KEY POINT: Most organizations don't understand BRANDING. They believe it is their cute message, logo, colors, or something else they have created. It isn't… it's simply, WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT YOU WHEN YOU AREN'T AROUND. That is your TRUE BRAND. Keeping your Brand simple allows it to be much more memorable, and, most importantly, your audience will be able to tell others about you.
KEY QUESTION: What do your words and actions say to your audience? Do you know?
Most organizations make BRANDING much more difficult and complex than it should be. They spend months developing the right message, colors, logo, and everything that doesn't really matter to their customers.
To effectively DO BRANDING, start simple. Following the FIVE STEPS below will simplify BRANDING for you and your organization. And the result will give you phenomenal results. Before I share these with you, let me give you a few examples of how BRANDING HAS GONE WRONG.
Over the past several years, there has been a trend on social channels, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others, to show the image of a gorgeous woman or an incredibly handsome man delivering a particular message. Why? In virtually every case, it has nothing to do with what the company does...it is simply trying to grab your attention. So it begs the question, if the company has to resort to this type of activity to gain my attention, their products and services must really suck!
Another related trend has a "recognized name" be your spokesperson. Again, it is focused entirely on trying to grab your attention so they can hopefully convince you to buy their product or service or enjoy their experience.
These approaches tell me their products, services, and customer experience aren't strong enough (or unique enough) to attract my attention. They are resorting to tactics designed to have me hopefully stop and check them out, and it doesn't work. They might get a few clicks and sales, but they are TRASHING THEIR BRAND. You have to ask yourself, what brand is this company trying to convey? These are guaranteed ways to ruin your brand.
WHY BRANDING FALLS OFF THE RAILS is because the organization COMMUNICATES ONE MESSAGE and their ACTIONS COMMUNICATE A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MESSAGE.
The majority of the time when BRAND EROSION happens in a company is when their MESSAGING DOESN'T ALIGN WITH THE COMPANY'S ACTIONS. This is fatal to a brand, and you want to avoid this at all costs when branding.
This is one of the outcomes that happen when BRANDING BECOMES TOO COMPLICATED. Sadly, businesses overcomplicate their brand, so their audience is overwhelmed with the variety of messages they receive. They use slogans, catchphrases, spokespeople, and many other things to communicate their brand. But to the average audience member, this messaging is overwhelming, and they don't really have a clue what the company is trying to communicate.
Leaders MUST ASK one essential and critical question when discussing the topic of BRANDING…"Are our ACTIONS BUILDING TRUST or ERODING TRUST with our audience?
It is the million-dollar question every leader and business owner needs to ask whenever the topic of branding comes up. If you don't know, the odds are you are eroding trust more than building trust. The key word here is ACTIONS. As the saying goes, ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS, and it has never been more accurate than when it comes to BRANDING.
Let me give you a SIMPLE, YET POWERFUL WAY TO BUILD A BRAND in your organization…the way it should be in every organization.
Here are FIVE STEPS to help you create a SIMPLE yet HIGHLY EFFECTIVE BRAND…
Step 1 - START WITH WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOUR BRAND…FROM YOUR CUSTOMERS
Don't assume anything about your brand. Instead, find out what your audience believes is your brand. My process is to interview a random sample of customers for a client and ask them a critical question…WHAT WOULD YOU SAY IS THE BRAND OF XYZ COMPANY? My goal is to hear, in the voice of the customer, what they believe the company's brand is and what it means to them. THE ANSWER IS PURE GOLD. It demonstrates how their audience INTERPRETS the messaging and what it personally means.
Step 2 - FIND OUT WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOUR BRAND…FROM YOUR EMPLOYEES
Step 3 - DETERMINE WHAT YOU WANT YOUR BRAND TO BE…with CUSTOMERS and EMPLOYEES
In one short sentence or phrase, define what you would want your customers to say if asked to describe your brand. Don't over-complicate this…it should really be a simple phrase. Most of the time, leaders make this much more complex and confusing than it should be. Start by asking yourself, what is THE ONE THING I want our customers to say about us? Keep it simple and easy to understand. Take some time with this activity…it will pay you massive dividends in the future.
Step 4 - CHANGE YOUR ACTIONS TO DEMONSTRATE YOUR NEW BRAND
Now that you have THE ONE THING you want your customers and employees to say is your brand, you need to change your actions (and processes), so we can deliver this day in and day out. This is where the big shift happens…and where there is the MOST REWARD. When you can change your actions (and there will probably be many) so that your audience feels this is who you are and your brand, you can now start to BUILD A TRUSTED BRAND and STOP THE EROSION.
Step 5 - MONITOR YOUR BRAND CONSISTENTLY TO SEE IF IT IS CHANGING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Once you have a brand in the market consistent with your company's actions, you need to measure it consistently, so you don't get off course. There are many ways to do this, more than I can cover in this post…a topic for another post. The key is to consistently monitor your actions to align directly with the brand you want in the market. Done correctly, the next time I ask your customers to tell me what your brand is to them, they will tell me the same thing you established in Step 3 above. YOU'VE SUCCESSFULLY CHANGED YOUR BRAND.
What To Do Next...
TRUST is the HOLY GRAIL of a business today. And TRUST is the most CRUCIAL CORNERSTONE to GOING BEYOND DIFFERENTIATION™. Building a BRAND THAT IS TRUSTED is worth more than anything else you can do as a company. To get there, do the FIVE STEPS above. It will take you some time to get through these… don't worry, it will happen. Just think about how much time (and money) you previously spent on creating a brand that no one understood or could repeat?!? Do each step completely before moving to the next one. If it takes you a quarter or a year, it doesn't matter…it will pay massive dividends well into the future.
The businesses that do the best over the long haul are those that BUILD MORE TRUST with their audience...period. If your brand helps your audience build more trust with you, you will win…TRUST ALWAYS WINS.
Those organizations that are in it for the long haul know this and have a different approach. They treat their customers incredibly well, keep their promises, and build massive amounts of TRUST. This is an asset that stays with them for a very long time and pays dividends many times over.
Hopefully, you now have more insight into why many "branding activities" do nothing to enhance your brand…many erode it. Start by learning more about what it takes to make this happen. You can get this on my website (WOM10.com), by reading my latest book, my blog posts, and by reading more about it from other sources. Solid knowledge of what it takes to GO BEYOND DIFFERENTIATION™ is a great place to begin your journey.
As usual, if you have any questions or need assistance along the way, feel free to shoot me an email or give me a call, and I'll be happy to answer your questions or give you some guidance…complimentary, of course. I want to help you BUILD A BRAND that is the envy of your competitors and separates you from your competitors…helping you GO BEYOND DIFFERENTIATION™.
