This was transcribed using AI. Please pardon any typos or errors.

Andrea: [00:00:00] Welcome, welcome to Sushi Fridays, the podcast about style, culture, creative, and biz from the POV of diverse creatives and entrepreneurs. How does a brand uncover their target customers? We demonstrate exactly how to do this today with the help of Aimée López, retail copywriter and strategist. I am your host, Andrea Pascual.

Welcome to episode 13 of Sushi Fridays. In this episode, retail copywriter and strategist, Aimée López leads a workshop with entrepreneur Liv to help Liv uncover her target customers. Aimée shared her three step framework, how to uncover your target customers in episode 12 of Sushi Fridays, and today she's applying it to this [00:01:00] workshop.

Let's get right into it. 

Liv: I'm Liv. I'm based on the south coast of the UK in the county of Dorset and I live in Poole, which is a little coastal town. Um, I'm part creative producer and part strategist. Um, I've worked sort of within the brand marketing, experiential and events production field over the last sort of six plus years.

Um, and now I'm moving into sort of going freelance and starting my own thing Um, which is why this podcast and episode has come at the right time Um, so obviously I'm at the very beginning stages and I want to figure out how to position it what services to offer I guess developing and understanding who my target audience is part of building the foundations of a business and of a brand.

Um, so yeah, I want to understand their needs. I want to be able to focus my work. I want to be able to speak to their pain points, create a community, and, you know, be able to actually access an audience [00:02:00] to make money at the end of the day. 

Aimée: Business is business. Right. Um, that was really insightful, Liv, and thank you so much.

Again, I want to thank you very much for your time to be able to speak with me and, um, Um, Andrea about this, um, because this is, can't be an abstract concept, you know, trying to find a target audience. And also too, it sounds very simple, but as we all know, and actually in the field, it could be quite difficult.

And also I appreciate the fact that you have extensive producing and brand strategy experience yourself. So it's nice to know that this actually holds legs, you know, as we say, you know, that there's actually, Meeting behind this. So I developed this strategy and this framework because of the fact is, is that a lot of the folks from small and large brands were finding it a little bit difficult to kind of conceptualize and to speak about who their target audience was and, and usually kind of like, um, I think.

A lot of it was a missing in the [00:03:00] beginning and potentially where they would feel like um a little discouraged sometimes, um, or just not really You know, like not i'm not saying you but like having a kendall jenner moment, you know what i'm saying? You know like because they didn't really understand their target audience.

So, um, so if it's okay with you I'd love to ask you some questions about this incredible business idea that you have and to kind of maybe You And again, in an abstract way and more in a practical sense to kind of go over this, the three steps, the brand strategy. 

Liv: Amazing. Cool. So it's obviously sort of in the works at the moment, so it's great timing, but um, I'm looking at building a multi hyphenate creative studio and brand marketing consultancy.

Yes. Um, and I'm looking to sort of target and work with brands and businesses that want to be seen, heard, and felt, uh, both online and offline. [00:04:00] And I guess I'm trying to essentially pull in lots of the different experience and job titles and things that I've done throughout my career and bring it together in a holistic way because I love so many different aspects of it.

And I also think it gives me a little bit of a unique way of thinking about things. Um, it's not so, you know. So siloed and so one track minded. So I'm looking at offering a bit of a no one size fits all approach where everything is sort of bespoke, unique. Yeah. And I guess I just want to almost do things my own way a little bit.

Um, And I guess that's kind of in response to not necessarily fitting into Specific job titles or like roles. So this is my chance to bring everything together And be able to help businesses in various guises and through various means 

Aimée: Fantastic. That sounds fabulous. And thank you so much and to be I want to say from your conversation right now I mean, we're going to get more into the steps, but [00:05:00] some key words have popped up from our conversation. You came up with the keyword holistic bespoke and also unique.

Okay. So let's think about those and keep those in mind, please You know when we get into the other the other bits and bobs Um, because the thing is right now multi hyphenate is also very interesting but this at the same time we need to narrow that down a little bit because people get very Overwhelmed they're bombarded already.

So we need to relate all of us. It's not just yeah internationally around the world so it'd be nice to kind of narrow that down a little bit You But we'll, we'll, we'll get into that in the conversation. So then I would love to ask you. So the first step of my target audience framework is to think about three brands, just pretty much stream of consciousness, three brands that you admire, if you don't mind sharing that with us, that'd be incredible.

Liv: So one of them is [00:06:00] The Selfhood. So all of these are UK based, um, London primarily. Um, but The Selfhood is a, um, agency consultancy, um, led by Daisy Morris, who is a very inspirational, I'd say she's like a content creator, influencer, but also a content and social strategist. Um, so yeah, she basically has carved a bit of a name for herself as a community builder and offers.

Social media marketing, social media like content management, and also the sort of strategy and stuff that I guess forms the content to begin with. She's got multiple facets, she's written a book, she's a speaker, and I sort of just love that she's managed to encapsulate this. In one sort of platform and almost it's her personal brand Um, and I quite like that.

The second business, um is a agency called Female Narratives So they are again globally, uh, globally london based but globally affiliated They're an integrated creative [00:07:00] agency and they operate in quite a unique way So they have this like collective of a hundred plus female non binary millennial freelancers And they connect Them to brands to tell real stories.

So it's a really cool way of I guess a different way of using influences because they're real people They're multi hyphenate. Um, that's probably why i'm drawn to them Um, and they just create really cool brand campaigns and offer predominantly production services Thirdly is a storytelling agency who you might have heard of called Sonder and Tell So they help brands find their voice, um, and tell their story, uh, but very much using words and art storytelling as their sort of main tool.

Um, so I just absolutely, I followed them for ages and I've almost seen their brand like evolve and grow and they've just really figured out who they are and what they stand for. And I haven't seen anyone else. Um, I guess position themselves so well. Um, so I think they, I find them quite inspirational.

And they're 

Aimée: great folks. Yeah, [00:08:00] I do. And they're very cool. Yeah. They're very good. They're, they're lovely. I know them very well. And I know, I mean, I've met Daisy Morris and I've been to her, um, her book launch for communities or currency search. That book is incredible for those folks who are kind of starting to think about their brands and start thinking about, um, social strategy.

Yeah. That book is really, really, really insightful. And, um, so yeah. And I've, you know, yeah, I know the folks at Sonder and Tell quite well. Um, yeah, so those are great examples. Those are great examples. Thank you so much. Um, there's a string, there's, there's a thread and I will go over that, um, with all three of those brands that you could take away to put into your brand.

Okay. And they, yeah, tell me the thread. I'll tell you, I'll tell you now. And then we can get into the other bits. The thing is, is that the thread is that they're all female owns. Okay. So it's very female centric businesses, not necessarily that they don't, they cater to everybody. A lot of them do. Um, no Daisy caters to, I mean, I'm not going to stop [00:09:00] anybody and say, but the thing is, is that the essence of the brand, I mean, that's what I'm talking about.

There's a very holistic, feminine essence to it. Okay. All those brands, you know, that you're being, there's an empathetic, there's empathy there, you know, there's a very empathetic essence to all three of those brands. So, and also to the thing is that all three of those brands. Are considered influencers on their own right 

Liv: and they're almost like thought leaders in their space.

I think aren't they? 

Aimée: Yeah, but in a different sense, I think it's in a more cool more hip more up to date sense not like stuffy You know, yeah leader guru like 

Liv: Yeah, totally like almost yeah I guess the thought leaders of the new generation or the new like the new type of agency 

Aimée: if you know what I mean Exactly like these people you actually want to go and have a drink with them.

Liv: And I think it's like, yeah, it's like showing their [00:10:00] personality. Um, and I think for so long, like so many brands and agencies have felt like quite, you know, you've got to be cold, you've got to be corporate, you've got to show, you've got to be, you know, you've got to have your personal side and you've got to have your professional side.

And I'm so over that. Um, that's just not me. Um, And that's never really been me. So I think I naturally draw to those types of, of brands and people that show personality. And it's interesting about what you said about empathy, um, which I hadn't really thought about and the feminine energy, but I have actually delved quite deep into like, you know, like soft leadership and soft power and just like that spirit, not spiritual energy, but the more like feminine spiritual side of things.

I've become quite interested in that recently as well. It's quite funny how that seems to be. Something that you've pulled up to. 

Aimée: I think also too, part of your positioning with this is that all three of those brands, because I, again, I know two of them quite well, you feel like they're going to listen to you.

[00:11:00] And I love, this is my new buzz term for the year. I love it. It's like, I freaking love it. I think it's so great. But my new buzz keyword, buzz, you know, buzz term, marketing buzz jargon term is tone deaf. And there's a lot of brands that are tone deaf, but Sonder and Tell, you're going to go to them because you know they're going to sit down.

Emily is going to sit down and listen to you, you know, Ray's going to sit down and listen to you. They're going to take, you know, um, Kate is going to sit down and listen to you and they're going to really try to get to the nuances of what your needs are and to solve your problems. Um, Daisy Morris is going to sit down.

She's going to listen to you. So that's part of the positioning with that. So the first thing, we kind of already kind of went over this, but why do people buy from these people? From Daisy, from the Selfhood, and from, you know, Sonder and Tell, and from the female narrative? We've already touched upon a thing, listen to.

I think that's one big factor that they're not just a number. Um, do you, can you think of anything [00:12:00] else? 

Liv: I think, um, I guess what we sort of loosely touched on, like, they're real, and they, you know, they're authentic, they're people, they're human, and they're not afraid to show that, um, and they're not sort of hiding behind, like, they're small.

But they aren't they're not like ashamed of that if you know what I mean They're they're quite small in compared in comparison to you know The the bigger agencies or you know who they might see as some form of competitors or who they might possibly see as um I don't know like what to inspire to But yeah, they don't it's purposeful.

Yeah. Yeah, it's purposeful. It's small. It's nimble. Yeah, they have a purpose um Why else? I think also maybe not to say that they're cheap at all, but like they might come across more affordable to, you know, someone who's bigger or who looks bigger or who looks more corporate. [00:13:00] Um, so maybe that might be, I guess, a, a possible reason why.

Um as well, I think like more like creative you can see that they're creative Um, they also define the people the sort of brands and businesses that they work for Very well on their websites and on their channels. I think they're very clear with who their target audience is 

Aimée: actually I don't think so.

Actually, I gotta disagree with you about that. I'm not trying to be really yeah, I really don't go on Because I think the Selfhood, I mean, you know, you know what they do, but I don't think, and Sonder and Tell, you know what they do, and they do it very, both of them do it incredibly well. But, but I don't know who they're targeting though.

Like, they don't say like, we're targeting mid to large size businesses. I don't see them Yeah, I 

Liv: guess not, not that specifically. Yeah, you're right, you're right. Not, not so specifically. I guess, I think I saw Sonder and Tell, I guess they try and target, Businesses that understand the way that they're coming from it, which is quite a unique angle.[00:14:00] 

And that's how they sort of, that's how they get their target audience. It's like, okay. You kind of have to get us to To feel like we can help you if you know what I mean, which is quite a weird like a different different way of I guess Getting your target audience which almost could be a barrier to entry as well moving on to that bit, right?

It's like okay, maybe you're you're a little bit too niche for me Or I don't actually understand this way That you're trying to sell You know me or service. So yeah, it's kind of like a bit of a win-lose, but win-win, if you know what I mean. 

Aimée: Well, me and Andrea were talking about it and I mean, you're in the field so you understand, but like we can't talk to everybody, you know, because we're gonna talk to no one.

You know, especially nowadays, people are more trepid with their purchases and they're just, I mean, they take a much longer time making those purchasing decisions. So it kind of goes back to what we're talking about with the influencers that they're bas these people, some of them are basically influencers in their own right.

You know, [00:15:00] um, so that kind of goes back to them, like you, you're going to go to them because you want to be, you know, have a human, you know, holistic touch, you know, or whatever, but we can get more into that. So what, um, problems, this is a good one. What problems are they solving? Can we, can you give me maybe one or two examples?

Liv: I guess a lot of, well, all of them essentially, the problem that they're solving are In terms of under it's like communicating your brand or your product That you're looking to sell so I don't know sondra intel may come from it from kind of the more internal way like, you know brand identity brand positioning and like Helping you understand.

Um Or helping the business or the brand understand who they are and how to speak to other people that's kind of, they have like a almost internal problem solving approach. Um, so they're, they're almost helping get their internal teams. Understand and [00:16:00] communicate. To their audience, how they might be able to solve their problems.

If you see what I mean, it's kind of quite a few steps there. Um, Female Narratives, for example, I mean, on a basic level, they produce campaigns, they produce content, but they do it through a cool way of like linking, um, linking brands with these real people. So I guess that's the problem that they're solving for the possible brands, um, and businesses.

Like they're that sort of middleman between, Hey, we can produce and come up with a really cool social campaign. Or, you know. Whatever, but we can also provide you with the talent. Um, so it's almost that integrated approach, which is how they sell themselves. Um, and The Selfhood Daisy, she's all about, I guess, creating community, coming up with like creative ideas, concepting, solving that.

I think a lot of business owners are obviously quite time poor, or they might feel that they're not creative or they just need that sort of expertise and strategic help to like, you know, bring something [00:17:00] together or to. even make sense and understand how they need to communicate that message like via social.

Um, so she's almost, yeah, I guess, the brains behind helping brands understand themselves and How they best want to communicate 

Aimée: themselves. So the last thing we're going to talk about and think about in this, in this particular segment is, um, again, the caveat here and the disclAiméeer is that me and you both respect these people a lot and they're amazing what, what they're doing.

And it's not a critique in any way, but what are potential, um, So if I'm a buyer, what could be potentially a buying hesitation for me to work with Sonder and Tell or for me to work with the South hood or to work with Female Narratives? What I mean, what could potentially have that mean from not being able to work with these folks?

And again, there's no, this is not a critique. We love them. I feel like I 

Liv: should have used like huger, [00:18:00] more corporate brands. Um, but no, we mean it all well, like it's all complimentary, um, but in this workshop format, I guess barriers to barriers to entry or barriers to purchase, um, price is always one. I guess that's just with everything, right?

You've got a budget, they might not be able to work to that budget and vice versa. So I think price, I also think possibly, you know, Back to me being Miss Buzzword over here May, there could be two, you know, two industry specific terminology or like particular, you know, wording or particular services that aren't, you know, clear enough I guess, or simple enough to understand for someone who's coming from a completely different industry.

And that I guess could be a barrier to purchase. It could be like too niche or it could be that I don't know that a particular service isn't offered. Or it's not communicate, communicate school or communicated clearly enough that, um, That you know that [00:19:00] xyz can actually offer this as well um Or it might just be simply that they're so bloody good at what they do that.

They're just booked up

Andrea: I am taking notes And i'm going to share with you The cliff notes or the cole's notes. I'm a canadian. We say cole's notes version so Aimée just wrapped up step one of her three step framework how to uncover your target customers She asked Liv what three brands Liv admires and the three brands that Liv admires are The Selfhood, Female Narratives, and Sonder and Tell.

After that, Aimée and Liv discuss why people buy from these brands, as well what problems are the brands solving for their customers, and lastly, what are possible purchasing hesitations potential customers 

Aimée: [00:20:00] have. Because you're more of a service based provider, which is great. And I, you know, this framework works for everybody.

Doesn't have to be a product based business, even though originally I created it for product based business. Originally, we need to think about how are folks, potential buyers actually experiencing the customer journey? Cause you know, understand. Um, you know, marketing, how, basically how did they view them and how are they being able to purchase them and how, you know, what, what is the experience like to work with them, you know, um, because again, that could be a ways of you kind of being able to go into that also to the thing is, is that.

Sorry, and I'll, and I'll get more into, if you are a product-based business, you need to physically go into that, um, into their stores and their place of, you know, operations. You know, you need to physically feel what it is like, because you'll see, I'm telling you right now, you're gonna see, you're gonna see maybe different folks than you would conceive of, um, buying from you that you'd [00:21:00] be really surprised, you know?

Um, like with the beauty industry, like, um, you know, beauty pie like 30. You know, PewDiePie is a big brand in the UK where, sorry, just for the audience, that do like a subscription based, um, beauty products that you can purchase, and 30 percent of their market is men. 

Liv: Really? I actually didn't know that either.

That's amazing. I've never seen it, like, I've always seen it on, you know, so many beauty influencers and press that I follow, all female, obviously, but 

Aimée: that's really interesting. See, so that's the thing, we need to kind of be able to open, you know, to have an immersive Part of your own brands, which is great, but having an immersive experience with the brand, basically, that's what I want to say.

That's the second step. So, um, obviously for this exercise, we can't get too much into that, but we kind of already spoken a little bit about how it is. And also, again, I kind of know them, um, so I know how they work a little bit. So, what are, in your opinion, like, [00:22:00] to, again, just for the sake of this particular, Conversation.

What do you think? Is it do you know like how to contact them like through their website? like have you experienced how it is to actually Or just like at least seeing how the process is a little bit because I know daisy has a book She does talk about it in the book. 

Liv: Yeah, i've got the book. I'm yet to read it actually, but um I think all of them from what i've seen it's like, you know A lot of the time Instagram or they've got a key social channel, which is like almost the brand shop window.

And you know, they might have a certain content pillar or a certain angle that they position themselves, um, on social, which might be, you know, your, your top of the sales funnel, your, your browsing, you're interested. Daisy, um, talks a lot about, I guess, she talks a lot about this actually as well, because obviously she's, she's, it's almost like free, I guess, free content in a way, which shows her value.

as well. So that's kind of what I call the shop window. [00:23:00] And then, um, you might be interested enough to sort of go on their website and then all of them, I think have, you know, contact forms where you could write a little bit about what you're interested in. So it's a pretty simple, um, nurture journey where it's, I guess, yeah, contact form or email address.

Um, and then, I actually follow a big fan over here. I'm subscribed to all of their newsletters. Oh, yeah Me too. 

Aimée: Me too. Yeah 

Liv: Yeah, well There they go. That's a new one to add. Um, but all of their yeah All of their newsletters are so good at like pulling together just really interesting case studies You can have a bit of a deeper dive but also Again, going back to, I guess, their, like, brand esscence, they don't take themselves too seriously.

They recognize that, like, they're human, so they have quite a lot of, you know, they pull interesting links from the web, um, like, further reading, playlists, Female Narratives, um, have actually their latest newsletter. They've [00:24:00] decided they're going to launch a book club, because, I mean, why not? It's, like, another community building thing to add to their book club.

Yeah, I guess they have, you know, slightly deeper connections or I guess ways to market through their newsletter. Um, yeah, kind of, I guess the standard, standard way without the physical, um, experience. But then saying that all of them, I think have done, you know, either I've either physical or online talks or some sort of events as well.

So you do have that opportunity to see how that, how they translate into, I guess, like a physical experience as well. Um, which is always quite interesting, I think, to see when, like how a service based business translates into the real life. Um, cause I think, I don't know, I don't, there are a lot of people that kind of do it and it's, you know, Oh it might just be a networking event or it might just be, um, Let's just take you to a coffee shop for a meeting.

But I think there are loads of different, I think these guys are prime examples of doing things slightly differently and, and yeah, [00:25:00] reaching their audience in an interesting way.

Andrea: To wrap up step two, Aimée and Liv discussed how potential buyers actually experience the customer journey. Liv is a service based business, so a safari looks like a business, It's a little different as opposed to a retail product where we're actually going into a store and looking at the physical spaces in person.

But for live, instead of going into a store, we can go online and see what the customer journey looks like from there. Are we using a contact form? Are we clicking on anything on their website? Are we contacting them through social media? Uh, Are we using newsletters? There are different ways to do it depending on the business and IMA's framework works for any kind of business.

Aimée: The third, the third thing is, is that [00:26:00] now we're going to start with like a minimal viable product, as I said. So basically, We're going to start talking, putting in these components that we just talked about in the first two segments here, and we're going to kind of put them together and for you, what I want to do, if that's okay with you and I'll, and explain a little bit more, we're going to actually call your person, not a name per se, but we're going to call them like a persona.

We're going to make them like a persona. About them because the thing is that I mean we can get more nuanced about it And I think I pretty have a pretty good understanding of who your person is going to be to target And also too I want to um, i'm going to segue here, but i'll come back Um, I want to make the statement that this is malleable You should evolve.

You should reevaluate this. This is something that will not be the same potentially in a year from now. Um, because the thing is culture is evolving so quickly, you know, that's part of it too, part of the third step in my process is that you need to be Agile enough and just be open enough to be [00:27:00] flexible enough to kind of move and listen and be open to that feedback loop, you know, and continuously taking that feedback and to be able to evolve and to listen and to cater to some of those folks.

And when I say that, don't listen to your grandma or listen to that one person who just picks up something really random. If two or three people are saying the same thing. Please listen to that. Take that on board. Consider that it has to be at least three people. What we're going to start is we're going to think of, we're going to take all these pieces that you talked about and we're going to name, we're going to make a persona about them because I think that would be helpful for you.

And I'm going to give you examples here now of what I mean by a persona. So Coca Cola, their customer persona is a happiness seeker. Um, Disney, um, is a dreamer. So they cater to a dreamer or a family builder. Harley Davidson, um, or Harley Davidson, excuse me, um, caters to rebels, like a person who's rebellious in nature.

Also too, I recently did, um, I was [00:28:00] in a workshop at, um, Fred Perry, and they had a similar, um, Persona, the kind of people who are outliners, or kind of, they feel like they're rebels. Um, Red Bull is extreme sports enthusiasts, as you can, you know, kind of imagine. I'm sure you can, you can, you can see that. I'm very clear about that.

This is going to evolve. This person, I feel, is going to want an integrated experience. Okay, from you. Okay, this person's, and you're going to have an experiential agency starting with, okay, but it's going to be integrated. So you're going to be able to provide everybody, I should say this as well, it's your business, it's what feels natural to you.

This is what, you do whatever you want. 

Liv: Give it to me. I need, I need guidance. I'm 

Aimée: intrigued. So it's an integrated agency that's experiential at the moment. Okay. So that's where your multi hyphenate comes in because, because everybody, your customer is always thinking, what's in it for me? What's in it for me?

Yeah. So when you [00:29:00] say integrated, that's a little bit more honed. You're saying I can do it all for you. We can go from A to Z. Okay. 

Liv: Yeah. And when you say, sorry, just to clarify, because I'm interested, when you say like experiential, what is your, what's your definition or meaning when you, when you say experiential or when you think 

Aimée: experiential?

And that's a good question because the thing is, is that your customer is going to think the same thing. This is a starting basis, but it's going to be events, pop ups,

Right, exactly. Anything where the customer can actually, As you said, you said this in the beginning, I'm taking your words. I'm not trying to like pull this out of my bum. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you said this in the beginning. An experiential is where the customer, not your client, I'm talking about the actual end goal customer, whoever that is, is going to be able to feel, see, and touch.

Liv: I guess that's why, what I said, like, um, to be seen, heard, and felt, like the three that I've, honed in on which [00:30:00] appreciate their broad. Um, no, yeah, I guess that was me thinking definitely events and then like feel could be Through tangible feel, but also like emotive feel. So, you know, if it's content production Let's say then they might be it might be through like video that they watch or something They might feel something there and they might act on that.

We're talking about the end consumer, right? Or heard could be Yeah, I guess through reading through copywriting. It's all a bit abstract I guess my only thing was, um, yeah, but we're not, we're not here to delve into, I guess, my business idea, but my thing with experiential, it's like my favorite thing for sure.

And like, my background is more events and experiential than it is anything else. But, and I don't want to like pigeonhole myself. specific like London and, you know, bigger cities and stuff. That's where all the experiential happens here. Not that I'm, you know, offering [00:31:00] just an only offline service, but there's very little of that.

So that's why I was kind of thinking about bringing in more on the online services as well, to be able to scratch that itch and be able to access a bit more by doing things a bit more locally, rather than constantly like. Traveling to London, essentially, if you know what I mean, that's my barrier with experiential.

I 

Aimée: got you. Okay. So, um, and I deal with this with a lot of, uh, listeners owners and entrepreneurs. And I, and I, again, this is all with respect, please. As I mentioned, we need a minimal viable product. We need a business. We need a foundation and you're going to confuse. Your customers if you start going talking about all these things, okay Yeah, you do something like stanley cup.

You need to do we were talking to me. I'm, sorry me and Andrea were talking about that We're still going to loop back to that. You need to do one thing Really fucking well one thing Then you can, I'm not, this is not, because the thing is, is that I can't hear your, your, the mind [00:32:00] working, which is great. And again, this is all with respect, and I really appreciate you, and I, I think you're incredible.

And I, and you're not the only one. I get this all the time. I get this from everybody. It's your end user. You got to think, what problem are you solving for them? And the thing is, is that if you can put so much in a bucket where they get, Kind of lost. They're, they're gonna get lost and they're not gonna be able to find you and find the incredible things that you can provide for them.

This can happen. We, all the great things that you talk about could happen eventually down the road. You know, this is again, but we just need a foundation. So if you have an experiential, integrated experiential agency that's outside of London, that is fire, you know? Mm-Hmm. . There are companies, a lot of companies, I know it's farther away, but let me.

Explain myself. There's a lot of really solid companies in Exeter, in Cornwall, in Bristol. Solid. Big. You know, like Little Hampton has the body shop, like. That's true. I need to think big. So the thing is, is that that's gonna be part of your USP and your proposition is that you're not in London. [00:33:00] And you know, those areas, like, you know, there's a lot of natural, like, um, Finisterre, you know, like, I think they're based in Cornwall.

Yeah, Cornwall, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know it's not, but it's, it's better than London. Okay. Pools better than London. Also too, you understand the seaside and you understand that natural essence. So that's what I want to say. Minimal viable product, Selfhood, daisy, social strategy. But the thing is, is that you need to be able to work with what you have at the moment, you're an integrated experiential company.

I know that sounds, you can name it something else and you can say, you know, but you do. Basically you're allowing people to experience the company on a visceral level using their five senses. 

Liv: Mm-Hmm. . God, that's good. Need to write that down. Thank God it's recorded. 

Aimée: and I can't even get a job. I'll tell you right now,

Liv: Okay. I love that. The five senses. Anyway. Yeah, move on. 

Aimée: Yeah. No, no, no. I, I'll write that down. I'll send you an email. We can talk. So that's your minimal, that's your foundation. [00:34:00] Okay. Again, I understand it kind of sounds like, you know, and you need to pitch and hold yourself at this point, at this beginning.

Structure. People need to go to you because they need to be like live and her people are those people that do that and they do it really well. They're smashing it. So the target audience here is what I'm thinking is we're again, let's talk. Let's go back to the customer persona. This, this, your target customers or brands, I'm thinking maybe even, I think it's going to be Lucy & Yak, like something like this.

Do you know Lucy and Yak? Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're a mid size company, they're not based in London, mid to large size company, they're doing very well and they have a very well. Yeah, and they're, they have a very big experiential component. So I think that's a good place to partner with you. So I would say Lucy & Yak is, is an example of why I'm saying that is because they're, there is a male partner, but it's primarily female owned.

She's the main, [00:35:00] I think she's the primary stockholder of that company, Lucy. Yeah, her name is Lucy. Um, it's going to be those types of brands, you know, those types of brands who want to give their customers something different, you know, who are not going to be the performance marketing. It's not going to be Jim shark at the moment.

It may potentially be down the road, but that's not the person you're talking about here. Um, and also to another part of your positioning is that you're going to be nimble, you know, and you're going to come from a human centric. I mean, and please jump in. And if you think of anything, I would love to hear your, um, impressions, but I think they're going to be UK based primarily in the beginning, just, we're just starting in the beginning, but this is just a start, you know, again, because you need to gather people's feedback and you've got to see where they're coming from.

 

Liv: So it's always good to start where you're from, I guess.

Andrea: Lastly, step three, Aimée help Liv uncover her MVP. She's an integrated [00:36:00] experiential company and her customer persona are human centric community builders. If you have not 12 of Sushi Fridays, I strongly suggest you do because This workshop will be even more clear than it is today, and it can be It will help you as a founder, brand owner, and entrepreneur uncover your target customers using Aimée's easy to follow three step framework.

Aimée: Your target audience is going to be, if we're talking about a persona, I think they're very human centered. You want to be active and you want to be within the moment and you want to be in IRL. So I think I mean, does anything come to mind with you? I mean, just to make a succinct, like the seat, like the dreamer, the, I know what it is.

I know what it is. Sorry, I gave it to [00:37:00] you. I already fucking said that. Um, the community builder. 

Liv: Yeah. Hey, that's true. Cause that, yeah, I mean, that's me. I think on a lot of the other sort of personal passion projects that feels, feels me. And I think it's important if you're building your own thing, it has to, it's your chance to do something that feels.

Like, it feels right for you, right? 

Aimée: Yeah, I think that's your customer persona, is the community builder, because you're going to be doing B2B. Um, you're not doing b2c. I mean you're you're doing business to business Um, so I think that that is because the person who's going to work with you is going to be interested in building a community i'm building, um more on brand marketing instead of Performance marketing as we were talking about like these quick like get them in and out google ads Yeah, stuff.

You know, that's not who you're looking at, you know? So I think it's a UK based community builder. I mean, it doesn't have to be a female owned business, but the person who's gonna be connecting with you is gonna be a female. 

Liv: Is that helpful? Amazing. [00:38:00] That's so helpful. It's actually completely different to, completely different to how I was sort of thinking.

And obviously I know, you know, this is just one conversation, but at first I was like quite hesitant about. The experiential and like, I guess focusing on one thing, but you're right. I think you've helped me see to own something is good. Um, and also I never thought about, I don't know why this is a bit silly, but because I was thinking about, Oh, I'm offering, you know, XYZ services, brand marketing, content production, dah, dah, dah.

I guess I was thinking about like small businesses. And maybe that's because I just feel like most comfortable communicating with them. So I was thinking about, I just never thought how you said B, you're communicating to, you know, your audience is B2B. So I don't know why I didn't think that in that way.

Aimée: Outside of London, outside of London, right? Yeah, 

Liv: exactly. Outside of London, [00:39:00] B2B. Whereas I thought I was going down like a, my target audience are like small businesses who were like challenger brands. And that's, you know, that can still be the B2B business, but I, yeah, you've just completely reframed that.

Aimée: I've got, I don't think they have, I don't think they have the budget to work with you on those types of things. Yeah, no, you're right. And not only that, but also true to be, I'm going to be real with you. And if this is not, again, this is not, I'm not trying to be nasty, but the thing is, is that you have a lot, I know you, and you have a lot of experience and a wealth of knowledge that unfortunately they won't be able to utilize.

I mean, you're going to be giving you, I mean, you're going to talk to these people and you're going to be able to give them all these amazing things and all this amazing experience, but they don't, they won't be able to use it, you know, in the right way. Yeah. 

Liv: Yeah, I guess. Yeah. It's like trying to figure out, and this is the start of building a brand and a business, right?

When you're trying to figure out who am I trying to target? And, you know, whilst also being able to [00:40:00] pay my bills. Whereas I'm thinking like, Oh, you know, I feel like I'd love to. And like, I do help small businesses and brand owners. A lot of them are like my friends and stuff, but that doesn't necessarily have to be, My business model because to be honest, yeah, it's not viable if it's something that I want to like build and become my own So yeah, you're right.

You've given me a bit of a reality check as well 

Aimée: That's what I do. That's what I mean, but no, but also like i'm again, but martine rose said this recently. Um She said this and she's we just me and Andrea talked about this like she is like she's a god of my country She's an icon. I fucking love her like she's amazing.

I but she said for nine years. She was doing I mean I'm quoting her paraphrasing a little bit, but she's like, you know, I sometimes thought that for nine years I was doing a really expensive hobby and that's if you focus on more of the small businesses That's what's gonna be at the moment. 

Liv: Yeah I really, I, like, feel energetic.

I feel excited about how you've positioned [00:41:00] it, the experiential. You've made me sort of see, like, I can do that. I can focus on experiential and, like, production. And actually, yeah, the superpower or, like, the USP is the fact that There are so many businesses and brands out of London. This is almost like a self confidence podcast as well.

Hey. 

Aimée: Well, that's what I think. I mean, because of a big component of what I do is consumer behavioral psychology. So it's sometimes somebody was like, I think somebody, one of my clients told me this, it was like, this is like a therapy session. You're good. You have a good place to start with that. And again, yeah, you know what if I mean, but it's going to be a female to, you should, you should reach out to the females.

Cause again, you're coming from that place, you know, Um, again, the business could be online, man, whatever. I think you should start with mid size, um, UK brands and then start moving progressively on. You're looking for human centric community builders. I know this sounds like an oxymoron, but some people are not, like, really.

They say they're building [00:42:00] communities, but they're not to give up.  

Andrea: I want to give a big thanks to Aimée for imparting her knowledge and to Liv for being open to sharing her business idea and discussing it with us on Sushi Fridays. I learned a lot. This workshop format is new for us and I appreciate it.

Actually like it something different for a change You are listening to Sushi Fridays The Podcast about style culture creative and biz from the POV of diverse creatives and entrepreneurs. I am your host Andrea Pascual. I am a brand and graphic designer and a fashion brand owner and designer of my own own brand, Andrea Pascual, you can reach me @sushifridayspod on Instagram and TikTok and listen to Sushi Fridays on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and YouTube to get a complimentary visual identity brand [00:43:00] audit from me and to take part in a similar workshop led by me on Sushi Fridays.

Please leave me a rating and review on your favorite streaming platform and send me a screenshot of it to my contact info in the show notes and we can talk about it. Thank you again for listening to Sushi Fridays. You'll hear from me next Sushi Friday.

This was transcribed using AI. Please pardon any typos or errors.

Listen to Sushi Fridays HERE.