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Branding Lessons from Airbnbmag

I recently stumbled upon Airbnb’s new magazine, Airbnbmag, while at the grocery store. I was intrigued that they had launched a magazine and picked up a copy. I was glad I did! I actually really enjoyed reading the issue and it highlighted an important branding and marketing lesson.

3 Branding Lessons Learned from Airbnb and the Launch of its New Magazine

Showcase Core Values

While it seemed like a weird thing to do — after all, why would a tech company launch a magazine — it’s actually the perfect way for Airbnb to extend their brand messaging and to continue to showcase their core values to their community.

At its surface, Airbnb may just look like a tech company but they want you to know that it’s about way much more than that for them. They want their audience to know that they care about the human connection that traveling brings and that at its core, Airbnb is about building community.

The mission for the magazine is to bring out the human stories from around the globe, infused with local flavor. All of which fits right into Airbnb’s overall goal of helping people to book unique homes and experience a city like a local.

Insider’s Look

The magazine also allowed you to take an up close and personal look at the founder, Brian Chesky, and learn what he cares about. He writes in his Letter From The Editor about the importance of people and how travel is a wonderful way of connecting us to one another. He has a feature where he travels to different parts of the world and interacts with Airbnb owners and locals. If you didn’t already know that Chesky cares about building a community of people who love experiencing the local, authentic side of travel destinations, you do now. It’s a perfect example of how a founder’s personal values impact and shape the core values of a brand.

Foster Goodwill

Lastly, the magazine is a way to create some goodwill for the company. In recent years, Airbnb has faced serious issues around racism and discrimination occurring with owners on their app. By launching a magazine that showcases a diverse array of people and experiences, they’re doubling down on their position against discrimination and attempting to walk their talk when it comes to diversity.

When it comes to marketing and branding, it’s easy to fall into familiar ideas of what brands should be doing. Airbnbmag is a perfect example of thinking outside of the norms and finding other ways to connect with an audience and share the brand’s values with them. I’m sure that their perfect target audience loves the idea of a travel magazine that is giving them a more unique and intimate taste of what to do while traveling. And they’ll absolutely remember to book with Airbnb when doing so.

What unique ways could you do the same with your brand?

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Pro Tip: Hire A Pro

One-size-fits-all marketing strategy backfires more often than it helps. The social media strategy that works for one company will not necessarily produce the same results in another. That’s why we are here. Check out our services to see how we can help you.

We’d love to help you target, engage and convert your prospects into brand ambassadors. Shoot us a message and we’ll chat.

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Everything Is Personal

Are your personal brand and your pro brand the same the same thing?

Short answer? Yes.

Long answer? Here goes:

We’re of the belief that everything is personal. Today’s consumers are savvy and they want to know who is behind the brands they support. They want to believe that the brands they’re giving their hard earned cash to, deserve it. Do their values line up with mine? Or at the very least, they want to make sure the brand’s values are not in direct opposition with their own personal values.

The more you’re able to infuse you and your unique values into your brand, the stronger connection you’ll be able to build with your community. This also means that you’ll repel those who disagree with you, but this is good. When it comes to branding, you want your community to include your most fervent supporters.

What does this look like?

Infuse you and your unique values into your brand to build a stronger connection with your community.

Here at W&Co., it’s no secret that we think diversity matters. We believe that building inclusive communities and creating reflective marketing campaigns are two of the most important things we can do, for our clients and for society. It’s built into our core values as a company and is spread into everything we do — from the clients we take, to the influencers we work with, to the copy we write. Does this turn some prospects off? Sure does. But the brands who are looking for a human-centered marketing agency that champions diversity know immediately that we’re their people. Because our core values are baked into our agency culture, they’ll continue to be there as we grow. It’s the same for your brand. Ask yourself:

  1. Why do you do what you do?
  2. What is profoundly important to you?
  3. What is the intersection points between your skills, your passion, and what the world needs?
  4. What are your standards for yourself? Your non-negotiables?
  5. Who do you want to help?
  6. What problems can you solve?

How you answer these questions impacts the way you do your work. Of course, having a strong personal brand that ties in with your professional brand doesn’t mean your private life is up for grabs. You can still decide to be a private person while creating a business brand that is driven by your personal mission.

How do you infuse your brand with your personal mission?

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Pro Tip: No Excuses

We all screw up sometimes. When you do, don’t make excuses, own it.

Why? Because nobody really believes that your email crashed for two minutes today and you never got the message.

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Why Trying to Be Popular Bites

Back in April, I had the opportunity to meet up with some other business leaders for an intimate retreat in Mesa, AZ. While there, I met Ita Udo-Ema who helps small business owners with video marketing. During a discussion about core values and branding, Ita shared with us his approach to marketing, using the bell curve of statistical distribution to show why you shouldn’t be concerned with everyone liking you.

The importance of marketing to your core audience - your superfans - despite the pressures of brand and business growth.

When looking at a bell curve, we know that straight off the bat, 50% of the population isn’t going to get you or your thing. 33% will be indifferent. 13% will like it. And then 2% will absolutely flip their lid for you and your thing. That 2% are your superfans — focus on them.

Targeting Your Superfans

Unfortunately, we see many brands trying to win over the two-thirds of the population who are just not that into them. They do this in the name of “expanding their market” and waste money, time, and resources on courting an audience who literally cares nothing about their product or service. Doing this can also take valuable resources away from your superfans — the 2% — and can leave them feeling neglected and disillusioned with the brand.

A great example of this is what happened with Shea Moisture earlier this year. Shea Moisture is a hair and beauty brand that has historically made products to serve black women and their kinky hair. While this seems like a very specific target audience, it is a community that is deeply in need of good products and is fiercely loyal to the brands they love. Instead of continuing to nurture this community, Shea Moisture chose to expand their market by going after all women — kinky hair or not. This new group of women are at most indifferent to them and at worst, don’t get the brand or understand the deep social, historical, and political anguish that is swirling around black women and their hair. In doing so, Shea Moisture completely alienated their core audience and quite frankly pissed them off.

The importance of marketing to your core audience - your superfans - despite the pressures of brand and business growth.

Their desires to reach a greater audience or build the scope of the brand was a good idea with good intentions. However, the Shea Moisture team would have benefited from a different approach. We can think of several ways to have navigated through the pressure to grow verses growing with meaning.

  1. Shea Moisture could have further expanded into other markets where women with kinky hair are looking for good, inexpensive alternatives, like Canada or the Caribbean.
  2. They could have clearly defined that they were creating a new product line for women with straight hair, while still actively promoting and lifting up their original audience.
  3. They could have doubled down on their commitment to Black women and their hair and continued to expand within that community.

Unfortunately, they decided to try to be all things to everyone, at the expense of their existing community. When it comes to marketing and building community, that old saying: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, absolutely rings true.

Read on to learn more about connecting with your audience.

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Pro Tip: Challenge Yourself

There is something broken about the way we approach marketing, and it’s time we expand our exemplars. Don’t go after the easy win, the low hanging fruit. Stop doing things the way they’ve always been done. And please stop relying on demographics alone to market your brand.

Remember that behind every campaign and every metric and every dollar bill you make is a human being who is looking to be seen, to be heard, and to make a real connection. Read more on how to update your marketing strategy.