10 Things I Hate About Branding
ONE:
Frankly it takes a lot of work to stay on top of my brand. If only I could just push a button like the Staples “Easy Button” ( which I have on my desk). I hate that I can’t!
TWO:
I hate having to remind businesses that their brand is more than their logo. I have every design shop and ad specialty shop to blame for the mis-information I guess. (I could be painting with big a brush too)
THREE:
I hate companies who don’t realize that branding is a top down initiative. Without the captain on board, who’s piloting the brand?
FOUR:
Just too many great books to read. I’m stuck on historical fiction right now and so slipping in books on branding is a tight fit – I hate that.
FIVE:
I hate those who confuse their brand message with their slogan. There is a difference. I guess since they are both important, I should be happy that they have anything.
SIX:
I hate followers. Why do some businesses still feel they must follow the leader in their category? A commenter to one of my articles recently lamented their displeasure at businesses who copy the leader’s image almost to the letter. Sheesh!
SEVEN:
I also hate people online who make the simple complicated in an attempt to screw a few dollars out of your pocket, only to reveal the obvious. If you see something online you want to get into, email the author – I’m sure they’ll help you.
EIGHT:
I love it when someone says, “Hey, you’re the branding guy!” I hate that it took so long.
NINE:
Sometimes I hate that consistency is worth so much to your brand. I get the itch like many of us to change things up a bit. BUT, my better judgement knows that that would diminish what I have achieved so far.
TEN:
Sometimes I hate focus groups when judging brand image. By their nature they look to criticize regardless if it is even necessary. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut. Was your brand built on consensus or instinct?
Thanks for letting me vent a small bit, I hate keeping it bottled up inside.
How To Start Your Business With A Great Brand
The world is mired in a recession, but opportunity is everywhere. All around me, I’m meeting people who are starting a business.
They refuse to let the economy deter them – as a matter of fact, frequently it is the result of the poor economy that has presented opportunity to them. Where doom and gloomers see defeat, entrepreneurs rise to the challenge.
It is these very bold attitudes that are the basis for powerful brand values. It is these values that will be the foundation of your new brand and upon them; a new successful business will flourish.
Basing everything on these values, an entrepreneur must dream up a great name for their new venture. The name should inspire your intended audience. It should be memorable. Your name is important as it identifies the brand.
Having decided on a catchy name, next comes the logo. Since the logo is the visual component of your brand name, it must accurately reflect the brand name. It too, must inspire. If you use an icon in your logo (ie: Apple’s apple and the Nike swoosh) try to keep it simple. In deciding a palette it is best to keep the image to two or three colors. This makes it easier on the eye. A full range of color, just over complicates. The logo should work as effectively in black and white and gray tones. It must be legible at any size. Color is a very powerful icon that can also represent a brand (ie: UPS’s brown). Color should convey the personality of the brand.
Once the logo is complete, how it looks and feels sets the tone for everything else you do. From your website to your marketing materials, everything follows the corporate color pallette. Consistency is paramount here. Deterring from your palette dilutes your brand and confuses your intended audience. Imagery used is determined from the brand personality. Even the way you tell your story should be consistent with your brand efforts to date. If you have a very traditional, old world image, how you speak in your marketing should reflect this attitude. The tone is as important as the intent. At this stage of your brand development, you are the absolute master of your destiny. Be sure that it jives with your brand values. To do otherwise wouldn’t make sense in the marketplace.
To get the message out, the modern entrepreneur must embrace on and off-line strategies to develop their personal and professional brands. Off-line they must develop personal, and business networks to extend their reach. Joining professional organizations will go a long way in establishing that all important local presence you will need. Give back to your community through actively participating in influential not-for-profits. Many of these organizations have people of influence on their boards. If your audience is predominantly female, then you would want to market to professional women’s groups, and the places they congregate. If you are a woman yourself, membership is key.
Don’t forget print marketing, speaking engagements, radio, television shows and special events are also effective ways to market your brand.
Online is a fantastic place to grow your personal brand by feeding your expert profile. There is no better way than blogging. Also, social media such as Twitter and Facebook gives an entrepreneur a perfect platform to display their expertise. Your website MUST be more than a brochure site. It should provide your audience with tools that help them grow. It has to prove that your brand is more than the competing brand. Show your expertise. A blog allows you that platform to put your opinion out there. Writing white papers and ebooks is another great tool in drawing in an audience. What is exciting is most of your competition do NOT have these tools on their radar. Google them and see that many websites are simply brochure sites.
Using ebooks, white papers, audio and video as lures for email harvesters, you can build your own niche audience of targeted individuals and companies. The opt-in email list is dynamite because it is exactly whom you want to talk to. Breaking your list down even further only makes your marketing efforts more powerful. Email marketing should definitely be one of your premium avenues for promoting your brand. Affiliate sales, on-line networking (ie: Linkedin.com) are incredible ways to get your brand known around the world.
Actively pursue alliances to jointly promote events to an online audience doubles your effectiveness. Personally I have several partnering efforts in motion with companies in different parts of the world. Our efforts not only increase our potential markets to earn new business, but it also expands our range of influence.
For more information on Branding Yourself Online, I have a free 33 minute video on this very topic, over at my website. It gives you to the point how to’s in developing your online brand. Some of which we touched on here. Your brand is a terrible thing to waste. Be sure that everything is consistent including your tone and message. This will make it cheaper and more powerful to promote. Look for assistance online for every aspect of your business plan. The resources at your fingertips are reasonable in cost and immensely beneficial. If you are looking to build a team for your new business, look not further than an associate of mine, who just launched her new blog: mybreakthroughbusiness.com Providing this link to a friend’s blog, is another form of cross-promotion. EVERY effort has long term benefit.
I hope that you enjoy your business as much as I. Building your brand properly can be very rewarding.
How To Make Face Time Work For You
Technology has changed the face of business in spectacular ways. It has enabled businesses to embrace a greater community, it has increased productivity, and simplified communication. There are so many positives that they would be hard to name here in this post. There is one aspect of technology that I find sad, and that is how it has made us lazy regarding personal contact or “face time” with customers and prospects. Email makes it so easy and efficient. But, you know what they say, “out of sight, out of mind.” In business this situation can be the kiss of death. If your entire relationship is email and text based, there is virtually no relationship.
Long distance customers take on a different dynamic, but customers within a few hours drive are worth having face time with. Companies like the investment company Edward Jones, does not allow it’s advisors to use email with their customers. They do allow personal, voice and snail mail contact only. This effort is rewarded repeatedly. Here are some other things that I do to make “face time” work for me:
Coffee chat: When a person contacts me to see how we might work together, I typically suggest we meet over coffee. This way I can size them up better and try to understand their motivation. I’ve struck up some terrific business relationships this way.
Networking meet-ups: You can use these events to spruce up your sales skills and put a face to a name. It gives you a chance to help someone on the spot.
In-person presentations: I like to present proposals in person. This shows that I want their business enough to get off my butt and shake some hands. I don’t want our relationship to be entirely virtual. Show you’re a real business.
Ignore email: Purposely visit customers. Showing up to chat WILL get you more business. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken something in personally that I could have just as easily emailed only to get other projects given to me on my way out the door. Seeing you reminds them of other ways that you can help.
“I’m in the area” opportunities: Sometimes, when “I’m in the area” I call to see whether I can pop in to say howdie. These friendly requests always brings a smile and some great conversation.
New service meetings: Recently, I emailed a number of old files and offered to bring them a coffee and discuss what I’m offering these days that might be of help to them. I hand a hand full take me up on it, and this effort resurrected some old business.
The point here is not to rely on convenience to grow your business. It’s not about you – it’s about them.
Choose Your Words Carefully
Once or twice a week, I walk into my neighborhood dry cleaners with an armful of shirts. As the clerk (and it doesn’t matter which one) approaches the counter, they hopefully ask “just dropping off?”
And I always reply, “Nope, I need to pick up as well.”
Then, as if it was a choreographed part of their business, they take in a little breath and turn back to walk to the computer, to look up my order number. I’m pretty sure they’re completely unaware that they do it. Or that it is so embedded in the culture of the company that they ALL do it.
But they message they transmit is “it’s kind of a pain to have to get your stuff for you. I wish you were just dropping off.”
I never leave feeling as though they appreciate my business. I leave feeling bad that I inconvenienced them.
Imagine how different it would feel if they approached the counter with a “do you have an order to pick up too?”
Tiny tweak. Major difference.
Are you sure you’re transmitting the message you want your customers to receive? Are you sure there’s nothing in your company’s culture/customer interaction that could use a tiny tweak?
Branding Your Kids – the next BIG thing?
I’ve got these good friends of mine who live in Kentucky. It has been a pretty traumatic summer waiting for college season to arrive. You see, they just sent their only child off to his first year of University. They are so very proud of him. He didn’t have any scholarships, well-placed contacts, or remarkable grades – he achieved his first real goal in life thanks in some part to branding.
His folks are colleagues of mine in the branding world. When the family gathered around the supper table, and prepared themselves to go through the groups of university brochures and browse the impressive websites, it wasn’t lost on them that they would also have to pitch their son to the universities. He would have to be branded. It would be an enlightening experience for him, and an assurance to them (the parents) that he put his best effort into getting accepted into his school of choice.
His resume wasn’t your typical binder containing exactly what would be requested but a more visual and intuitive presentation. His brand was polished, and it showed. Here are some of their branding highlights:
• His brand values were defined much like any great brand.They explained his commitment to these values and how they compliment the school and their value systems.
• His brand personality was visually presented using a “vision board.” This board contained words, pictures, colors, anything that portrayed his ‘personality’. His colors were used consistently through the presentation.
• His differentiator was his passion for the school. He chose them. His life goals matched their scholastic mandate.
• His visual image (or logo if you will) was designed to strike an emotion with the reader, who would no doubt judge their son on first impressions, not unlike the business world. Photos were designed to display his pleasant disposition and vigor of youth. He was a classic example of “their ideal student.”
• To further cement a favorable impression his personal interests and social skills were detailed to help establish a good profile.
• Aligning all his best attributes, their son refined his brand and enjoyed a boost in confidence. He realized a positive benefit with the genuine opportunities in defining his brand, aligning all his best attributes.
• He gathered favorable testimonials to his good character and included them to attest to his brand.
These were the main ingredients in their recipe to brand their offspring. Essentially branding your college student is another form of personal branding. The visual topper to this was a large branding board that visually showed everything about “his brand.” One glance at this board and you see his brand instantly. Since a picture is more powerful than the written word, this huge effort made it’s desired impression … he was accepted into his first school of choice. His confidence in himself helped him land on the student paper the first day on campus with a photo assignment. His passion you see is photo journalism.
His brand succeeded and gave him a powerful advantage. It’s his job now to make it better every day to help in his quest for glory.
Dork Your Brand!
You’ve got your cool little business, you’ve had some degree of success and you’ve done it all on your own. The only bar you’re interested in raising is the pub down the street. Who needs all those consultants and brand gurus when you can keep your hard-earned beer money and find the cheapest student or cousin to spin your magic.
Well I’m here to make your day and save you tons ‘o dough by giving you ten ways to “DORK YOUR BRAND!”
1) Don’t even think about being consistent with your image. The trick here is to have one logo on your stationary, another variation on your signs and when you do a trade show, something homemade would be outstanding.
2) Brand values – frankly that’s for pansies. Just do what it takes to get the business. View those people you have to walk on to succeed as mere stepping stones. Don’t concern yourself with your reputation.
3) Find the perfect opportunity to blend in with what your competition is doing. If they are doing great then they must be on to something. “More of the same,” I always say to Dorks. You don’t want to risk standing out, you might be discovered for who you really are. There’s probably more money running with the pack anyway.
4) Did you know that you can get a logo designed online for free? That’s right, no need to worry about demographics, first impressions, market share or what ever. Image is for movie stars, your running a bizness. The less things cost – more for you, right?
5) Don’t ask – don’t tell. You’re only looking for trouble asking your stake holders what they think.
6) Are you going to one of them trade shows. Stay away from a professional presentation and get yourself one of those free folding tables and dress it up with blue skirting like all the other dorks. We’re blending in again, that’s the ticket. (Now you’re catching on).
7) And while you’re at the show, and you want to catch a stare or two, don’t waste your cash on relevant materials promoting a unique message – get yourself a booth bunny! Hey sex sells and even if hurts your brand – what’s the harm in a little fun.
8.)Keep dropping your price until you are the lowest price in your bizness. Don’t let nobody beat you.
9) Don’t bother trying to forge relationships with customers. Let’s face it, you’ve probably got enough friends, and besides they’d probably expect you to pick up the tab.
10) When the phone rings, it’s not important how your staff answers it – just be glad it’s ringing. There’s no point wasting friendly on some Nancy just looking for the cheapest deal.
Well that’s the branding game in a nut shell. One thing I can guarantee you is, if you decide to “Dork Your Brand”, you will make one business person very happy…
…that person is your leading competitor.
This article was inspired by SBB commenter Steve, over at Pinnacle Displays, and Nichpreneur Michelle for encouraging us.
THE introvert’s guide to selling
Not everyone throws on their spidey outfit and relishes leaping into the fray of the business sales arena. As a matter of fact a great deal of people sell because it is just part of what they do. If they could get the sales some other way, they’d probably jump at it. In the mean time all of the reluctant sales people out there, have to do they best they can with the few sale skills they have.
For the past few months I’ve been in touch with several reluctant sales people from around the world, and we’ve been sharing tips and techniques that has made selling a little bit easier. None of these contacts are Anthony Robbins clones or Dale Carnegie wannabe’s, BUT the one thing they did have in common was that they are introverts in an extroverts world. They’re tired of the books on sales that assume you love to put yourself out there.
So guess what? I’ve taken this valuable conversation and put them together in a little eBook that I am giving away for the asking. It was a pleasure putting together this information because of the insight it gave me. This is my first offering in the eBook realm. I call the effort, “The Reluctant Salesperson: An Introvert’s Guide to Selling.”
If you see fit to add this eBook to your reading, I’d love it, if you’d drop back here and let me know what you think. One thing about blogging that I find immensely gratifying is the breadth of opinion – all of it with the goal of helping all of us improve how we do business.
…for all the reluctant sales people who may be too shy to drop by my site and pick up a copy, I don’t mind if you get a friend to do it for you.
All the best.
