Creating Superfans Internally and Externally with Matt Barnett

“The most important part of any brand is the team.” Matt Barnett would know. A serial entrepreneur, Matt’s latest venture is Bonjoro, a B2B asynchronous video platform helping organizations connect with their customers. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast.

About Matt Barnett

A British designer & Artist, Matt Barnett moved to Australia where Bonjoro was born from a sales hack for his first business. Matt and the team decided to go all-in on the idea, and 3 years later Bonjoro has snowballed into a startup success story with a fully remote team across 6 countries and 5 continents.

Matt’s love of building great products is only surpassed by his total commitment to building great business culture, and his goal is to be the next Zappos, to be the most-loved brand in the world.”

Episode Highlights

How to build your startup brand as a team? We talked a lot about the intersection of brand origins and team origins and how often, these two intersect. Matt says that you need to hire the right team first, noting that “brand happens later.”

“You have to build super fans internalizing and externally.” Matt focused his advice on two critical groups of people—your employees and your customers. How do you do that …?

Let’s talk bears. Look at any of Bonjoro’s touchpoints and you’ll see that their brand personification is an adorable teddy bear. This bear branding makes its way throughout the organization, from the koala bears they sponsor as a company to the bear onesies every employee gets, including the self-proclaimed “Papa Bear” himself.

What should you do in the next five minutes? As Tom Peters said on this podcast, excellence is the best short-term strategy. We asked Matt what you should do in the five minutes after this show … “Asynchronous personalized video messages.” Matt noted that he may be biassed on this front (that’s what Bonjoro does!) but he also reinforced this with the impact you can have with clients by recording a simple 30-second video.

What brand has made Matt smile recently? Inspired by other engaging brands, Matt pointed to “Hey,” the new email platform built by the folks from Basecamp, for the brand’s combination of fun and simplicity.

To learn more, connect with the “Papa Bear” himself on LinkedIn and go to the Bonjoro website to learn more about Matt’s company.

As We Wrap …

Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show.

On Brand is sponsored by my book Brand Now. Discover the seven dynamics to help your brand stand out in our crowded, distracted world. Order now and get special digital extras. Learn more.

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Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!

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