Strategic Business Branding, part II
This is the second part of a very complex article to help you brand your business strategically. You can read the first part of this article HERE.
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 coaching, customer interviews, advertising, online marketing, startups 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? Not necessarily. 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 to confuse the prospect. These messages are best placed on the services page of the website, discussed deeper in 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.
One of the most effective descriptions of how to stop wasting your marketing dollars is found in a special report from Business Week that came out in 2008 entitled, “A practical Guide to Branding.” The sub-head reads, “Define your brand identity—your product’s “personality”—before you spend a dime on advertising or marketing.” The opportunity for most of us is to make our very first step as business owners to develop our brands. The article goes on to highlight this through three main points:
1. Studies show that companies who market their products or services without first establishing their brand identities are not likely to achieve return on investment.
2. If you’re spending money to advertise and market without being connected to a brand position, you might as well pile the money up and burn it.
3. Branding is about getting your prospects to perceive you as the only solution to their problem.
The question then becomes, “How do I develop a powerful brand that creates the perception behind my company’s offerings that I am the only choice for prospects?” This is where the large Fortune 500 companies start out right…they know their customer inside and out. [...] Continue Reading…



