When I talk to people about brands, they usually think of a
logo or the marketing material of a company. If we take one
of the big boys such as Nike, for example, you might immediately
think of that little arrow they use for their logo, or the “just
do it” strap line. But Nike’s brand is much more
than that. Brand is what people feel when they think of a company.
So for Nike this might be:
- “just do it”
- trainers
- sweatshops
- black rappers
- over priced goods
- cool design
Considering Nike spends millions each year on promoting their
brand, this is a bit of a mixed bag, with some definite “don’t
want to buy” feelings in there. And brand is so important
that Nike has had to take action about its image as an exploitative
sweatshop employer. You can see more about what they’ve
had to do to try to disprove this hereand make up your own mind.
Brand is just as important, if not more so, for smaller businesses
as well as the big corporate. You have to be very clear about
what you want people to feel about your business, and everything
you do has to reflect this; people will pick up anything that
isn’t in alignment.
What makes up your brand?
Remember that your brand is what people feel about your company.
If your company is mostly yourself, then it’s what people
feel about you, and your personal brand becomes the company.
Brand is…
Marketing material
Your logo, colours, type of paper and printing you use for leaflets,
your website, and everything that you put out into the world.
Remember that every time you send out an invoice you are sending
a message to the world, and people will notice the smallest
details.
Personal brand
If you provide a face to face service, or sell directly or use
networking as part of your marketing, then your personal brand
is very important. Make sure that how you dress is the way that
you want to come across to potential clients. This doesn’t
mean you have to dress in formal business wear if you’re
not comfortable with this – in fact if it makes you uncomfortable,
this shows that your brand is not aligned with who you really
are.
Don’t just think about appearance, how you behave is
just as important. Do you always behave towards people in
a way that reflects how you want to be thought of? Make sure
that your image reflects your personality because it’s
you that people buy from.
Customers
The people you work with say something about your
company. Make sure that you talk about the customers who reflect
the type of customers you want more of. Make sure that your
customers know who you want them to tell about your services
so that they operate as a mini sales force for you.
Service
The service that you give reflects your brand. If
you can provide extraordinary service, doing whatever you
do, better, cheaper, more imaginatively then this will become
part of your brand, and people will talk about it.
Media
Many people are happy just to get their name in the
paper, or online. But remember that this in itself is unlikely
to bring you customers. You have to work to ensure that all
media mentions of you are enhancing and reinforcing your brand
as much as possible. So make sure that you’re clear
about your messages before you start talking to journalists,
blogging or getting online articles published. You want everyone
who reads these pieces to think of you in the way that you
want to them to think of your company.
Where to start
The first thing you need is to be clear about the messages
that you want to put across. Brainstorm all the feelings that
you want people to have about you and your business. Think about
what customers are looking for.
Then think about the most important messages that you want to
put across. Get this down to about three to five key messages. For example, I need people to believe that I know about business,
so one of my key messages is to that I am a business expert.
That’s why I’m writing this article, to make you
believe that I have expertise. Is it working yet?
Look at the five areas; marketing, personal branding, customers,
service, media and work out what you could be doing better in
each of these areas. What are the areas where your brand is
“leaking” or you are being inconsistent? Ask friends or customers what they think.
If you would like some advice about your brand and how you can
be assertive, consistent and get your messages across, get in
touch for our free business health
check and we’ll meet up to get you going.
Julia Chanteray
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