Insights With Trent Munday

Freedom is something many of us take for granted and most would assume it's just something that all law-abiding human beings should be entitled to. Privacy is kinda the same. But the reality is, in a modern world, to be free to move around usually means you will need to take some form of your digital identity with you. Your credit card or digital wallet. Your mobile phone. Your social media accounts. And that means, you're actually giving up some degree of Privacy for the Freedom to move around and do the things you want to do. So don't be fooled by all those passionately declaring Privacy is the most important issue of our time.  Don't believe me, just take away their Freedom for a few days. #freedom #privacy #digitalidentity

To celebrate Ep. #800 of the Trent365 Show...a little perspective. Sometimes the grass actually IS greener on the other side. BUT...beware... It could just be Fake Grass! In a world where our lives play out on social media, it's now easier that ever to get trapped into Keeping Up With The Joneses. #keepingitreal #perspective #selfworth #values

Speaking at an industry event can be a great opportunity to raise your profile and also to gain valuable exposure for your brand. But should you be willing to do it for free? That's the question Simon Shepherdson asked a couple of days ago on the back of my post about J. Lo & Shakira playing at the Super Bowl for free - just for the exposure. In most cases, I would say Yes, even if you don't get paid for it, taking the stage at an industry event is generally a good thing to do. Not always, but usually. #conferencespeaker #publicspeaker #industryexpert #publicspeaking

Do you know how to use those Colour Wheels properly to help you with choosing your colour schemes? I didn't. But now I do. Thanks to the folks over at The Futur. Here's a link to their awesome Instagram post which explained it all in terms so simple even I could understand. https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Q0QAKJoBP/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link  #colorschemes #colours #design

The Super Bowl is one of the most watched events in the world. 100+ million people see it every year. So how much do you think Jennifer Lopez & Shakira got paid to play at the Half Time Show this year? The answer will AMAZE you... ZERO! Yep. They are just so happy to have theta much exposure, they're happy to do it for free. The Lesson - if you have the audience, you can make your own rules. #superbowl #jenniferlopez #shakira #jlo

Bloomberg is arguably the most well known brand in business media. A few years ago they launched a social-first, Twitter-first new brand which they called Tic Toc. Everything was going fine, until a crazy little social network all about dancing and lip synching to music started to become mainstream. What's the connection? Well that singing and dancing app was called TikTok.  Different spelling, but the same pronunciation. And the TikTok product resonated so much with its market that it just grew and grew. Ultimately, Bloomberg gave up, and renamed its news service to Quick Take. The battle was ultimately won by a product that was so successful in its segment, that it was able to create strong awareness in markets that were polar opposites - like a business news service. In this case, I believe, Product was able to beat Brand. #product #brand #tiktok #tictoc #bloomberg  

Many of us these days are very good at blaming everyone and everything else for the problem. It much easier to do that that to own up and accept that maybe it was me who did something wrong. I heard a great analogy on The Tim Ferriss Show podcast recently when he interview Co-Founder of SoulCycle. They used marriage statistics to prove the point. 50% of all 1st marriages end in divorce.  70% of all 2nd marriages end in divorce. 90% of all 3rd marriages end in divorce. So therefore, it must be YOU that is the problem...not them. #responsibility #accountability #ownership #blame

Byte is a reincarnation of Vine, that 6 second looping video app that was acquired by Twitter and then slowly died. Why should you care? Well, Vine very quickly developed a strong following. There's a good chance Byte will too. And as it only just launched last week, it's still very VERY early. So, if you get on Byte NOW and have a play around, who knows, you just might end up grabbing some early attention. Give it a try and let me know what you think. #byte #videoapp #videocontent #attention 

Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) does not have to be static. It CAN and probably SHOULD change and adapt, based on what's happening in your market at any given time. A few years ago, I wrote about how promoting the fact that your Spa is clean and hygienic is probably a wasted effort Why? Because basic hygiene is pretty much table stakes in the Spa business. Customer will just expect and assume that you are. Hygiene in Spas will not be a USP...UNLESS THERE'S SO BIG INFECTIOUS DISEASE OUTBREAK! And what is happening now? A big outbreak. So, if you're in Spas, Hotels, Airlines, etc start thinking about making hygiene your USP...at least for while. Here's that article I wrote... https://www.trentmunday.com/branding-the-soul-of-your-spa-business/ #hotels #spas #USP #branding #coronavirus 

Lots of businesses reply on Instagram to give them some 'social cred'. Hospitality related businesses, especially, often have #nameofhotel #nameofattraction #nameofspa type of sign posted in a specific location around their property to encourage you to take a selfie there AND to tag them of course. The problem is, most of these signs are BORING! Granted, some of them do have an eye-catching location as a backdrop, but many do not. So, if you want to get more people to post pics with your tag and also tag you...just make those spots more engaging. Use some props. Encourage physical interaction with your hashtag sign and the spot. Make it interesting to THEM, not YOU. If you do, chances are you'll not only get featured in more people's Instagram feeds, but those posts will also get more engagement from their followers. Thus, giving you even more exposure. #instagram #socialmedia #selfie #socialmediamarketing

Recycling is a hot topic. It has been for a long time.  And so it should be. We need to work hard to minimise the the impact we make on our environment. But whilst lots of big brands like to talk about their Sustainability Goals and how much of their packaging is recyclable, we don't hear much about them reducing the actual amount of packaging they use. Surely THIS should be a much bigger focus. Case in point, this week I purchased a 2 pack of Gillette MACH 3 disposable razor blades. I love the blades. But the amount of packaging wrapped around them was INSANE. We have to do better than this.   #recycledmaterials #reducereuserecycle #packaging #sustainability

In a world obsessed about how our business looks Online, it's important not to forget how we look Offline. Many companies today have their own Apps. Many of those Apps work great...as long as your customers are Online. But what happens when they are not? They will still gravitate to your App. So you need to make sure it works well when it is Offline too. Case in point, Malaysia Airlines App works great...when you are Online. But when you're on a plane and not connected to the wifi...you can't access the App. This is surely a massive misstep in terms of Customer Experience. Don't be like Malaysian Airlines. Get your Offline game sorted. #apps #offline #customerexperience

If you try to be everything to everyone, you'll end up being nothing to no one. I reckon that statement goes a long way to explaining the inefficiency of the Hotel Spa Menu. We expect it to be a Sales Tool, a Branding Tool and an Informational Tool. For example, when the Spa Menu is in the guest room, it should be a Sales Tool. If it's going to be an effective Sales Tool, it should really have a Call to Action. But if we did that, then it wouldn't work so well as a Branding Tool. And there's the rub. We want it to do both. It's time we re-think the functions we expect from a Spa Menu and find different ways, different mediums and different media to achieve the results we're looking for. #marketing #sales #branding #menus

If you're looking to build a long-term, emotional connection with your customers...you're branding. If you just want to close the sale today, right now...you're selling. Neither one is better or more noble than the other. They are just different things. And as they are different, they require different messaging. Ask yourself, do you have different content for each? If not, chances are you're not doing either as well as you could. #selling #branding #messaging

Branding is not about Products & Services. It's not even about Features & Benefits.  Branding is about emotions. How do people FEEL when they interact with your brand? Just take a look at what the big, successful brands do.  Coke's brand messaging is people hanging out at the beach, having fun. Nike's brand messaging is the emotional highs of winning, or the lows of losing, or the satisfaction of Just Doing It! If you're not eliciting an emotional connection from your messaging...then you're just not branding. PS: Here's the article by George Ziogas - https://medium.com/better-marketing/the-complete-guide-to-building-a-personal-brand-in-2020-725c9530bc49 #brandmessage #brandmessaging #branding #brandimage

Dynamic Pricing is all about adjusting your prices based on the market demand. Usually that means, if the demand is high, the price goes up. If demand is low, the price goes down. Airlines are the masters at this. Many airlines let you pay a bit extra for an upgrade after you actually board the plane. This makes sense for the airline because at that point, an on-board upgrade is the only chance they have to sell an empty seat. But the process is often limited by the passengers who have already paid for the higher category seats. If an economy passenger can end up in a business class seat on the day by paying significantly less than that business class passenger paid in advance, the airline will have a very unhappy business class passenger. But what if the airline went ahead and sold those on-board upgrades, at the discounted price, and then gave the full fare paying business class passenger a rebate? Now, both passengers are happy.  #dynamicpricing #pricingstrategy #pricingoptimization #pricing

The luxury boutiques like Chanel & Dior are masters at Slow Retailing. They don't want you to rush. Take your time. Stay a little longer. Spend a little more. At the other end of the spectrum are supermarkets and convenience stores. They're all about Fast Retailing. Their focus is more on volume. In and out. The question is, where does your Spa fit on this spectrum? I believe, in many cases, we focus too much on the quick sale when it comes to retail. Maybe if we tried a little harder to offer a Slow Retailing experience, we could drive up those retail sales numbers? #retail #hotelspa #slowretail #retailstrategy

Personal Branding is something just about everyone should be thinking about these days. Whether you're an Influencer, or trying to sell your online courses or just trying to progress in your career, your Personal Brand matters. PS: Remember when we used to just call it your 'reputation'? ;-) Like any brand, you need to know Who your market is, What you're going to do for them, and What outcome they will then achieve as a result. You need to have a Personal Brand Statement. You need to be able to fill in these blanks... I help ______ to do ________ so that they can achieve ________ Once you have that, you're on your way! #personalbrand #branding #personalbranding #missionstatement

According to Seth Godin, advertising is essentially interruption. We're being interrupted from whatever we're doing - be it watch TV, flicking through Facebook or walking down the street - to see or hear a message to compel us to buy or do something that we otherwise probably wouldn't have. But today we've become blase about advertising. We don't trust it anymore. Thus, the efficacy or effectiveness of ads is quickly diminishing. Sponsorship, however if different. Sponsorship is seen as supporting a like-minded activity or event. It's a way of your brand joining the community or the tribe that does that thing. And that is a more effective way to spend your promotional dollars than to simply continue interrupting people. #advertising #sponsorship #marketing

Retail is Dead. Everyone's saying it. It must be true. But it's NOT. Retail Spaces are simply Overpriced for the value they currently give to the sellers or retailers. Once upon a time, when we all shopped in Bricks n Mortar stores, high retail rents made sense. Because having prime retail space meant high foot falls and represented great value. Today, lots of people don't shop that way. So the value of retail space is not as high as it once was. But if the retail rents were lower, they would then represent value for money. Also, the shopping experiences in-store need to evolve to make them more relevant to today's consumers. Think Apple Store. #retailspace #retailsstores #bricksandmortar