How to Make Brand Champions. « Small Business Branding

How to Make Brand Champions.

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Ed Roach

How many times has an existing customers asked you if you also do this or that? Your employees – how many of them understand your brand? Take a good look at all of your stake holders, do they have a good understanding of what your brand stands for? Chances are there is a mixed bag of understanding about your brand from your stake holders.

Brand Champions are advocates who promote and or refer your business to others. They are passionate about your brand and are active in your promotion. Many times even brand champions don’t have a clear understanding of what you do. So – here’s your chance to strengthen existing brand champions and empower others who could potentially become Brand Champions for your company. Lets tackle each of the stakeholder groups to shore up support for the team:

Employees:

• develop brand training that exposes the employee to the brand’s core capabilities
• give the employee a brand statement that they can use to properly explain the brand promise or key positioning strategy
• provide employees with apparel festooned with the brand logo and/or positioning statement
• be sure that they are aware of the company’s proud history
• develop a model where an employee has input on possible opportunities
• make available educational opportunities that can help employees make your product offering or service better
• make it possible for employees to belong to influential community groups
• for employees that have direct customer contact, be sure that they exhibit traits complementary to the brand personality and values
• help employees understand that a properly managed brand will benefit their incomes into the future

Suppliers:

• make sure suppliers know where they stand in the food chain of your brand
• let them know what is expected of them and how that impacts the growth of your brand
• be sure that they understand the culture of your company
• provide suppliers with apparel festooned with the brand logo and/or positioning statement
• be sure that policies regarding gifts or favors compliment brand values

Customers:

• provide them the opportunity to tell your story
• referral programs to reward their enthusiasm for your brand
• regularly survey them to be sure that you are exceeding their expectations
• make it a brand policy to go above and beyond what is expected
• get bodies in front of customers, don’t reply to heavily on email
• look for ways of enhancing the relationship with customers ( track their personal and professional motivations )
• provide customers with apparel festooned with the brand logo and/or positioning statement
• record testimonials from customer advocates, (don’t pay for these statements)
• quickly address problems and issues with professionalism
• nurture loyalty among customers by building relationships from sales transactions
• keep customers on top of changes and improvements to the brand

Management/Share Holders:

• be sure that everyone is singing from the same song sheet
• provide Management/Share Holders with apparel festooned with the brand logo and/or positioning statement
• be sure that this group understands and are loyal to the brand values and personality
• with every decision that effects the brand, be sure that the information flows down efficiently to the other stake holders
• be aware of executive decisions that could conflict with the brand
• audit your brand from time to time to be sure that the brand is not wavering in its focus
• be aware that the leaders of the brand impact it directly – implementing change should always compliment brand legacy

At the end of the day, Brand Champions will deliver a winning game plan. Branding is a team sport in the strictest sense of the word. If you have a tendency to go it alone,
you might find that your brand is stagnant. Your best chance at winning is when you allow stake holders to become part of the branding team. TOGETHER, YOU COULD BE A LEADER IN YOUR CATEGORY!

12 Responses to “How to Make Brand Champions.”

Marnica

- 16th Jul, 08 05:07pm

Hi, this is about the best way to start on your journey to finding these opportunities is to start off with your interests and hobbies, bearing in mind the skills that you already possess and the invaluable experience that you have gathered over the years.

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Ed Roach (author comment)

- 17th Jul, 08 04:07am

Everything counts in branding, eh Marnia.

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Vincent Torres

- 19th Nov, 08 01:11am

Wow, I never knew that How to Make Brand Champions.. That’s pretty interesting…

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Joy

- 8th Jun, 09 04:06am

A brand that defines itself narrowly and with detail. Examples include Starbucks, Ray-Ban, and Kleenex.

Vague brand: A brand that defines itself via characteristics, emotions, and broad strokes. Examples include IBM (the new IBM), National Geographic, and Disney.

As you develop your brand, try to think into the future to where you want to take it. I am not suggesting that you start off with a hard-to-control vague brand, but with proper planning, your move to a broader brand will be much simpler than if you try to do so with a specific brand.

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Samantha Lee

- 8th Aug, 09 07:08am

i tried for months to build a brand but without lots of $$ to compete with the bigger boys i think this is almost impossible.

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Entrepreneur

- 13th Oct, 09 02:10pm

Nice points… Never to forget a brand name needs to build in years so keep working on it. The better you listen to your customers the more you can work on it. Find every odd and even ways to spread your brand. Educate everyone that are in your scope.

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Ed Roach (author comment)

- 14th Oct, 09 07:10am

Samantha your BIG advantage is that you can turn on a dime. The big boys can’t do anything quickly. It doesn’t cost anything to network by attending events, blogging, email marketing, joining clubs etc. Offer something you KNOEW the big boys can’t afford to do.

Entrepreneur your 100% correct. Keep those wheels spinning. Always keep an eye out for those little opportunities to advance your brand in a customer’s eyes.

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Paul

- 3rd Dec, 09 01:12pm

I have created a few brands and it hasn’t really costed me much. Like you said in your comment, Ed, we can do things quickly which big companies can’t do.

I can launch a small site around a certain product which I am trying to brand and get feedback all within a week or two.

Just keep trying things until you strike gold on one of them.

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Ed Roach (author comment)

- 6th Dec, 09 08:12am

Never stop the momentum of trying. It WILL work in the long run. I hate wasted effort.

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Promotional Bags

- 6th Jan, 10 06:01pm

Brands mean everything. Successful branding can be achieved over a long period of time through hard work and careful planning. What you brand today will grow into something beautiful for the future. Try Promotional Bags for your next branding campaign today. A well thought out article.

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Ed Roach (author comment)

- 7th Jan, 10 08:01am

PB: Could you explain promotional bags for us?

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