There’s a lot of hype about brand consulting. Much of it is just that. Hype. Let’s cut the hype and look at the reasons why every business needs to build their brand. Because a brand is not something nice to have after you do everything else. It’s an integral part of building a successful business.
Brands are the way we make sense of the world of commerce. Brands help us decide who to trust and what to buy. They help us recognize patterns, familiarity. Gain comfort through repeated use. And brands that disappoint give us the reminder to stay away. This requires sound small business branding. Create value by generating demand and securing future business earnings. You can’t be a me too and succeed any more. It’s too crowded. But no matter how crowded the niche you’re in, you can differentiate yourself. You can become a brand people care about.
You brand because people need a simple way to find you. You brand to be found by the right people. To stand out amongst sameness. Your brand tells people whether you’re right for them.
Successful brands define what makes them totally unique, but they all share six common characteristics. Without these key qualities, you’re not going to see much success:
Attention – something that’s getting more valuable and harder to capture. Because people don’t have enough time for everything they get hit up with. Let alone keep up with their daily to do’s. Get attention by being relevant – matching customer interests at the appropriate time.
Trust – you build it by delivering value, consistency. Without trust you can’t connect with your customers. And you can never take that trust for granted. Volvo damaged their brand in the early 90’s when they weakened the pillars of other cars and strengthened theirs for a TV spot in which a truck drove over the tops of the cars.
Loyalty – Harvard Business Review estimates that attracting new customers costs 5 – 10 times more than keeping a current one. How do you do that? By branding. Satisfied customers refer new ones. Loyal customers spend an average of 3 – 20 time more than non loyal customers.
Evangelism – customers you’ve delighted so much they can’t wait to spread the word. And word of mouth is far more powerful than any advertising you can do. But you need to fire on all fronts to get there. You need to show up to the market where your customers play. And you do that through your brand.
Profitability – A strong brand is profitable. Price with discipline – think about customer perceptions – contribution margin – difference between unit sales price and variable costs for producing it. (i.e. gross profit) = profit from selling one more; above what’s necessary to recover incremental variable cost of sale. Maximize contribution margin, not sales or market share to be profitable. Value is all you have to sell. Don’t give it away through poor pricing.
Great service – Seems so simple, but yet so few companies really deliver. When was the last time you called customer support or “customer care” and talked with a live person without 7 layers of menus who actually listened to you. Then resolved your problem.
The heart drives purchases. Logic rationalizes them.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling to consumers or business to business. Or whether your product is $10 or $1,000,000. People buy based on their emotional connection with you. When you’re selling a $1,000,000 product to a business, the buyer is often betting their career on choosing you. They choose based on trust, intuition and justify it with data.
No purchase is completely objective. Why do you think business people spend a lot of time on the golf course? Think it’s all about facts and figures? Hardly. It’s about relationships. And relationships are not rational. You create a brand for the heart and back it up by delivering on your promise.
You brand to become the choice for which there’s no substitute. A brand that drives profit to your bottomline.
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