Ramping Your Brand with James Richardson
\u201cUntil you have decent consumer intelligence and some competitive market information from the cash register, you don\u2019t have the basis for what I would call a tight strategic plan.\u201d With extensive experience in the consumer packaged goods industry, James Richardson brings his background as a cultural anthropologist to understanding the social science and symbology that goes into brand building. He\u2019s also the author of the new book Ramping Your Brand. We discussed all of this and more on this week\u2019s episode of the On Brand podcast.\nAbout James Richardson\nDr. Richardson is the founder of Premium Growth Solutions, a strategic planning consultancy for early-stage consumer-packaged-goods brands. As a professionally trained cultural anthropologist turned business strategist, he has helped more than 75 CPG brands with their strategic planning, including brands owned by Coca-Cola Venturing and Emerging Brands, The Hershey Company, General Mills, Kraft Foods, ConAgra Brands, and Frito-Lay as well as emerging brands such as Once Upon a Farm, Mother Kombucha, Bobby Sue\u2019s Nuts, Rebel Creamery, zaca recovery, and others. He also hosts his own podcast\u2014Startup Confidential. His thoughts appear regularly in industry publications such as Foodnavigator. And he\u2019s the author of the new book Ramping Your Brand.\nEpisode Highlights\nWhat does a cultural anthropologist bring to brand building? With a background as a trained anthropologist, James brings a unique set of skills to his work as a strategist and brand builder. \u201cIt means I know the difference between what people say they care about and what they actually care about.\u201d This is key to understanding your brand\u2019s audience.\nAbout Aunt Jemima \u2026 As a brand strategist with extensive experience working with CPG brands, I had to ask James about the future of the Aunt Jemima brand. \u201cWhat you\u2019ve uncovered here (with Aunt Jemima) is a zombie brand. It had become a zombie brand\u2014a zombie brand dressed in racism.\u201d With nothing remarkable about the \u201cdollar-store\u201d product they sell, the brand is in trouble for a lot of reasons.\nThink of your brand launch as a beta. Taking a page from the software industry, James encourages businesses to be flexible in the early days of a brand launch.\nThe key ingredients of a successful strategic plan. \u201cUntil you have decent consumer intelligence and cash register and sales data, then you don\u2019t have the basis of a strategic plan.\u201d\nWhat should you do in the next five minutes? As Tom Peters said on this podcast, excellence is the best short-term strategy. I asked James what you should do in the five minutes after this show \u2026 \u201cWhat is the outcome you\u2019re selling and what symbols are you putting out that point to that?\u201d\nWhat brand has made James smile recently? \u201cThat\u2019s easy\u2014Progressive Insurance with their Zoom ad creative.\u201d This has come up a lot recently on the On Brand podcast!\nTo learn more, go to the website for James\u2019s book Ramping Your Brand. There you can find several resources including his Founder's Quiz. The Quiz tests founders' self-awareness of what needs to be in place to grow exponentially.\xa0Ramping Your Brand can be purchased on Amazon in all formats.\n\nUntil next week, I\u2019ll see you on the Internet!\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices