Building the Brand That Will Build Your Business.

If you have a desire to improve your brand identity, rule one is to accept that times have changed. Fifty years ago, you could advertise your brand on a game show and 12 weeks later you’d secure a 50 percent increase in market share. Those days are long gone… forever!

Today, in our over-communicated world, your target market mindset is busy, distracted, and on to the next thing. Your market’s minds are like dripping sponges – leaving little or no room for another “average” brand message. Feel familiar?

For starters, what is your brand? Aside from the foundation of your business net worth, your brand is the real estate you own in the mind of your prospects and clients. For example, when you think of tissues, does Kleenex come to mind? Golf – Tiger Woods? Car safety – Volvo? Regardless of your business size, your brand is somewhere between front-of-mind and nowhere to be found in the mindset of your current or potential clients. The end-game is for your audience to think you as the only solution in your category. It’s called dominating mindshare and it’s a discipline of details practiced by few.

In contrast to yesteryear where branding was the color of your package, the consistency of your graphics and the voice and face of your product, branding is now the total combined experience one has with your company. Today’s branding is a combined effort of how you are selling, servicing and impacting your markets. Your brand is comprised of how you promote and persuade, how you care for your customers and what you stand for… your cause, your mission. How you sell and service and support must be audited, stratified, and integrated to ensure repeatable positive experiences. And for your brand to stay intact, the experiences must stay perpetual with every prospect, client, business partner, investor and employee. It’s a bold philosophy that will position you as the leader in your space with a brand that has staying power – if you have a commitment to brand.

Branding is a discipline. It is an on-going process of planned integration, not a series of shot gunned events.

The backbone of brand development is typically found in how you get the word out using marketing tactics like: web seo and paid search, social media, email campaigns, advertising, direct selling, channel selling, direct response, public relations, etc. The key to effective branding is to first find out what is relevant in the mind of your consumer, position your company to provide it, then deliver better, faster and easier than everyone else. Best guessing is not a good method for finding your position and it should be noted that branding without positioning is not worth very much. For example, one of our clients in the financial services business sold loans to brokers who in turn, sold those loans to end-users. After some cursory research we determined that speed of approval (most important), ease of process and attention to detail were this client’s key points to position. We built our entire brand platform around simple, accurate loan approval in seconds vs. hours, even days. Every ad, every show, every sales rep, mailer, every call, and every detail was built around this message. The brand was speed. The result of this position took them to the number one position in the country. They kept the same brand message during the 5-year push and the net result was close to $1 billion profitability for the campaign. It was and still is one of the great case studies of all time.

Brand discipline lies in keeping the message consistent, not changing it after three months because the phones aren’t ringing off the hook. Adjustment is fine, but be consistent with your message as branding is a process not a singular event. This again is why research to pinpoint market relevancy is critical up front. Branding is serious business, and as a major investment, it’s vital to get your position clear on the starting line.

It’s a little known fact that the biggest long-term brand opportunity lies in how you serve your clients, not just how you sell to them. Nordstrom’s service excellence has allowed them the luxury of spending less on advertising, because their employee commitment to excellence has strengthened their brand to near perfection. Every phone call, return, consultation and purchase is handled so well, that for some, the idea of shopping elsewhere is ridiculous. So while others are spending big to steal Nordstrom customers with marketing, Nordstrom spends more money on training and rewarding their employees to serve clients more effectively. The result? Customer loyalty is sterling and word-of-mouth accolades are perpetual and potent.

When it comes to becoming a brand leader, the discipline is in the details. Your sales calls, website, marketing tools, follow-ups, how you handle client conflict, vendor care, the aesthetics of your building, lobby, dress code, down to the carpet color and brand of toilet paper, etc., etc., etc. all make up your brand. But at the end of the day, the biggest percentage of your brand will be derived from the people. There is tremendous opportunity in enrolling every department in the company and every employee in those departments to realize that the way in which they carry out their service set has a major impact on the company and it’s growth. It is the combination of people, process and best practices all working at the highest level that will have you playing at highest level in your category.