Becoming the Most Wanted: Outcomes, A Bag of Tricks & The Red Phone with Josh Ingram
Read time: 3 min
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How does a brand become the most wanted? The most wanted company, marketer, or brand strategist? What are the key elements to make that happen?
In this episode of the Healthy Brand Podcast, I sat down with Josh Ingram, founder and principal of The Most Wanted Company, a strategic growth consultancy at the intersection of brand, innovation, and performance. He shared the latest in the world of brand and performance marketing, as well as some tips and tricks to be prepared for any occasion as an indispensable strategist.
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In this episode, we cover off on a variety of topics:
Leverage both brand and performance marketing – “a match made in heaven”
Build your brand by focusing on the outcomes you want
Have a bag of tricks ready for any occasion
Be open to ideas from anyone and anywhere
See brand as an asset, not a media type
Curiosity is the biggest C amongst category, company, and customer
KEY LESSONS
Leverage both brand and performance marketing – “a match made in heaven”
“Brand marketing is creating fandom before they walk through the door”
When Airbnb’s CFO announced late in 2022 that focusing on brand marketing efforts brought them higher returns, many brand marketers were quick to hail that as proof to double down on brand marketing and forgo performance marketing.
But Josh had a different take.
He was quick to point out that every company and brand is in its own lifecycle and it is unfair to take Airbnb’s situation and apply to everyone. Instead, see it for what it is - both is needed to win.
“Purpose and performance are a match made in heaven. When you can have them working together, you get a better return, you get a lowered cost per acquisition, you get a higher recall, you get more conversions…what's happening is these functions are operating in silos when they need to be working together.
Brand marketers need to have the the business case that they can bring forward to justify investment. And so they need to work with performance marketers. Performance marketers wanna have more efficient spend. They wanna have long-term relationships. They want to increase the value of the customer. They need brand marketers for that.
And as business operators, we need to look at the whole entire thing as a conversation about investment and asset value and long-term growth”
Build your brand by focusing on the outcomes you want
Stephen R. Covey’s second habit of highly effective people is to “Begin with the end in mind”. This is not only a fantastic principle for individuals, it is a great one for brands.
What is an outcome that’s important to the business?
Josh lists a few as examples:
Intent to purchase
Repeat purchase rate
Clinical outcomes of patients
Percent beds filled at a hospital
With two that cuts across different industries
“As brand builders and as operators, we need to focus on those outcomes and make sure that we are using brand to influence those outcomes as much as possible.
One thing that we've been building out at Most Wanted that we do see as a through line across many industries are two areas of focus for outcomes: lifetime value of the customer, that's something that brand can impact very clearly. And then employee engagement”
By putting together a dashboard of different metrics, you can keep the eye on the outcomes your brand needs to influence, with one metric being the “Magic Metric”
“Find that one metric that can lift other metrics. Oftentimes trial is a really effective magic metric because once you try a product, you're more likely to pay more for it, you're more likely to seek it out”
Have a bag of tricks ready for any occasion
Everyone of us have been in situations where we were caught off guard, whether it’s in a meeting or suddenly being called on to present on a topic. In order for us to win the day no matter the situation, we all need to have a bag of tricks ready. From a story at our fingertips, to a workshop exercise!
In the podcast episode, Josh recalls an incident when he thought it was going to be a meet and greet at the client site, but it turned out he was going to be leading a workshop for 20+ people right there, being put in the hot seat.
Instinctively, he bought himself time by asking everyone to write down what success looks like and quickly grabbed a whiteboard. Everyone needs to have their own bag of tricks, and this is a damn good trick to have just in case…
"It’s this classic sort of consulting tactic, of just defining success. But if you're ever in a situation where you're put on the spot, the first thing you can do to help yourself is to just define success and read the room."
Another one is to have some sort of analogy for what you do. It can help create an instant connection to your craft and your work. Josh gives several examples in the episode, but here is one
"I'm your red phone. When you have a problem. When you have a disaster, pick it up. I'll be on the other line. We’re here to help. So that was a way of talking about the phone calls I would get from agencies as an independent consultant.”
Conclusion
Becoming the most wanted is not an overnight endeavor. It’s crafting a brand strategy and executing against it day-in and day-out. Josh dropped a ton of lessons and insights throughout this episode, so if you are building brands, or just interested in how to become the most wanted product, company, or individual, give it a listen!
Learn more about Josh:
Resources
- Creative Confidence by Tom and David Kelley
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