Ever leaped before looking? Or launched marketing without a clear strategy? Business Week says that if you're spending money on marketing without a brand strategy, you might as well burn it. Start your success with a consultant or go DIY.
When the Harvard Business Review recently said that few executives could say what their strategy is, that sounded like a tidal wave of businesses that are potentially wasting a lot of time and money in marketing. I have witnessed this many times within the management of companies where each individual had a very different interpretation of the company’s strategy in their own mind.
April 1, 2008, HBR Article Excerpt – “The thing is, companies with a clear, concise strategy statement--one that employees can easily internalize and use as a guiding light--often turn out to be industry stars.”
In addition to employees, your partners, vendors, customers and network can all be advocates if they were empowered on how to properly and simply represent the company. In essence, the company’s strategy or brand is the low hanging fruit for making all your marketing efforts work much harder. The better you are at creating a brand promise that relevantly differentiates your company, the more likely you are to attract the right leads and close a much higher percentage.
Creating Your Brand Promise
Most companies don’t see themselves in the business of marketing and thus spend little time trying to craft a brand strategy. If you are a company that sells yourself every day, then you are in the business marketing. But don’t be confused by thinking that your elevator speech is your brand.
A brand is a guide for every action and interaction that surrounds your company. This not only includes marketing, but product development, customer service, pricing, incentives, sales presentations, point-of-sale, events and much more. The brand embodies the total experience with your company that builds trust, expectations and perceptions over time. It is the consistent filter for which every decision from within the company can be judged. This is why so many companies waste their marketing dollars without a brand strategy in place.
HOW DO I CREATE MY COMPANY’S BRAND STRATEGY AND STOP WASTING MORE OF MY MARKETING TIME AND DOLLARS?
Below is a simple, four level outline of how to start thinking about creating and conveying your brand promise and entire brand story. It is a guide for what to say and when. This is important since we could all talk for an entire day about our businesses, but not all of that information is important for marketing.
Level One – The Brand Promise
This is the level of communications that is commonly missed entirely. As an example, think of how many websites you have gone to that provided no real understanding of how the company would solve or meet your needs? They simply talk all about themselves or focus on features and benefits of their product. All that is Level Two information that I may want to hear, but only if I know what they are going to do for me first.
All websites, ads, elevator speeches, brochures, sales presentations, employee training programs, etc. should lead with the brand promise. The brand promise is what we all want to hear when on the other end of a sell. Make sure you know what your brand promise is and don’t be shy to use it.
If your brand promise follows the five principals set out below, it will be your most powerful marketing tool for converting leads into sales.
· Use a customer benefit orientation (don’t talk about you)
· Understand and acknowledge your prospect’s unmet need that you address
· Consider both rational and emotional connections to your brand.
· Never promise more than you can deliver
· Create a singular statement that is easy to remember and re-articulate
Here are three examples of brand promises to help envision the end product:
· This is a brand promise for the Mazda Miata when it was first introduced into the United States
o The Mazda Miata promises to bring the joy of driving within reach
· The Ritz Carlton is a great brand and a wonderful brand promise example
o The Ritz Carlton promises to employ ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen
· To show how a local company and business-to-business marketer can create a brand promise, I have included my own statement as a marketing consultancy for review
o StudioHDV promises to take the cost and complexity out of marketing
Judge for yourself the ability of each brand promise above to stand up to the five guiding principals. Also judge them as if they were a guide for employees, marketing, new product development and more.
Level Two – Reasons to Believe
Once you have caught your prospect’s interest and attention with the brand promise, then it is time to give them all the reasons to believe that you can deliver against that promise. If you lead with these reasons, then they have the strong potential to fall on deaf ears. Reasons to believe fall into a number of categories:
· Credentials for the company or management
· Clients or projects
· Product or service features and benefits
· 3rd party endorsements/testimonials
· Unique point-of-views on relevant issues, topics or industry news
· Your own research or surveys
Level Three – The Rest of the Story
There may be far more that your company does than expressed in the brand promise and the specific reasons to believe in that statement. For instance, I do brand strategy, but I also do focus groups, customer interviews, advertising, online marketing, sales training, etc. This is not a plug as much as to say that we all have a number of offerings. But are they all equally important to introduce right away, put on the front page of the website, or show on the cover of the brochure? But they are an important part of the full brand story and building a lasting relationship and loyalty over time.
It is very tempting to want to mention everything that we do all at once, but that really only serves the purpose to confuse the prospect. These messages are best placed on the services page on the website, discussed deeper into a conversation, or carefully placed within context in a brochure. Examples of this level of information are:
· The full line of products or services, packages or bundled offerings
· A deeper dive into any one topic area, the rest of the story
· Price-of-Entry information or attributes that you must have to be legitimate, but won’t differentiate you (i.e. ATMs, online banking, branches, etc. for banks)
Level Four – Purchase Accelerators
Purchase accelerators can be used anytime to help move someone along through a natural purchase process from awareness through consideration, evaluation, trial, purchase and loyalty. If you aren’t thinking about your purchase accelerators, then you should give this area some consideration. Purchase accelerator examples are:
· News that establishes leadership and credibility
· Incentives (discounts, bundles, trials, etc.)
· Downloads, blogs, white papers, POVs, etc.
· Consultations, seminars, comparisons, trials, value calculations, etc.
Part Two of this Article
The conclusion of this article will be out early next week with more practical solutions to help you stop the unnecessary waste that is inherent in most all marketing efforts. Marketing choices can be complex, but the solutions can be straight forward, powerful and less expensive than you think.
Feel free to check out the Biznik workshop I'm co-hosting with Pamela Ziemann on Do-It-Yourself Branding and creating a compelling story on July 28th at 4pm.
Learn more about the author, Steve MacDonald.
Thanks for articulating each level Steve. It makes sense that I must know where I am before I can get where I want to go. (Yes, I'd like to convert more sales)
Good point on focusing on the relevance of communication in each level, otherwise it's just unsolicited noise.
I'm looking forward to Part 2.
Another fabulously useful and practical article to help business owners get the most from their brands. Thanks Steve!
Great article Steve! I am establishing my brand, so great timing! I look forward to part two.
Thank you for taking the cost and complexity out of the marketing!
This is for my brand promise after learning from the article -
Coach Seattle promises to bring clarity and creativity into business growth.
Feedback?
Hsuan-Huan,
I am so glad that you got a lot out of the article. I think this is a good start. I can't tell directly unless we had a conversation about your target and their needs, but it looks good.
I am hosting an even on the 28th at 4p with Pamela Zieman about DIY branding and telling your story. I would love to see you come.
Thanks.
Steve
Pamela, Nancy and Karen,
Thanks for your words of encouragement on the article. There is so much that a business can do on their own these days, and getting your brand strategy figured out is certainly one of them.
Steve
This was excellent, Steve. Your workshop with Pamela sounds exciting. I'm sure that people will leave with a bunch of knowledge and tools.
I love your focus on a brand being your promise to the customer and your steps are clear. Thanks for sharing your expertise with us!
Steve
After meeting and talking with you for a number of hour, it's so apparent that you are an expert in your field.
Your event on the 28th with Pamela Zieman should be full, and have them lining up for the next one.
It will certainly open the eyes of everyone that attends.
I'm hoping to move something around so I can attend myself.
Carol Carini Billabong Studios
Carol and Judy,
I would love to have both of you attend the seminar. It does open up the whole entire side of marketing...closing the sale. We all focus too much on the tactics of attracting customers, but not enough time in how to convert those leads.
Hope to see you there.
Steve
Firstly - Feedback for Hsuan-Huan:
From my personal perspective, the sentence is too short, airy/fairy, sounds political-speak, or whatever - but that's me.
On the flip side, when I go to your personal profile page, the opening comment is GREAT and I have a MUCH clearer understanding of what I'm buying when I hire you!!!!
Only minor change (which I will attempt to put into " " marks):
I coach small business owners and leaders to develop their businesses "by developing" business plans "," goals, and action plans in order to fulfill their vision "for their businesses".
Secondly - Steve, you have a really great article. I too would love to have been able to attend a presentation or class but alas, during the business day isn't going to work for me personally. I'd love to attend an evening function, even if it's at a library. Keep us posted when you can schedule another class. Bet you'll have a slew of small business owners who want to staulk you for your next guru thoughts (wink).
Have a great summer!
Hi Steve, Great article! I've worked as a Practical Marketing Expert helping small business owners take the stress, struggle and confusion out of marketing and growing their companies for many years, and have to say... Your advice is right on target, and much needed!
All too often business owners go out into the world with an "if you build it they will come" mindset. And even when they do think about marketing, they come at it from their own point of view instead of that of their clients.
They also tend to think branding is just for big guys. But, as you said, branding is really about the promise you make to your customers. And it's embodied in everything from your logo, to the way you dress, to the way your receptionist answers the phone. That's something every small business owner could stand to think about and clarify.
I look forward to reading your next installment! Stacy
Thank you Stacey. It is always great to hear from somebody with a marketing background. I just hear the struggle and confusion that you talk about with businesses on a daily basis. They don't know where to start, and arguably it is because they aren't an expert and immersed in marketing on a daily basis.
But the best first step is always to define your brand. Everything from then on just works that much harder on your behalf.
Thanks for the comments.
Steve
Thank you Stacey. It is always great to hear from somebody with a marketing background. I just hear the struggle and confusion that you talk about with businesses on a daily basis. They don't know where to start, and arguably it is because they aren't an expert and immersed in marketing on a daily basis.
But the best first step is always to define your brand. Everything from then on just works that much harder on your behalf.
Thanks for the comments.
Steve
Thank you Steve! You managed to do three things for me with this article: 1) clearly and succinctly articulated the importance and the process of developing and honoring your company's brand promise 2) gave me a third party view to share with my clients so that they are not only hearing this from me and 3) gave me a wake up call to reflect back on my own business brand and promise.
Thanks again for a job well done!
Lee Ann
Lee Ann,
You are very welcome. It is so important to spend the time to think through what you are doing before we just simply start doing. And at the same time, when we are in the doing phase, not all information is equal when promoting your company. So a practical way of looking at how to distill what is important from what is not a handy tool to have.
I'm so glad that you enjoyed the article.
Steve
For years I have worried about the TMI Syndrome ... as founder, formulator, practitioner, and chief Bottle Washer, I have had a very busy head!
You finally have given me a way to prioritize and filter myself! Thanx OH SO Much!!! Dawn
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