Brand Strategy

If you ask 100 people who should know: “what is a brand?” You will get 100 different answers such as:

 “A logo?”,   “the name of the business?”,  “a slogan?”,  “A graphic design or color scheme?”, “The logo brochure, business cards and letter head?”

They are all right, but they get no credit for their answers because they are wrong.

Your brand is the entire experience your prospects and customers have with your company.  It’s what you stand for, a promise you make, the personality you convey, and your visible point of differentiation. 

While the concept of brand includes every answer above, those are only some of the creative elements that convey your brand.  Instead, your brand lives in every day-to-day interaction you have with your market:

• The images and ideas you convey
• The messages you deliver on your website, proposals, sales materials, brochures and the like
• The way your employees interact with customers over the phone and in-person
• A customer’s opinion of you versus your competition before the sale and after the sale

Branding is crucial for all businesses because it helps you actively communicate your competitive advantage.

Branding brings your point of differentiation and value proposition to life; it positions you as “different and special” in the minds of your prospects and customers.

When your brand is optimized, it consistently and repeatedly tells your prospects and customers why they should buy from you.

Think about successful consumer brands like Wal Mart, Starbucks or Mercedes. You probably either know or have a good idea what each brand represents. If you opened a business competing against one of them, the only way you could capture significant market share is with a strong and unique brand identity.

In your industry, if there is not a strong brand, you have an opportunity. 100% of the time, the company that stands for something valuable will easily reach, engage, close and retain customers.

 

The important thing to note is that we are describing branding as it actually should be and not as everyone else describes it. In our model, branding is a by-product of a point of differentiation or competitive advantage. In other experts opinion, a brand is the logo, sales materials, and look and feel of a company. We believe it's all of it, but since the brand lives in the mind of the consumer, all you can really do is: optimize every customer facing experience and make sales. The brand will sort itself out as you grow your business. That's the only way you will have control over your brand - through contact with the consumer.