How to Market An Unknown Premium Brand

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How does a company with a premium offering, but little or no brand recognition, market to a universe of buyers who assume that solution providers are all pretty much the same? It’s not easy or simple, but thankfully there are companies out there demonstrating ways to build brand equity and gain the attention you need to set up their sales team for conversations with qualified prospects.

This episode features, Dean Nicolls, Vice President of Marketing at Jumio. Jumio as a company has found itself in the position described here – in spite of having won numerous impressive awards in its market segment. Dean speaks with Bernie about the ways he’s leading the Jumio marketing team to use PR, analyst relations, and sales enablement to elevate the profile of what the company has to offer as a premium brand.

Unknown Premium Brands Build Reputation Through Education

At Vengreso, we often say that modern sellers need to sell in ways that modern buyers like to buy through providing valuable content that demonstrates expertise and ability. Dean agrees with that approach. He says that sales is not about selling, it’s about educating.

The Jumio team works overtime to educate their ideal buyers about the challenges of their current approach to identity verification. Any brand who requires a user to register or sign up online – banking, consumer goods, etc. – can recognize the limitations or problems of their current identity verification solutions. Consequently, they are more willing to engage in conversations about how to improve their approach to minimize abandonment and improve the user experience. Listen to learn how you can use an educational approach to build brand equity for your company.

Jumio’s 30/70 Split Between Brand Awareness And Demand Generation

Dean says that Jumio spends about 30% of its marketing efforts and budget on building brand awareness. The other 70% is used for demand generation activities. The branding side of the split is of particular interest for marketers who find themselves fighting an uphill battle to gain the recognition their solutions deserve. How does Jumio do it?

The company works with many PR firms that use a variety of strategies to get the company into the spotlight. Among those strategies are the publication of byline articles, trend jacking, and traditional press coverage when the company has a new product or rolls out an update. But there’s also emphasis placed on entering the company and its products into recognized competitions within the industry. Winning provides a natural way to gain wide-scale attention that puts them on the radar of their ideal buyers.

Utilize Stories And Practical Tools To Empower Your Sales Team

Success stories have a way of demonstrating product fit that are much more effective than slide decks and presentations. That’s because stories connect to the human beings involved in the buying equation, enabling them to picture themselves in the story, experiencing the solutions described. Dean’s marketing team has developed assets that enable the Jumio sales team to tell effective stories about their product’s positive impact on real-life customers.

During this conversation, Dean also tells a story of his own about a big win the Jumio team has experienced through the creation of an online calculator. One member of the Jumio Latin America sales team made use of it in ways the marketing team didn’t anticipate and was able to increase his personal sales numbers to the point that other sellers on the team began to take notice. As you hear what happened through the creation of this easy-to-use tool you’ll recognize there are likely similar tools or resources your marketing team could create.

Find Champions On Your Team Who Can Empower Everyone Else

Premium brands that succeed in penetrating their market do so as a team. They work together to increase the visibility and effectiveness of efforts across the board. One of the ways Jumio has been able to do this is through identifying marketing and sales champions who are excelling in their roles. These team members are invited to share their experience, to become role models for the rest of the team. They’ve discovered that just like their clients appreciate relevant stories, their internal teams appreciate the impact of real-life stories – and when those stories recount the successful experiences of co-workers, their enthusiasm for the Jumio brand value proposition gets amplified and effectiveness increases.

Join Bernie as he invites Dean to reveal the careful thought and diligent work that goes into building brand equity for an unknown premium brand, on this episode of the Modern Marketing Engine podcast.

Featured on This Episode

• Dean Nicolls on LinkedIn
• Dean on Twitter: @Dean_Nicolls
• Jumio – where Dean serves as VP of Marketing

Outline of This Episode

• [1:20] The challenge of getting noticed among premium brands
• [2:08] Jumio: Online identity verification – and Dean’s role as VP of Marketing
• [3:18] The needs of the customers that Jumio markets to (those with something at risk)
• [7:45] A not-so-well-known brand has unique challenges when it comes to marketing
• [10:31] The PR / Analyst balance to brand building
• [15:26] How can the sales team be enabled to meet the needs of modern buyers?
• [18:39] Challenges to telling better stories and how to overcome them
• [20:37] Collaboration is imperative between marketing and sales

Resources & People Mentioned

• The State of Digital Selling Report
• The Selling With Social Podcast with Vengreso CEO, Mario Martinez, Jr

Connect With Bernie and Modern Marketing Engine

• https://www.Facebook.com/modernmarketingengine/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernieborges/
• https://twitter.com/bernieborges
• https://instagram.com/bernieborges
• https://Twitter.com/MMEnginePodcast

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