Mastering Market Differentiation: Insights from Barry LaBov

Want to discover the secret to standing out in a crowded market? Join us as we chat with Barry LaBov of LaBov Marketing and Communications, a former rock musician turned marketing maestro. LaBov takes us on his unique journey, offering invaluable insights into the world of marketing, sales, promotions, and advertising. Learn from his experiences with iconic brands like Harley Davidson and Volkswagen, and understand why differentiation is crucial not just in business, but in every field. LaBov introduces the compelling concept of the "commodity monster" and warns against the perils of competing solely on price, urging businesses to maintain their unique attributes to avoid commoditization.

We also dive into the heart of creating meaningful business strategies to retain employees and ensure productivity. Labov shares his thoughts on the pitfalls faced by the photo imaging industry, using Kodak's mistakes as a learning opportunity. He emphasizes redefining business objectives and staying ahead of industry trends to add value and stand out. Get practical advice on effective marketing strategies, consistent branding, and the challenges faced by brick-and-mortar businesses transitioning to online platforms. Don't miss this chance to gain valuable lessons on the nuanced art of avoiding commoditization and building a standout brand.

The Dark Horse Entrepreneur | Helping Parents Make Money Online
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Chapters

• 0:02 Standing Out in a Commodity Market
• 13:13 [Ad] The Dark Horse Entrepreneur | Helping Parents Make Money Online
• 13:39 (Cont.) Standing Out in a Commodity Market
• 14:50 Creating Meaningful Business Strategies
• 21:28 Effective Marketing Strategies and Customer Feedback

Transcript

Erin Manning: 0:02

Welcome to the Dead Pixel Society podcast, the photo imaging industry's leading news source. Here's your host, gary Pegeau. The Dead Pixel Society podcast is brought to you by Mediaclip, advertag Printing and Independent Photo Imagers.

Gary Pageau: 0:18

Hello again and welcome to the Dead Pixel sSociety podcast. I'm your host, Gary Page. Today, we're joined by Barry Labove of Labove Marketing and Communications, and he's an expert on how not to be a commodity. Hi Barry, how are you today?

Barry LaBov: 0:32

I'm doing great, Gary. How are you?

Gary Pageau: 0:34

So before we get started on the podcast, the topic itself, I like to just ask people a little bit about their background, how they got to where we are today. How, how did I end up talking to you?

Barry LaBov: 0:47

well, it's been a long story. I was originally a musician. I was a rock musician and my music sold well under 1 million copies, Gary and uh. So I had a rock band, uh, back in the 1980s and it really influenced me on how important it is to differentiate what you do, because there are a million rock bands, there are a million songs. How do you stand out? So, as my winding journey through my life has continued, I started my own advertising and marketing company and today we work out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Scottsdale, Arizona and Dallas, Texas. Our clients include some really well-known companies and some small ones, but some of the well-known ones are Harley Davidson, Macallen Scotch, Audi, Volkswagen really wonderful companies like that and some wonderful smaller companies as well.

Gary Pageau: 1:44

What instrument?

Barry LaBov: 1:45

did you play? I started out on drums, but I wanted to write songs. It's very hard to write a song on drums, so I learned how to play keyboards, and at one point I was playing keyboards and drums at the same time, which I'm sure was pretty horrific sounding. But I turned into a keyboardist. I'm a competent one, but my big thing was creating. It's all about doing something that hasn't been done before. That's what it's all about for me.

Gary Pageau: 2:13

Which kind of translates into some of the marketing stuff. Right, because you want to be, you know, creative in marketing. So I got a question. You know, when somebody said they're in marketing and communication, sometimes marketing means different things to different people. For this conversation, what do you mean by marketing?

Barry LaBov: 2:29

That's a great question, and I do think marketing gets confused with sales, which gets confused with promotions, which gets confused with advertising. It's like, oh my gosh, marketing is all about creating a message that will separate you from others in your space.

Erin Manning: 2:48

That's why?

Barry LaBov: 2:49

also, honestly, Gary, some lousy marketing is the kind of marketing where you sound like everybody else you mentioned commodity where you just sound like the normal typical company making the same promises, normal typical company making the same promises. And really the ideal marketing for each of us, everybody in your audience, is to be able to make a statement that literally nobody else can make. And it doesn't mean you're superior and I can share a little bit into that with you but it doesn't mean you're superior in every way. It means you're doing things for a certain reason that just happened to be a little different. That's what we call differentiation, right?

Gary Pageau: 3:30

So I've had other marketing experts on and they really kind of brought up that point too, which I kind of reinforce to people, because you always see, especially in bigger companies, sort of this weird marriage in the corporate structure of you got a vice president of sales and marketing and the person maybe doesn't even do either one very well in my opinion. What are your thoughts on that?

Barry LaBov: 3:55

Well, I'm probably going to irritate a few of my clients that are going to hear this, but most of my sales and marketing clients are salespeople who are fantastic salespeople, who have been forced into doing the marketing and advertising, and it's just a different mindset. It's not totally different, but they are different and I think it's a different thought pattern of how do I close the deal right now, which is sales versus marketing. Okay, how do we differentiate ourselves and what are the best investments on how we can differentiate ourselves going forward on our website or our social media? They're very different mindsets for people.

Gary Pageau: 4:40

Okay. So I just wanted to clarify that, because you know that a lot and it's almost always, like you said, a sales guy who can come up with a snappy response or something, and there's nothing wrong with that. You need your sales function, but it's not a marketing approach where maybe you're crafting a long-term message that's going to grow with people over time so that it will lead to sales when people are ready to buy.

Barry LaBov: 5:09

Exactly right. And sometimes the pressure for sales is look, I've got to sell this thing. Ok, what do I need to do? I'm going to lower the price Now. If I lower price long term, I have to also get rid of some of the bells and whistles. And I've got to carve away some of those rough edges that are unique and I got to round them and I got to be cheaper. And that's what we call the commodity monster, Gary, and that's one of the terms we use at our company. But people will want you to become a commodity. The pressure is on make sure you're cheap, Make sure you get rid of any of these unique attributes, that you can be the cheapest in the category. The problem is it's a race to the bottom, as they say, and the point is it's demoralizing for the people who work at that company, because who cares anymore? We're just going to make it cheaper. We're no longer unique or distinct, so why should I even do a great job?

Gary Pageau: 6:07

So in the photo industry, there's a couple of different businesses, right, so there's a hardware business, right? So you're selling cameras, you're selling lenses, you're selling accessories. In most cases, those products are not, or either, identical to what you can get online. Right, and that's a lot of your big competition. How would you approach a non-commodity approach to selling a product everyone else has and you have no influence over? You know its design, its creation, its own branding, right? If you're carrying one of the big brands, you're kind of you know you're using their marketing collateral when you show it to the customers.

Barry LaBov: 6:47

That's a great question. I'll give everybody in the audience a wonderful example. There's a company called Sweetwater. They're the nation's number one online retailer for music equipment. They sell exactly the same equipment that Amazon does the same guitar, the same keyboard, the same microphone. How in the world can they separate themselves? And they do it in one way, because they're not going to be cheaper. They may be about the same price, but they're not going to be cheaper In their case. What they've done is they have identified that they have a very unique experience, a customer experience. So when you get on Amazon, there's no human, there's nobody that says hey, gary, you ought to try this. Hey, Gary, you need a different one of these. Hey, Gary, what about? Nobody says that they go. What do you want? Here's the price.

Barry LaBov: 7:41

With Sweetwater, they assign you a human being, a live, sentient human being, who will actually say hello. They will ask what kind of music do you play? What do you like to listen to? Who is your favorite? I'll make this up Favorite guitars. Oh, that guitarist uses this kind of string. Oh, that guitarist uses this kind of string. Oh, that guitar is used to this kind of guitar. What happens is they have differentiated themselves in the experience. And one thing I think is interesting and should be very interesting for the audience is they are primarily in a digital space, so they're selling digital equipment, but they're using old school customer experience to separate them. So if you want to know what kind of guitar to buy, you go to Sweetwater because you're going to talk to a man or a woman who is your sales engineer they don't call them salesperson, sales engineer and you will learn what they recommend and you'll have trust in them. That's how you differentiate in a relatively commodity environment.

Gary Pageau: 8:47

That's interesting because I've actually bought stuff from them. I'm not a musician myself, but I have bought some audio gear from them and it is a good experience. I will attest to that, so that's interesting. So what you're saying is because I think what a lot of the camera store world rely on is an in-store experience right, an over-the-counter experience, or maybe they do workshops or classes or something like that to build that. But you're saying you can even do this online if you're a specialty retailer.

Barry LaBov: 9:16

You can do it online. And another thing take a look at what you offer. That's unique. So an example here is again if it's a store, that is a brick and mortar store, and somebody walks in, here are a couple of questions yes, do you offer any level of expertise or are you just taking orders? If you're just taking orders, you're probably going to have to have the lowest price. Okay, but do you have a certain warranty? Do you have a warranty? That's unique. Here's an example Gary, I work with a truck manufacturer.

Barry LaBov: 9:51

They told me and this is typical most people look at their offering and they're very negative about it. They go ah, we don't do anything different, we're the same as everyone else. I go okay, okay. So I asked the truck manufacturer. I said okay, what about your warranty? And they go no, no, no, we're the. I asked the truck manufacturer, I said OK, what about your warranty? And they go no, no, no, we're the same as everybody. Actually, we're worse. We only have a one year warranty. Yeah, it's, we're terrible. I say so, everything's a one year warranty. And the leader said well, we do have our frame warranty and that's a lifetime warranty.

Barry LaBov: 10:22

And I said well, wait a minute, is that normal in your industry? And they said well, no, no, nobody has a lifetime warranty, because our frame is made from a certain steel that we import from Sweden and it never breaks.

Barry LaBov: 10:36

I said. I said, guys, you can't top that.

Barry LaBov: 10:38

I said, guys, you have a differentiation here. And they go. What are you talking about? I go, you have a warranty that's lifetime. Nobody else has it. And they went. Oh, the point is, it could be a warranty, it could be the experience that you offer. One thing to keep in mind is the person who walks into a store and buys anything could be camera equipment, could be a car and buys anything Could be camera equipment, could be a car, doesn't matter you walk into a store, the experience you get is the brand in your mind.

Barry LaBov: 11:12

That's the brand, whether or not the owner of the store is there or not, whether or not the people who are selling it have anything to do with making the product, nothing matters. It's the brand. I walked in, it's the cheapest price I get. I get no support, I get nothing. That's the brand to me. If I walk in and I am getting guidance, I am getting potentially a warranty or a service agreement. That's actually kind of unique. Then there's a reason for me to do it If I have a great return policy. That's why one of the secrets of Amazon is that they actually are independent of the products they sell. They want you to give a review. They don't want you to say, oh, it's great. They want you to tell the truth because they're going to pit one brand against another and if you don't like it, that's great, just return it. They're great about it because they're making their experience. Now they're not giving you any expertise in this experience.

Barry LaBov: 12:10

But what they are giving you is ease of return. Again, that's their differentiation. And up to Amazon, keep in mind I think we all remember this You'd buy something online and you're pretty much out of luck. If it doesn't work, I mean you're done.

Gary Pageau: 12:25

Right.

Barry LaBov: 12:25

Right, I mean, you got to fight and fight, and fight.

Gary Pageau: 12:28

Try and get a human in Amazon right to deal with a return. Almost impossible, that's right.

Barry LaBov: 12:32

So they were brilliant in that they said look, we're not going to have humans, so we'll make our return policy a differentiator.

Gary Pageau: 12:40

When you talk about someone on the front counter, you know transactional type experience. Obviously that's what most people don't want to have. How do you get your employees to believe in that message? Buying some cameras and the person at the front counter is really representing you?

Barry LaBov: 13:12

Well, they've got a buy-in. That's a great point and if I had above camera, I'm going to be talking to my employees. I'm going to have my leaders talking to employees every day, not once a year, not once a month, and we're going to be describing to our team what we do and why and what difference we make. You know, gary walks in twice a month because Gary I'm going to make this up Gary is doing weddings and he's doing this and that we want Gary to look like a hero. So we've got to make sure Gary's always equipped. We've got to make sure nothing ever goes bad when he's doing this.

Gary Pageau: 14:04

He's got a second battery or a backup Right.

Barry LaBov: 14:08

Right, we are there and we're there to back him up. So we're not the heroes and this is what I tell the people in my company. We are not the heroes, we're the people behind the heroes and the people behind the heroic brands. Okay, that's who we are. We're behind the scenes. So at my company, my people know that wait a minute, if the client calls at 930 at night, we're going to answer our cell phone and we're going to say, hey, how can I help you? Because we know that we need to take care of that client. We're there to serve the client.

Barry LaBov: 14:41

One thing that's very, very important for all of our listeners is that people today more than ever, need to feel a sense of significance, right? If they do not feel that what they're doing has meaning, then let's just all be honest. Why are they working other than they're just going to make a few bucks an hour off you? And if that's all they're doing, they're going to go down the street somewhere else for a quarter more an hour and you have to now retrain somebody. So we've got to explain what we're doing and why. What difference are we making in our customer's life?

Gary Pageau: 15:18

So let's flip the script a little bit. There's other kinds of businesses, obviously in the photo imaging industry, and one of them is like people who make prints and output. Now the challenge we've got there in the marketplace is it's not growing tremendously, so it's a big discount environment right now, and you said something earlier about you know. Then you lower prices or whatever. The challenge is is, once you go down that path, it's very difficult to recover.

Barry LaBov: 15:45

Yeah, you don't recover very easily once you become the low price leader, because there's really not much you can bank on. There's really not much you can bank on. The danger in that is and that's this whole commoditization situation is that, once you go down the path and you have reduced price, here's your pressure. Your pressure is we're hardly making any money on this. I cannot afford to pay people correctly. I cannot afford to have the right number of people. I cannot afford to pay people correctly. I cannot afford to have the right number of people. I cannot afford to provide the level of service. I'm stuck.

Barry LaBov: 16:23

So what it does mean, though, is you have to look for opportunities. You've got to be creative in every area. Is there a new approach to this? Is there a new utilization of that type of product? Who is out there doing something unique? Let's celebrate what that person is doing and let's bring that to other customers of ours. It's a constant situation where we have to reinvent ourselves, and, if you think about it, kodak used to lead photography industry, and they turned their back on digital way back. Ok, the person who created the first digital camera worked at Kodak, right? And they decide no, we're not going down that path. Ok. So we have to realize we have to stay ahead of the game. We've got to be there and as and it should be doing this, by the way as the world is changing and it should we've got to stay a step ahead. What are the opportunities? What are the new approaches to what we offer?

Gary Pageau: 17:26

Well, I never argue with guests, but the perception that Kodak did not take advantage of digital cameras is not actually accurate. But what they didn't do is commit to get away from film and chemical process. That was the downfall they tried to be into.

Gary Pageau: 17:46

But they had more digital cameras than a lot of people. They were in the high-end market, the medium market, the low market. They were all with voice. But you're right in the sense that they were a leader in the marketplace and now they are not a leader in the marketplace, right? And and I think part of that was there was a mismatch also, you know, between like things they did well and what they thought their company was right. They thought they were a photography company, when they were actually a chemicals company. They were really great at doing things with chemicals, and so that, I think, was the mismatch there, and that's where I think the ball was perhaps fumbled. So no, no, that's a good point.

Barry LaBov: 18:24

That's a great point because sometimes we think we know what our business is or what our talent is. And when I left my rock band, I was worried that, oh my gosh, I've kind of sold out and I'm not going to do what I love. But I learned that my life is about being creative, sure, and I found it's a brand new world to be creative in marketing and helping companies and you know things like that. But you're right, it's. You know, are you a chemical company or are you a photography company? Right? And that's a great question. And I think sometimes we have to look at that with our businesses and say, ok, what do we do? Do we make brochures or do we help people grow their business? Right, exactly.

Gary Pageau: 19:09

Are we a photo book printer or do we help people celebrate the moments in their lives? Right, because you can do photo books with both of those. But it's a very different approach, because if you're just a photo book printer, you may go down the path of you know, we're going to be the low cost provider, we're going to be cheap, cheap, cheap. We may skimp on the paper a little bit, maybe the cover isn't as good. But if we're there to celebrate people's moments in their lives and preserve it forever and have a keepsake, well, you can add margin in that, you can add features to that, you can demonstrate why that's better.

Barry LaBov: 19:46

You're right, and that's a really great insight, because all of a sudden, then the shackles are off. You're not chained to saying, okay, we have to do it. Just this exact way. We might add some other attributes to what we offer. There may be some other products that go along with this, because we're preserving memories, we're celebrating what is most important in our lives, right, which is different than hey, here's a print. Do you want another print? Everything begins and ends with a print, and your point is really good there, because what are we really doing for our customers, as opposed to what are we comfortable saying our output is so. That's a great point.

Gary Pageau: 20:27

We talked a little bit earlier about marketing, and it was interesting because, as I was listening, you almost said advertising separately, right? There's a lot of people who would put them together, that they are essentially the same thing. I see, perhaps, advertising as a tool marketing uses, but it's not the same thing. So what's your perception?

Barry LaBov: 20:50

No, I agree with you. I think I look at it very similarly. Advertising is a collection of tools and you pull them out. Gee, do you want to advertise on Facebook? Do you want to advertise on? Right, and that makes sense. The thing that's so important is it's not just getting out there as many times as possible. What's most important is what is your message? There are 200,000 words in the English language 200,000 words. So the challenge I have for all in the audience is when you describe your business, are you using overused words like value service?

Barry LaBov: 21:32

things like that If everyone else is using those terms, then let's be a little more creative. Ultimately, the business most of your audience is in is creative. There is a creative out, absolutely, and so we, as creatives, we got to think creatively. It can't be I just do service, quality and value. It's like, okay, well, wake me up when you're done, telling me what you do, right?

Gary Pageau: 21:58

That message isn't any different than Burger King, for example. Right, I mean, they can say the same thing if they want to.

Barry LaBov: 22:06

Right, and that's again what we have to get back to is what do we do, and can we pick just a few unique words or terms? And the other side of the coin is, gary. If you've got competitors that are using certain terms, get away from those terms. Stop using them, because you're really reminding people of that competitor. So, again, use your language to help set yourself apart.

Gary Pageau: 22:32

Now one of the challenges I think people have with marketing because they get creative right is not sticking with things right. They want to change their message a lot. They want to refresh the logo, they want to have a new tagline. But if you look at some of the most successful companies, they want to have a new tagline.

Barry LaBov: 23:34

But if you look at some of the most successful companies, they stick with it.

Barry LaBov: 23:35

They don't change their primary message very much. So, for a small, it comes to your brand. Don't try to be too clever, don. I have OK, and there are many times that, especially small business owners, because you don't get the rich feedback from the one or two people or your family members because they're going yeah, yeah, sure, go ahead, do it. What happens is you try to be too clever, right, and you try to be for lack of a better word too creative in that, hey, let's change our logo, let's change the font or let's change the color. Ok, well, you know what? Let's come up with a new tagline. So if anybody out there struggling and thinking you know, if we had a new logo and we had a new tagline, it would all be different. If we had a new logo and we had a new tagline, it would all be different.

Barry LaBov: 24:15

I will help you right now and say don't waste your energy on that. Waste your energy. Invest your energy better than that is. Put that energy into identifying who the audience is, exactly what they want and why you offer one or two unique attributes that they think are valuable. Don't change the logo. In fact, most of the time, clients come to us because we have a process where we work with clients and we learn all about them. We actually go into their facilities if it's a plant or factory, as an example, and we technically walk through and take a look at the unique technologies, the metallurgy, the equipment, all this and we then by the fourth step of our five steps, gary. We then look at their logo.

Barry LaBov: 25:02

But it's our fourth step, and 80% of the time we either say don't waste your time on a new logo, or we say your logo could be updated a little bit, but not very much, because we don't want to throw away all the brand cache or value that you have. And, by the way, there's some famous companies out there that have, you know, mediocre logos and they've done quite well.

Gary Pageau: 25:26

Right, you know it's so. I think one of the things that people are challenged with with logos in particular is you know it's so. I think one of the things that people are challenged with with logos in particular is you know, maybe it was designed for the print world right back in the day and but it doesn't translate well to the digital world, right, it doesn't look good on a screen or whatever. So I think that's where that may be a case. You could say yeah, that needs to be updated and improved is more for a format change than a message change, I guess.

Barry LaBov: 25:54

Yeah, right, and I think you could look at colors and say, okay, digitally, this color is not going to translate. You need a digital color. You need a color that will be more uniform. You don't want that blue to look very much, you know, very light in one application, very dark. You also don't want it on a polo shirt. You can't even tell what the heck the logo is.

Barry LaBov: 26:15

Right you know we go too far on the value of what a logo is and we go too light on the value of. Okay, how are we positioning ourselves uniquely Right?

Gary Pageau: 26:27

Do you work with any like? I mean, it sounds like you work with some big companies. Do you ever work with, like brick and mortar people who are trying to transition into online businesses as well? I'm just kind of curious. Well, the clients, you see what their thought process is, because a lot of times I feel people got into a business to be brick and mortar right, I want to have a craft store, I want to have this. And then, when they did online, it was like, well, I have to have something, I have to have a craft store, I want to have this. And then, when they did online, it was like, well, I have to have something, I have to have a website. But they don't really opt, you know, maximize it, make it a big part of their business. Do you ever work with folks like that?

Barry LaBov: 26:59

yeah, we work with a number of folks who, either themselves or their distributor dealer network is very brick and mortar and one of the awkward things for them to tackle is okay, how do we go online? Right, because the challenge for them is they think all we need to do is have a website and somebody can order stuff and we're done. But that's not enough.

Barry LaBov: 27:25

You know that's you create a new situation when you go online like that, and one of the things we work with clients, such as those companies, is we try to explain to them that, yes, go online, create an online store, that's awesome, but realize it's not for your convenience, it's for your customers convenience. So if you think we can go online, I can get rid of some of my salespeople. I don't have to talk to these pesky clients anymore and they'll go buy more stuff than ever. You're probably wrong, because you've created a new expectation out there. So, yes, I've worked with many of them. It can be very valuable. I mean, I've worked with some. I've helped them transform from a fax machine to selling online, which is a pretty big jump. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, because there are a lot of family businesses out there that still use fax machines and all. But I think the thing we have to realize that and Amazon's a great example it's still an experience. Sure, so when you put it up on your website and it's an e-commerce site, ok, that's great.

Barry LaBov: 28:39

But the question then is OK, what is your experience? What are you delivering? You know, is somebody going to be able to ask a question? So Gary goes. I don't know what this means. Are they able to quickly ask a question? So Gary goes, I don't know what this means. Are they able to quickly ask a question and get an answer? Or is it like well, too bad, which then will make you feel like it's a wasted effort and you leave and never come back? So it's a new experience and it does not take the place of human interaction.

Gary Pageau: 29:09

So speaking of customer and their input. There's more customer inputs now than ever. Right, If you're in the store, people come in and complain or they'll give you feedback within air quotes, but there's also email people are sending. There's also reviews people are leaving. There's also all that kind of stuff. As a person with a marketing viewpoint, you know you hate to see any negative feedback, but not all of it is valuable. What are some of the ways people can kind of wait feedback as it comes in, Because I think that's a big issue people have with so much input being coming in?

Barry LaBov: 29:47

One thing I can really recommend is that we look at feedback and look. I hate negative feedback, just like everybody else, so I don't say I love it.

Barry LaBov: 29:55

No, I hate it. Here's the thing that's interesting. There was a survey done decades ago by IBM, and what they did is they surveyed hundreds of thousands of their customers as to their satisfaction, and one group that they looked at was dissatisfied customers. They also looked at satisfied customers, but then there was a unique group, gary called dissatisfied customers made satisfied, and I think this is very interesting for everybody. So, satisfied customers, 84 percent likely to repeat business with you that's very high. And it's because, because we looked at the information, it's because they said look, so-and-so's company stinks, but the competitor down the street stinks too.

Erin Manning: 30:57

So I'll just stay with these guys, I'll go with the less stinky.

Barry LaBov: 31:01

Right. But here's where it's really interesting. The dissatisfied customers that were made satisfied were 92% likely to repeat. They were more loyal than the customer who never really had a problem. So here, in a nutshell, is the learning Number one when you have that dissatisfied customer and you satisfy them, they get to know you a little bit. So I had a bad experience and Gary got on the phone and he fixed it. You know, I kind of like him. He's a good guy. All of a sudden, now I've connected with you or your company. Right, that's number one. Number two, at least I can say you listened to me, you paid attention.

Barry LaBov: 31:44

Here's the danger of the. You know the bad reviews, or you know, or the negative comments from customers. If we ignore them, they're even more angry at us. So I leave a review on Yelp, or I leave a review with such, or I get an email and I give you a six out of 10. If you do not respond and say well, thank you for this. You know what you mentioned. Blah, blah, blah. We're going to take action on it. I really appreciate if you do not respond. The assumption is this you don't care, you have lousy service or whatever, and you know what. I'm not coming back because I tried to help you and you're not even paying attention to me. So if you're going to solicit for feedback, not only should you listen to it, you should let those who give you the feedback know you're listening to them. You don't have to do everything they say, but they have to feel you care enough and you respect their thoughts and their time.

Gary Pageau: 32:45

So you've got a book. You've got a book on this I do. Minds us a little bit about the book.

Barry LaBov: 32:52

The book is called the Power of Differentiation, the subtitle is Win minds and Market Share, and it's all about finding the uniqueness in your brand it could be for a small company or a large one and doing something that's very, very unique and that is celebrating not just educating celebrating that uniqueness with the most important people in the world your employees and anyone else could be dealer, distributors, stores, whatever who represent your brand. That's critical. Then you launch it to the world, then you tell the world, and that's what the book's about. It's filled with stories of small and large businesses that did this. It's not my memoir. It's got a lot of very interesting information.

Gary Pageau: 33:45

rock and roll drummer memoir that one's published Rummer memoir.

Barry LaBov: 33:52

That one's published. No, this one's a lot more interesting than that, but it's a very entertaining book because the people involved in it are really interesting people. They're fantastic leaders of businesses, entrepreneurs, and they're telling in their own way, a story of how they differentiated themselves.

Gary Pageau: 34:12

Okay, so where can LaBov people go to learn more about you and all the things you do with your company? barrylabov.

Barry LaBov: 34:20

My company's name is Labov Marketing and Communication. Labov is L-A-B, as in boy, o-v, as in Victor Okay, it's a strange name L-A-B-O-V, so you can go to labovcom and you can find me there. You can look at all the work we do. You can leave a message for me. That's great. You can go to Barry Labov and my name is B-A-R-R-Y, so it's barrylabovcom. Go there, we have a special button. You just go, press it and there are some thank yous for all the podcast listeners that are listening to me and we'll give away some free PDFs and documents. Nobody has to give their email address. You can also sign up for more information for the book, because the book will be released within two months and we'll let you know when the release date is. So those are some ways. Barrylabovecom pretty simple site, pretty positive.

Gary Pageau: 35:18

Awesome, barry. Listen, it's been great talking with you. I appreciate your advice and sharing your story and look forward to catching up with you down the road.

Barry LaBov: 35:25

Thanks, Thank you, Gary. I love your energy and I love what you bring to all these podcasts. It's fantastic.

Erin Manning: 35:32

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