Word & Mouth Blog

Where food, hospitality, branding, and human behavior all crash into each other. I write about restaurants, wine, placemaking, customer experience, and the small details that make people talk about a business long after they leave.

For even more snarky takes on marketing, pop culture, branding, and the internet, visit my Substack, Burnt Popcorn & Branding: Substack

  • A mix of hospitality, branding, customer psychology, hospitality culture, and internet behavior from someone who’s worked behind the scenes in marketing long enough to know what feels authentic and what feels painfully forced.

  • Yes. Especially if your marketing currently sounds like ChatGPT wrote it.

  • No LinkedIn thought leadership energy here. Just strategy, storytelling, and occasional side-eye toward trends, Chat-GPT written branding advice, and “disruptive” ideas that all look the same.

  • People in marketing, hospitality, branding, retail, wine, or anyone who secretly judges restaurants by their menu design before reading the food list.

Pivotal, Small Business, Digital Marketing Shana Bull Pivotal, Small Business, Digital Marketing Shana Bull

Achieve Your New Year's Resolutions - Tips for Lasting Success

As we enter the New Year, it's important for wine marketers and small business owners to set realistic goals and develop sustainable habits for success. Our tips for making your New Year's resolutions successful include understanding the difference between short-term and long-term goals, creating an action plan, and adjusting your goals as needed to remain flexible. By following these guidelines, you can stay motivated and on track to reach your goals in 2023 and beyond.

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Family Life, Pivotal Shana Bull Family Life, Pivotal Shana Bull

So, I'm Now a Published Author of a Children's Book

Randall the Blue Spider loves the ocean and the waves that go crash. Today, he wants to enter the surfing competition to win an ice cream prize, but he is nervous that he might fall in front of everybody watching him. With the help of his friend, Chester the Caterpillar, Randall learns how to cope with these difficult feelings and take his chances at winning.

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Healthy Lifestyle, Family Life, Digital Marketing, Pivotal Shana Bull Healthy Lifestyle, Family Life, Digital Marketing, Pivotal Shana Bull

Word of the Year: Embrace 2021

Whether you have kids at home or feel paralyzed by not being able to find a job, there are small things you can do to embrace your goals. This isn’t about jumping in headfirst and hustling (read: burning out). This year should be about taking slow, actionable steps to get you further than where you are right now - and embracing your word of the year like I am.

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Digital Marketing, Pivotal, Social Media Shana Bull Digital Marketing, Pivotal, Social Media Shana Bull

How To Start a NEW Business During a Crisis

Sisters, Claire + Bronwyn from Mighty Market planned on opening their zero waste, clean beauty, and bulk refill brick and mortar shop in Downtown Martinez East Bay) - little did they know, a worldwide pandemic would shut down retailers across the world. Quickly they adapted to creating an eCommerce website to sell products, and used social media to connect with customers.

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Digital Marketing, Healthy Lifestyle, Pivotal, Social Media Shana Bull Digital Marketing, Healthy Lifestyle, Pivotal, Social Media Shana Bull

Small Business Superpower: Connections with Your Customers Matter

The brick & mortar hair and skin salon has continued to focus on the connections that they have with their customers, and that can be seen as soon as you walk into the salon through smiling faces and repeat customers. When the SIP order went into place for Sonoma County, they had to shut down their salon and turn to online delivery orders, as well as a new Facebook group

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Pivotal, Digital Marketing Shana Bull Pivotal, Digital Marketing Shana Bull

Going From Selling Wine In-Person to Selling Wine Online Is No Easy Task

In the latest in my video interview series, Pivotal - a Focus on Digital Marketing, I talked to Hannah, the Assistant Manager, Marketing & eCommerce at Bottle Barn. The Santa Rosa brick & mortar wine, beer, and spirits retailer started their eCommerce website just a few years earlier, but the COVID-19 Pandemic made it a greater focus for the 30-Year-Old business. 

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Digital Marketing, Wine County, Pivotal Shana Bull Digital Marketing, Wine County, Pivotal Shana Bull

Wine Country Membership Card Had to Pivot To Sell Wine Online

The series is called Pivotal - a Focus on Digital Marketing - because everyone I've talked to both for this series, and through social media, or over the phone, they have realized that what worked in the past, AKA February 2020, wasn't going to work anymore, even after their businesses are granted permission to open back up.

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