Stand By Your Brand

"Brand" is a relatively new term for a relatively old concept. Your brand is simply your reputation. That is, your brand is the value people think they receive from working with you or your organization or what they think they would receive if they did work with you or your organization. A "brand" is a perceived value. Of course, that perceived value is based on reoccurring experiences. If a restaurant consistently provides poor service, then their brand is "a place that provides very poor service."

Brands are enormously important and vastly misunderstood. Far too many people think that branding equals advertising. Oftentimes, I'll hear people say, "We want to brand this new product so we're going to change our tag line and pump up our advertising." Unfortunately, they have it backward. Advertising is a small part of branding and in some cases is not necessary at all.

Brands are built through integrated and intentional effort. By that, I mean that the operations, people selection and development, research, and marketing have to be in sync and operate within a very clearly defined guideline. There are six steps to define that guideline and to market your efforts.

Step One - Define your customer.

Step Two - Identify what outcomes are important to that customer.

Step Three - Identify the three highest priority customer outcomes that you can deliver.

Step Four - Gear every one of your decisions to improving at least one of those outcomes.

Step Five - Be boringly consistent and constantly innovative. Maintain your focus on just these three outcomes, but constantly look for ways to add more value.

Step Six - Market to resonate. Let customers and prospects know the value you have to offer and don't try to be all things to all people. Let them know that you can help them improve in these three areas, but that you're not promising another fifty outcomes. Advertising is one way to market, but another alternative is to provide demonstrations of the value you have to offer. In my opinion, this is far more effective than advertising. Take for example the Mach Three by Gillette. This is an incredibly good razor. I received one in the mail for free about six years ago with a set of blades. I've never bought a new razor. I just keep buying new blades.

Notice that a brand is built from the outside-in. That is, you have to first understand what is of value to your customers and then you have to deliver it consistently at a very high level. However, stand by your brand even in the face of tempting opportunities to do other things to make money.

I believe Barnes & Noble is about to make a giant mistake. They are moving aggressively into publishing their own books and placing them front and center as consumers walk into their stores. What in the world does this have to do with the Barnes & Noble's brand? Their brand is built on providing a wonderful environment for people to purchase books. Now they have an opportunity to make higher margins by publishing their own books. However, the short-term profit gain will not be worth the detriment they do to their brand. I believe the same is true with Reality TV. These television shows are very cheap to make and occasionally make a great deal of money. However, the brand of television entertainment is based on storytelling, not amateur nights (even if the amateurs are quite talented) and dating fantasies.

What is your organization's brand?
Is it clear? If not, influence people to clarify it.
Once the brand (the value that the customer expects to receive) is clear, then fanatically stand by that brand and don't chase unrelated opportunities just because they will provide short-term cash flow.

I believe that "branding" is one of the ultimate organizational decisions. The single biggest mistake that I see corporations make is they frivolously take actions that are not in alignment with their brand and consequently they confuse their customers. Of course, many times they've never taken the time to clarify what their brand is in the first place. A great brand is the gift that keeps on giving. Build it and protect it through your actions every day.

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

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