Aging deals with the choice to either grow old with your current customer base, or continually renew your customer base at the same age. A business doesn’t face this issue until around the 5 year mark or so…10 years in some cases. Here’s how the issue arises: out of the gate, you experience great success with your market. They love you…they are loyal to you. Well done. But, that base doesn’t remain frozen in time. They age. With age, comes different tastes, different demands, different priorities. At that point, you have a choice to make. Do you listen to their demands and evolve your business? Or, do you stick with what made you successful to start with? What’s wrong with growing old with your market, you ask? Well, eventually they will retire and your brand will be irrelevant.

After keeping a presence at MySpace for the past three and half years, Mojoloco is moving out! We packed up our things, swept the floors, and moved on. We’ll miss our friends there. BUT, times change, and we felt it was time to keep pace. We don’t like maintaining 20 profiles at once…we try to keep things manageable. We wish MySpace the best in their attempt to remain relevant and stay ahead of the trends. If the tides change, we may be back…we’re not turning in our key just yet. And, we did leave a note in case anyone drops by while we’re gone… In the meantime, you can find us at Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/mojolocollc).

One person’s money is as good as another’s, right? Well, obviously speaking…yes. From a not-so-obvious viewpoint…maybe not. Now, let me say up front that this topic is all about brass tacks and tough cookies…ok? The object of branding is not to offend the consumer, but to engage the RIGHT consumer. That implies that you won’t want to engage EVERY consumer. Some will be left out. Some SHOULD be left out. My focus here is the danger of NOT leaving out the ones that SHOULD be left out.

In branding, tough choices often have to be made. You want to sell to those who reflect your core values. This requires a certain degree of arrogance. Yes, your brand is too good for some, and not good enough for others. Find that sweet spot, own it, and attack it without compromise. Yes, you will likely offend some. But in the offense lies the perception of exclusivity: we, as humans, want- even idolize- what we cannot have. After all, if everybody has it, it really isn’t special, is it? At the end of the day, branding is not about selling whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself. It is about being relevant to a small subculture.

Sometimes you just have to pony up and pay for some good PR…like when you haven’t done anything to earn it for free. Good luck with that.

Traditional advertising mediums are designed to interrupt, and good salesmen are masters of interruption. A good salesman can walk into a store cold off the street and close the deal, regardless of how distracted and busy the shop owner is. That’s the golden standard for good salespeople. Social media doesn’t work this way…it isn’t commercial, by design…IT IS SOCIAL. The object in this space is to engage, not interrupt. It’s about having a conversation with your consumer, not about inundating them with your message. Brand managers and marketing gurus that don’t get this eventually all become irrelevant in the new marketing world.

Social media is not the only medium in which consumers insist on being engaged and not interrupted. More and more, as consumers become more educated and more inundated with pointless hype, it is becoming vital to engage the consumer in a fruitful conversation rather than take the hard sale approach.

Beginning with your social media strategy, evaluate how good a job your brand is doing at the whole “engaging versus interrupting” thing. Visit your public profiles on Twitter and Facebook….are you having a conversation with yourself? Is anyone talking back, asking questions, seeking information, or inquiring about your products? Or are your company profiles a history of a very one-sided conversation? The answer to this pop quiz can be a key starting point in realizing where some of your brand’s weaknesses can be found.

Mojoloco has been retained by Beagle Bagel Cafe to help “upgrade” the brand. The Beagle Bagel Cafe, set to open their first franchise this summer, will be launching a new web site. In addition, we will be building a Twitter contest that will turn their story (a key organization driver for the business) into a catchy limerick and engaging the consumer to help. We’re excited about this campaign and are proud to be working with Beagle Bagel Cafe. Stay tuned for contest details…

Juniker Jewelry, a mainstay at Highland Village in Jackson, has hired Mojoloco to build a new web presence. The new web site will feature a fully-functional catalog with gift registry and a secure gallery for private collection viewings. We’ll also be implementing some social media initiatives, as well as tracking mechanisms for traditional ads. Look for the launch of the new Juniker site in late July!

Mojoloco has been retained by BellaChes, a new specialty boutique coming soon to Renaissance at Colony Park. The store will feature rare and extra-ordinary items for special people and special occasions. Mojoloco is assisting with brand development, identity, and positioning. BellaChes will launch a teaser campaign in August in anticipation of a late summer opening. The campaign will feature the new slogan “Give, exquisite” and will be designed to build buzz and curiosity in the lead-up to the grand opening. We’re excited about our relationship with BellaChes!