****Please forgive any and all transcription errors as this was transcribed by Otter.ai.****

Nick Harmeier 0:00

Hey, I'm Nick Harmeier and you're listening to A Shark's Perspective.

[intro music]

Kenneth Kinney 0:19

Welcome back and thank you for joining A Shark's Perspective.

Kenneth Kinney 0:22

I am Kenneth Kinney, but friends call me Shark. I'm a keynote speaker, strategist, a shark diver, host of the show and your Chief Shark Officer.

Kenneth Kinney 0:30

You've got a brand with 2500 employees, and it's a 100 year old legacy business. You're competing not only for local attention, but also against similar Thai businesses across the country. Now picture those employees as actual animals and the business is a zoo. That what do you do to tell those stories in a unique way as well as market it as a destination that competes against every other zoo and every other attraction in a competitive travel and destination landscape? It's a zoo out there. So how do you market it and market it well?

Kenneth Kinney 1:01

Nick Harmeier is the Chief Marketing Officer of the Memphis Zoo, one of the most highly rated zoos in the US.

Kenneth Kinney 1:07

And on this episode, we'll discuss what it's like to market a zoo, competing for out of town and in town traffic against other zoos in the country as well as other venues and experiences in any good market, kind hearted people with a love for animals, having a marketing differentiator, being one of the very few zoos to have pandas LeLe and Yaya, transparency to build trust, the importance of reviews and social media in a digital marketing world, telling 2500 unique stories, Billy Eilish, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, taking MMA to the NASDAQ, zoo movies, cheetahs, Sumatran tigers, more sharks needed, and a lot lot more.

Kenneth Kinney 1:42

So let's tune into a marketing zookeeper with a marketing shark keeper on this episode of A Shark's Perspective.

Kenneth Kinney 1:54

Nick, welcome to A Shark's Perspective. If you would tell us a little bit about your background and your career to date.

Nick Harmeier 1:59

Well, currently, I'm the Chief Marketing Officer here at the Memphis Zoo been here for a little over three and a half years. Previously, before that, I was really kind of involved in sports. You know, I've always had a love for just entertainment. And that's kind of what has brought me here today in general, but I'm originally from from Memphis for the most part, went to high school here in Memphis, moved down to South Florida for a few years worked with the Florida Panthers moved to Houston and worked with Houston Dynamo and Major League Soccer, but then came back to Memphis and started I was already beforehand started beat three fights. And I started a food prep company also called Ultimate foods. Sold both of those B three went public on NASDAQ with four other MMA promotions and which kind of tied into one umbrella. And then ultimate foods. I just sold it to a local investor here in town that had hit me up and wanted to come and scoop it up and did that and then fell into the zoo. So

Kenneth Kinney 3:04

well, we're gonna talk a lot about the zoo. But we're not gonna get out of here without talking about MMA, because it's very rare that I get to talk to anybody that has your knowledge as well about the sport I live in brief by it every weekend, it seems like but I'm curious Memphis Zoo is always rated as one of the top zoos in the country. They do such a marvelous job of positioning yourself. But how do you go about positioning the Memphis Zoo to constantly get rated one of the best zoos in the country? Again, there's a limited supply of zoos, but there's a real heavy competition for everybody's dollar as well. And that experience is gonna be great.

Nick Harmeier 3:38

Yeah, I mean, I'm really lucky in this position, because the zoo has been a top zoo way before I got here.

Kenneth Kinney 3:44

We should take all the credit. You're on this bike. Yeah,

Nick Harmeier 3:47

no, right. But I mean, it's just we're really lucky. We have some incredible supporters. Here in the city, we have incredible members and fans that come here every single day, every single week. And then our staff we have we've had, and that's probably one of my favorite parts about working here in this industry. It's just the staff and the team. It's just incredible. You know, just working with people that have such a love for animals. And it's just, it's such a unique person to get to work with every day, and they're just so pleasant to work around at home, and our mission, just in general just has a real good, just to feel good about the whole thing. So I'm really lucky to be a part of this too, and all its credibility and success. And so now I really just get to help tell that story and, you know, hundreds of stories of all these people that created that success for the zoo and, and still do it today. So

Kenneth Kinney 4:46

how many people do you work with who are much nicer to the animals than to to you and the people that you work with?

Nick Harmeier 4:54

Well, we always laugh about that. There's a reason people love working with animals. Yeah, the

Kenneth Kinney 4:58

wife is much nicer to the Dog than she me.

Nick Harmeier 5:01

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, they definitely have a love for animals. But, you know, they're all just so kind hearted. So that's where I say we're just truly lucky with it.

Kenneth Kinney 5:11

Amen. You know how much became of this with really with pandas as well, because Memphis Zoo is one of only three zoos in the country with pandas with Atlanta zoo and with the Smithsonian, in DC. San Diego lost their pandas. But that was something that really, I'd say, elevated Memphis Zoo on the national level. And it's such a differentiator, because they're in very limited supply.

Nick Harmeier 5:34

Yeah, yeah, it is. That's a big piece that makes us successful. But I mean, we have so many other things that go on in this zoo that make it so successful. And you're one of the things is the way the zoo is designed. So you can go to many zoos all around the country. But the way that ours was specifically designed to give the proximity of the person to the animal just really creates that connection. You know, but we also, every single day, day in and day out, we're looking to, you know, make sure these animals are living their best life and, you know, helping sustain populations to, you know, just education and creating that connection. And so that's really the beauty of being here.

Kenneth Kinney 6:17

Well, so I hate to bring this up. But back in February 22, pop superstar Billy Eilish made some headlines by talking about I think I saw your name in the news back then. Or somebody at the Memphis Zoo making a statement when she expressed support for movement to move. The pandas Lili and Yaya to get them returned to China? Because apparently she thought panda rights were going to be handled much better in China than here. But how do you deal with something like that? Because Billy Eilish has a massive following it gets attention on the world news when anybody that knows and has spent I'm sure she never visited the zoo, but you could see the care, those same people that you're talking about care for the Panthers like they're their children, it's not like a kennel, you know, or a farm where you see 1000 Puppies, and maybe a few aren't treated well, these these things are treated with such kid gloves. It's amazing with the amount of care.

Nick Harmeier 7:10

Well, right off the bat, we invited Billy Eilish to come here and in meet the panelists and meet the people that take care of them. And what was the response? We didn't hear anything back. But I mean, you know, it's nothing against Billy Eilish, she's, you know, at the end of the day, there's, there are a handful of people that, you know, don't believe pandas should be in America at all. And they believe that they should be in China. And, you know, and there's probably people that feel that way. And vice versa. So not to discredit their feeling by any means. You know, that's how they feel about it. And that's how they feel about it. But we know that these painters here, get exceptional care. And we're proud of that. And we're willing to you know, if Billy Eilish wants to bring some, you know, some light to pandas in general, like, come over here and learn about some of them. You know, it was a retweet. She just retweeted something. She didn't say anything else on it. But, you know, it's exciting in general, that she's just talking about animals. And you know, and we are very proud of what we do here at the Memphis Zoo. So there was no, there was no ill will about it. I still love so many Billy Eilish songs when it first hit, I was like, oh, man, you know, I'm not the type of person who's gonna be like, Forget her. I'm not listening to more of her music. It's just understand it. But unfortunately, she isn't educated on both sides of it. So and we invite her out and her team and, you know, that's why we have the panda cams. And, you know, we're very transparent about the care that goes on with these pandas. And we're proud of it. And China. You know, they're, they're proud of our program that we've built with them, too. So, all together. It's, it's been a very successful program, all across the world with Panda Breeding, and Panda Research to where today there, there are now a sustainable population of pandas in the world. So

Kenneth Kinney 8:58

yeah, well, Billy's depressed about everything, but I absolutely love our music. And so if she's listening this podcast, please feel free to retweet anything for me. So, but I thought it was just an amazing opportunity. I thought it was handled well from the zoo standpoint, to be able to basically show that you care. So how do you go about though competing against other venues? You know, when you think about any zoo, in any community, you've got other attractions. But Memphis in particular has for a city at size with a million and a half people roughly. You do have Beale Street, you've got the National Civil Rights Museum, which is amazing. You've got Graceland, which is the second most famous house in the country. How do you go about competing for this out of town traffic to make certain that they make the Memphis Zoo, keep it on their radar and consider it as a visit and their trip?

Nick Harmeier 9:49

I mean, the hope is we can just be in that top three. So if someone's coming in town to visit the Civil Rights Museum, hopefully we can be a part of that journey. When they come and hit some studio. We're stuck x and so forth. But I mean, we, if we don't really look at his competition, either, you know, you're gonna learn different things at different places. And at the end of the day, you know, it's really just about educating and getting the message out there. But with us, also, it's business, you know, there's a business aspect to it. And the best way you can, per se, compete is focused on yourself. Same thing in the fight game, or whatever, you know, whatever you're in, you know, you just focus on yourself and stay true to it. And, you know, make sure that, you know, as, as a zoo, we're taking care of, you know, our team, we're taking care of, you know, our members, our donors, every aspect of animals every aspect of our property, then, you know, it creates that environment that people want to come and visit.

Kenneth Kinney 10:45

So how do you look at your local audience? Because for every zoo in every city, there's not a lot of new zoos popping up. It's really competing against other venues like that. How do you sort of keep the rest of the community engaged in I don't know how long the Memphis Zoo has been there, but I'm sure it's 5075 years, however long it's been there, it's the way it is, in most cities that have historical zoos. But how do you sort of keep the community engaged in knowing what's going on with the Memphis Zoo?

Nick Harmeier 11:12

Well, first, we've been here since 1906. So okay, we even we've made it to a previous pandemic, you know, 100 years ago. So, um, you know, it's, it's, this is where we're really lucky. And I'm really lucky in the marketing role, because it's kind of easy with with animals. One, there's a lot of cute, cuddly animals. In the day of social media and videos, we can get that content out and get people very excited very quickly about it. But then we have a lot of exotic animals to this, they might not be cute and cuddly. But, you know, how often do you get to walk up and see a Sumatran tiger, less than 200 in the wild. And we have a breeding program here at the Memphis Zoo with them. Which, you know, one, it's neat that you get to see this very rare animal, but to knowing that your admission into the zoo that day or your membership, and that is it that for that day or that year, is, you know, helping support this program that is trying to sustain this population of specific tigers. So it's a it's relatively easy to get people engaged because it is animals, but it's just the key for us to just content, good content that is up to date, and that we can use our social media channels to help push it out there.

Kenneth Kinney 12:33

I've follow several different social media channels, but what's really been sort of the most successful, is it you know, the images on a Facebook and an Instagram? Or is it more you know, reels in tiktoks, or videos that you find to be a real driver for your business and telling your story?

Nick Harmeier 12:48

It depends, it depends on who you're trying to target. Obviously, Facebook is going to hit Facebook and Twitter is going to hit an older demographic, tick tock, you know, we know it demographic that goes after so much younger demographic, tick tock has really changed so much with videos, because in the past, you always have 15/32 videos you made, but now we're creating videos in there three to five seconds. So it's a, it's just been, it's been fun in this digital world today, because it's ever so changing ever so fast, you know, not only from the content you're putting out, you know, first it was pictures, it could clean pictures, now it has to be videos and animations. And, you know, it's just, it's just neat how it all changes so quick, and then you have algorithms and, you know, it's it's a lot, but, you know, that's why it's, I think it's important to do something that you're excited about.

Kenneth Kinney 13:44

This also kind of goes back with a lot of the digital channels as well, but talking about how important reviews are to you, especially when you look at something like TripAdvisor or any of those others, well, reviews and

Nick Harmeier 13:55

social media channels, you know, it's a today's is, again, a beautiful display of how connected we are. As far as engagement from people, I mean, just think like 20 years ago, you'd have to have someone stand up taking surveys and send an email out, hopefully you get stuff back. Now, you know, if someone's upset, they're gonna go and tell you real quick on social media, and you have a chance right then and there to grab them and hopefully change their perception, you know, fix the problem. But same thing if people are happy, you have a chance to be able to make that connection back with him too. Because a lot of times they'll go on social media, you know, say whether they're happy or unhappy. So, again, I just, I love being a part of this digital age because we have so much opportunity with it.

Kenneth Kinney 14:44

Well, you know, 20 years ago it would have only been a story if a new giraffe was born would have ended up on the news. Now it's a live stream giraffe mommy baby cam and you get so many people just follow you because of that that kind of excitement that they can get be part of The story, right, what is the biggest challenge for you in a marketing role for marketing? Something like a

Nick Harmeier 15:06

zoo? Ah, biggest challenge?

Kenneth Kinney 15:09

I mean, you get the greatest group of influencers on the planet.

Nick Harmeier 15:14

Yeah, I mean, we have. I mean, that's, that's where it's kind of tough to just think of the challenge. You know, it's just, like I said, the challenge is just being, you know, up to date on everything that's happening, it's, but that same, that challenging because, you know, you can't be great at everything, but you can find definitely the people to help you do that stuff. But I would say, probably one of the challenges to us. You know, it's just, there's just so many stories to tell, it's almost like, it's difficult having the capacity, and there's just so much work to be done, you know, across the world with animals and, you know, environments, and it's just so much work to be done. Sometimes it can feel a little overwhelming, because there are so many passionate projects out there, that feel very important. So that's probably the most challenging thing for me is, it even goes to people that we work with, you know, we'll have people come to us and we have a really big pine snake breeding program here that pine steaks were pretty much extinct in the wild. And thanks to Dr. reichlin and his team, they are they're done an exceptional job and repopulating them. But you know, we have so many people who come to us and like, hey, well, I have this project, I really want you to push it out or this project, and there's just so much good stuff. I'm like, Man, I only have so much capacity, you know, to get it out there. But it's kind of funny. I guess that's part of the most challenging piece is trying to tell all these great stories, because it's a little difficult sometimes.

Kenneth Kinney 16:49

So what is your favorite animal? Just you personally?

Nick Harmeier 16:53

Mine is the cheetah?

Kenneth Kinney 16:54

Why so?

Nick Harmeier 16:56

I just I just love I just think they're just so docile creature creatures. They're so smart. I just love like, they're, they're filled. You know, just just neat, but almost like cat dogs. But I'm just thinking of like, the ancient times of how, you know, there were so revered. I just yeah, I really think the cheetahs are just very interesting to me.

Kenneth Kinney 17:25

From a social media perspective, what is your favorite one to what story is probably the best to tell maybe from an engagement standpoint, because you think pandas to some degree, because it's something different that very few people have. But I mean, my gosh, meerkats had their own show on Animal Planet forever. I mean, there's so many different ones that probably get just weird engagement, some strange form of otters or two cans, or whatever it is.

Nick Harmeier 17:50

Yeah, I mean, if there's so many different ones that become so popular so quickly. We've had an extremely incredible giraffe breeding program here at the zoo. So that usually does really well. But I mean, elephants, you know, are such magnificent, magnificent animals. I mean, elephants are probably, by far one of my favorites, too. And anytime we post anything about elephants, it's just, we got a ton of engagement. And they were big cats. Pandas get a ton of engagement. They're just such beautiful animals. And I don't know, I mean, it's, there's just so many, so many of them hippos do really well, they're just kind of fun animals to look at it to see

Kenneth Kinney 18:40

how many animals roughly how many different species do you have at the zoo? Probably like 20 530. Yeah, so I mean, 2500 different stories of species detail. It's, it's pretty hard to get all of that together in a content calendar, and they get the word out.

Nick Harmeier 18:55

Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's where I think it's difficult sometimes. Because, you know, a lot of these keepers to treat these animals like they're the kids. So, you know, they're like, hey, we need to be celebrating, you know, so, so type of spider day today, and we're like, Okay, well, I'm not sure it's gonna get a bunch of engagement. But you know, we'll put it out there.

Kenneth Kinney 19:15

Sure. What other than the Memphis Zoo of the zoos that you visited throughout the world? What's been your favorite?

Nick Harmeier 19:22

I mean, by far the Memphis Zoo, you know,

Kenneth Kinney 19:25

episode number one, a distant number two would be what?

Nick Harmeier 19:28

I, you know, I haven't been to just a ton of different zoos. But, you know, I really liked New Orleans, just whether Zoo and Aquarium was set up. San Antonio. I enjoyed their zoo.

Kenneth Kinney 19:46

I'll give you one that I remember. And it was because it was different. And it was maybe just because of location. The little zoo that could, which was was it Gulf Shores? Yeah. After, after one of the hurricanes and They had to displace all the animals but it became a story on I think, again, animal planet or one of those shows one of those channels, but it was funny that it's interesting to watch them try to tell their stories a little bit differently. And the smaller the zoos, or the ones that have differentiating animals really have a leg up over a lot of others. Yeah. Yeah. V three fights. You're in the MMA game. What got you as part of that? Were you into martial arts at all before? I wasn't gonna let you get out of here without talking about that. You know,

Nick Harmeier 20:30

I I grew up with Quinton Jackson. I went to Greg bond who went to a rally job so we were pretty much neighboring schools

Kenneth Kinney 20:39

did you call him Quentin cue or rampage? Ah, you know,

Nick Harmeier 20:43

he would have rampage like he's still rampage in high school too. And so, you know, just whatever. And so, when he started getting into I kind of I started I was School University of Memphis, let's start writing about it and, you know, send out and get some news articles and stuff published. And long story short, I was doing quite a bit of work with him as he was getting into the UFC. Michael Isley was a big UFC fan. He wants to see it at his arena, which was FedExForum because he had the Grizzlies. So him and his team Steve Zito reached out to me about getting Quinton to kind of come into town and meet with legislation about legalizing MMA in Tennessee. So at the time UFC was going state to state legalize it with Mark Ratner. But they were still in the Midwest and not even started really hitting this side of the Mississippi yet

Kenneth Kinney 21:38

it sounds like that's forever ago and that crazy. Not literally no ego, but it's brings up memories. And so

Nick Harmeier 21:45

that's kind of how I got into it. And when I saw how big was out west as a keyword, I should start promoting shows. And I tried to get my promoters license and Mississippi first before it's even legalized in Tennessee. And I got turned down. I couldn't get a promoters license. And so it got legalized Tennessee promoters license that I got from a license back in Mississippi, and Florida and so forth, and just, you know, put on shows all throughout the southeast.

Kenneth Kinney 22:14

And v3 was bought by whom?

Nick Harmeier 22:17

Well, so this is kind of a unique piece to us. It was we were first were bought up by Alliance MMA. We were conjoined with four other MMA companies until Alliance MMA and we went public on NASDAQ. So we did that for a couple years, they did a reverse merger with a different company. And my claws, I had the ability to buy B three back. So I bought it back. Started doing shows again. And then in the midst of that one of the other companies that I'd worked with with Alliance was CSSC, based out of Philadelphia. And he had a had during when COVID hit first kind of hit. He had this really nice UFC fight, pass contract set up, but he was in the Northeast couldn't do shows. I was in the south, you know, everything was still kind of wide open. I had a license in Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee. And so when we were chatting one day, he was like, Man, I just, you know, I have I need to do this anymore shows the shear. I'm not sure where I'm able to do it. So I went and got some contract signed with some properties and got letter intense from governing body saying that they would allow me to do shows during COVID. But of course we had some protocols to go by. So I took that back to him. And he's like, let's co promote I was like, I don't want to co promote How about you just buy p3 and then we merge v3 and CSSC. So long story short, but it was just a way to pivot during the old COVID pandemic.

Kenneth Kinney 23:51

And then I remember the first UFC fight and Memphis now seems like eons ago, but it was Frank Mir and Czech Congo and BJ Penn and Diego Sanchez. Yeah. That was when things started to loosen up a little bit. So

Nick Harmeier 24:05

yeah, and that was that was originally going to be rampage versus Rashad Evans. And then rampage took the role at the 18 movie, and so many people were so upset about that. But yeah, it was a pretty good move for him. It still would have been nice to have him fight one time in Memphis.

Kenneth Kinney 24:21

One of the biggest questions that I asked everybody who's been on my show is what is their favorite kind of shark and why? Now one of the most upsetting things for me is a guy nickname shark who swims with sharks. And it was a passion for him like you do for all the zoo animals is Memphis who doesn't have enough sharks, right? So if you need to expand that, and you need somebody to champion that up, I'm here to support

Nick Harmeier 24:45

Well, you know, the crazy thing is the thing we used to have one of the largest aquariums in the country. And that's just shows you how old our aquarium is because it is it's not very big by any means. It will was the I think it was the first air conditioned building in the city.

Kenneth Kinney 25:03

Well, you did live in Florida. So what is your favorite kind of shark and why you get kids to so there's got to be a shark Baby shark story in there somewhere.

Nick Harmeier 25:10

Yeah, yeah, you would think there would be I mean, in general like sharks like what a cool like a cool creature too. But I would say probably Tiger Sharks

Kenneth Kinney 25:22

was one of my favorites to swim with just north of Miami. So all right, well, Nick, it's a special time in the show. Are you ready for the five most interesting and important questions that you're going to be asked today? I'm ready. So we're going to start off on this UFC middleweights? So we're gonna talk a little bit about MMA, greatest middleweight in history, Israel out of Sanya or Anderson Silva.

Nick Harmeier 25:45

I mean, I, I'm gonna sound like an old guy here, but it has to be silver.

Kenneth Kinney 25:52

And it would have been had we been able to forget the last, you know, five years he should have retired after he broke his leg.

Nick Harmeier 25:59

Well, that's that's I mean, what champion knows when to call it quits. You know, that's why you become a champion is

Kenneth Kinney 26:04

the opposite of knowing when he when he was supposed to quit. Right? Right. If he had fought in his prime Israel in his prime, it would have been a different story.

Nick Harmeier 26:13

Yeah, I mean, Israel still has so much more left to so. We'll see. But Anderson Silva made that weight class look like it had no

Kenneth Kinney 26:22

competition. Oh, yeah. It was like a big cat playing with a little kittens. So yeah. Alright. Number two, because we talked about her a little bit earlier. We're talking about Bond movie music. Billy Eilish is no time to die. Or Adele Skyfall.

Nick Harmeier 26:40

That's got to be Adele. Skyfall. Right. I

Kenneth Kinney 26:42

agree. And I love Billy Eilish. But yeah, the sky falls was my favorite of all time. All right. Number three. Zoo movies. So zookeeper with Kevin James and Rosario Dawson, or we bought a zoo with Matt Damon, his Scarlett Johansson.

Nick Harmeier 26:59

That's a tough one. I just really liked Kevin James. He just, uh, but I mean, both those are really unique movies. But I really liked that. Zookeeper with Kevin James. Yeah. All right,

Kenneth Kinney 27:10

number four. Zoos with Panda that are not Memphis zoo, zoo, Atlanta, or Smithsonian National Zoo and DC.

Nick Harmeier 27:19

As far as which one I like more. Yeah. I mean, Smithsonian's had the panels, you know, from day one. I guess when Nixon got them in over here forever ago. So perhaps it goes Smithsonian just because they were kind of the the leaders in that initiative.

Kenneth Kinney 27:36

Alright, number five. And the most important question that you're going to be asked today is biscuits or cornbread.

Nick Harmeier 27:42

Oh, this is tough, because lately I've been on this real big cornbread kick. Okay. You live in Memphis like, you know, you got to Bryant's and get some of those biscuits like how would you go the Corner and get that cornbread? I don't know, man. I just like that. I can get both of them. But that makes me happier. Then

Kenneth Kinney 28:03

Then you go to Cracker Barrel and get both. They give you both. But you gotta pick one. You gotta pick one.

Nick Harmeier 28:09

I would go with right now at this point in my life. I would go with cornbread.

Kenneth Kinney 28:14

Okay. Right now. At this point of your life. All right. So Nick, where can people find out more about you find out more about the zoo. Keep up with you on social channels and more.

Nick Harmeier 28:27

Yeah, I mean, I've really kind of just been keeping low on LinkedIn lately. I don't know. I've kind of had this social media kick a little bit that I just really kind of been really more about talking about the professional side of me than the personal side of me. And then Memphis zoo.org. Of course, we have everything there. Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube's all Memphis Zoo. So I mean, we keep that content coming out every single day. So there's, there's always something to see. And one of those channels.

Kenneth Kinney 29:01

Well, I got you up on a stage in 2021. Did you promote that on LinkedIn of yourself being on stage?

Nick Harmeier 29:07

I wasn't using LinkedIn a lot. I use Instagram. But now I've lately I've just kind of been like, ah, kind of played on Instagram for a second. I mean, I love her for business stuff. But I mean, for myself, I think it's just all the politics and everything lately that I just think I needed a little bit of a break from it.

Kenneth Kinney 29:24

Yeah, just put in hashtag Trump and hashtag Biden and all your posts so you get verybody.

Kenneth Kinney 29:29

Yeah, exactly.

Kenneth Kinney 29:31

Nick, thank you very much for being with us today on A Shark's Perspective.

Nick Harmeier 29:35

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Kenneth Kinney 29:42

So there was my conversation with Nick Harmeier, the Chief Marketing Officer of the Memphis Zoo. Let's take a look at three key takeaways from our conversation with him.

Kenneth Kinney 29:50

First, the Memphis Zoo has 2500 stories to tell and that can be a challenge and not everyone has that problem or that luxury depending on how you look at it. But whether you have one story or 2500, just make sure that you tell it and tell it well figure out the differentiating way to tell that story so that your content doesn't look like everyone else's sameness. Your content voice can have a Memphis accent or any other, just make sure that you tell your story in your way.

Kenneth Kinney 30:17

Second, love the whole Billy Eilish and pandas discussion. It's a great example of showing people that you care and you can build so much trust through transparency. And when you have that going for you and your brand and your business don't cower from the attention, be proud of it, bring light to it, help educate, and in full transparency. I love me some Billy Eilish music.

Kenneth Kinney 30:39

Third, love it when he said to focus on yourself and stay true to it. It's very easy for all brands to get diverted by bright shiny object syndrome. But the more that you perfect your core focus, the more attracted people are to what you do well, and then go market that there are hundreds of zoos in the US but only a very few are his beloved is the Memphis Zoo. And it's not just the packaging of the zoo. It's really because they made the choice to deliver on a great experience to make it a great Zoo.

Kenneth Kinney 31:08

Got a question? Send me an email to Kenneth at asharksperspective.com.

Kenneth Kinney 31:13

Thank you again for the privilege of your time and I'm so thankful to everyone who listens.

Kenneth Kinney 31:17

Please consider writing a review and let me know your thoughts on the show.

Kenneth Kinney 31:20

Learn as much as you can about the Ethical Treatment of Animals and then go support your local zoo. They have a great one in Memphis and join us on the next episode of A Shark's Perspective.

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