28 / SEEDWORLD.COM SEPTEMBER 2018 IN THE PREVIOUS installments in this series on branding, I’ve discussed the building blocks to begin understand- ing your brand and how to build it. The final stage to revamping your brand is to understand that your brand has a story to tell. For your brand to reflect the values of your audience, it has to engage with them through good content that shows what you’re about. That you practice what you preach, in a sense. But how do you go about drumming up ideas for content? There are a few ways. Think about people. Good stories are all about people. Your company is made up of people. Your brand is an expression of what those people are about. It has a story to tell. Maybe it’s a story of the person who developed a new product in your company. Or someone who has a new way of thinking about business or the industry. Your audience wants to feel personally connected to your brand. When it comes time to tell that story, you need to think about format. Once you decide on the story you’re going to tell, you need to decide the best way to tell it. In a written form? Audio? Video? There are several different tools you can use, and each has its own advantages. Written is the traditional and time- honored way of telling stories. It’s a personal form of storytelling. People like to sit down in a quiet place and read. It helps them to really connect with the subject matter. Some stories really lend themselves to video. And, it’s hugely popular in the online world. That said, video can require more resources. And, it can lack the “imagination” aspect of the written form, which allows people to create pictures in their mind. Audio content offers many of the advantages of video in terms of its digital appeal. Podcasts are immensely popular. It often doesn’t require as many resources as video to produce, and still allows your audience to create an image in their mind and fill in the blanks themselves. All three of these formats have their place. With the advent of the online world, video and audio are more popu- lar than ever, and becoming easier to produce. Use all the tools at your disposal to show that your brand is tech-savvy, rel- evant and progressive. Your audience will appreciate it, and you’ll reap the benefits. 3 Must Haves for Your Branding Toolbox GLENN FRIESEN MERIDIAN MANUFACTURING SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT @GfriesenGlenn • gfriesen@meridianmfg.com • meridianmfg.com I HAVE ENJOYED taking in the stories from the Seed World Insiders since it started, and I’m pleased to be a contribu- tor. It seems like my first obligation is to introduce myself and my company, O’Mara Ag Services. I founded this com- pany in 1998. We are a design-build-con- struction company to the seed industry. We manufacture just about anything in a seed plant and are agents for such com- panies as Buhler, Oliver Mfg. and Hamer- Fischbein. Twenty years ago does seem like yesterday and holy crap, the changes (and opportunities) we’ve seen: consoli- dation, technology to optimize processes, safety becoming way more than a second thought, our workforce, the economy, health care, prices, tariffs and the world! The time it now takes between imagining, designing, testing and building things is shorter than ever. We have been lucky enough to share in the success stories of many seed com- panies. Some of my favorite things are seeing how much better people’s lives are when they make improvements, squeeze more into less space, get more capac- ity, dry seed better and faster, experi- ence fewer breakdowns, create less seed damage, or throw away less good seed. I have a bunch of really smart folks working here that help make me look smarter. They are real people who put your needs first. We take a “build in the seedsmanship at manufacturing” approach to design plus a “pre-build all we can” approach to construction. This helps overcome what seems to be a diminishing skillset among installers and ultimately rewards our customers with more value and less cost. Being more seed friendly, more user-friendly, more installer-friendly, more engineer-friendly, more service-friendly and more pocket- book friendly are our sincere goals. We count personal responsibility and integrity as some of our basic core values. While it seems like we charge plenty for what we do, what we charge says a great deal about what we deliver. We do deliver extra value. Like the rest of business owners, and managers and – quite honestly – most men, I’m still 35 in my head, in spite of what the calendar says. I don’t know when to stop. I spend, I borrow, and I’ve learned to live at the edge of my comfort zone. I’ve learned that I have more gears than I thought. Greetings! ROBIN O’MARA, O’MARA AG SERVICES PRESIDENT Romara60@msn.com • omara-ag.com