Marketing experts say emotional connections, personal touch keys to long-term success
When you enter the very first Family Express store, you can’t miss the numerous brands that dot the interiors of the now almost 100 stores across Indiana. Gus Olympidis opened that first store in Valparaiso on Christmas Day 50 years ago.
Brands run strong in the stores — from well-known brands to the Family Express logo in white and all caps backed with teal to the salads and juices, sandwiches and salads in the Cravin’s Market section or the Java Wave coffee products.
But the branding falls flat without the “living brand,” Olympidis said. If customers aren’t greeted warmly by smiling, eager employees, and if they don’t feel even a little bit special, then the Family Express chain would be little more than a bunch of stores and gas stations, he said.
Instead, Family Express has won numerous customer service and convenience store awards.
A brand is nothing more than a promise. It’s just that simple.”
“A brand is nothing more than a promise. It’s just that simple,” Olympidis said.
From well-known companies like Family Express to Sylvan Learning Centers to Indiana’s tourism campaign, these brands use the combination of names, colors, logos and other design elements to differentiate one product from another. But to grow beyond the Region, these brands must make good on their promise.
That happens when a company generates emotional responses from consumers that result in good or lasting brands, area business leaders and marketing pros said time and time again.
“It’s not good branding if people walk away indifferent because indifference doesn’t get you anything but forgotten,” business consultant Cynthia Williams said. “That emotional response is key.”
Learning curve
Williams, originally from Gary, owns Ideation Zone, a marketing consulting firm for businesses of all sizes. She also is teaching a four-week class on branding for small business owners for the Urban League of North-west Indiana.
Everything is a brand now. Branding is so all encompassing now, that, depending on the type of company you are, it’s all about the touch, the feel, the digital.”
In her classes, she even dives into psychologist Abraham Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Needs to demonstrate how critical it is to generate an emotional response in the marketplace.
“Everybody’s idea of branding is not the same as mine, but the secret sauce is when you can demonstrate your ‘why’ for doing business,” Williams said. “We inherently buy a ‘why’ that matters for us more than we buy a product or service.”
That thought process has worked for Family Express. More stores are on the way, thanks to a $100 million expansion plan.
“Our promise is to build relationships with the community, and in a way, that goes toward emotional connection,” said Olympidis, who immigrated to the United States when he was 17 years old and is the company’s president and CEO.
But don’t call any of 90-plus Family Express stores a gas station around Olympidis. His managers hire and train employees to be “in the people business. Our secret sauce is building relationships.”
Bahiyah Shabazz, business consultant and owner of Decimalytics Inc., who sits on the Urban League’s advisory board, said local business owners need that type of branding training. That type of instruction was offered for free from the Urban League in June.
“Most people, when they think about branding, they think about, ‘OK, what color should I have for my business and what have you?’” Shabazz said. “But, it’s more than just that. (Williams) is talking to us about the delivery, but she’s also asking, how are we perceived? What does our brand really mean to the consumer?
“We’re hitting every level there is, so we make sure we connect with our clients. What emotions do they generate?”
Big ideas
Since opening its doors 23 years ago, MixDesign, which bills itself as offering “thoughtful brand solutions,” has represented huge names and small brands nationally and throughout northern Indiana.
The Hebron-based agency’s list of clients includes White Lodging, Church’s Chicken, Fair Oaks Farms, Von Tobel, U.S. Steel, the city of Whiting and many more, CEO and Executive Creative Director Michaline Tomich said.
For the past 10 years, her agency has specialized in marketing for agricultural companies, creating highly detailed, immersive experiences for clients. The agency recently landed a contract just outside of Dubai.
“Everything is a brand now. Branding is so all encompassing now, that, depending on the type of company you are, it’s all about the touch, the feel, the digital,” Tomich said. “Half of (the brand) is what you design, and half of it is the emotional connection you make with somebody, regardless of the product. You can do all the marketing you want, but if you’re not emotionally connecting with people, it’s not effective. You’re not meeting them.”
Tomich pointed to a small coffee shop in DeMotte that began hosting prayer groups in its store after a local young person was killed.
“That gesture at that shop grew until that emotional investment in the community became part of their brand,” Tomich said.
A location can spark plenty of emotions, and that’s partly why the statewide “IN Indiana” campaign has been a success, said Wade Breitzke, CEO of WeCreate, in Valparaiso.
The IN Indiana brand features a bright, red arrow with the word “IN” in large, white, block letters, pointing to the word, “Indiana” in black letters, with a white outline of the state of Indiana filling out the “D” in the state name.
The firm created the campaign after getting the nod from the Indiana Destination Development Corp., the state’s tourism marketing arm, and launched the campaign in 2022.
16B
The Indiana Destination Development Corp. reported that tourism generated this amount of revenue in 2023.
Tourism is big business in Indiana. According to the IDDC’s website, visitindiana.com, tourism generated $16.2 billion in 2023, up from $15.1 billion in 2022, and tourism supported 208,000 jobs in the state two years ago.
For every dollar the state invested in WeCreate’s campaign, it received a $10 return in just one year, said Breitzke, a Valparaiso resident. He credited growing up in the Hoosier state and internalizing its values, in part, with the campaign’s success.
When people think of Indiana, they think of humility and confidence, a spiritedness and being neighborly, a pro-business and pro-family environment, Breitzke said. It’s a vibe he called “Silicon soil,” comparing it to the “Silicon Valley,” famous as the birthing ground for many tech companies.
“(Indiana) is a place where you can actually build something and be supported,” Breitzke said.
The IN Indiana campaign also tested off the charts in research generated before the campaign’s launch, Breitzke said. Now, Indiana-based companies and public entities can add the “IN Indiana” brand to their names, as long as they comply with a handful of rules. It’s the first opensource in the entire United States, Breitzke said.
Along with posting dynamic action videos of things to see and do in Indiana, the IN Indiana website high-lights all kinds of private companies throughout the state. The site also includes a banner headline, “There’s a place for everyone IN Indiana.”
The IN Indiana campaign is open to any private or public entity, including links that promote Hammond, Fort Wayne, South Bend and Michigan City.
Personal touch
Branding and an emotional touch also work for smaller companies looking for a larger market share.
In the highly competitive world of educational services, having a strong “why” has helped Mishawaka’s Sarah Miller and her business partner Ken Tebow grow from owning a single Sylvan Learning Center in her hometown to owning 21 centers across Indiana, Florida and Maryland. They are Sylvan’s largest multi-center operators.
Personal service is the differentiator for us. That’s what we’re becoming known as, as the company that actually takes care of and partners with your business to make sure you’re taken care of.”
Nationally, Sylvan hosts annual marketing campaigns, but Miller said what happens at the local level of each site grows the Sylvan brand in the face of national competitors, like Huntington Learning Centers, or the countless small tutoring services that meet a Google search for “tutoring services.”
“It really is the personal touch, that local presence that works for us,” Miller said. “We truly believe building a relationship is the key to helping a student, getting to know those students and their families. We invest quite a bit in those relationships, so it’s not just walk in and we’ll tutor them, and then you leave.
“We want families to say, ‘I brought our kids to Sylvan, and I feel good about the outcomes. We want you to experience that, too.’”
Crown Point resident Steve Spurlock has a similar philosophy for his Payroll Vault franchise. He said he hopes personal service and close attention to customer service will continue to grow demand for Payroll Vault, a national company with 60 franchises across the nation. Spurlock’s sales area covers Northwest Indiana.
He wears Polo shirts with the green-and-white Payroll Vault logo, which also adorn his Jeep, but the way to compete with the huge payroll companies like ADP and Paychex is to make small customers feel appreciated.
“It’s the personal connection,” Spurlock said. “We look at business holistically. We look at what do you need for your payroll or what services are you missing. We look at your compliance. We look outside of just payroll.”
Payroll Vault has “robust software and systems,” just like the biggest players in the market, Spurlock said, but he shared several stories of clients and prospective customers calling or texting him on weekends or late afternoons, when he sensed urgency and confusion in their voices.
“It’s a highly saturated market,” Spurlock said. “There’s a lot of payroll options out there, including online and do-it-yourself products.
“Personal service is the differentiator for us. That’s what we’re becoming known as, as the company that actually takes care of and partners with your business to make sure you’re taken care of.” •
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