Sales & Marketing Consultant, Bestselling Author & Sales Conference Speaker

When you start a small business one of the most important things to understand is branding and what it can do for your company.

You should not undermine the importance of a brand name and you should never shortcut the process. It is true that giving your company a brand may look just like icing on the overall cake, but it is a lot more than that. Your brand name will ensure that the entire cake does not fall apart. Without going through this process, it can be very difficult for a new business to grow as the brand name will tell your customers a lot about your company.

Connect With Customers

By getting the branding process done correctly, you will be ensuring that you get in touch with your customers; not only on a professional level, but also on a personal one. You are telling them about what you do and how you do it by simply using a brand. A customer can know your personality as well as the company’s identity. You should think of this process as a great investment in the company you worked so hard to create. Even so, it does not have to be complicated as most people prefer to keep it simple.

Talk To An Expert

While you may have an idea of how you want to go about the branding process, it is always a good idea to talk to an expert. As stated earlier, this is an investment that you are making so in order for the investment to pay off, you have to do it right. An expert will help you in things like customer outreach, logo and even slogans which you can use to get more customers to your door. The entire process can be done quickly if done correctly and a professional is the best way to go about it.

Happy Marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

http://www.seanmcpheat.com

(Image by Naypong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

What Is A Brand?

Sometimes it’s easier to understand a thing by describing what it’s not.  So how about you and I get a few things cleared up before we move on.

Your brand is not what you say it is.

Your brand is not a logo.

Your brand is not a tagline, business card, font style or color wheel.

You don’t own your brand.

Here it comes. Are you ready?

Your brand is exactly what your customers say it is.  That’s it.

If customers aren’t talking about you then there is a good chance that you don’t have a brand at all.  In these cases, all you have is an undifferentiated product or service that the marketplace is unwilling to pay more for.

In fact, premium pricing can be an indicator of a good brand.  When customers willingly pay more for a brand that has lower priced competitors, they often talk about why the brand is worth it.

What Is Brand Management?

Managing a brand used to be about control by force.  Brand managers used to control the size of the logo on publications.  They’d control for consistency of outgoing messages.   They’d make sure that press releases remained on-point.  They’d attempt to crush any opposition and silence every critic. For nearly 100 years, companies controlled the media messages that positioned their brand and life, was good.  A brand manager who couldn’t control all these variables was considered weak and created risk for the organisation.

In less than 10 years, social media has changed all of this.  Nearly overnight, consumers were given keys to the press room and power for their own media channels.  Consumers have been given a microphone and are learning that they have a voice.  Through digital devices, blogs, videos, tweets and posts, consumers have discovered both the tools to create content and the networks to distribute their own opinions about brands.  These modern consumers can not be controlled by the old guard.  For the old brand manager, this is a nightmare.

The modern brand manager is more judo master than military dictator.  Her control comes not from attempting to dominate the bigger, stronger opponent (the marketplace) but rather by using the energy and momentum of the marketplace to her advantage.  This philosophy has been adopted by Coke and is beautifully communicated by their Content 2020 brand strategy.  There are many lessons to be learned from this modern brand management approach.

Four Steps To Managing The Modern Brand

Here are four parts and with actions you can take to help you managing a brand in the modern media world.

1. The Promise

It’s still up to the company to know what makes them unique and translate that into a promise.   Only then should they distribute this message through media.  Traditional media still has an important role in mass distribution of these messages. But take note that customers are continuously building their own trusted referral network that can assist in your content distribution.   In order to get them to share your content, you’ll have to earn their trust first.

Action: Be bold with your promise. Set the bar high.  Grab your team and try this brand workshop here.

2. The Behaviour

It’s not enough for a company to make a claim that they are innovative, customer centric or empowering.  Actions always speak louder than words, so the actions of every staff member has to reinforce your company’s claims.  Every physical and digital place where a company and a customer interact is a valuable touchpoint that can either confirm or contrast the your position. Companies can use social media to help reinforce their convictions with video testimonials, blog posts or other social objects.

Action: Gather an interdisciplinary team into a meeting.  Ask them what they think your brand is all about from their own perspective.  Ask them for specific examples of how they might act to reinforce or undermine your brand promise.  Record these stories and create a learning archive for employees.

3. The Feedback

Brand management is an ongoing process that involves two distinct groups.  On one side is your company with its promise and behaviour.  On the other side are the customers and their impressions of your company’s actions and promise.  Since the customers define the brand, it’s critical for your company to invite dialogue with your customers and listen to their responses.  As the buying demo (adults 25-54) gradually fills with Millenials and the iGeneration, social media will become the preferred communication tool for the connected customer.  This means that every company can acquire their own audience to learn about their wants and needs, and test ideas in real time rather than through delay reports created by focus group intermediaries.

Action: Listening comes in many forms.  Set up a Facebook page to learn about how your customers use your products.  Create a Google Alert to be notified when someone talking about your company online.  Track the search volume trends over time to listen if your traditional media campaign is getting traction.   Create goals in Google Analytics to listen if Twitter is converting any casual conversations into consumers.

4. The Adjustment

The last step in modern brand management is adjusting direction.  This is done by synthesizing data into actionable insights. All of these touchpoints and customer feedback in the previous step will create data.  Be forewarned: there is lots of it out there. However, data isn’t information.  Data isn’t insight.  Data is just data and it can be very confusing. Once you synthesize the data, you should be able to make small course corrections and recommendations to the organization so that your actions continuously match your promise along every touchpoint of the consumer decision journey.   These necessary adjustments will continue moving the business forward and keep you ahead of the competition.

Action: What you’re really doing here is trying to instigate change.  Change is hard.  Especially when it comes to changing people’s behaviour.  Learn how to use storytelling and bright spots to inspire the behaviour you want.  Social media can help you increase the distribution of your change message by reducing the friction through social sharing.

Managing a brand is such an important job.  Do you have any stories about great brand managers you could share?

Guest Blog by Marc Binkley, Brand Consultant at Sleeping Barber

(Image by Kromkrathog at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Marc Binkley is a Brand consultant and Marketing Analyst at Sleeping Barber.  He’s the founder and instructor of the Social Media For Business certificate program at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta.   Marc has been blogging regularly at blog.marcbinkley.com for years and has recently published his first case study comparing the ROI of social media to cold calling on his business site Sleepingbarber.com.  You can reach Marc on Twitter @marcbinkley anytime.

I would like to tell you a story about love, disaster, joy and branding.  As many great stories do, this one begins with bacon.

Nearly every weekend, my wife and I treat ourselves to a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs (thank you Edward Bernays).  Our consumer ritual really starts on Fridays.  On my way home from work, I often stop at the grocery store to pick up the bacon along with a few other things.  While I’m excited about the purchase, I’m also conflicted about which bacon to buy.  You see, while I love to buy it and love to eat it, I hate getting bacon out of the package.  What’s frustrating, is that nearly all packages are the same.

In Canada, most of the bacon is packaged in one pound plastic wrapped packages.  These packages have no resealable zip and since my wife and I only eat a few pieces each, we often have to slide the remaining bacon back into the package once we’re done.  While I’m getting ready to cook, I frequently forget about the package of bacon on the counter while I’m toasting bread, avoiding collisions with my wobbly-walking daughter, making coffee, pouring juice and scrambling eggs.  It’s precisely at these moments when disaster strikes.

Removing bacon without incident from a package such as these is nearly impossible.  While I get everything else ready, the bacon gets warm, the fat softens and the blood starts juicing.  More often than not, the moment I cut open the package, the juices start dripping onto the counter.  With all the commotion, getting my hand in the tight package to remove a few strips is more like pulling a ripcord of saucy spaghetti off a plate than an act of skilled surgery.  Putting the remainder back is a tragedy.  Bacon never goes back in looking like it did on the way it came out.  In my house, getting the bacon in and out of the package is a kitchen disaster.

But I digress.  As I said, this is a love story and I’ve got some bacon to tell you about.  Olymel Fresh Portion, Centre Cut, Made With Sea Salt, Applewood Smoke Flavor Bacon is the muse of my story.

It’s the greatest bacon I’ve ever had.  Everything about it is spectacular.  It’s delicious. It’s made with sea salt so you know it’s healthy.  It’s got that “je ne cest quois” smokey flavor to it.  I tell all my friends, colleagues and clients about it.  As you can attest, I’m writing an entire blog post dedicated to it.  It’s not available in Calgary, Alberta but it is available parents live 4000 kms away so I occasionally bring it back with me after visits.  To say I’m a fan is an understatement.  When it comes to this particular bacon, I’m a raging lunatic.

Which brings me to the last part of this article – how to build a brand.

Choose to take a stand.  There are as many people who believe “we provide innovative solutions” or “#1 in customer service” as there are people who will step on a burning bag of shit.  Being good at design won’t cut it,  you’ve got to be fanatical about it and prove it every chance you get.  If product design sets you apart, can you invent the Fresh Portion package? If it’s customer service, can you be the Zappos of your industry? If you’d like to find a good place to learn how to  take a stand, Start With Why.

Listen, great brands encourage emotional stories.  In his groundbreaking book Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about the importance of clearing space to make sure the right people get a seat on the bus.  Do your customers have a seat on your brand building bus? If you’re listening to them, your customers should have lots of stories to tell.  Tap into your customers for insights about how they feel about your brand (see anthropology market research), and create a space for them to share their own stories (see Fiskateers).   If customers aren’t telling stories about you then you don’t have a brand, you’ve just got a product.

Stories are vessels of emotional context.  Current research suggests that the unconscious or emotional mind influences 95% of all purchases.  The remaining 5% of influence comes from the conscious mind which uses logic to justify the decision.   By building a brand with stories you’ll be able to influence behavior more effectively than by spewing facts, sales and promotions.

Develop content around the customer’s moment of truth.  Bacon is kind of like sex, even when it’s bad it’s still good.  I don’t need to be convinced of the amazing flavor of Olymel bacon.  Just like all the other bacon that I’ve had, I expect Olymel bacon to be delicious.  The moment of truth in my bacon love story is that A-HA! moment when I discovered the portion packaging.

Create content that recreates this moment for others and it will spread.  If the content is entertaining, digital and easy to share, I’ll pass it along to my friends through social networks.  You can encourage customers to help out too by asking them to talk about what about how the bacon juice didn’t splatter on their walls, about how the leftover bacon stays fresh longer since it was never opened.  Seth Godin makes a great case that winning ideas are the ones that spread.

If you don’t sell bacon, think about your own defining moment.  In the flower industry, it’s the instant joy on a customers face when the delivery guy hands over their flowers. In the automotive business, when someone drives the car off the lot for the first time.  In the housing market, it’s when new owners walk through their house for the first time and say, “it’s ours!”.  To you know your moment of truth, is to know your customer.

Choosing to take a stand, listening for emotional stories and the creating content around the moment of truth are three things that people can do to build up their own brands.  One last thing, while you’re busy implementing some of these strategies, don’t forget to stop and smell the bacon.

(Image by Cookbookman)

A Guest Blog By Marc Binkley, Multimedia Sales and Brand Consultant. Read Marc’s blog

Link up with Marc: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/marcbinkley

Follow Marc on Twitter: https://twitter.com/@marcbinkley

Marc Binkley’s fanaticism for bacon is matched by his love of the sales process and brand strategy.  He has a voracious appetite for learning about the disruption created by social, mobile and digital media on consumer buying behavior and brand preference.

Marc is currently finishing his personal two year case study that tracked the ROI of cold calling versus digital prospecting and continues to work as a Social Media for Business Instructor at Mount Royal University and as a Multi-Media Sales and Brand Consultant.

One of the most difficult things for business owner’s is to accomplish is establishing themselves as the trusted resource in their industry. Notice I used the word “the trusted resource” and not “a trusted resource”, this is extremely important. Information about companies is very accessible to consumers seeking a professional to solve their problem. Therefore, you need to spend more time setting your brand above the rest. How can you accomplish this?

Think like your customers
Have you taken the time to think like your customers? When you do, you will notice that the following occurs. You will begin to engage with your potential customers without self-promotion. This does not mean that your potential customers remain ignorant of the business that you own; it simply means that you are not broadcasting your products and services 24/7. Begin by creating content that offers a solution to your audience’s problems. By providing powerful content that is not centered on self-promotion you will gain a following. This following will eventually turn into paying customers.

Provide Value
Do your content and your advice provide real value? Simple ways to provide valuable content includes: white papers, e-books, blogs, email newsletters, Facebook status updates, tweets, video and audio. This does not mean that you have to utilize all of these outlets to produce valuable content that your audience can use. This does mean that you need to produce and provide content, using at least one of these mediums, on a consistent basis.

Expert Endorsement
One of the best ways to show that your brand is a trusted resource is through endorsements. Have you connected with thought leaders that are willing to write down a few sentences that endorse your brand? I don’t suggest contacting every thought leader you admire and beg them to endorse your product or service. I do suggest that you utilize professional relationships that you have developed. This can be accomplished through networking, commenting on the blogs of these thought leaders, joining them in groups online and building a rapport. You must be willing to have a give- give relationship with these individuals. As quickly as a thought leader can endorse you, they can just as easily tarnish your professional reputation if you abuse the professional relationship.

Every brand must establish itself as the trusted resource of your field. Becoming the trusted resource is not something that occurs overnight. It takes time to develop relationships, build trust with your current customer base and have your target demographic trust you as well. This is an investment that is well worth the time and resources. You will find that once you are established as the trusted resource, it will take less time to turn a curious prospect into a loyal customer.

Happy Marketing!
Sean
(Image Creative Commons)
Sean McPheat

http://www.seanmcpheat.com