We live in a world where everyone is competing for attention so that ultimately we can get someone to buy our products or services.

How do we do this? 

Marketing is the answer. The only way people will know your business exists is by marketing to them making people aware of your brand. Sharing your values, building relationships, and eventually a transaction.

Why do we do marketing?

As mentioned above, we want to be able to sell our products or services to people who we think will benefit from them. We need to market ourselves or businesses to initially create awareness and build relationships – nobody wants to buy from strangers, remember your parents always told you never to take candy from a stranger! 

So you need to build trust. I’ve always used this saying when explaining the importance of marketing. Imagine if your business sold products and you built a shop to sell it in (the shop can be physical or your website) and it’s the best shop in the world. If it’s built in the middle of a dessert and nobody will know about it and therefore it’s irrelevant of how of a shop it is. You can need to stand out to draw attention to your shop first before getting any sales.

How to stand out?

It doesn’t really matter how you stand out. As long as it’s in a positive way somehow promotes your brand and stands for what you believe in as your values. Then you can do anything you want to stand out. 

How do we stand out?

So, we decided to look back at our values first. One of our core values and the one I believe in the most is to have fun! I don’t want to be doing this business if I’m not enjoying it. So with that, we thought pre-COVID we did a lot of networking events and at the moment plenty of zoom calls. So how do we want to stand out or be remembered after the networking event or our zoom call?

One thing we noticed especially at networking events, everybody nearly dresses in a suit by doing this although they may come across as professional they all look the same and end up being blurred into one person. Unless someone has something unique or is very interesting to talk to, it’s very easy to forget about the people you’ve spoken to in that room after a few hours.

So I decided let’s be different, wacky, and fun! I got snapback caps designed with just our mascot – Java on the front. 

Most people at this point would have seen Java somewhere in our email signature, business card, website etc. So Java has some familiarity with people. 

But turning up with a cap when everyone is in a suit and with Java on their makes people smile and/or laugh, it’s different and it stands out. When we leave that room, they will remember Pencil and Coffee.

Even on Zoom calls you don’t expect it, again it makes people smile/laugh – brings out our values. And it creates an impression on people who then remember us and the brand! 

That’s why it’s important to stand out in your own authentic way, people may forget your name, or the business name often. But you want them to recognize the brand went they see it somewhere else again, when they need your service or products, or tell someone else they will remember you than anyone else because you’ve left an imprint on them by being authentic and different!