👋 Hello Branding Revealers. How are you doing today?
Today we have a combo interview of topics with one guest. I am sure you will find her ideas and wake-up calls engaging and proactive. As for the newsletter, we are going to have a series of marketing experts in the coming weeks. So, take notes, ask questions, and why not send DMs? You never know where your next collaboration might come from.
A short reminder
The mission of Your Branding Letter is to demystify the big word Branding. I wish for everybody to understand its paradoxes and truths. But also, implement them within their version of branding. Here, you will find ideas, investigations and a collection of an eclectic panel of definitions alongside visions of what branding is and implies—showcasing those who do, use, and expand branding: Brand Revealers and Marketing Buddies.
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🎯 A Brand Revealer + 👋 Marketing Buddy
I discovered Anais' work through a repost on LinkedIn by a former guest, Florence Simmone. She reposted Anaïs’s content, and it arrived at my feed. Once I started reading some of her ideas, I was impressed by her marketing approach and the engaging topics she covered. I knew she would make a great fit as a ‘‘Brand Revealer’’ and a ‘‘Marketing Buddy’’ as she embodies brand building and brand awareness. As a result, the first part of the interview focuses on her branding vision, while the sur-mesure section highlights her marketing strategies.
🇫🇷 Let’s be bilingual! Enjoy the French version as audio and read English translation down below.
☕ Grab some tea or coffee, and let’s go!
🇬🇧🇺🇸 Here is the translation for my English readers
Who are you?
My name is Anaïs Baumgarten.I am an expert in digital and responsible marketing.
🇫🇷/🇧🇪 I am French, but I have been living in Brussels for a little over four years now. I love the cosmopolitan vibe of this city.
What is your definition of Branding?
For me, branding is all the elements of a brand that make it recognizable, whether they are the most obvious, like its logo, visual identity and brand guidelines. However, it goes much further than that to encompass its values, the themes it stands for, its commitments – everything that makes a brand recognizable without explicitly stating its name.
Anaïs
Branding is made of trial and error. The positioning takes effort, time and dedication. How can entrepreneurs recover from a branding that doesn't resonate yet with their audience?
You said it right: branding is about testing and learning. We learn, and it evolves over time, and this is extremely important to consider. I often see companies launch a major project to define their branding and positioning, only to neglect it for years. This is a big mistake! Positioning, in particular, should be discussed regularly with all stakeholders of the company. Whether it's investors, employees, clients, or others, it should be a yearly conversation.
Anaïs
What are the repeated words you hear about your Brand and Branding from your audience, teams, and people who discover you? (3 to 5 keywords)
I have two activities: First, there is my professional activity as a marketing expert in sustainability. From my clients' perspective, there is a strong emphasis on authenticity and efficiency. These values are essential to me, and they frequently come up in feedback and recommendations from my clients. When they mention efficiency, it means getting straight to the point and focusing on actions that work. More importantly, it is about not getting scattered across 50,000 marketing or communication actions.
Then, on the podcast side, “Slow Marketing,” what often comes up is the disruptive nature of the topics I tackle. These topics are not typically discussed in marketing or communication podcasts.
✦ Authenticity ✦ Efficiency ✦ Disruption
Anaïs
What is your best branding story from clients, yourself or an iconic brand you look up to?
Regarding branding, I have a great anecdote that happened a few weeks ago. I was leading a workshop with a client on the copywriting of their homepage, particularly the slogan that was displayed. It was the first thing you saw on the website's header. When I arrived, I was already surprised to see that slogan. It didn't represent the company's services, its benefits, or what it could offer its clients at all. I understood the reference, but it was miles away from my client's universe. So, I started the meeting. I showed a slide with that slogan, and I saw everyone's faces tighten up. They said, "We agree, this isn’t right; we're not there." It didn't represent what they did, their positioning, the stories they wanted to tell about their services, or the benefits they brought to their clients. It was unanimous. Then, I presented a new version of the header and banner. I focused on highlighting the company's values and everything iconic about the brand, while clearly stating it was a first draft. It was just to provide a glimpse of our potential direction. The response was enthusiastic.
When your branding aligns with your values and your daily work, it is not just branding that will be effective with clients. It is branding that will also bring energy to the team. And I think that is super important.
Anaïs
Do you have any recommendations for mastering branding and marketing, such as books, podcasts, conferences, etc.?
→ It is a book about creating communities that go beyond just liking your brand or product because it offers something, but because there is a real aspiration. The book had a significant impact on me. I read it early in my career, and it has always driven this sense of connecting back to: "We are not here just to sell things; we’re also here to create connections with other human beings". I find it to be wonderful, quite short, and highly inspiring on this topic.
Anaïs
Digital technology also contributes to pollution, which is relevant to marketing. What prompted the shift towards slower and more sustainable brand communication?
I started becoming more aware of my lifestyle in 2019. I realized that there was a strong disconnect between my personal values and the commitments I had made in my daily life. As a result, I made some changes, such as giving up buying new things, particularly new clothes, and transitioning to a meat-free diet. These changes started around 2015-2016.
At some point, the conflict between my personal values and my job became overwhelming. I couldn't understand why I was dedicating 8 to 10 hours a day, 5 to 6 days a week, to acquiring more users and customers for the platform where I worked as the marketing director. This always involved more advertising, more results, and so on. Meanwhile, in my personal life, I made it my goal to slow down to decrease, to reduce. It just wasn't working anymore, and that was the first trigger for change. I then made the decision to quit my job as a marketing director at a startup. I wanted to take a different approach and focus on supporting impact-driven SMEs and startups. Furthermore, I began working almost exclusively with companies that had strong mission statements and commitments.
Additionally, I also had clients who were just as committed as I was, and sometimes even more, particularly in terms of responsible digital practices. They had much more knowledge and challenged me a lot, especially regarding the tools I was using. This led to a second strong realization and questioning, for example, the use of Google Analytics, which captures a lot of personal data and does not comply with GDPR. It is currently being criticized by the CNIL in France.
Anaïs
I love your podcast. I think it's very well conceived, and, above all, it meets a need and addresses an important reflection today. How did your podcast help you to better position yourself and confirm your leadership in slow marketing?
I have been working as a freelance digital marketing expert for 2 to 3 years. Additionally, I was seeking new tools and training to improve my skills in these areas. I was still subscribed to some content that I used to read when I was a marketing director at a startup. This content was all about hyper-growth, hyper-productivity, and hyper-efficiency. And then I received a newsletter. I don't remember the exact subject title. Still, it was something like: “Over 50% more results thanks to this revolutionary marketing technique.” I call it the borderline newsletter; it was too much and became overwhelming. While I was working hard to improve my work and life, the marketing industry continued to push the message of hyper-growth and constantly wanting more. I realized that I couldn't make a difference on my own, so I decided to share my resources and have conversations with experts. This was the beginning of Slow Marketing.
Anaïs
Is it possible to reduce one's ecological impact through low-cost marketing campaigns while maintaining the same or a similar impact without intervening in the physical world?
Yes, definitely! I can provide several examples. One simple example is to concentrate on developing an eco-friendly design for your website, or at least optimizing it. This can be accomplished by reducing the overall size of your website. For example, you can compress images, refrain from using autoplay videos, and minimize scripts. There are various techniques that can be used to substantially decrease the weight of a website.
This is something you can integrate into your marketing strategy. It might not necessarily increase your costs; in fact, it can reduce storage expenses. With a lighter website, you'll have a faster site, which will improve your search engine ranking.
Anaïs
Now, I have a question for anyone who has a newsletter or is interested in creating one. How do you attract attention and drive traffic to your newsletter? Also, how does email marketing contribute to the vision of your podcast and brand?
Today, my newsletter subscribers mainly come through two channels:
The first is LinkedIn, where I spend a significant amount of time communicating and engaging with my network, whether through posts, by adding people and having conversations in my DMs.
The second acquisition channel is through recommendations. This includes other newsletters recommending my newsletter, and vice versa. In fact, a significant percentage of my subscribers come from these recommendations.
I consider email marketing to be important for several reasons. Firstly, it allows me to make my content easily accessible. It enables me to share episode transcripts and resources simultaneously. Secondly, producing a podcast and its episodes requires a significant amount of time and energy. Consequently, I have chosen to take breaks and have seasonal episodes for almost a year now. During these breaks, I use my newsletters to stay connected with my listeners. This enables me to continue providing value, reflections, tools, and resources, which is super important to me.
Anaïs
How can AI and slow marketing coexist? Will it require more conscientious and thoughtful choices to reconcile them?
Today, AI and ChatGPT play a significant role in marketing. To remain competitive, integrating them is essential. I utilize ChatGPT in my work. Now, it's really important to be conscientious and thoughtful, as you mentioned. I have trained myself to use ChatGPT properly— not just asking questions and expecting relevant answers.
The goal is to be truly effective in what I ask of ChatGPT. It's becoming an increasingly important topic. For example, its AI-generated video functionality has just been released. However, the generation times are quite long—almost a week for a few seconds of video. Therefore, it's crucial to master these tools to avoid making unnecessary requests that burden the servers. I believe this aspect is really crucial.
📈 In awe of World of Good Brands(This brand embodies good branding across health, wellness, art, design, and travel, creating a powerful ecosystem).
🔍 Le Karithé is revolutionizing smell(These candles, inspired by African, Caribbean, and Asian cultures, immerse you in a new world of senses with scents like sweet potatoes, Bissap juice, and Yassa meals. Additionally, each cup had a previous life as a yogurt. They are upcycling and disrupting many markets!).
I hope you enjoyed this new interview. Feel free to share and tell me what you think about infusing slow-growth principles into your business.
Reveal that brand. Keva.
PS: Have you heard about Buildspace? They are pretty cool! I am in S5 (House Gaudmire).
Brand Revealer #18: "Brand positioning should be discussed regularly" with Anaïs Baumgarten
yourbrandingletter.substack.com
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Your Branding Letter
An investigation of what Branding is and how it is perceived. My insights on intuitive Brand making with tips and vision from Brand heroes & heroines: doing and making Branding. Capturing definitions and ways of Branding to demystify the ''Big word''.
An investigation of what Branding is and how it is perceived. My insights on intuitive Brand making with tips and vision from Brand heroes & heroines: doing and making Branding. Capturing definitions and ways of Branding to demystify the ''Big word''.
Brand Revealer #18: "Brand positioning should be discussed regularly" with Anaïs Baumgarten