One of the biggest problems in brand strategy is making it simple enough and emotional enough that everyone from your receptionist to your customers understands and believes it. When a marketing plan gets so complicated that you just can’t wrap your arms around it nobody wins. Here are four things to keep in mind as you develop your brand.
- The key elements to a brand strategy is to understand what sets you apart from anyone else. What do you believe that makes the difference between life and death? That may sound dramatic or too emotional, but the reality is that emotion sells. To build a successful brand you need that emotional “Why?” that set you apart. Your brand also needs to say that message in every touch point that comes in touch with your customers and your employees. Stand out or stand down.
- Own a word, a thought, a process, an outcome, or a dream. But own it! These basic elements or features, benefits, emotions and values are what make you different, a leader, and a brand.
- To understand who you really are and to better understand what you stand for, get out of the forest and learn about your product through the eyes of your customer. If you want to know what they think, then ask them.The reality of how a customer sees your product is the only reality that exists. Therefore, if you listen to them and you know how they see it then you can guide them, get them to stretch and see a vision beyond the expected. But you can’t learn if you don’t listen.
- Once you know who you are, what you stand for, why you’re in business and why others love you, then you know it’s time to develop a brand, a personality, and a mood. This brand is not only what you look like, it’s how you hire the personality you’re looking for, the color you are, the photos that represent your “Why” and much, much more. Every time your product or service touches your customer your brand should shout out consistently who you are and what you stand for.
