In this episode of B2B Brand180, Linda is joined by Joelly Goodson, a branding expert and podcaster. They explore the critical role of sustainability in driving B2B brand growth, offering practical strategies for integrating eco-conscious practices into branding and marketing efforts. Joelly shares her journey and experiences, highlighting how brands can leverage sustainability not only as a corporate responsibility but as a powerful tool for differentiation and engagement in the competitive B2B landscape.
Tune in to gain valuable insights into building a brand that stands out by standing up for the planet.
More about Joelly: https://www.brandingmatters.ca/
You can follow Linda at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindafanaras/
and visit Millennium Agency at https://www.linkedin.com/company/millagency/
Linda Fanaras:
Hi, I’m Linda Fanaras, host of the B2B Brand 180 podcast and CEO of Millennium Agency, where today we’re going to talk about branding strategy and lead generation plans. But before I start, I just want to take a moment and thank the audience for listening in. And if you like what you heard today, please. Like share or subscribe to help our channel grow Today i’m super excited to bring in Joelly Goodson from badass You can probably see from her shirt because she is a badass for sure She has more than 20 years of experience and she’s been helping companies build their brand and grow with what i’ll call badass Merchandise. So, she launched also Branding Matters, which is a podcast that’s fantastic and continues to grow rapidly, which is something I’m sure she’ll chat about a little bit more, but I would love for you to tell the audience a little bit about yourself and what we’re going to cover today.
Joelly Goodson:
A little bit about myself. Well, how much time do we have?
Linda Fanaras:
You can
Joelly Goodson:
talk as long as you want. I know it’s funny whenever anyone asks that question, I’m always curious. Like, well, I can really go anywhere, but I’ll stick to the topic at hand, which is obviously something we’re both passionate about, which is branding. So just as far as my career goes, I have been in the marketing and advertising industry for. Gosh, almost 25 years started when I was 10 and I come from an agency background. You know, I used to work at a bunch of different agencies. The last one being Ogilvy where I was a copywriter. And then after doing that for several years, I decided that I wanted to be more. Facing front with the client. So I got into sales, but still doing marketing. So the merch industry was a natural progression for me because I was able to still use my creativity and strategy and all my branding and marketing background, but working more with clients one on one and coming up with great campaigns and ideas to help them build a brand. So that’s my sort of background and then my podcast I launched, that’s my new baby that I launched January 1st, 2021. And I really started that because basically COVID was the inspiration. A lot of people were laid off from their jobs, forced entrepreneurship was a global thing. And I just noticed that there was a lot of people on social media specifically. So, Basically going out there and saying, buy my product, buy my service, starting their own businesses and not really taking the time to figure out who they are, what their brand is, what their brand voice was. And so I thought, okay, well, I’ll start this podcast and bring on people from all over the world, from all different industries to share their stories and badass branding tips to help entrepreneurs and business owners build really strong brands that people care about.
Linda Fanaras:
That’s awesome. And I think I should just mention too, that you were listed as one of the top five best branding podcast. So that’s pretty exciting as well. So, go
Joelly Goodson:
ahead for one second, cause this is just very recent. I was just, you know, I get these emails all the time with these lists and it’s, it’s really exciting. So the most recent one was on CMO club the top 17. Branding podcast to follow in 2024, which is globally. And then for Canada, I was on Feedspots top branding podcast and I’m actually number one. So those are two, thank you. Those are two of the most recent lists that I came on and I was pretty excited
Linda Fanaras:
about that. So that’s great. Yeah. Congratulations on that. But before we get started, you know what I’d love. for you to just chat a little bit about Gems4Gems. It’s Gems4Gems. It’s a special nonprofit. It seems like it’s special to you. So I would love to hear a little bit about that and, you know, why. Yeah,
Joelly Goodson:
absolutely. Well, I’m very, I’m very, very proud of Gems4Gems. to be a part of it. It was started by an incredible woman. Her name is Jordan Guilford, and she’s actually from Calgary, where I live right now, and it’s a nonprofit to help victims of domestic abuse get back on their feet. And if you can imagine COVID, domestic abuse went through the roof, and it really was more. Prevalent than ever. And so I’ve been doing their branding for a couple of years. To be honest, I had to step back recently just because I’ve had some personal things happen in my life and I need to take some time off. But I’m still an ambassador for them. So I help them when they have events. We have a jewelry drive every year. It’s an amazing actually, this is really great. They have this jewelry drive where they bring, they get people to donate from all over the world and mostly, I guess, all over North America, use jewelry. It doesn’t have to be, you know, precious stones. It could be anything that’s gently used. And we, and we just did this this past Christmas and we put together these little bags of jewelry. It’s usually like a necklace earrings and a bracelet with a little note. of encouragement and we go around to all the shelters across Canada and we donate to the women there just to make their holidays a little brighter. That’s awesome. So yeah, and they have all these initiatives and things really just to help women empower themselves and get back on their feet after they’ve left this horrible situation, you know,
Linda Fanaras:
so yeah. That’s a nice gesture. I think it’s a nice way to I got goosebumps I know, I did too. It’s important, right? I could see how it could make a woman feel really good. I mean, jewelry, there’s not much they’d like other than flowers, so that’s great. Just a little something, right? A little something. That’s awesome. Well, Okay, so we’ll get started. We’re going to be talking about social impact and Really how social responsibility is so important for companies today. And it’s nothing that we’ve actually covered quite yet. So I would love to chat a little bit about this. It’s an important topic. It continues to grow. It comes into the forefront and I think it’s really important for brands to really understand the value of it. So I would love to hear from your perspective, I think where marketers really struggle is, okay, how do we sell our brand? And how do we also cover this sustainability component that we need to be talking about? That is so important to consumers. And how do we balance all that to make sure that number one, it’s credible, it’s coming across as a credible, real, real, you know, important part of their business. And also being able to market and drive leads and drive sales.
Joelly Goodson:
For sure. Well, I mean, I come from the merch world, right? So coming from the merch perspective, I just came back. I was at a conference in Vegas and sustainability was all the rage and everybody was talking about it. And I’m very proud to say, so the company that I’ve been with for the last 22 years, if you can believe it, it’s called GenuMark and we’re in Canada and the U S and we actually recently got B Corp certified, which is a huge thing. I mean, we’re one of the only companies in our industry that. has that. So the reason it’s so important is because everything is scrutinized and everything we do, we put our money where our mouth is. As far as you know, there’s a lot of greenwashing going out there right now, virtual signaling and people are talking about sustainability, but they’re not really, they’re not really walking the walk. They’re just talking the talk. So I think you have to back that up with things like getting certified. And so people know that when they’re doing business with you, be core certified when they’re doing business with you, that every aspect of your organization has really. Come up against these standards were also ISO certified, which is just another certification. And then so from a business perspective, you want to do everything you can to get these certifications because it just shows that you are actually standing behind what you say. And then as far as merch goes, where I come in is when I work with my clients, you know, and I have more and more. It’s. sort of funny because I, I live in an oil town, right? I live in Calgary. It’s oil and gas town and there’s lots of critics out there, but I tell you some of these oil companies have some of the strictest HSE departments and we do so much as far as sustainability goes and eco friendly and, and recycled materials. And gone are the days of wastefulness, people buying trinkets and trash as they used to call it. Now, when I work with my corporate clients and I work with some pretty. Big corporate clients, it’s they use their merch as a way to tell their brand story and build connections with their communities and people that they give them out to and employees, so when they bring on new employees, merch is a great way to help these employees feel a part of the community. And then if they have these values, we’ll put the values onto the merch that’s been recycled. And then a lot of companies are now giving back to, you know, these things where you, every, every item that you buy a certain percentage is going to build water wells or different things like that. So I hope that answers your question. No, that’s
Linda Fanaras:
great. No, that’s, that’s fantastic. And I don’t know if our market has also struggled with this as well, but sometimes I feel like. The biggest disconnect with social responsibility is the education. People don’t really get it. So from a marketer’s perspective, like, okay, what does that mean? What do we, how do, how do we go about all of this? What are the steps that we should take? Can you speak a little bit about. Maybe how to educate and then also how to build some awareness around it. Either it could be also internally within the organization and externally with that, whoever their prospects and customers
Joelly Goodson:
are. Oh, I think education is huge because there’s so much information. We’re bombarded with information right now. And the internet every, you just go and you Google something. So I absolutely think. that you have to bring experts. If you’re starting internally, I mean, again, if we’re talking about branding, branding is starts internally with your employees, right? And so they need to buy into whatever it is that you’re selling. And I mean that not just physically, but also what are your standards? What do you believe in? And if you’re a B Corp company, you make sure all your employees understand what that actually means. Right. And you have. Different courses that you do. You can do them online. And then, you know, there’s I have some clients that do these courses for their employees. And then every time I’m an employee finishes a module, they get a gift and they get a prize. So you incentivize them. People like to be incentivized, right? So they’ll just be incentivized. You finish this, or you finish these five modules where you’re now learning and then you’re going to get incentivized with some kind of gift. So education is huge. And then I think, you know, Oh, I don’t think I really am a strong believer in, what you learn, you teach. And so I, you know, it’s funny. I go around and I do these presentations about branding, and I have this acronym and it’s I L T E E. And I learned it from this gentleman, Ray Higdon, and now I’m using it and it stands for invest, learn, Teach, execute and edify. And so invest your time or invest your money, get your employees, learn as much as you can, and then go out there and teach other people what you’ve just learned because you’re spreading the word. And it’s great for another reason, because then you’ve become the expert. People look to you because now you’ve learned, you’ve taught them something that’s going to help them with their business by saying, you know, who you got it from and what they brought to the table.
Linda Fanaras:
I love that. That’s a great, that’s a great way. That’s just a great way to. Yeah. Yeah. So I do want to ask you a question about ROI, like really getting the return on investment. And I think how do, how do businesses build out metrics to prove the ROI? Not just saying that they do it, but really. What would be some good examples of, of that?
Joelly Goodson:
Are you talking, again, are we talking about merch specifically or?
Linda Fanaras:
Yeah, we’re talking on sustainability initiatives. So if we were referring to certain sustainability initiatives, how does a company determine what the ROI is? Let’s say they’re doing something that improves wastefulness or they’re doing others. They’re, they’re coming up with other ways to improve. sustainability. How can they measure? Okay, that has helped us as a company from a holistic
Joelly Goodson:
perspective. Okay, well, I mean, full disclosure, I’m not necessarily an expert when it comes to that. But I will say again, from the branding perspective, if you’re trying to build your brand and building a big part of building your brand is building trust with the people you’re trying to serve is that if you are being consistent in what you’re saying and what you’re doing and all your branding is consistent with this message that we we care about the planet we are sustainable then it’s only going to strengthen your relationships and you’re going to build your you’re not going to You’re not going to, you’re not only going to solidify your current relationships with your current clients, but you’re also going to attract new clients, people who have the same values as you, right? Because branding is about doing business with people that have the same values as you. And now more than ever, because the consumer is so savvy, they want to know, what you think, and how you do your work, and where you put your money. So, maybe it’s not, you know, as far as metrics go and KPIs, I can’t answer to that. Right. Branding is more of the general value system, I guess, and how you Yeah.
Linda Fanaras:
Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. that’s great. And I think what we find too is from a when we do brand strategy work with our clients, what we find is when they’re developing their core values, as an example, sustainability might be a piece of that. So ensuring that that component is integrated within their core values and how they live or work is also also becomes an important part of their business, which means they can use that as part of their messaging and part of their positioning to your point, which I think also can help
Joelly Goodson:
them. Yeah, I agree with that. But I just want to say to that point, I talked earlier about virtual signaling and greenwashing, and I think everybody’s jumping on that bandwagon, right? Everybody is talking about eco friendly and sustainability. But how many people are really doing it? Like I said, we are B Corp certified and we’re one of the leading companies in our industry. So how many people are actually doing what they say they’re doing and not just saying what the cause de jure and move on to the next one. And so I think if you’re going to incorporate sustainability, for example, into your values, which I think is amazing, then you need to back that up, and you need to back that up with your actions, not just your words and show people by different things that you’re doing within the community, within your organization, externally with your clients. So I’m really passionate about that because I, I, I’m a straight shooter and I just see, like I said, a lot of people that are just saying stuff, but then they’re not actually following through with what they’re saying.
Linda Fanaras:
Yeah. Can you give for the audience? some examples of maybe different initiatives and sustainability initiatives that you think have been valuable that you’ve been able to really back up and to your point, it’s not greenwashing. It’s real, it’s the real stuff. So I would love for you to maybe share some good examples on. Yeah, they’ve, what the initiatives and then how you speak about it. Yeah.
Joelly Goodson:
Yeah. Well, again, I mean, I can just, I’ll speak to my industry as far as when we are talking to clients. So I was just in Vegas, like I said, I was at a conference Mm-Hmm. where I got to see a bunch of our suppliers. And the companies that really stood out to me were the ones that not only were sustainable, but there’s one in part a company. I can think of particular work. their package. So, you know, packaging is so wasteful, right? We write things, everything in packages and we throw it out all the time. Well, this company was brilliant and they’re brand new and they’re disrupting our industry because not only is the product that you’re getting made of recycled material, but the packaging can be reused. For example, one of their products was this really cool. water bottle that was made out of, sustainable material, but then the packaging turned into a bird feeder that you could actually use. Right. And it was super cool. And so it’s just taking things a little bit further to put your money where and being transparent is another letting you see everything. Where’s everything made because What is the point of buying something that is made from recycled material then, but it has to fly in from China or India and your private footprint is being completely, you know, it’s, so it’s contradicting. So locally made, we have suppliers that, made in Canada or made in the U S you know, treating their employees fairly and all those things fall under that umbrella. So all those things are important.
Linda Fanaras:
That’s fantastic. So before we go to our next question I just want to thank the audience for listening in and don’t forget to listen to Jolie’s podcast branding matters. Definitely. Take a listen to that. It’s fantastic. But, and if you like what you hear today, also like share or subscribe, or definitely provide a review. let’s go to our next question. Cause I’m, I’m really interested in that is. That we have a multitude of generations that are out there today. We’ve got the baby boomers, the Z, we’ve got, we’ve got everything. So right. And everybody has a different perspective on sustainability and whether that’s important or not. You got some people that don’t care. And then you have some groups that think it’s like the most important. How do you deal with that when it comes to marketing the, to these different audiences and their different perspectives?
Joelly Goodson:
Well, I think you know this as well as I do that the Gen Z’s are the most passionate about it right now, They’re the ones that are pushing this and they’re the ones that are saying we’re not going to do business with your business or with your brand unless you are, eco friendly, unless you’re sustainable, unless you have diversity. And, they are the ones that are really pushing this forward and demanding that from businesses. So that’s the first thing. The other thing is. Whoever you are as a business, whatever industry you’re in, you, who is your market? Who are you trying to serve? Because you have to talk to them in their language and solve their problems. Ultimately, we’re all problem solvers, right? So whoever it is you’re serving, if you’re serving, it’s the Gen Z is that generation. Cause they’re, you know, like, think about it. Well, they generation sorry, now I’ve, I got, there’s so many generations the millennials. are turning 40. So the millenials are not those young 30 year olds right now. The Gen Z’s are coming into the workplace and those are the largest growing consumers are them. So if that’s your market, then you’ve got to make sure you’re going to appeal to them or you’re not going to, survive. If your market is an older generation, baby boomers or whoever, not that they don’t care, but you have to figure out what their value system is all about. And what problems can you solve for them? And then you lean into that.
Linda Fanaras:
That’s, that’s, that’s fantastic. And I also wanted to ask you about brand loyalty and customer retention, because I’m wondering how marketers can really add those the sustainability initiatives into that.
Joelly Goodson:
Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. Brand loyalty is. Tough, right? It’s one of the hardest things to we all we all strive for. We all want it. People are so fickle. They’ll buy one brand the other day. But when you look at a brand that has really well, not a brand, when you look at a few brands, which have really, really strong loyalty the one that just comes to mind off the top of my head is Apple because I have two teenagers. I don’t know if you do And they won’t even, don’t even show them anything else, right? They will snuff their nose. If you know my son, it’s so funny. The other day he was telling me, he’s like, I need a new iPad, a new iPhone, and a new watch. not, not a need, a new watch or a new computer or new, right? New, new cell phone. They are just that. They are loyal to a T. So that’s a brand. Business and a brand that is super strong for all the reasons that we’ve talked about and right, we can talk about, but I think for most businesses, it’s not as easy to get that loyalty. And so again, really, I think the more you niche down to the people that you’re trying to serve and really connect with them. Branding is about connections. I talk about that all the time on my presentations, when you can connect with your audience and the people you’re serving on a really intimate level and being completely transparent. All right. The stronger that relationship is I think the harder it is to break that loyalty and the stronger the loyalty is going to be What do you think about that?
Linda Fanaras:
That’s great. And there’s you know, there’s so many companies out there that have hung their hat on certain things Like you have like starbucks. You have patagonia, you know, they have some very specific initiatives and I And I think it’s helped them grow their brand and build that brand loyalty. And, and if they can just continue to share that story and not keep changing the story, then people can really connect with that. And it builds sort of what I’ll call a unique selling proposition. So end of consumers know, okay, Patagonia is focused on X, Y, Z, or Starbucks is focused on X, Y, Z. And those are the types of things that can make people, you know, emotionally byproducts of services. Go ahead. Yeah, a
Joelly Goodson:
hundred percent. And can I just touch on that? Go ahead. Because, you talked about Starbucks. A thing also about brand consistency and brand loyalty is you need to follow through on your brand promise, right? Because A strong brand develops really strong trust. Like my kids know they, whatever time, any Apple product they get, they trust that it’s going to do everything it says it’s going to do and beyond. Right. So you have to follow through in your brand promise, be consistent, and that’s how you build trust. And then, you said Starbucks and it reminded me of a really funny story. Recently, again, I was in Vegas and in the mornings, we have to go to the conference and the Starbucks, you know, there’s a million coffee places. The lineup was, Like around down the street or down the hallway and everything, but people were still in line because they were not going to go and get the coffee next door where there was no lineup. We will do whatever it takes to get what we want. That’s brand loyalty,
Linda Fanaras:
right? Exactly. Starbucks is a great example because every time I go in, I’m like, okay, I’m spending 10 for a coffee. I know. Okay. Yeah. Quick math. I’m like, okay, that’s like almost 4, 000 a year.
Joelly Goodson:
But that’s the ultimate, you know, that I love that you said that because that is the ultimate branding. Success story. When you, if you want to build a strong brand, and I talk about this in my podcast, as far as I help businesses build brand equity, if you can have such a strong brand that you can take pricing out of the equation, right? People are going to have that coffee. Maybe it started off at 2. Now it’s probably, I don’t even know, it’s probably 10 for a double cappuccino. But I still need my double cappuccino, right? And so, that is the ultimate branding success story. Pricing is taken out of the equation. And that’s what I’m trying to help businesses do and understand is that you don’t want to compete on price because if you compete on price, you’re not going to win the game.
Linda Fanaras:
Absolutely. And that’s, that’s what I like about some of these initiatives that we’ve talked about today, because they can use it as part of their positioning and messaging that can really help differentiate them. And especially when it comes to branding, that’s a big component. And and if it becomes more and more meaningful in the market, why not? You know, why not take advantage of, why not leverage that? Well, you have to. Because
Joelly Goodson:
more people are in competition now than ever. You know, you’re not just competing, you’re not just competing with your, the guy down the street who sells what you sell. You’re competing with the world. Everybody’s online. I’m looking to buy a new car right now. I just go online and there’s a million options. It’s not like I have to go to the dealers, right? So there’s a lot of things to consider whenever you’re, when someone’s looking to make a decision on, you know, giving you their money, there has to be a lot more that they’re going to get than just the
Linda Fanaras:
best price. So I’m going to ask you one final question and then we’ll wrap up, but I would love to hear from your perspective as far as building. Partnerships around sustainability initiatives. How can marketers better collaborate with NGOs and suppliers and maybe other stakeholders to create that sustainable value chain and how would it help them with their brand strategy?
Joelly Goodson:
Well, again, from my industry, we have partners, we partner with like minded businesses, So I think it’s being choosy who you partner with you know, I had a guest on a while ago and she said, you need to know who you’re getting into bed with and you need to make sure that, you’re aligned with certain things that are, what’s important to you is important to them and you work as a team. Right. You work as a team to solve your customers problems. And so the supply chain, whoever your, your suppliers are. I know for me, when I’m working with a client, I use suppliers when I know that client demands sustainability and locally made and, or woman don’t, you know, we have a lot of now that are women, everything else. Those are the suppliers that I will partner with to come up with the suggestions for my client because I know their value it and I know that my supplier can I keep pointing back but you know so you have so that’s really important is you have to make sure that whoever you’re partnering with has the same values not just as you but as Your clients and as your clients you’re only as good as your supply chain and your team, The best compliment I ever get from a client wasn’t when they say to me, thank you for making me look so good to my boss. And then I say, well, I couldn’t do it without my people that I work with. Right.
Linda Fanaras:
Right. Does that answer your question? Yeah. No, that’s great. No, that does answer the question. No, I think that’s awesome. I think that’s awesome. Excellent. So thank you so much, Jolie. It was great to have you here today. Yeah, I know it’s quick. I would love for you to share how people can get in touch with you, maybe touch on the the podcast again. So I’ll turn it over to
Joelly Goodson:
you. Oh, well, thank you so much on that. Well, first of all, I want to say thank you so much for having me on here. It’s been so nice to talk to you. We’re obviously both very passionate about this and if people want to learn more about my podcast and they want to hear I have like I bring on guests from all over the world, like I said, and I have some really exciting ones coming up for 2024. It’s called Branding Matters and you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want to find me, I’m the branding badass. I’m the only one out there. So just google branding badass and I’ll come up. And then if you’re looking for any sort of merch to help build your own brand, I’m at Genu. Mark is the name of the company. You can Google that. G-E-N-U-M-A-R-K and you can email me at Jaylee goodson@genumark.com. So Awesome.
Linda Fanaras:
Thank you so much. I’m everywhere. You’re everywhere. It’s just type in badass and your first name and they’ll find you. Okay. Awesome. Alright,
Joelly Goodson:
well, oh, and if you want one of my T-shirts, you can get it on my website too. Oh
Linda Fanaras:
good. Okay. So there you go. Okay. What’s the,
Joelly Goodson:
what’s the website URL? It’s brandingmatters. ca.
Linda Fanaras:
Okay. Fantastic. All right. So I just want to take a moment, thank our audience today for listening into the B2B Brand 180 podcast. We hope you found the insights and strategies shared today by Joelly valuable. I’m sure you did. I thought there was some great insights on sustainability and ways to tie that into marketing that will really help companies grow. So again, I’m Linda Fanaras and I am the host of the B2B Brand, 180 podcast and CEO of Millennium Agency. You can visit us at Mill, MILL dot agency or just connect with me on LinkedIn and again, to help our channel grow, just hit like, share or subscribe. Thanks again for listening and until next time, happy marketing
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