I am an amateur gardener. My backyard garden is producing all kinds of vegetables right now. It is September and the thing you couldn’t help but notice are my pumpkins. The vines are yielding their very large, orange fruit in my garden. If you don’t know anything about growing pumpkins, they are enormous plants. As I said, they are viners. They grow anywhere from 20-30 feet from their stem. They are designed to seek out sunshine. They will grow towards the areas where their leaves can maximize exposure to the sun. Their vines grow feelers that wrap around other plants to anchor the vines and make sure the pumpkin leaves are facing the sun. They will grow through, up and over and around obstacles in their pursuit of sunshine. They are impressive plants.

What can you learn about brand marketing from a pumpkin plant? It is relatively easy to create a brand; sustaining it is the real trick. You create a brand when you name a business, a product or service. You plant a seed and it starts to grow. Has it produced anything at this point? No, it is just like any other plant in the garden - be they weeds or vegetable plants. If you want your pumpkins to grow, you have to have some basics: good soil, enough water, plenty of sunshine, the right climate and - in the case of pumpkins - plenty of room for growth. If you want your brand to grow, you have to have some basics as well: the right business environment, meaning it is the right time and place for growth; enough interest to keep the roots satisfied; and room for growth of your brand. Let’s examine each of these.

The right business environment is very important for your brand to thrive. That means you have to examine what is happening with your target market. When are customers most likely to buy from you? That may be a season of the year or it may be when market conditions are such that they are looking to buy. Whatever your case, understand your customers well enough that you know when they are most likely to be shopping for your products or services. Now move backwards from this event. Here is where brand marketing is going to do its work. Between the planting and the harvest is a whole lot of brand building. That means you have to promote your brand so people know what it stands for. It means you have to build towards the time when your target market is going to be most interested in buying from you. Get ahead of the buying cycle at least six months and start the process.

You have to have enough interest along the way to keep the roots satisfied. When you are growing pumpkins, the long vines of the plant are far away from the root. There has to be adequate water in the root and an intact vine to keep growth happening. The same is true of brand building. To promote your brand takes time, effort and money. To keep your brand alive, it is important to market your brand so you have enough sales coming in to sustain growth to the bigger marketing events. How many brands die before they can ever get to the big payday because they simply ran out of resources? The wise marketer understands just what needs to happen to keep the roots of the organization involved so your brand can reach its full potential. That means you need to segment your customers from your prospective customers. The prospects are the ones you will target when the right time comes around. Your current customers are the ones who will sustain you in the meantime. Not all customers are alike and you should take this into consideration when you are marketing to them. There are those who have tried your brand but may not be loyal to it. What would it take to get them to try the brand again? There are others who are sold on your brand. What do you need to do to keep up their enthusiasm for it? There are differing marketing techniques I would use with each of these groups. If there are special offers to get the reluctant customer to try you again, do so. If there are residual sales from buying your brand, tack on an offer to the brand loyalists. Give them a reason to keep coming back for more. These types of sales help sustain you while you are getting ready to market for new customers.

Finally, you need to play in areas where your brand has room for growth. I mentioned how pumpkin vines grow far from their roots. They seek out sunshine and produce huge leaves that soak up the sun. You cannot help but notice them in my garden. Have you limited your brand to an area too small for it to grow? You would never want to put a pumpkin seed into a pot on a balcony and think you can contain it like a flower. When you are building your brand, make sure the target markets you are trying to reach have the capacity to help your brand grow. It may be that you need to branch out and find more than one target market. Who else would be interested in what you produce? Expand to them.