Great Brands in Augusta

In this episode, Alex and Daniel dig deep to share Augusta brands that do it well.

You'll learn about what it takes to have a solid brand hook, brand look, and what get's their audiences shook!

We'll take a look at three iconic Augustan brands that have the founders of Wier/Stewart craving for more.

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Transcript

[00:00:01.790] - Jackie

Hey, and welcome to another episode of the Weird/Smart podcast! I'm your host, Jackie Rogers, and I'm the social media strategist here at Wier/Stewart. And today with me, I have Alex Wier and Daniel Stewart.

[00:00:14.900] - Jackie

I've invited them here to talk with us about their favorite branding around the country. We'll dig into the businesses brand look, brand hook and what gets their audiences shook. So let's get started.

[00:00:26.240] - Jackie

Daniel, I'm going to throw this first one to you. Do you have a favorite branding in the CSRA that you love?

[00:00:32.820] - Daniel

Favorite branding in the CSRA? Uh, I mean, it would be so corny to start with one that we had that we have done the branding for, which kind of narrows it down to a few because we've been lucky enough to work with a lot of folks over the last 15 years or so.

[00:00:53.290] - Daniel

I'll do one just out of total nepotism, but I think Vera at VeryVera has a really strong brand in Augusta 

[00:01:04.300] - Alex

That is some nepotizz; that's big time.

[00:01:06.400] - Daniel

Big time. But I'll I'll explain what's up.

[00:01:09.000] - Jackie

Well, I'm going to ask questions and then you can.

[00:01:10.930] - Daniel

OK.

[00:01:12.970] - Jackie

For Vera. Brand look. What do we like about it?

[00:01:17.090] - Daniel

Yeah. So. For those that don't know, Vera is my mother and she started this business and when we moved to Augusta when I was, like, two years old, catering out of her house.

[00:01:28.330] - Daniel

But she's southern. She's pretty bold for those that know her. They know how hard she works. And she has kind of a commitment to excellence. But the cool thing about her brand is the look has kind of this 50's hospitality vibe to it. So it feels - it feels very friendly and homey, you know?

[00:01:53.740] - Daniel

But, when you combine kind of the spirit of Vera -- which can be kind of scary if you work for and make a mistake around her -- it's like I said, she demands the excellence.

[00:02:07.480] - Alex

I've always loved Vera. Because Daniel and I are partners here, she is kind of like my mom, but she's not my mom. So she kind of has, I kind of live in this zone of tolerance with her that I like to push. I like to cuss around her and she would just eviscerate other people for. But I kind of get away with it because I kind of have this weird, kind of like I'm her kid, but I'm not.

[00:02:31.280] - Daniel

Yeah, that's true.

[00:02:33.210] - Jackie

That's awesome. So with Vera's brand, she probably has like a really strong hook. What what's the hook? What, what gets us got?

[00:02:43.100] - Alex

To me, she's the hook and in her brand, no doubt you know what I mean. Like all the all the stuff that's built around it is is cool and has a very, I think, appropriate vibe for her. But she's just such an interesting. Person. Yeah, she's I mean, that stuff is just ultimately about her and a lot of ways.

[00:03:04.020] - Jackie

Yeah, and I mean, I met her once -- no, I've met her a couple of times now.

[00:03:07.440] - Jackie

She's  one of the strongest people I have met. This tiny woman, who has basically built an empire for herself.  It's fantastic to see what she's been able to accomplish on her own, or the stuff that she's done at the Masters, or anything like that.

[00:03:24.480] - Daniel

Yeah. And just to kind of elaborate on brand with with her, I think that she's done -- and this goes way beyond the visuals because, you know, a brand is way more than the logo that we create for someone or anything like that. So, when people hear her and she's lucky to have somewhat of a, you know, a different kind of iconic name that's outside the norm, I mean, if she was like a Laura, or like an Ashley or or, you know, I guess something that was a little bit more common, maybe it would be a little harder.

[00:03:53.430] - Daniel

But  in this in this town, when you hear Vera, all of those things that are kind of imbued into her brand kind of come to mind. And that's really the hallmark of a great brand is if you see the mark, or you hear the word or the name of the company or something like that, all of those values and attributes kind of come to your mind immediately.

[00:05:11.830] - Jackie

Well, I believe this feeds into my next question a little bit. I want to know what gets her audiences shook. What keeps audiences coming back for more Vera? 

[00:05:25.090] - Alex

I think I think that's. So this is interesting.

[00:05:28.600] - Alex

My cousin Terry in Florida, I don't know how -- like, Vera's show because could be has like a show two -- and you've just got to be enough, you have to be a personality to be able to carry a show by yourself basically. Right. But my cousin Terry saw it and she just totally lost her shit like she freaked out about Veera and that you knew her. She didn't know that I knew her.

[00:05:51.790] - Alex

She called me and asked me if I knew her. And I was like, yeah, I know her. And I got her to sign a cookbook and send it to her. And apparently she's going to go down there and film.

[00:06:04.030] - Daniel

Yeah, she was down there in Tampa.

[00:06:05.530] - Alex

Yeah. Weeks ago.But she she just I mean, she just some people just love her. 

[00:06:13.360] - Daniel

People like the personality in her product is good. I mean, if you if you grew up around here, you've been to a wedding that she's catered or you've had a cake from her mailer cake business that she had for years.

[00:06:26.320] - Alex

The cakes are good.

[00:06:27.100] - Daniel

Yeah. And so it's you know, it's comfort food and southern and sweet hospitality. And maybe your kid goes to her cooking camp, so she's pretty ingrained in the community.

[00:06:41.020] - Daniel

I mean, you've had a run in with Vera or one of her products or one of her events before. So, she's kind of covered this town like a blanket in a lot of ways. So everybody's had some kind of association with her brand or an experience with her brand before.

[00:06:59.470] - Alex

Yeah. She just kind of very authentically what she is, you know, because she has, like, the etiquette piece of it, you know, and like this this. Big like self responsibility, can't remember the word I'm looking for, but, you know, just like she's hard charging and then, you know, but also a great, very hospitable, but also very strong. And so I think she she is what she is. And I think and she will challenge you to arm wrestling and likely win.

[00:07:29.780] - Daniel

Yeah. I think there are just times and I think one of the, you know, major efforts of bringing some branding stuff, especially with something like she's doing this, like if you're authentically who you are, then people are going to gravitate towards it because she is generally not faking anything.

[00:07:48.410] - Jackie

That's awesome. Yeah. And if any of you [listening] want to get a chance to take a glimpse into VeryVera, you can check out her socials on her Facebook or Instagram or Pinterest.

[00:07:58.040] - Jackie

Alright. Next one. I feel like we have another one in us. Is there another brand in the CSRA that we want to highlight? Let's dig deep.

[00:08:06.950] - Alex

I mean, besides the Masters, which, you know, can we even talk about that one here? Because it's just it's such a it's such a massive brand, but it's such a it's such a specific flavor. But that's I mean, it's from here. But that's huge.

[00:08:24.050] - Daniel

I think that we can just put a put a pin in that one and say that.

[00:08:27.200] - Alex

I mean, I just say everybody knows that's a good one.

[00:08:29.480] - Daniel

Correct.

[00:08:29.930] - Daniel

And it's and it's cool to for that brand and our town.

[00:08:35.300] - Alex

And I'll go with another very southern foodie. One is WifeSaver because it's been around forever. And it's just this is one -- I think we've used this example before -- of talking about brand equity. The way that everything happened around that brand, I think, and what that brand has come to stand for are toe-to-toe totally different things like that logo ended up just being a sign that somebody made that has two parrots on it, right, or no, there were two lovebirds are supposed to be lovebirds, but they're well, so they look like parrots.

[00:09:18.280] - Daniel

But birds appearance on the same thing. I don't think so.

[00:09:21.130] - Jackie

OK, hold on. Let's get into what the brand look is now.

[00:09:24.970] - Alex

Well, that's what I'm saying.

[00:09:25.750] - Jackie

Oh, alright.

[00:09:27.670] - Alex

It's it's so, it's so ingrained around here that years ago Chris talked to us about changing it and we were like, you know, you can't not do it, you know, even though it is too inedible, birds for us, for a place that sells fried chicken and sells edible birds. Yeah, I would be like, you know, so that was that was very odd. But it's and then through the years, it gets associated with like weddings and tailgating and like all these sort of uniquely southern thing.

[00:10:02.690] - Alex

And after church that happened. Yeah. And so it becomes this thing that's very Augusta. And I remember going to Athens and it was like recognizable, like people that weren't from Augusta would love showing up at Augusta tailgates because they knew that the WifeSaver was coming.

[00:10:20.820] - Daniel

And you don't know until you move out of town or go to college or something like that until you say, hey, we're going to go home and get some WifeSaver and somebody from Atlanta goes, What?

[00:10:29.610] - Alex

Yeah. And you're like, what? You know, like, oh, because in the in the 40s, that was a little that was a little bit more... I mean I guess I guess, you know, that also speaks to the brand too. It's like no one thinks about it like that.

[00:10:48.030] - Alex

 and I think that there were some and I hope that remains the same after mentioning that.

[00:10:53.520] - Jackie

So what do you think the hook is with WifeSavers today?

[00:10:59.010] - Daniel

So similar to to them, to the first example, like what's the what's to deliver like for for a brand to be loved, admired, have staying power be around for decades? What you do has to be very, very good. Yeah.

[00:11:14.190] - Daniel

And it is. And it is very, very good. So no, no awesome name for your company or really good logo or snappy website or anything like that. And it's going to cover up the fact that your fried chicken sucks.

[00:11:26.300] - Alex

So there's a lot of people in that space now too that do like fried chicken and chicken strips and stuff. And a lot of those are very, very close to each other. Like they're similar, like a space is almost the same thing as like what's another one? Like a raisin cane or something like that. That would be kind of based on like Guthrie's in Athens. But his his stuff is different and it's really good and it's consistent. And I mean, like that's like asking what's the hook in sweet tea or grits?

[00:11:54.480] - Alex

I mean, it's just this thing that's completely associated with all these very cool kind of southern things. Yeah.

[00:12:02.910] - Jackie

Kind of like kind of like amplifying the culture and like all the things that are good to participate in with it, like passing along that tradition, even it's institutionalized here.

[00:12:14.430] - Daniel

Yeah, and my kids are already addicted to it, they're five and four.

[00:12:19.090] - Alex

You know, that's because Chris puts cocaine in the honey mustard.

[00:12:23.440] - Jackie

Now we'll being from Colorado, I have not experienced a lot of the restaurants in Southern, like, dishes or anything like that.

[00:12:29.980] - Daniel

So I feel we haven't had a free lunch Friday with WifeSaver yet. That's coming. All right. Yeah, yeah. We couldn't bulk order during COVID, but now that's off. So that's us. Buckle up. Well, we'll all have to throw back on a on a on a later episode of the podcast to get your take on it.

[00:12:46.780] - Jackie

I would be happy to. I love testing food. If I wasn't podcasting, that's what I would be doing. I could be in eating contests. I'm pretty sure that's what I'd be doing.

[00:12:58.300] - Daniel

 We can do an eating contest on Monday.

[00:13:00.970] - Jackie

We can and I will take anyone out!

[00:13:02.560] - Daniel

We used to do eating contest in college. We called it Glutton Bowl. Right. And it really wasn't a contest. It was basically just all my roommates just would want to see like like what kind of disgusting thing I would eat.

[00:13:14.020] - Alex

Who's who's the guy? Kobayashi. Is that his name. One of the hot dog eating contest.

[00:13:19.570] - Daniel

But now it's Joey Chestnut. The American Joey Chestnut is.

[00:13:22.330] - Alex

But they called his technique. Either you're Japanese and you take the bun off and dip it in the water and a cup of water and eat it. Yeah. Yeah, like something crazy.

[00:13:32.030] - Daniel

Like using a long putter, though. It feels like cheating. Yeah.

[00:13:35.710] - Alex

He got it down. What we talking about?

[00:13:38.860] - Jackie

We're talking about WifeSavers. I got one more question. Okay. obviously a staple in the community, but what keeps their customers coming back for more.

[00:13:51.240] - Alex

I mean, again, I think it's just that I think it's the food and it's definitely the food. And if you're here, we were talking about earlier, it's associated with family and, you know, gatherings and things like that. And it's super like, everybody eats there, too. It's not like, just people Chris knows or something like that. He did a demo is very broad. I mean, the demo is this town is everybody. Yeah, it's everybody.

[00:14:21.150] - Daniel

Yeah, um. Now, that's a good point, and it just, you know, and when when any brand has been around for a long time and you can take your kids there to eat some chicken strips, but there's also a photo of you insert photo of me eating WifeSaver when I was four. I found a picture like that several years ago, you know, eating some eating some lifesaver. And, you know, you've just got those kind of that that institutional bond, you know, that that means something that's a little bit, you know, nothing against the church's family.

[00:14:55.210] - Alex

Sure. They're nice people.

[00:14:56.320] - Alex

I think they sold a ton of shirts, too. We did a shirt for them during the We Give a Shirt thing and just people just. Like that brand, it's just like an old it's just been around forever, it's come to symbolize, you know, what it stands for. And I mean, that's really the thing in a brand. If I if I may digress for one moment, I'm OK with it and I will give an example to of throw it back to the other one I mentioned earlier, the Augusta National.

[00:15:22.170] - Alex

From a branding standpoint, from the logo and what that stuff looked like. It's not very good. I mean, it's just it's there's a lot of things about it that are difficult and it's. You can't really you know, you have to visually center it and all this sort of thing, the flag is probably technically somewhere in Alabama. But but it has come to like. Be synonymous with excellence and and, you know, this this mystique and hospitality and all that kind of stuff that it's come to mean, and that's because.

[00:15:59.190] - Alex

They have been doing that so well for so long that they have imbued that mark with that quality, just like WifeSaver has come to stand for what it stands for, despite the fact that again, it has two green birds sitting on a big goofy perch on the logo, like one big bird hugging a little bird, and I love how Chris says that there was just "some hippie sign company" that he saved her.

[00:16:27.760] - Daniel

So he's got his wing wrapped around. And he's saving her!

[00:16:30.490] - Daniel

Which is just awesome.

[00:16:31.600] - Alex

Yeah.

[00:16:32.320] - Daniel

You know, but those are you know, the first example we talked about has been around for thirty five years and the other one since the early 60s or maybe before something like that. And and what those brands have kind of come to represent are still. A big part of what like a startup or a brand new company would would hope to establish in their culture and in their product and in kind of walking the walk, you know, every every day as a company, because that's that's really the goal is to have, you know, your audience kind of married to you and not your competitor or something like that.

[00:17:18.730] - Daniel

So, you know, the principles, you don't have to be around for 40 years to care about the stuff that has made those two grands break. There's two grands, two brands.

[00:17:27.850] - Daniel

Right. There's two brains to those two brands. And really, you know, the companies that do well, you know, on the onset, you know, have have a lot of those those values kind of, you know, already ingrained in what they're trying to do.

[00:17:44.820] - Speaker 1

That's awesome, that's it, yeah, that's a really good point. And I feel like with a lot of the brands, they feel like they can't make as big of an impact if they haven't been around for thirty five or 40 years. Can you maybe [elaborate]?

[00:17:59.760] - Daniel

Yeah, and that's not necessarily true. I mean, I think now you can also make the mistake that that, you know, you think that everyone's going to fall in love with you when you launch your website and and, you know, put your Instagram link in your email signature and all of a sudden everybody's going to fall in love with you. It doesn't always work like that necessarily either, because the arrow eye on, you know, a visual identity or a brand that you create and launch is more of a long term play than a lot of other marketing techniques.

[00:18:25.320] - Daniel

So, you know. Yeah, but, you know, I think, you know, there are examples, and I'm sure if. We like cut tape and came back like there was no time in between. It would be like I came up with five really good examples.

[00:18:41.700] - Jackie

Well, it's okay.

[00:18:43.620] - Alex

What did you want an example of?

[00:18:44.820] - Jackie

Well, I was kind of digging for, like a brand that's kind of new, but it does a good job.

[00:18:57.180] - Alex

I'll give a very quick one.

[00:18:58.440] - Jackie

Quick one.

[00:18:59.160] - Alex

And that's this is this is more of just like just an exercise in branding and what it can be and not. Because we had because we made this brand, but Jurden Trotter and their brand colors, like they hated them. They might still hate them and now they've come to love them.

[00:19:16.220] - Daniel

Well, they don't. I mean, you got to tee that up with Jurdan Trotter.

[00:19:19.190] - Alex

So Jurden Commercial Real Estate. Jurden Trotter is a commercial real estate firm here in Augusta. If you're if you're listening across the nation. In any way to differentiate them in in in real estate like. All the real estate stuff is kind of the same, so we made their colors golden brown and they oh, they they hated it when we presented it, they were like and so we really had to talk them into like, listen, this is going to make people, you know, the number one thing that you guys got going is you have signs you know. You have signs on site.

[00:19:54.070] - Alex

Yeah. For sale signs for rent signs, release and so whatever. That's what you got. You got signs. People need to see them all the know that and know that they have seen them right.

[00:20:03.860] - Alex

All the other signs are either blue or red, basically, and like, we're going to do this. And then when we start doing that, people would say, damn, I see these Jurden Trotter signs everywhere.

[00:20:16.790] - Alex

And it's like you don't see him everywhere. You just see them because you drive past a row of 12 signs and they're all either blue or red. And then there's one that's brown and yellow. And, you know, I felt like those were like rich, like leather and gold or, you know, like I like deep, like, warm colors.

[00:20:35.570] - Alex

And everybody thought they were like 70s or stupid, like Thanksgiving or something. But now it's like you just see it everywhere. And they, I will say, have done I've done a great job with their brand. And they did like all those. You know, drone videos have stuff and they've done a good job of, you know, positioning themselves as experts around all that kind of thing, and I think they do a good job.

[00:20:56.840] - Daniel

Well, the fact of the matter is their signs are everywhere now. They like it at the very beginning, you know.

[00:21:02.240] - Alex

Right. Not because those guys are really good at what they do. Oh, it's just it's only this just because it's a credit to us. Credit.

[00:21:10.270] - Jackie

Credit, that's for sure.Jackie, I got another one now.

[00:21:12.650] - Jackie

I'm ready.

[00:21:13.220] - Daniel

OK,

[00:21:15.770] - Alex

this this is 10 in an hour or two.

[00:21:18.720] - Daniel

Right. Maybe this brand is 10 or 15 years old, but I think one or two years after they launched their first restaurant in Augusta, I think that it had kind of that cult following in that kind of brand love that any restaurant would hope that they would get is TakoSushi. Right, so TakoSushi, she is they were one of the first I don't know if they were one of the first sushi restaurants, but they kind of felt like in Augusta.

[00:21:45.140] - Daniel

Yeah, in Augusta.

[00:21:46.040] - Alex

But I mean, unless you were going to like Kyoto, I kind of like the the Habashi place.

[00:21:51.950] - Daniel

So for those that don't know, TakoSushi is a kind of fusion southwest and sushi restaurant. And they did kind of you know, it's a little bit more commonplace now, but they had some traditional sushi and they would do fried sushi rolls. And you could also order, you know, southwest and in the south, like not if you get a burrito, you could get a taco. Yeah. So like, say, I wanted a taco and you wanted sushi.

[00:22:15.410] - Daniel

Not where do you go? Not every couple in the south are sushi lovers. And so you got a guy rolling up in a truck and his wife wants some sushi, but he's like, I mean, you know, I'll get Taco or something. So anyway, and we didn't we didn't create this brand or name it or anything like that. It just kind of popped into, to my mind as being good and really an example of kind of a weird, smart kind of thing, because the combination of sushi and Southwest is weird.

[00:22:42.320] - Daniel

The the logo is really smart because it's kind of this.

[00:22:47.000] - Alex

It's the yin and yang.

[00:22:48.040] - Daniel

It's pepper and pepper and a fish. I can't hear what kind of peppers Kevin would be. It's like. It's a happening.

[00:22:55.800] - Alex

It's not a green chili, it's because it's red.

[00:22:58.800] - Alex

Yeah, some pepper. They have a festival around and. Out of New Mexico, right?

[00:23:05.260] - Daniel

Something important, pepper, and then probably an equally as important fish to Asia or something, uh, but, you know, it's cool and and I think fairly instantly there was a lot of success there. And love, you know, for for that brand. And I think he's since opened five or six other other locations kind of around the southeast.

[00:23:28.050] - Jackie

So that's really cool. So I love doing this podcast and asking about all these businesses because I haven't been anywhere yet. So now I have like four places to visit next week with my family. Um. All right. This has been a great conversation and I hate to cut it so abruptly, but I am. Alex, thank you for coming on to the show.

[00:23:46.620] - Alex

Thank you for having me on my own podcast.

[00:23:48.870] - Jackie

You're welcome, Daniel. Happy birthday.

[00:23:51.330] - Daniel

Oh, thanks.

[00:23:51.940] - Jackie

Yeah, you're welcome. Yeah.

[00:23:53.460] - Daniel

Thanks, Jackie. Yeah, thanks for nothin', Alex.

[00:23:59.100] - Jackie

Well, for everyone who's listening, thanks so much for tuning in today. If you want to see any of our case studies, I've linked a couple below that I think you'd be interested in today. And that's it. We will see you next week. Bye!