Trini Amador is the Value Creators’ go-to guru for all things marketing. He has a long career as CEO of a global branding consultancy, BHC Consulting, and he is also the founder and proprietor of Gracianna, an estate winery that has established a portfolio of greatly acclaimed, gold medal winning prestige wines from its home in the heart of Sonoma County wine country, on the banks of the Russian River.

Trini joined the Value Creators podcast to discuss his latest thinking distilled from his extensive brand-building experience: his theory of talkability.

Show Notes:

0:00 | Intro

03:17 | Understanding Talk Ability Theory: Basics, Floaters and Swimmers

07:20 | Three Areas of Talk Ability Theory

09:06 | Is Managing Expectations and Feelings a Brand’s Duty?

11:11 | How digital marketing is typically described and the Traditional Funnel Approach

16:45 | Modern Marketing Innovation: Returns Policies and Proactive Issue Resolution

20:54 | Roger Martin’s habit-driven brand strategy is outdated

22:39 | Concept Trini of Expectations

24:41 | Fundamental Elements of the Brand Blueprint and Speed Change

27:56 | Optimizing Social Media for Brand Talkability

28:50 | Heineken Double Zero Strategy

31:24 | Importance of Valuable Feedback in Business 

33:18 | Trini’s Business Insights and Lessons Learned 

38:46| Wrap up: Find Trini Amador and His Team at Gracianna.com

Knowledge capsule

• Talkability is brand management for a new age:
  • Trini emphasizes that talkability is not a new concept but an essential aspect of branding today. Talkability centres on how customers perceive and discuss a brand, influenced by their expectations and experiences.
  • In brand marketing, two key drivers remain unchanged: relevance (Is this for me?) and differentiation (How is this different from what I know?). Talkability highlights the importance of differentiated experiences.
• Consistent With The Brand Blueprint:
  • Value Creators innovated the Brand Blueprint as a brand management tool. https://hunterhastings.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Brand-Uniqueness-Blueprint.pdf
  • The blueprint focuses on defining the brand promise, ensuring relevance, and maintaining consistency, all of which influence talkability.
• Factors for Managing Talkability:
  • There are three key factors for managing talkability: maintaining relevance and differentiation, gaining insights into customer needs, and managing brand consistency over time (“consistently managing consistency”)..
  • Stay close to customer behaviour and keep up with changing consumer needs.
• Managing Anticipated Experiences:
  • The conversation delves into managing anticipated experiences. Trini explains that anticipation comes from both reviews and word-of-mouth referrals. 
  • Meeting or exceeding these expectations is an ongoing challenge for brands.
• Changing the Talkability of a Product:
  • One case study mentioned in the podcast  is Heineken Double Zero, a non-alcoholic beer, packaged similarly to their regular beer. It’s an example of managing talkability: by wrapping a disruptive innovation in conventional packaging, the brand manages how users talk about it.
  • The beer’s packaging caters to the anticipated experience some customers expect, addressing their need to “fit in” with beer-drinking friends.
    
• Practical Application in the Wine Industry:
  • Trini, who owns Graciana Wines, discusses the brand’s approach to talkability, emphasising the importance of feedback, reviews, sentiment scores, engagement, and referrals in tracking brand success.
  • Brands are in the experience business, emphasising the emotional and differentiated aspects of customer experiences.That’s what customers talk about.