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 Police Your Brand!
Your brand is probably your company’s most valuable asset. It is what provides you the opportunity to make money based on strong relationships.
Your brand makes advocates out of customers which means that they in effect become salespeople for you.
Being an advocate for a brand, makes it a pleasure to recommend that company to your network of contacts.
Paying close attention to the environment in which your brand exists will reward you at times when you find your brand in a bad place or subject to sloppy practices.
Because your brand is essentially your reputation, it is therefore, dire that you always defend its integrity. Here are 7 critical areas where you should police your brand:
ONE: Corporate Logo.
Your corporate logo is the face of your brand. It is what the public sees and identifies as your company. Every logo has associated with it a color palette and distinguishing features. Even the space your logo occupies is valuable real estate. Explain the rules for reproducing your corporate logo. Be sure to have an RGB, Hex, Pantone, Process Color, Black & White and Gray Scale version of your logo. DO NOT compromise on your palette/real estate. Once you drop the ball once, your audience will be confused. Consistency is powerful magic.
TWO: Type Style.
Choose fonts that accurately represent the personality of your brand. Use these fonts in everything you do. Apple has gone to the trouble of designing a font expressly for their use. Fonts like other graphic elements set a tone that can be recognizable over time.
THREE: On-Brand Thinking.
This one is over-looked at times. Be sure that your entire staff has a keen understanding of your brand statement or unique positioning strategy. If staff is allowed to define what you do, you stand a good chance of jumping into the sea of sameness along with the competition. On-brand thinking portrays an image of confidence.
FOUR: Internal Communications.
Internal communication is a sub set of on-brand thinking. Keeping your organization current with company news and direction, helps to eliminate communication by rumor. Rumors are often wrong and typically negative. It eats away at your brand from the inside and contributes to the erosion of business.
FIVE: Poor Corporate Behavior.
We only have to cast our eyes upon Wall Street to quickly see how well-established brands are destroyed overnight when greed rules the day. Once your brand has been trashed by your corporate officers, it is often nearly impossible to recover. Brand trust is what makes you money.
SIX: Exit Strategies.
If an individual represents your brand as it’s icon, do you have a plan in place if they should suddenly disappear due to natural or other causes? Mascots or spokes people are a double edged sword for your brand. Done well they can cement a relationship with an audience, but the trick is to make them larger than life – something beyond themselves. Great ones are Colonel Sanders, Ronald McDonald and Dave from Lenox.
SEVEN: Risk Planning.
Utilizing Compliance Branding and having a plan in place help offset an unplanned event that threatens your brand. A case in point: Martha Stewart. How Martha responded to the situation she found her brand in, resulted in a secure brand once the event was over. Determining how the company should react to any negative publicity and who should speak for them is important to weathering a storm.
Policing your brand is an ongoing effort. Your competition is only too happy to see you fall. Unless you take the proper steps to protect it you stand a great risk of not only allowing the competition to define your brand but it puts you in the undesirable position of reacting constantly to events that didn’t have to happen. Ignoring your brand takes money directly out of your pocket. The suspect in this crime is in the mirror.
Photo Courtesy of Paul Keleher
Is Your Online Radar Turned On?
Sitting in my office here in Leamington, Ontario Canada ( just 30 miles ’south’ of Detroit, Michigan – sounds odd I know), I reflect on how the web has changed the way I do business and in return strengthened my brand. Ten years ago, my market was essentially within a 2 1/2 hour drive of here – North America’s industrial heartland. I marketed traditionally which is to say totally offline except the token brochure website. Those efforts brought me a comfortable living.
Today, I market myself 90% online and use networking strategies both on and off-line. My market is now the world. Through my efforts I have come to build connections to companies in the Czech Republic, India, Canada, England, Australia, and the United States. Consulting has grown into a viable service to customers in need of positioning. Without the internet, this would not have been in the cards.
I recently attended a mentoring supper with local top business students from the Odette School of Business in Windsor, Ontario. All of these young people were chomping at the bit to get into the work force. None were intimidated by the economy. They were filled with optimism. Unlike my generation, they have a massive advantage – the internet. Their dreams can be realized by marketing to a global market instantly. If they never left the online world, they have the potential to build a brand of enormous proportions. If; on the other hand, their brand is limited to a niche market, they can still potentially enjoy a very healthy income.
When I do speaking engagements to predominantly small businesses, I ask the how many blog or utilize html marketing? It astonishes me how many are NOT doing either. Worse than that, it’s not even on their radar. Their reasons for not engaging the web essentially has been their desire for instant results with little effort or cost. Even in the luddite world this is not possible. I imagine, due to a simple lack of understanding (from SEO gurus is my guess) that all they have to do is have a search optimized website, customers will beat a path to their door. When that didn’t happen, they become disillusioned by it all.
It’s no different in the off-line world. They run a few ads and wonder why the phone isn’t ringing off the hook. It all boils done to a realistic strategy and having an open mind and realistic set of expectations. For my business efforts, I came to realize that patience was indeed a virtue. I enjoy musing with colleagues that you never know what the next email will bring you. Not unlike every form of marketing it is longevity that gives birth to results. As your influence grows from community to community, your opportunities grow with it. Before you know it, your customers who benefit from your product or service come from locales outside of your traditional reach. Your brand grows with the increased exposure you get.
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.
Webalue: Good News For Your Online Brand!
Do You Possess The Winner Brand?
A Winner Brand is an enviable place to be. It ignites a favorable reaction to all who come in contact with it 
you. The Winner Brand can be a company, a product a person, or a place. The Winner Brand is hinged on strong brand values and a compelling message. It has outstanding characteristics. The
Winner Brand is the product of a concerted effort to be the best it can be. For the sake of this article, I am addressing the personal Winner Brand.
What can you do to be a Winner Brand?
• Build your expert profile In order for your brand to shine
You have to be taken for the expert that you are. You have to boldly declare your expertise in your discipline. You’re going to have to go against your Mom’s advice and brag speaking engagements, feature writing, pod and video
casts. Find as many portals to get your professional opinion into the hearts and minds of your target audience.
• Be a conduit for the positive
Make it a personal goal to bring positive energy to all you meet. When you see a friend in a glum mood, find the positive and bring them out of their shadow. Point out that opportunity is everywhere if they are willing to recognize and embrace it. Make the statement – “Every cloud has a silver lining” your inspiration for engagement.
• Give of yourself
Volunteer to groups or organizations that you have a personal interest in. Mentor to young minds at the university level. Show that money isn’t your only motivation. Show that your meaning of success includes helping others. It is a way of giving back to your community, and exposing your Winner Brand to all you meet.
• Show your passion
People love to see that you are truly inspired by what you do. Passion is contagious. It is the foundation of strong relationships. Passion has a way of taking them along for the ride. Because you have passion, you have an absolute belief in yourself. That confidence feeds your expert profile builds a loyal following.
• Become a resource
Share your contacts with others. Over the years, you have come to know many great suppliers of goods and services. Sharing this knowledge will really help those you meet making their jobs easier.
• Give valuable referrals
Keep your eye out for opportunities for friends, colleagues, and customers. Giving referrals brightens your brand. As they say – “It is better to give than to receive.”
• Blog your way to greatness
I can’t think of a better way to build your expert profile than blogging. A number of the above initiatives can be achieved through blogging. It is a great way to showcase yourself. Leaving positive comments on other blogs and guest writing are all key elements in successful blogging. It does you NO GOOD to stay silent. Share your opinion profusely. Leaving comments lures readers back to you – guaranteed.
Being a Winner Brand is your best opportunity to draw business to you. It drives away those dark clouds and allows you to recognize and embrace opportunities.
