“Brand needs to be simple and clear.
Who I am, what I do and what I do it for.”
- John Morgan, Author “Brand Against The Machine”

This past Friday I attended a conference titled “Brand Against The Machine” presented by the St. Louis Chapter of American Marketing Association (@AMASTL).  Prior to attending, I invited my audience to follow along via Twitter (@inboxorange) as I knew the conference was a topic top-of-mind for many.

There was a common theme – branding integrates corporate culture, personality, customer experience, listening, brand recognition and quality.  Think of your brand as you read through the highlighted tweets below.

Speaker:  Mark Quinn, Vice President Marketing, Leggett and Platt 

• “Things are constantly changing.” All things happening before we ever do our job.
• Not easy to do the unexpected. Hard to break through. Got to do the Unexpected to compete.
• Need to lead the conversation. Not sit back and watch.
• Listen and teach the “guy on the ground.” Lesson – Take risks. Go out there and do more. Be innovative. Change the conversation.
• Consider the corporate culture when you take risk. Make sure you have buy-in.
• Help. Give. Learn. Create a community within your industry. “It’s a contribution.”
• Challenge: Do the unexpected. Wow someone. Great talk by Mark Quinn!

• @thenetimpact: @inboxorange so right, stay true to your brand. Can’t get past that.
• @thenetimpact agree. Culture is vital. Listening and continuously educating team members toward the goal grants success.

Speaker:  Brian Hall, Chief Marketing Officer, St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission

• Appreciate the power of story telling. Find ways to emotionally engage audience through storytelling #amastlconf – Brian Hall, STCVB.
• What is your story? Tell a story to have customer connect with your brand.
• Embrace emotion – reference the type of experience your client will have.
• @AMASTL:  Non-traditional marketing campaigns from the STL-CVC. Doing the unexpected per @joplinquinn‘s advice.

Expert Panel Discussion:

• Not only consistency but relevancy is key to branding.
• Make the consumer want the product. Sell the value instead of the price.
• Need to combine survey research and social media analytic to get to the truth.

Keynote Speaker:  John Morgan – Author “Brand Against the Machine”

• “If you want better clients you have to build a better brand.”@johnmorgan “#1 asset is your brand”.
• Put your personality into your business. Your competitors can’t get in. You are your biggest advantage.
• “You can’t be one way online and another way offline. Those days are LONG gone.”
• Visibility is more important than ability. Visibility gets you in the door ability keeps you there. Don’t rely alone on your ability.
• People buy based on emotion but justify based on facts.
• Be a trusted resource, not a service provider. Focus on adding value and educating first. People feel obligated to support.
• Create content to solve problems – lead to the next step. Tell good stories. A creation story invests clients.
• Clients should be your best brand advocate. Self promotion is not about you. It’s about the value you provide.
• Excellent presentations today at #amastlconf. Looking forward to reading the book “Brand against the Machine”

Read more on Twitter at #amastlconf.

The theme of the conference was titled after the third best-selling book on Amazon on the topic of branding, “Brand Against the Machine.”  I’m reading this book now and recommend you do as well.  So far, it’s a fast and engaging read! Learn more at http://brandagainstthemachine.com/.

Look for more discussion on this topic in an upcoming Inbox Orange Ingage Event.