We’re surrounded by brands everyday… the pen with your bank’s logo, the designer handbag, the cross-trainers with a tell-tale swoop on the side, the McDonald’s wrappers in your backseat. We see brands, we respond to brands, we buy brands - but how well do we excel at creating a brand for ourselves or our companies?
In business today branding is everything. If you are a small business owner your products, services, ads, promotional materials, facility and staff all have to project a uniform image that speaks to a target audience. If you are a career woman and want to climb the corporate ladder, you have to master the art of personal branding and learn to view yourself not as an employee, but rather as the President of Me, Inc.
What is a brand? A brand is a collection of symbols, experiences and associations connected with a product, a service, a person or an organization. People experience a brand through every point of contact with the product, service, company or person in question. People translate their experiences, expectations and sensory perceptions into a psychological, symbolic framework that becomes the brand’s image in their mind. I won’t kid you, developing a strong and appealing brand takes time, money and effort. And once a consumer has formed an opinion about a brand it’s incredibly difficult to change it – so devise your brand wisely and adhere to it religiously.
Why does branding matter? I get this question all the time from entrepreneurs who feel that investing in branding strategies is a waste of time since they don’t aspire to achieve iconic Nike, Coke or Wal-Mart status anyway. I’ll tell you why. Branding builds trust. And without trust a business can’t succeed. A brand is simply a promise of the value that customers will infallibly receive from you.
On a corporate level, consider the power of branding as we make buying decisions. Right now I own a VW Beetle convertible and I love my car. I’ve already decided that in a few years I will pass on my current car to my teenage daughter and purchase a new vehicle for myself. What car will I buy? That’s right… another VW Beetle convertible! Why will I re-purchase a Beetle? Because Volkswagen is a strong brand that represents top-quality German engineering, affordability, reliability and fuel efficiency, as well as a car that’s fun to drive. I trust that if a buy another Beetle I will have the same great experience that I have had with my current car. Volkswagen’s brand image, customer loyalty and profitability are dependent upon on upholding the company’s promise on a daily basis.
On a personal level, consider email. Everybody has email and anybody can send you a message, so when you scan your Inbox in the morning how do you decide whose messages you're going to read and respond to first? Whose messages are you going to send to the Trash unopened? The answer relates directly to personal branding. The name of the email sender represents a personal brand. It's a promise of the value you'll receive for taking the time to read the message. If you have a friend who forwards every silly chain letter and cartoon they receive, you probably won’t regard messages from them very highly, but if a business associate regularly contacts you with leads, referrals or relevant news you will regard messages from them as extremely important.
What can branding do for you? People engaged in branding seek to develop or align the expectations behind the brand experience with the thing being sold, creating the impression that a brand associated with a product or service has certain characteristics that make it unique and desirable. A brand is one of the most valuable elements in an advertising campaign, because it demonstrates what the product or service being sold is able to offer in the marketplace. In a job search, your personal brand is often more valuable than your resume or references, because it showcases the actual capabilities, power and presence you will bring to the workplace.
Good branding offers several benefits:
1. Premium prices. Careful brand management, supported by a clever marketing campaign, can be highly successful in convincing consumers to pay high prices for products which are extremely cheap to make. By manipulating the projected image of your product or service, you can move customers beyond a logical valuation of the cost. This is why t-shirts at Madonna concerts are $50 when they only cost .50 to make – good branding!
2. Trust and loyalty. When people have a positive experience with a brand, they're more likely to buy that product or service again. People who closely bond with a brand are not only more likely to re-purchase, but also to buy related items, to recommend the brand to others and to resist the lure of a competitor's low price. ‘Harley Davidson’ is tattooed on more bodies than any other brand – can you earn and anchor such loyalty in your own customers?
3. Memorability. A brand serves as a container for your reputation and good will. It's hard for customers to go back to "that store on 28th street" or to refer business to "some plumber named Dan." Memorability can come from using and sticking with an unusual color combination/logo (Target), distinctive behavior (Home Depot’s greeters), a catchy name (Google, anyone?), or with an individual, even a style of clothing (Hillary Clinton’s pantsuits). Develop your own identifiers and nail them to your name in the minds of the public.
4. Lower expenses. It takes money, time and passion to create a brand, but once it's created you can maintain it without having to tell the whole story about your product or service over and over again. For instance, a jingle people get stuck in their head continues to promote the company when it’s not on the air. Levi’s jeans continue to fly off the shelves even though you seldom see them advertised on TV anymore – that’s because generations of people love Levi’s and the company can afford to relax a little.
I certainly can’t go into all the nuances of how to engage in branding in a short article, but I hope that you have developed a deep respect for the process of branding, and that you understand how the strength of your professional or personal brand will impact your success.
Align your entire business behind a strong brand that resonates with potential customers, and commit yourself to delivering on your promises, and sales will naturally rise.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
The 800 Pound Gorilla in the Room
Something has been bugging me throughout the long-winded analysis and never-ending media coverage of the U.S. financial markets. It's this concept that several gargantuan banks in this country are 'too big to fail'.
First and foremost, we are supposedly a free market economy, and that means that if you stink in business, rip off customers and take chances that don't pay off you are allowed to fail. Not to mention the fact that, in spite of huge injections of taxpayer money, several financial giants are in fact failing and failing miserably. There's no way they will still be in business in 20 years no matter what we do.
After taking the time to learn about the little 'securities shell game' that led to the stock market debacle, and after listening to the pathetic excuses offered by top bank executives, I am convinced that quite a few bloated multi-national banks deserve to fold. They have been reckless... they have securitized the nation to the brink of disaster... and when their bets haven't pay off they have held out their hands to Washington with the excuse that they are 'too big to fail'. And we bought it!
Bankruptcy and annihilation are exactly what these banks deserve. There are literally thousands of smaller banking institutions in this country who are fiscally sound, who have strong loan portfolios and who are still lending. They have a right to grab the market share of over-sized behemoths who fold. They are far more capable of building a diversified system that spreads risk around, cares for consumers and enforces accountability. No one should get a free pass or an automatic bailout simply because they dominate a huge percentage of the market. All the more reason to let them fade quietly in the night to trouble us no more.
The surf industry is not banking, but there's a lesson to be learned from recent events. In December of 2005 a monopoly folded. Surf legend 'Grubby' Clark faxed out a letter to shapers around the globe saying that his factory was closing effective immediately. Clark Foam at the time manufactured an estimated 90% of the surfboard blanks used in board production worldwide. Surf magazines and blogs from California to Hawaii to Australia predicted ruin for the entire industry.
Can you guess what happened? The free market economy kicked in. There were several lean months in which shapers had a tough time getting enough blanks to keep going, but a new crop of innovative and driven blank manufacturer's cranked up production and filled the gap. Within 6 months supply levels were strong and prices had stabilized due to increased competition. Clark Foam cornered the market because they were there, not because they were the only ones who could... and when a gap opened up capitalism flowed in with new upstarts, better technology, wider selection and fair prices.
Both Washington and Wall St. should take note. Right now the quandary is this: we can't undo the past. We can't go back and fix billions in toxic assets. We can't retroactively limit the size of banks. We can't launch new rules right in the middle of a recession and allow the immediate failure of the banking system. It would spiral the U.S. into a real Depression! So for now, we'll probably have to prop up some financial institutions that have been completely irresponsible.
But I hope that the government will learn from past mistakes. In a free market economy nobody is guaranteed a rescue - nobody gets to dodge the rules. I don't know what all the solutions are. A socialist state doesn't seem alluring; limits on bank sizes, government-ownership of private firms or heavy-handed regulation. But there must be a balance somewhere in which the fundamentals of the banking system change and common sense reigns. CitiGroup, AIG, Bank of America and other institutions should probably be broken up into smaller, more palatable units. Some deregulation should probably be rolled back to bring in more oversight and accountability.
Corporations can never again be allowed to become 'too big to fail'. Massive failure is supposed to be the fate of businesses that make dumb decisions. Smarter survivors will pick up the pieces, take over the customer bases of extinct companies and enrich the economy. We cannot allow the current crisis to reoccur.
Right now we need to deal with the 800 pound gorilla in the room. The stimulus plan doesn't address this crucial issue. Neither does the Treasury Department's proposal for the remainder of the TARP money. But someone has to - and soon.
First and foremost, we are supposedly a free market economy, and that means that if you stink in business, rip off customers and take chances that don't pay off you are allowed to fail. Not to mention the fact that, in spite of huge injections of taxpayer money, several financial giants are in fact failing and failing miserably. There's no way they will still be in business in 20 years no matter what we do.
After taking the time to learn about the little 'securities shell game' that led to the stock market debacle, and after listening to the pathetic excuses offered by top bank executives, I am convinced that quite a few bloated multi-national banks deserve to fold. They have been reckless... they have securitized the nation to the brink of disaster... and when their bets haven't pay off they have held out their hands to Washington with the excuse that they are 'too big to fail'. And we bought it!
Bankruptcy and annihilation are exactly what these banks deserve. There are literally thousands of smaller banking institutions in this country who are fiscally sound, who have strong loan portfolios and who are still lending. They have a right to grab the market share of over-sized behemoths who fold. They are far more capable of building a diversified system that spreads risk around, cares for consumers and enforces accountability. No one should get a free pass or an automatic bailout simply because they dominate a huge percentage of the market. All the more reason to let them fade quietly in the night to trouble us no more.
The surf industry is not banking, but there's a lesson to be learned from recent events. In December of 2005 a monopoly folded. Surf legend 'Grubby' Clark faxed out a letter to shapers around the globe saying that his factory was closing effective immediately. Clark Foam at the time manufactured an estimated 90% of the surfboard blanks used in board production worldwide. Surf magazines and blogs from California to Hawaii to Australia predicted ruin for the entire industry.
Can you guess what happened? The free market economy kicked in. There were several lean months in which shapers had a tough time getting enough blanks to keep going, but a new crop of innovative and driven blank manufacturer's cranked up production and filled the gap. Within 6 months supply levels were strong and prices had stabilized due to increased competition. Clark Foam cornered the market because they were there, not because they were the only ones who could... and when a gap opened up capitalism flowed in with new upstarts, better technology, wider selection and fair prices.
Both Washington and Wall St. should take note. Right now the quandary is this: we can't undo the past. We can't go back and fix billions in toxic assets. We can't retroactively limit the size of banks. We can't launch new rules right in the middle of a recession and allow the immediate failure of the banking system. It would spiral the U.S. into a real Depression! So for now, we'll probably have to prop up some financial institutions that have been completely irresponsible.
But I hope that the government will learn from past mistakes. In a free market economy nobody is guaranteed a rescue - nobody gets to dodge the rules. I don't know what all the solutions are. A socialist state doesn't seem alluring; limits on bank sizes, government-ownership of private firms or heavy-handed regulation. But there must be a balance somewhere in which the fundamentals of the banking system change and common sense reigns. CitiGroup, AIG, Bank of America and other institutions should probably be broken up into smaller, more palatable units. Some deregulation should probably be rolled back to bring in more oversight and accountability.
Corporations can never again be allowed to become 'too big to fail'. Massive failure is supposed to be the fate of businesses that make dumb decisions. Smarter survivors will pick up the pieces, take over the customer bases of extinct companies and enrich the economy. We cannot allow the current crisis to reoccur.
Right now we need to deal with the 800 pound gorilla in the room. The stimulus plan doesn't address this crucial issue. Neither does the Treasury Department's proposal for the remainder of the TARP money. But someone has to - and soon.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Survival Key #1: Become a Problem Solver
Obviously, the global economy is down and the U.S. is in a recession... but how is your economy? Just because a lot of your competitors, business partners and friends are struggling doesn't mean you have to.
Win at the survival game by preparing rather than panicking... by channeling your energy outward rather than inward. The first key to jolting your business out of panic-mode is to switch your focus back to the customer.
Many companies forget at times that they exist solely to solve problems for people. And although a temporary loss of momentum during an economic upswing may not do much damage - it's a company killer during a recession.
Avoid the trap by remembering your crucial role as a problem solver, and taking the time to slow down and look at each and every transaction from the customer's point of view. Before you try to make another sale or call on the next customer, look at the real world, so you can develop real ideas and relevant answers for both consumers and for yourself.
Analyze your reality, and compare it to their reality. Before you run one more ad, visit one more potential distributor or move any farther in creating a new product, you have to know what the total situation is. In order to understand consumers, relate to them, help them, serve them and, ultimately, sell them, you have to get inside their head. Of course your long-term goal is selling, but in these times, "closing deals” may be the last item on a long list.
Don’t make the fatal mistake of just defining your own situation and obsessing about your own problems. You also have to define your customer’s situation, the market situation and your company’s differentiators so that your messaging speaks to people in a language they understand and connects with their needs on a deep level. People are cash-strapped and sick of being pitched by desperate sales people - don't become one of them!
If you are selling a big-ticket item and sales are sluggish, think about the reason why. Maybe such a huge investment is daunting to potential customers even though they need and want what you are selling? Maybe installation is a barrier? Maybe concerns about reliability or repairs is creating resistance? Can you offer a better guarantee or free installation to overcome those buying obstacles.
If you are having difficulty collecting on invoices and your cash flow is is causing problems, ask yourself why people aren't paying - or talking. Do customers simply not have the cash? Are they stockpiling out of concern over the future? Your mission is simply solving the problem for them. Can you approach customers and offer payment plans to ease their cash crunch and still keep money flowing in? Can you create a positive incentive to pay on time such as a 5% discount for paying within 14 days?
Such simple strategies... and so obvious once the transactions are examined from the customer's perspective.
I challenge you to share your ideas and thoughts with your customers, so they can become aware of how serious you are about helping them and building your business in a positive way. Doing this will not only demonstrate your professionalism, but will also give your customer's peace of mind - and perhaps a little peace of mind will rub off on you as well.
Problem solving and true consumer understanding will not only set you apart from your competitors (who at this very moment are panicking and merely trying to sell, sell, sell!), but they will also keep your customer relationships strong through difficult times. When times become better - and they always do - you will have earned the loyalty you deserve by being a champion for solutions your customers care about and demonstrating your advocacy for their best interests.
Win at the survival game by preparing rather than panicking... by channeling your energy outward rather than inward. The first key to jolting your business out of panic-mode is to switch your focus back to the customer.
Many companies forget at times that they exist solely to solve problems for people. And although a temporary loss of momentum during an economic upswing may not do much damage - it's a company killer during a recession.
Avoid the trap by remembering your crucial role as a problem solver, and taking the time to slow down and look at each and every transaction from the customer's point of view. Before you try to make another sale or call on the next customer, look at the real world, so you can develop real ideas and relevant answers for both consumers and for yourself.
Analyze your reality, and compare it to their reality. Before you run one more ad, visit one more potential distributor or move any farther in creating a new product, you have to know what the total situation is. In order to understand consumers, relate to them, help them, serve them and, ultimately, sell them, you have to get inside their head. Of course your long-term goal is selling, but in these times, "closing deals” may be the last item on a long list.
Don’t make the fatal mistake of just defining your own situation and obsessing about your own problems. You also have to define your customer’s situation, the market situation and your company’s differentiators so that your messaging speaks to people in a language they understand and connects with their needs on a deep level. People are cash-strapped and sick of being pitched by desperate sales people - don't become one of them!
If you are selling a big-ticket item and sales are sluggish, think about the reason why. Maybe such a huge investment is daunting to potential customers even though they need and want what you are selling? Maybe installation is a barrier? Maybe concerns about reliability or repairs is creating resistance? Can you offer a better guarantee or free installation to overcome those buying obstacles.
If you are having difficulty collecting on invoices and your cash flow is is causing problems, ask yourself why people aren't paying - or talking. Do customers simply not have the cash? Are they stockpiling out of concern over the future? Your mission is simply solving the problem for them. Can you approach customers and offer payment plans to ease their cash crunch and still keep money flowing in? Can you create a positive incentive to pay on time such as a 5% discount for paying within 14 days?
Such simple strategies... and so obvious once the transactions are examined from the customer's perspective.
I challenge you to share your ideas and thoughts with your customers, so they can become aware of how serious you are about helping them and building your business in a positive way. Doing this will not only demonstrate your professionalism, but will also give your customer's peace of mind - and perhaps a little peace of mind will rub off on you as well.
Problem solving and true consumer understanding will not only set you apart from your competitors (who at this very moment are panicking and merely trying to sell, sell, sell!), but they will also keep your customer relationships strong through difficult times. When times become better - and they always do - you will have earned the loyalty you deserve by being a champion for solutions your customers care about and demonstrating your advocacy for their best interests.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)