding themost effective way of Selling
(05:14):
your product.
That's marketing.
It's the most effective way tosell.
Yeah okay, and now and now,advertising is paid, you know,
using paid methods to get sales.
So that supports Marketing.
But marketing is not average,or let's see.
(05:35):
So how am I trying to say this?
So I'm trying to make it asclear as possible Marketing is
Advertising, advertising is notnecessarily market.
Okay, okay right so.
Advertising, like I said, is afunction of marketing, is one of
the elements of one of theelements of marketing, but
advertising is not marketing.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Advertising is a specific function of my targeted
function.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah.
So it's one thing.
It's like hey, look, we'regonna, we're gonna, you know, if
we have a product, we're gonna,you know, spend behind an ad,
maybe Google ads or something,facebook ads or whatever.
That's advertising a billboard,that's advertising a TV spot.
That's advertising.
Okay, yeah, but you're usingthe marketing messages that
(06:21):
you've tightened up.
Hey, we're talking at a higherlevel.
This is who we're speaking to.
You know the message that we'reusing to speak to that person.
That's marketing.
Is that clear?
Yeah, and then we're utilizingthis tool that is advertising,
to reach those people that wedetermined in the marketing
Segment of this.
Okay, so, so how does brandingfit?
(06:41):
So great question.
So branding is Really anythingthat builds your brand right,
and and another thing that'sreally important is it can also
tear down your brand, and so youhave to be really careful from
a branding standpoint.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Do you, do you equate ?
Is Branding the same asidentity?
I?
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I'd say so, yeah, I mean, it's talking points, it's
brand personality, it's brandcolors, fonts, so so yeah,
identity is a good way ofputting it.
I you know, he's like the DNAof a company.
It's the DNA of a company, it'swho you are facing a club, like
an outside facing sense.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
So it's an existential status.
Yeah, brand branding is, is myDNA, my identity of a company
that I create?
Yep, and it gets evolving allthe time.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
It's gonna be the reason people talk about you,
word of mouth.
It's gonna be the reason peopleorganically share your stuff.
It's gonna be the reason youknow you're gonna have.
You know, all your outreach, pr, influencer, marketing all this
stuff is gonna fall under thisbranding right, because I mean,
if you think about it, goingback to what I said about this
can either build or destroy yourcompany.
(07:57):
The right branding is superimportant because if you you
know, if you're, if you havesome brand, and then just an
example if you have aninfluencer or something doing,
some, you know, really pushingpeople back to you, but their
brand is not in line with yourbrand, it's gonna turn people
off.
I mean, people are gonna go.
You know a confused mind isalways gonna say no, right, and
(08:18):
so someone is gonna.
You know an off-brand source isgonna push them to.
You know, if you're havingincongruencies with your brand,
if you're on all these things,people are gonna be super turned
off and and that's going toreflect your sales.
Okay, so that affects yourmarketing, that affects your
advertising, the success ofevery faucet of this so it's.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
It feels like what I'm hearing you describe is that
that understanding and gettingclear about your brand or your
corporate identity means youhave to really be clear and know
who your customer is.
Yeah, who do I want to attractas a customer?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
yeah fair yeah, yeah, absolutely well.
So if you take Maverick, forexample we've just been talking
about this, you know what dothey do they came in and they
dialed in on.
If you have read or listened to, your brand sucks Ernie Harker,
right yeah, great book.
He talks so detailed about whothey're targeting.
(09:17):
It's crazy, but that influencesevery piece of their messaging,
their branding, that everythingand then it dictates how they
spend.
Yeah, I mean, it dictates theiradvertising.
Advertising, the tool behindthe messaging, behind who we're
speaking to yeah, right.
So if you have a clear idea ofwho you're talking to and this
(09:38):
goes back to the marketing right, this is why I say branding and
advertising are a function ofmarketing, because marketing in
themselves is hey, what's ourmessage?
In order, in order to dictate amessage that actually sells,
you have to understand whoyou're speaking to.
Yeah, so, if we're talkingabout, you know, an Airbnb model
, then and I don't like tonecessarily coin as an Airbnb
(09:59):
model a nightly rental model,right, a hospitality model then
who are we speaking to?
it's not everyone yeah if we'retalking about selling water.
Everyone drinks water.
But just because everyonedrinks water does not mean that
you market to everyone.
That is the fastest way to fail.
Yeah right, you have to be sotight on your messaging.
(10:19):
The only way to do that is tobe tight on who you're speaking
to.
Yeah, right you cannot market toevery single person, because if
you try, your advertising isnot going to be effective.
Yeah, advertising's goal is tomake sales, right and again,
marketing is to make sales, butit's a function of that, and so
advertising is.
You know, if you're putting adollar into ads, your goal is to
(10:42):
get your $2, $3, $4 out, andthe number of dollars you're
getting out is directlycorrelated to your marketing
messages, which are above there,a step above advertising in
itself advertising is just themethod, yeah right, and then
branding falls into that right,and so you can see how all of
this gets confused.
Yeah, right, but anunderstanding of each saying,
(11:02):
hey, yeah, I just, you know, Ineed a marketing plan, okay,
great, well, let's, let's expandthis and talk about what that
actually means, you know.
And so I mean, if we're talkinghospitality, if we're talking
real estate, whatever it mightbe, there are different
functions of this marketing.
It can be applied.
That, I think, is super, superimportant yeah, okay.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
So so what's really becoming clear to me too, as you
unpack that whole box is no twocompanies are the same.
Yeah, it's total snowflake.
Total snowflake, likeapplication, like like a
business is as unique as asnowflake.
It's as unique as a person.
Yeah, and so if a company or abusiness is not clear about, who
(11:52):
am I?
yeah it's feels impossible tocreate branding and then
subsequently advertising andmarketing.
Yeah, plans and campaigns, yeah, that would effectively scale
that business right.
You know, for example, you know, for a real estate investor I
(12:12):
mean, I think about mybusinesses and you know I'm
clear about who my clients are.
But I wouldn't, you know, Iwould be wasting my money on a
TV ad or a billboard, like someof the traditional stuff that I
can't measure.
Yeah, like that would be acomplete waste of time and money
, right, whereas product drivenlike a, like widgets, like
(12:37):
selling a sports drink, it'sdifferent, you know.
You know Gatorade, that's anamazing branding, marketing and
advertising machine.
Yeah, I'm Brandon Will.
I love Gatorade, especially hiszeros.
They could probably really getand garner and continue to scale
with some of those moretraditional TV spots, billboard
(13:00):
type spots, because it's adifferent, it's a different
conversation all together.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yeah, and you're speaking to someone different.
Yeah, yeah, and I think aboutthat thing, right, and thinking
about mine.
I mean, there is a cleardifferentiation between how I
market my properties and I guesslet me rephrase that how I
brand my properties than otherproperties in the area.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
You know, and so think about that, what I just
said, right, market versus brand, how I I dent, how I make my
properties feel and who I'mspeaking to, that drips into the
marketing message is differentthan how a lot of people in the
area do theirs right.
So I mean mine, I've tried mybest and I spared no expense.
I mean I spent you know 23grand on each unit, furnishing
(13:47):
them, making them, you know,putting in some higher
technology, put in you knowbranding mugs, right, yeah, so
those type of things, havingbranding video in a digital
You're seeing your company logoon multiple points inside of the
unit and you walk in the unitand you smell.
And you smell the unit andyou're going whoa, this is sweet
(14:07):
.
And just last week I hadsomeone go to the unit and they
had a shorter stay and theytexted me and they're like hey,
is this available for the nextfour nights?
We have another hotel, but wewould rather stay here, that's
what they say we would ratherstay here even though it was
more expensive.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, so you think?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
about you, think about well why, and it's because
it resonated with them, becausethey were the type of person
I'm speaking to.
Yeah, and the reason that youknow mine are more target toward
hey, this is a luxury, this isa.
This is, you know, I'melevating your stay while you're
here so that you can enjoy notonly the environment here,
(14:46):
because it's an extraordinaryenvironment I want you to enjoy
while you're in the unit as well.
I mean, it's congruent with theamazing nature of where you are
.
Yeah, and I wanted that to bejust the highest and most
amazing experience possible.
And when I'm speaking to peoplewho are, you know, in this level
of, hey, I want to experienceluxury, I want to experience
elevated travel.
They're going to pay more, theyare going to resonate with that
(15:06):
and want to come back, they'regoing to want to stay, they're
going to want to pay morebecause they're getting the
value out of it.
I'm not trying to markettowards, you know, people that
are looking to just find thecheapest hotel.
Yeah, I'm not looking forpeople that are like that.
I would prefer them not to stayin the place, actually, you
know, because it would mean I'mnot and this is from a solely
business standpoint but it meansI'm not being able to charge as
(15:28):
much as I would like to in anADR standpoint, right, and so
the message that you are tellingthrough your marketing is super
important, but I would say, asmuch as important as that is how
you portray your identity as abrand.
Yeah, you know, and if you havethose two things aligned, the
advertising piece is going tomake sense.
(15:50):
Yeah, you're going to beginadvertising in the right avenues
and the right places becauseyour brand and your marketing
are aligned.
Yeah, right, and so that becausethe message that are being told
through your marketing is goingto be aligned with your brand,
yeah, because you know when youare, when you have a marketing
message hit you through a methodof advertising, and then you
(16:10):
say okay, and you go to theplace, you're experiencing the
brand and if they're all aligned, then they're going to leave a
good review, they're going topay more and they're going to
become a loyal customer.
If one of those is not alignedsee, this is super important to
understand If your advertisingis not aligned with your
marketing message and your brand, there's going to be confusion,
(16:31):
there's going to be frictionand people are going to say no,
yeah, but, and then same thingif your messages are not aligned
with your brand and advertising.
The same thing, you know.
And so if your marketing andadvertising are awesome, and
then you get to the actual placeand it's different, that's a
motel six.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
That's one of the Fleabag roadside motels.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
That is a recipe for disaster.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, that's called false advertising.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
That's false advertising.
Yes, what are?
You got going around right andI'll tell you right now, with
Serbian B, verba, virbio, allthese platforms, we are seeing a
huge discrepancy with this.
People don't understand thedifference between marketing,
advertising, branding and theymiss these pieces.
(17:16):
So people start going to theseplaces because the pictures are
good and the property sucks.
What's funny?
Speaker 1 (17:22):
is.
There's this absolutecorrelation to everything you're
talking about.
And I go back to this thing wetalk about in almost every
episode the money and therelationship spectrum.
The roadside motel operatorcares about heads and beds and
doing as cheap as they can.
They'll offer a group ondiscount and they'll offer this
(17:43):
discount a holiday.
There's a discount for everyholiday, so you can get in there
for very cheap, the programmingis cheap, the room, the
facility itself is cheap, it allmatches.
And then on the flip side, onthe relationship, you're in the
luxury space of hospitalitytotally different, totally
(18:05):
different branding, messaging.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Well, and you know, this is maybe another
conversation, but I think itapplies, because what Airbnb and
the RBO, Verbo, what all thesecompanies have done really well
is they've given a platform forpeople to come in and do this do
really well.
But they've also created aplatform where there's no
regulation and so people arealmost expecting no quality
(18:27):
controls.
There's no quality controls.
So when you are sitting in thelet's take mine, for example,
mine are in Moab when you'resitting in a spot where you have
countless properties around youthere are 895 properties on
Airbnb alone in Moab, just Moab.
There's that many.
That's not including VRBO,that's not including Expedia,
(18:50):
that's not including Bookingcom,it's just Airbnb and there will
probably be a lot that goacross each platform.
But when you have every otherplace in the area dipping to
$100 a night, what is theconsumer going to say?
That marketing message is veryclear.
Oh, and then they see mine at$300 a night.
(19:13):
What are people going to do?
They're interested to go.
Well, if they're the majority ofAirbnbers, the people that use
Airbnb, they're going to say Idon't know if I'm the cheapest
one that looks nice.
That's the problem withmarketing to the mass.
You're trying to cut throughthat with your branding and
marketing, and that's part ofwhy I don't really love Airbnb,
(19:37):
Because it's allowing for themind to succumb to this whole.
Let me shop around and miss out, Because if you're looking
solely from the top level andyou're just looking at map on
Airbnb, the human brain is, mostof the time the people that I'm
speaking to are, chances arepretty high they're going to go
(19:57):
to a higher price point becausethey understand that it's a
luxury, that it's oh, that'shigher, that's more expensive.
I'm probably going to get abetter experience there.
See, I'm most people.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I must be one of the weirdos, because I'm always
looking for the most expensiveone.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
You're the weirdo, you're the person I'm targeting.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, I want the luxury experience, and so that's
how I select when I'm on one ofthose, see.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
but that is such a small percentage and even a lot
of people like you are going tosuccumb when they go on Airbnb
and they see everyone at a lowerprice.
Yeah, airbnb tries it doesn'tintentionally try it, but the
nature of everyone being onthere that are not hoteliers
think, let me just drive pricedown, let me just.
And then becomes a price war.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
And then your compete .
Your marketing message herethat Airbnb portrays is one of
let's drive the price down.
Yeah, and I hate it.
Yeah.
So that's why, if you takecontrol of your branding and
your marketing, so we're lookingat, hey, let's get off of
platforms that elicit this typeof behavior and only target
people I don't want.
If I get 4,000 views on myproperty and no bookings, that's
(21:02):
a fail in my opinion that's afailure.
A lot of people say no, you gotso many impressions.
That's a failure, in my opinion.
You're not getting any sales.
Well, and why is that?
It's because you're not.
People that are going to alignand resonate with your brand are
not seeing it.
The people, the only peoplethat are seeing it.
And again, this is I'm justsaying this is kind of the
general.
You know, if you are targetingthe right person, then they're
(21:26):
going to buy.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
So what's really interesting about this is is
there's good news and bad newsfor anyone out there talking
about starting an Airbnbbusiness or a nightly rental
business.
The good news is, if you'rereally detail oriented and
you're really committed to theexperience economy for your
(21:50):
patrons, then you can make a tonof money doing it.
So that's a natural byproduct ofthe value creation you bring.
The bad news is is platformslike Airbnb, varbo, give the do
it yourself for so much leashthey can hang themselves really
easy on.
Yeah, yeah they, becausethere's no quality controls.
(22:11):
It's a free for all.
They list their properties.
They're in for the money.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
They're doing these discounted schemes, they're not
putting attention to the detailsand their properties won't
perform, and so yeah, so they're.
They're the ones that are likeah, this sucks, man, this isn't
a great platform.
I'm not making you know what,what I you know.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
this is what this was cracked up to be Well and you,
I mean you have I'm in a lot ofAirbnb groups on social media
and it's a lot of, hey, let'shelp each other out, right?
It's kind of the idea, yeah, andI've noticed in the past couple
of months, this is crazy, but alot of people are getting on it
on that site and they'reposting pictures of ghost
(22:51):
calendars.
No one is booking and I'm going.
What is happening?
And if you think about it andit's a lot of people and people
are going what is going on withAirbnb?
Whoa, and this is a new thing,I've seen this a lot lately is
what is going on with Airbnb?
What is going on with theseplatforms?
Why am I not getting bookings?
It's because it's not becausethe model is broken.
(23:13):
It's because of what you justsaid.
It's getting to a point wherethere's so many daily there are
properties being added.
You can add a property onAirbnb or any of those platforms
in four minutes, maybe less.
You can.
Just you can throw it up and itbecomes a branding, marketing
and advertising function.
All three need to be present inorder to be viable property
(23:41):
right, and a lot of these places, sadly, for one reason or
another, cannot get there, andwhether that's because it's just
a shack they're trying to list,or it's a, you know, there's so
many places in the area or youknow.
There's so many factors that gointo this, but it's a function
of marketing man it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
This is gold, guys.
You know, if you're thinkingabout going and building a real
estate portfolio and doing thenightly rental game, which I
highly support, you should do.
I think there's room foreverybody who wants to do it
right.
I think the ones committed toproviding real value can make
good money.
Good money for your investors,good money for yourself.
Most importantly, you cancreate an amazing experience for
(24:24):
your guests.
That's really what the beingpart of the community in my mind
.
If that community mentalitywere really to rise, it would
mean that you know propertieslike yours would be an example
to everyone else's.
Hey, there's more money to bemade, but there's more
responsibility on us to createthat experience and put the
(24:45):
attention into detail.
Do you feel like we'veadequately covered the three?
You know, the branding versusmarketing versus advertising?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
We could go into the weeds, but I think-.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
I'm feeling like we could get into OTAs you know,
booking engines, but maybe wecut it and we go to OTAs on
another episode.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, I agree, I think-.
Because that's a good summaryhere Understand marketing,
branding, advertising.
Those things are going to besuper important in any
successful business.
I mean, that's a lifeblood ofany company and listen.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
there's lots of Motel 6's that make money.
There's lots of roadside Motels, if you want to be if you and
there's a lot of in multi-familythere's class A, B and C.
There are C-class apartmentsthat landlords make money If, if
to me that that's not my gig.
If I was going to domulti-family it'd be class A,
but that's just my gig.
Some people don't resonate withthat top shelf kind of
(25:43):
experience facing forward.
There's money to be made foreverybody.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, Well, and listen it.
The biggest thing that I wantto just leave here is marketing
is the quickest way, or the mostefficient way to make more
sales.
And I think you know again ifyou have amazing marketing and
(26:11):
your brand is aligned, your,your service also supports that
in marketing, then you are goingto crush it.
But if you have failure ofmarketing, then doesn't matter.
You could have a great brand,you could have a great product,
but it's never seen by anyone,it's never gotten out there,
it's just, it just stays whereit is, you know.
(26:32):
So having great marketing,great branding, great
advertising, those three thingstogether is a formula for some,
some great success.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Fantastic insight, man.
I appreciate you bringing yourexperience and knowledge to the
table.
It's enlightened me today.
It's got my years turning onwhere I need to be putting some
different energies on a coupleof the businesses and hopefully
for the listeners out there, youguys got some real value out of
this.
If you're getting ready to doit, I think what down and drop
today was gold.
So thank you for contributingthat and you guys stay tuned.
(27:03):
We'll catch you on the nextepisode.
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