What I Do
Hardball Marketing is a brand management agency that provides branding solutions and consulting for SMBs. My services are conducted virtually across the globe as well as on-site by arrangement.
I specialize in brand differentiation for your company's core brand, your products and services, and your special offerings. My background comprises more than 30 years of marketing and branding experience, which includes over 10 years at a Fortune 500 company.
My Branding Formula
I use a bold, proven branding approach based on years of success. The secret to my branding formula: I help my clients identify and create differentiated brand assets as highly-effective memory anchors, and then .. .
These assets are leveraged and promoted across key customer touchpoints to achieve a distinct competitive advantage, gain and keep a top-of-mind brand position, and win more business.
— Tony Lucido, Owner of Hardball Marketing
The Definition of Brand Assets
Brand assets are recognizable design elements that help shape and contribute to your company identity and brand awareness. They act as verbal and visual cues and other sensory cues to create a connection with your brand.
Think of these assets as players on your business team. While they're all important, some brand assets play a vital role with your company identity and others a minor role. So, not all brand assets are created equal.
Every company has brand assets of some type. View the list below to see which ones apply to your organization:
What's the Missing Piece?
The missing piece needed to transform a key brand asset into a star player is value-added differentiation — which is where I come in.
I help you identify 'select' brand assets (i.e., those assets that are the most suitable). Typically, these assets have distinct, value-added attributes and are solid, qualified candidates to be difference-making players. They're the star players of your company that you can leverage and promote as differentiated brand assets or DBAs.
Your DBA candidates will typically fall into one of these three categories:
- Core Brand
- Products & Services
- Special Offerings
Below is additional information about how I create bold, proven solutions to differentiate your brand assets and leverage them as highly-effective memory anchors. And when the buyer is ready to purchase, your brand will be top-of-mind.
So, together ... Let's hit a brand slam.™
Core Brand
Your company or corporate brand, also known as your core brand, is much more than a logo, font type and color scheme.
Rather, a core brand represents your distinct competitive advantage and your company's reputation. So, what's the best course of action to address these two important factors, which will help you win more customers?
Differentiation of a core brand is the key to leveraging your competitive advantage and elevating your company's reputation to gain and keep a top-of-mind brand position.
Stand for Something Special
If you want to stand for something special and different in a crowded, perhaps commoditized market, I can help you devise a bold solution.
Products & Services
Implementing top-of-mind branding techniques for 'select' products and services is a bold move you can make to beat the competition.
I have the expertise to differentiate a product line and/or product attributes that'll help your products stand out in the 'sea of sameness.' How so? Through a highly-effective technique known as sub-branding.
If your firm has a service team or department providing support such as customer service, order management, tech support, etc., I can help create a service brand that will establish and promote your differentiation.
Your Winning Strategy
Differentiation of products and services is a winning strategy to outflank and outperform competitors in your industry.
Special Offerings
Many companies have special offerings that go beyond products and services, i.e., those extra offerings that deliver distinct value.
Examples of distinctiveness under the special offerings classification include: exclusive sales programs, manufacturing processes, webinars, SMEs, free analysis or testing, VIP initiatives, and more.
Branding Your Distinct Assets
The branding of special offerings is a bold and powerful sales/marketing tool. Brand names, logos and more are created for 'select' distinct assets, then leveraged and promoted to win more customers.
I've implemented differentiation for companies and their special offerings — all to achieve a competitive advantage and gain a top-of-mind brand position. I can do the same for you.
