Episode 52: How and Why Branding and Marketing Go Hand in Hand (Part 1) with Kalisa Jenne-Fraser and Missy Palacol
We’ve all taken different paths to the wonderful world of paper flowers, but one thing that unites us is a love of our craft. It’s no surprise that many of us want to turn that passion into a business. But even if you make the most amazing, creative flowers, you may have found yourself feeling a bit over your head when it comes to the branding and marketing side of things.
That's why we reached out to two incredible ladies: Kalisa Jenne-Fraser and Missy Palacol. They are the talented duo behind the consulting firm, Kalyx Group, and in this podcast episode, they share insights and tips to help businesses succeed.
First, let's learn a bit about Kalisa and Missy:
1. Introduce yourself to us!
Kalisa Jenne-Fraser is co-founder of Kalyx Group, a brand, and marketing consulting firm headquartered in Seattle. Kalisa is a brand marketing consultant who specializes in strategic brand planning, content marketing, and digital media strategy. She has spent almost her entire professional life delivering marketing strategies and insights to global brands, non-profits, and startups alike.
In 2016, after nearly 20 years in corporate marketing and consulting, she left her comfort zone to take on new challenges, expand her skillset, and hopefully help build something awesome from the ground up inKalyx Group. Through Kalyx Group, she offers consulting and training programs that teach entrepreneurs and small business owners how to translate their passions into actionable brand strategies that work.
Missy Palacol is a Seattle-based, nationally published brand photographer, digital marketing expert, and speaker. She teaches people and companies how to capture their authentic visual brand and how to leverage social and digital media to grow their businesses.
In 2014, Missy left her full-time career in corporate marketing and struck out on her own with Missy Palacol Photography, capturing rich and memorable imagery for brands. In 2016, she co-founded Kalyx Group, where she combines her enjoyment of photography with her deep knowledge of marketing and digital storytelling.
2. Tell us about your brand and marketing business, Kalyx Group.
We founded Kalyx Group in 2016. We’re are a team of brand and marketing strategists with over 30 years combined experience helping companies – from global Fortune 100s to local startups and solopreneurs – develop and implement strategies that drive results. We especially have a passion for small businesses – we bring a simple, effective, affordable approach to marketing that starts with brand clarity and ends with a well-thought-out strategic marketing plan. It’s our mission to help brands streamline their marketing approach by consulting on the right tactics to employ at the right time.
3. Let's dive right into your expertise. Why are marketing and branding important?
First of all, we’d like to take a sec to explain the differences between branding and marketing. Many people think they are one and the same. In a nutshell, branding is WHO your company is and why it exists. It provides your business with a real identity. The ideas, the emotions, the beliefs, the values, the looks, the experience of your business. Marketing is HOW you build awareness. It’s the activities that you do to create the awareness and power of your brand. Marketing teaches consumers who you are and why you matter to them and the value of your goods and services.
Having a good branding strategy for your business helps to improve recognition in your industry, creates trust, communicates your professionalism, builds financial value, and inspires your potential consumers. Having a solid marketing plan that aligns with your brand strategy is important because it helps you let people know who you are, expands your audience, and reaches your sales goals.
4. What is the number one thing that new entrepreneurs do wrong?
We tend to see our entrepreneur clients try and do everything and then get so overwhelmed that they let their brand and marketing efforts fall by the wayside which leads to them working harder at operating their business without a plan in place. We get it, small business owners especially, are stressed, overwhelmed, strapped for time, and have limited budgets.
On the other hand, we see small business owners that do have a budget for branding and marketing support, hire a professional to help them, but the hired professional efforts fall short because of their lack of clarity of your brand – they aren’t sure who the brand is and how to reach that ideal consumer on your behalf. -Their marketing work ends up being more complex and time-consuming than it needs to be at your expense. Consistency always wins.
5. What is a realistic marketing/branding budget for a small business? What if I only have a small budget?
The good news though, is that a little effort can go a long way. Small business owners do not have to spend significantly more time or money to get better results. So long as you have clarity about what you want to do and a strongly defined brand.
For example, logo creation. If you have clarity of what your brand is and what it stands for, it’s easy to hire a logo creator through a service provider/platform to do that work for a few hundred dollars or less. If you haven’t done the work to define who your brand is and what your brand stands for, it’s very difficult for the service provider to do their job, which ends up costing you more because time is money.
6. There's a lot of hype about selling with a story. What are your thoughts on that?
We strongly believe in storytelling because it’s easy for the brain to understand and doubles down the, “know + like + trust formula.” Storytelling allows your consumers to get to know you better, which then turns them into liking you, and then the liking turns to trust and when a person trusts a brand, they are 100% more likely to buy from them.
READ THE PODCAST TRANSCRIPT HERE
GET YOUR FREEBIES!
HEAD OVER to the Kalyx Group website to download a free PDF copy of The Brand Audit Worksheet!
Learn more by following Kalisa, Missy, and the Kalyx Group on social media:
WEBSITE | Kalyx Group | Missy Palacol Photography
INSTAGRAM | @missy.palacol
