Avoid Marketing Mayhem: Establishing Your Brand Vision

People have choices about from whom to buy. Whom do they choose? They choose the one who offers the greatest benefits and the least risk. How does one know which company offers the best balance of these factors? They don’t know. Largely, they guess … based on their beliefs and impressions. They purchase, that is, largely on their perception of your “brand.”

What is a Brand?
A “brand” is simply a word used today to describe what people think about your company. What they “think” includes explicit and implicit feelings, impressions and beliefs. Examples include “serious,” “smart,” “dependable,” “assertive,” “rude,” “incompetent,” “rugged,” “too expensive,” “cheap” and “cool.”

Do You Have a Brand?
Every person and every business has a brand. For your business, your company brand is created in the minds of customers and prospects with each exposure they have to your business’ service, materials, products, messages, employees, ownership, logo, tag line, marketing materials, products, performance, stories, phone answering skills, website, word-of-mouth, building appearance, newspaper articles, etc.

It Starts with Brand Vision
Brand vision is what the business owner wants his or her company’s brand to be. It’s the business personality and core values that are built into the business. Companies with a clear brand vision can develop a strategy to ensure that the marketplace hears, sees and learns who you are, for what you stand, and what they can expect from you and your business (i.e. your brand). This approach is far superior to simply allowing your brand develop ‘on its own’ without your conscious and proactive involvement.

Benefits of A Strong Brand Vision
The key benefits to a clear brand vision are:

• Marketing Clarity: A strong brand vision means that you know whom you are, for what you stand and what customer can expect from you. It is this that you want to communicate in your marketing efforts. As such, you’ll be able to make marketing decisions more quickly and easily.
• Higher Revenue: Only through brand vision clarity can a strong brand be developed. A strong brand means more sales as prospective customers become attracted to who you are and for what you stand ... even before it is time for them to choose between vendors.
• Lower Costs: When you have a brand vision you will no longer waste time attempting to dream up marketing messages that are far a field. Your choices are narrowed to things that effectively communicate your brand vision. Similarly, you will waste less on marketing programs that are ineffective. Instead, you will get more for your money as your communications are consistently focused on creating your pre-established winning brand.

The ABC’s of GOOD BRANDING
In crafting your brand vision, bear in mind three key elements of good branding:

Element 1: Appropriateness -- Your brand vision must be appropriate for your target audience. You need to understand your customers’ expectations and values and “be something” that will appeal to your audience. For example, if you sell skateboards you may want to go for “high performance.” If you sell cigars, you might want to go for “widest selection, freshly imported.”

Element 2: Believability -- What you say you are (referred to as your brand promise) must be believable by your customers. If you promise to be the “fastest” or the “best” in the business, can you really deliver it?

Element 3: Consistency -- You must implement your brand vision with consistency and clarity. “Good branding is boring!” says Jean Wilcox of CattleLogos Brand Management Systems. “The only way you will be able to influence people to remember you is by repeatedly using the same images and messages.”

Consistency also means that every encounter that persons have with your company must convey your brand vision. Every employee must understand the firm’s brand vision and represent and act in alignment with it. Your operations must be set up to deliver consistently in line with your brand. Failure to do so can render your efforts and expenditures worthless. A pretty logo and witty advertisements won’t make up for a rude receptionist.

First Impressions
First impressions are very important. Statistics show that within a few seconds of meeting another person for the first time we form our opinions that are amazingly resilient. The same thing happens with your company. How you present your company to potential clients is as important as how you present yourself.

Explicit and implicit
There are two facets to your brand personality: explicit and implicit. The explicit parts of your brand are the things that you actively say and do to promote it – the content of your marketing materials, your web copy and your press releases. These should be crafted to promote your key messages and, more importantly, should directly address questions that customers ask.

The implicit parts of your brand are more subliminal things that people notice. For example, how is your message delivered? Does the style of your presentations and personal communications support your brand promise or detract from it? Do the colors and images you use elicit the right kind of emotional response from your customers?