|
Welcome to the The Marketing Source e-newsletter! Our goal is to provide
you with real-world marketing tips.If you have any ideas for articles,
please send them along.
Your Customers Own Your Brand
If you think you are in charge of your brand, it's
time to
think again.
Your brand doesn't exist inside your company. It is not
your advertising, your logo, your pr or your tag line. It
exists in the minds of your customers, clients and
donors. It's the images, ideas and feelings people
have when they hear your name, see your products
and services, view your materials. It's everything - the
stuff you want to communicate and the stuff you
communicate in spite of yourself. The value of your
brand lies in people's perceptions of who you are and
what you stand for.
Quick, think Apple computers.
What comes to mind? IPod and IPhone?
Cool? Innovative? Mac? Easy to
use? Not compatible with PC?
Now think Red Cross.
Emergency? Helpful? Great cause? Financial
questions?
All those thoughts and feelings
you just
had represent those brands to you.
Too many marketers spend far too little time
managing
their brands. Here are a few common myths about
brands and some tips for creating and developing
brands that support the passion and work of your
organization.
Myth #1: Only consumer products are
brands
Make no mistake. You do have a brand - whether you
are a small business, a nonprofit, a service company
or a one-person operation. Even a person (Bill Gates)
or a state (Florida)
can be a brand. Consumers need
brands, both good and bad, to help navigate a messy
and crowded marketplace. A brand is a kind of short
hand for consumers so they don't have to think
through all the available options every time they make
a decision.
Myth #2: Our communications materials are our
brand
Everything you do contributes - positively or
negatively - to your brand. Your advertising, pr and
promotion may visually represent your brand, but your
products and services, staff, customer service all
contribute to the perceptions people have of your
brand. You won't find organically focused Whole Foods stocking its shelves with highly-processed junk
food. And if you are touting customer service but
people can't reach your service department, you'll
never make service an inherent part of your brand.
Your brand should be front and center of every
decision that you make.
Myth #3: We communicate the same things to
everyone
Not unless you have only one target audience - and
you don't. Since your brand is really a perception
people hold, it can differ greatly among your
audiences. Think about existing customers/users vs.
potential customers/users. Your existing customers
know you, your products/services and what you can
do. Potential customers have less knowledge and
less strongly held beliefs about you. While you want
to keep your overall messages consistent, don't
overlook the fact that you may need to focus on
different issues and benefits for different audiences.
Myth #4: We need to change things up to get
attention
Not really. Brands fail because they fail to stay
consistent. You will be bored with your logo and your
colors and your message long before anyone even
notices them for the first time. When you jump from
message to message, produce materials that all look
different and have a different strategic direction every
year, you lose the opportunity to build your
brand.
Myth #5: We build our brand on our company
values
Okay, but is that the same as what your audiences
think is important? If you talk about being a low cost
solution, and your materials, staff and products reflect
that, great. But what if service and expertise is what
your target audiences really want? It's easy to fall into
the trap of saying "this is what we're about" without
thinking through, investigating and understanding
whether that's going to resonate with your audiences.
Your brand really isn't about you. It's about identifying
the unique benefits you bring to your customers and
clients to help solve their problems, then telling that
story over and over.
Do a brand checkup
So how's your brand? Pull out any research you have,
get out your marketing and promotional materials,
listen to customer interactions with your staff and
review your products and services. Are you
consistent? Focused on what your customers want?
Communicating your messages clearly in your
materials? Be ruthless in weeding out the things that
take away from the brand you want. And get busy
creating the messages, images and experiences that
help you build a winning brand with
customers.
Need help on communicating what you're all
about?
We can help.
Recommend this site
|
