The Power of Unpopular E-Book

Erika Napoletano

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 303

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Every successful brand in history is inherently unpopular with a specific demographic. Somewhere along the way, people felt they had to be popular in order to be successful, when in fact, the opposite is true. The brands playing in the space you want to dominate have already figured out the inherent power of being unpopular. In The Power of Unpopular, you'll discover the difference between flash-in-the-pan brand tactics and those designed to place you miles above the competition. * Brand Personality: What's yours? Explore the importance of taking a stand and why brands become road kill without a distinct personality. * Community: It's the number one thing that unpopular brands have figured out--learn how to build yours. * Brand Advocacy: It knows no scale and your fans don't care how big you are. A guide for businesses on the proper care and feeding of their biggest asset. Erika Napoletano's irreverent yet never insincere tone takes readers on a colloquial and actionable journey, producing concepts that readers can immediately graft onto their existing business strategies. Complete with case studies of businesses from across the country, this is the book that couples theory with practice, creating pathways for business owners of any size and age. Change the way you do business and live your life--become unpopular.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Praise for The Power of Unpopular

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Lessons Learned from a Lippy Lady on an Airplane

And That's Why We're Here

What's the Deal with Unpopular? Is it the New Popular?

Some Tips for Navigating the Book

Chapter 1: Rethinking Unpopular

It's Time to Leave the Playground, Dontcha Think?

By the Way. . .Who the Hell Am I?

My “Today” as an Entrepreneur

I've Never Heard of You. Why Should I Listen to Anything You Have to Say?

Failure: A Super Unpopular Concept

Failure? Inevitable. Unpopular? Powerful!

Does Being Unpopular Mean I'm an Asshole (or Have to Become One)?

But How Does Being Unpopular Help Me Build a Better Business?

A Recipe for Unpopularity: Five Ingredients

Will It Work?

An Unpopular Brand Built by the Most Unlikely Man

Chapter 2: Identifying Your Audience

Product Is Product Is Product

Clarifying Your Reason for Being

Welcome to the Sandbox

Is the Sandbox Too Crowded?

Finding Your Sauce

Understanding Who Really Wants What You've Got

Loving the People Who Will Never Love Us

Refining Your Audience

Market Research

Let's Make Some Avatars

Head Exploding. . .Send Help

Chapter 3: Personality: Pick One

Don't Be That Guy

What Makes Up a Brand's Personality?

Your Brand Is a Who

Which Brings Us to Pissing People Off. . .

Growing a Pair—The Core of Personality

A Bit on Road Kill

Move Me (Please)—The Emotional Aspects of Personality Development

What Do You Want to Make Your Customers Feel?

Putting It on Paper: The Practical Aspects of Brand Personality

Are We Done?

Chapter 4: Approachability: Putting Out the Welcome Mat

A Shift to Inbound Marketing

Personality Unlocks Approachability

Four Things

The Welcome Mat

So What's Your Story?

The Campfire Concept

Elevating Your Audience

MOTO: Become a Master of the Obvious

Bringing Approachability Full Circle

Get Satisfaction and UserVoice

Always On—Get Satisfaction

Cooking (and Eating) Your Own Dog Food—UserVoice

Guides for Pricing

Putting Approachability in Perspective

Chapter 5: Sharability: Getting Your Audience to the Rooftops (and Letting them Shout)

Rooftops (and Why We Love Them)

Recruiting Your Brand Advocate Army

Why You Need a Brand Advocate Army

And So We Build—The Fundamentals of Sharability

Get Over Yourself

Being a Trusted Resource

Staying on Topic about Off-Topic Conversations

Building the Ladder to the Rooftops—Tools for Sharing

Tools and Metrics for Sharing

A Recap on Sharability

Chapter 6: Scalability: News Flash—You Can't Do Everything Yourself

From the Ground Up: It's about Infrastructure

Owning Roles

Building Teams

Getting the Business Side of Your Business Together

Buttoning Up the Scalability Conversation

Chapter 7: Profitability: The Money's Gotta Come from Somewhere

Your Time

Getting Things Done

Pricing, Discounts, and the Risk of Commoditization

What Determines Value?

The Other Type of Profitability

Starting Up—A Different Financial Life Cycle

Straight from the Wallet's Mouth

Chapter 8: Finally—They Hate Me!

Negative Sentiment Has the Power to Change the Way We Do Business

You Could Tell the Negative Ninnys to %^∗ Off, Or. . .

Mea Culpa = Major Opportunity

Potential Perils in Listening to Negative Feedback

And So We've Come Full Circle. . .

Chapter 9: The Backyard Economy: A Bit on Nurturing What We've Built. . .

Unpopular Brands Build Communities

What Is the Backyard Economy?

Why You Should Care about the Backyard Economy

Yesterday, Today, and What We Can Do for Tomorrow

You're Still a Local Business

Applying the Backyard Economy to Our Brands

Embrace the Cycle

What the Proper Care and Feeding of Our Backyard Economies Yields

Epilogue: Shutting Up

Appendix A: Shit You Should Read, Who Wrote It, and Why

Blogs

Books

Appendix B: Getting into It—Your Guide to Resources on the Book's Website

Copyright©2012 by Erika Napoletano. All rights reserved.

Published by JohnWiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, JohnWiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Napoletano, Erika, 1972-

The power of unpopular : a guide to building your brand for the audience who will love

you (and why no one else matters) / Erika Napoletano.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-118-13466-5 (hardback); ISBN 978-1-118-22522-6 (ebk);

ISBN 978-1-118-23866-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-26332-7 (ebk)

1. Target marketing. 2. Branding (Marketing) 3. Target marketing–Case studies.

4. Branding (Marketing)–Case studies. I. Title.

HF5415.127.N37 2012

658.8 '27–dc23

2011045220

For every entrepreneur who's ever wanted to let a freak flag fly.

And for my parents–who not only always let me fly minebut who also took me shopping for fabric so I could make my own.

Acknowledgments

There are countless people who not only contributed to my ability to be somewhat of an authority on the concept of “unpopular” but also facilitated it landing on the pages in front of you.

My parents, for instilling in me that owning things is a fringe benefit that stems from doing things and for encouraging me to become a doer. And for never offering blind support—you taught me to ask questions, gave me the tools to ask better ones, and helped me discover that having an opinion isn't poison.

Jason Schippers, for helping me own my ink and for being the first person to ever review the proposal for this book (and having done so, not telling me to burn it). You are missed.

Shelly Kramer, who made the initial introduction to John Wiley & Sons, for her mentorship and tireless interest in helping me kick ass as a business owner and brand.

Stephany Evans, my literary agent and second set of editorial eyes, for her meticulous and enthusiastic work on my behalf (and conspicuous lack of bullshit).

Merredith Branscombe, my friend, publicist, and oftentimes colleague, who is never afraid to tell me when I fuck up or call me on my crap. Two words for you: happy fish.

Darren Mahuron, my wildly talented photographer. Your mad skills with a lens combined with your friendship are a treasured asset.

My editors, Amelia and Dave, for catching the crap before you had to read it.

The Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, where I hammered out countless chapters and took refuge in the stacks when I had writer's block.

All of the book's contributors, a huge thanks for letting me inside your businesses and sharing your respective pieces of the deliciously unpopular pie.

The businesses featured as case studies, for not building your businesses to the lowest common denominator and creating something that made me excited to learn more. You left me inspired, and I can only hope my words did justice to what you've built and continue to refine.

All the people who told me I was too fat/mouthy/old/loud/crass/unpopular. . . you were entirely right. Thanks for helping me find my audience. . .because it sure ain't you.

To you, my readers. This includes fans of Redhead Writing, readers of my Entrepreneur Magazine column, all of the sites who have given me a guest voice, and those who have downloaded, picked up, or checked out this book. You're the reason I get to do what I love for a living, and I'll never, ever forget that.

Introduction: Lessons Learned from a Lippy Lady on an Airplane

In September 2011, I boarded a cross-country flight bound for Miami—I had a speaking engagement. Excited about going to Florida for the first time in several years, I settled into my window seat, grabbed a magazine, and quickly found myself joined by a woman in her 50s or 60s; her husband took the aisle while she sat in the middle. They were, to say the least, a chatty couple. Once approved electronic devices were okayed, I popped open my laptop and got to work on the finishing touches for the following day's presentation.