By Jack Sims
Branding is a "hot" topic right now, but in
reality it’s been around for a long time—it has always been a factor
in the growth of companies, products and services. But many smaller- to
medium-sized companies have not really understood the magnitude of the
opportunities that a successful branding program can bring. You see, they
tend to think that branding or brand building is only for the "big
boys." My answer to that is, if you don't act like a big boy, then
you can't possibly become one.
Marketing Mistakes
The biggest mistake companies make is the lack of consistency in their
marketing communications. They simply produce an ad, flyer, mailing, brochure,
etc. without any consideration as to what any one piece has to do with
the other. All of your pieces MUST look like they come from the same place
or person, or you can't possibly expect consumers to get a feeling for
what is the essence of your brand.
The second mistake is using the wrong person or people
to develop the marketing or creative look for their company or products.
The consistency problem can be easily overcome; the marketing and creative
development is not quite so easy. The development of your corporate image
and everything that is seen or heard by the trade or consumers is going
to cost X $’s to create and produce. This look and feel will deliver millions
of impressions to your target audience over its lifetime. The production
costs of all of these pieces will cost the same, regardless of the images
that you print, film or even skywrite. So it pays to invest in creative,
great design, especially when those costs are amortized over the millions
of impressions it will be making.
Target Your Audience
Most of us tend to look at our marketing data, and assume that we know
who our target audience is, right? We all understand the demographics,
and we keep on sending our "stuff" to the same group of people.
Well, frankly, this is just not good enough. You really need to find out
who your real target audience is. And the only way to do this is to ask
them. I don't mean read the latest research document; I mean go out and
ask them. Call your customers on the phone, make an appointment and go
meet with them face-to-face. Ask them all about themselves and then build
a complete profile that you can share with everyone in your company. Ask
them how you are serving them—what you are doing right, and what
you are doing wrong!
Once you have all of the information, create a "profile"
that all of your communication pieces are targeted towards. One of the
tools that I have used is to actually name the person and even to create
a large cut out of our ideal customer. The most recent was for a client
who was marketing a VCR to DVD conversion service. We called our ideal
customer Mildred. Whether we were producing a TV spot, print ad, direct
mail piece or the Website, the measurement of success was not what we
thought, but what Mildred would think. It’s what your customer thinks
about your product or service that counts.
Promise and Expectation
There are basically two words that branding really comes down to. The
first is promise. Your product or service is basically making a promise
to your target audience, and the more you keep your promises the stronger
the brand will get. The promises will vary by the business you are competing
in, but will include the specific features and benefits of your product
or service.
From the purchaser’s point of view, the operative word
is expectation. They have a real expectation of what your product or service
will do for them and they expect that you will meet or exceed this expectation.
You must position your company to get a bigger share of customer’s mind,
leading to the point of it all—your getting a bigger share of their
wallet over the long haul.
If you just do these few things, you will be well on
your way to growing your business into a brand and delivering additional
profits to the bottom line for the long haul.
Copyright Jack Sims 2003
If you'd like to learn more about branding, consider
these AMA seminars:
Author Bio: Jack Sims is an author and branding
consultant who has founded and grown two nationally ranked agencies. His
book Growing Small Businesses into Big Brands is available at www.jacksims.com
or www.amazon.com.
Contact him at brandtothebone@earthlink.com
or via the Web at www.jacksims.com
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