Often referred to as the Mad Man of the 21st Century, Barnaby Wynter has nearly 30 years of experience helping big brands of market themselves.
With a degree in psychology and postgraduates in advertising and marketing, Barnaby went straight into advertising.
He spent nine years building himself up in multiple agencies until he was headhunted and became a managing director in 1999. At 36 years old, it made him the youngest managing director at the time for a top 200 agency.
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Using the Brand Bucket system, they were the first of a generation of agencies which was truly integrated and made it work in the shifting sands of marketing communications. And within just 18 months, he took the company from £900,000 turnover to £2.5 million.
Then, when the economy dropped in late 2000, he was offered the chance to own the entire agency.
There were many ups and downs, and they spent years perfecting the Brand Bucket whilst working hard to survive the hard times.
Barnaby shares with us the challenges he faced along the way, but also he helps you to implement the Brand Bucket system in your business.
Creating The Brand Bucket
Barnaby took over the agency in June 2001, and by 2002, decisions needed to be made as the agency was surviving project by project. He elected to spend six months coming up with a formula for marketing success.
It actually took them seven and a half years.
In 2005, they thought they’d developed it, but that was just at the time when agencies were making a shift away from telling people why it was better to buy from them. And by that time, the agency had gone from 15 staff to 7. And by 2009, there were just 3, including Barnaby.
But this was a reflection on how well the system was working, as it enabled anyone to work on it. They had 30 freelancers who came in as and when needed.
However, the prospect of a double-dip recession loomed, and he had neither the confidence nor stomach to try and weather another recession. He’d worked hard to maintain the position of a top 200 agency, but whilst making himself no wealth.
So in 2010, they migrated the agency to one which cloud-based, and it delivers practically the same as it did when it was an agency.
The 6 Step Engagement Model
The 6 steps of the Brand Bucket have not changed at all since its creation in 1985, but research has helped to map out how people make purchasing decisions.
The emphasis which a business has to place on each step has changed.
Once upon a time, businesses use to shout their story to as many people as possible, who would then pour into a sales funnel. The ones who you could do business with made their way to the bottom.
But the fundamental flaw was that no effort was spent trying to keep the people you worked hard to capture.
People want a lot more. There is a relationship which takes you from being completely unaware of the business story and product/service, all the way to becoming a long-term loyalist who is constantly engaged.
Step 1
First of all, you’ve got to tell people you’re there and raise awareness.
The outcome is that people say they’ve heard of you, but the challenge is making sure they remember you over the 18,000 other marketing messages they hear each day.
Step 2
You then need to link the awareness to showing you’re a great match.
We don’t just buy from people we like, but also those who are like us, because there is so much choice out there. People like to look for solutions to problems which fit the way we see ourselves.
It’s important to get inside the personality of the people you hope will buy from you, as marketing has to be in the style of the prospect. And that’s a shift which many marketers have found difficult.
They’ll like you because you’re like them.
Step 3
People have to understand exactly what it is you do, but this isn’t a chance to tell them all of your features because they can find that for themselves online.
Instead, you have to tell them how you will benefit them, and what you’re going to do for them. Being established for 35 years does nothing and it isn’t relevant.
This is now when people can often disappear, but trust they will come back when they need you, rather than just constantly advertising to them.
Step 4
However, you can do something with the prospect which makes them give you a response. A business, no matter what it is, should provide a test drive of their products or services. That way, they can experience everything you promised them.
Prove what you can do and let them have a go. Even a wedding DJ can do this by providing the couple with a tailored playlist.
Step 5
Now you’re at the stage where they want to carry on the relationship with you, but you can’t keep giving things away. So this is when they give you some money.
They are comfortable with you and they’ll be quite happy to do what it takes to maintain it.
With a monetary value placed on you, you now have to exceed the expectations and provide real value for that money, more than ever before.
Step 6
This is when you create that loyalist. Create a way for you to communicate with these people who buy from you, and talk to them often.
Share tips and tricks with them so that they can get the most from your products and services.
Ultimately, they’ll then spend more money as well as introducing you to new customers.
Why The Brand Bucket?
This system is shaped like a bucket because there are fewer people who will be loyal than those who are aware of you.
And it’s not a funnel because you don’t want them to drop out at the end after going to all of that effort. You want to actually keep them rather than start ignoring them.
Barnaby doesn’t call people customers. He used to call them consumers, but that led to people thinking they did not do B2B. So they spent months coming up with a better alternative.
Now, he calls people a Prospect before they make a purchase, and a Paying Prospect after.
If you treat people just like customers, they then become your competitors’ prospects. With the mindset that they are still prospects, you engage with them and try to entice them and add further value.
So don’t stop treating them nicely, otherwise, they’ll be more likely to switch to a competitor.
And Finally
In Barnaby’s book The Brand Bucket: Make Your Marketing Work, he discusses all of this in a lot more detail.
And at The Entrepreneur Plan, you can sign up to receive help from him and his team on how you can implement this plan in your own business. It’s been implemented in over 4,700 other brands over the past 30 years, so you know it works.
