Branding/Rebranding Your Business

By Mark S. Lee, President. Lee Group, MI LLC

What will it cost you and your company if you don’t consistently communicate your value and brand?

The concept of branding has been trendy for a long time. With all the buzz, it’s important to understand exactly what this means to you, your company and everybody your company “touches.” Many people associate a brand with a logo, tagline, colors, and web design. While that’s part of your brand image, it’s clearly not the whole story. A brand represents the impression that you leave with customers, prospects and business partners. It infiltrates every contact point and requires every employee who influences stakeholders’ perceptions to be fully engaged and committed to delivering on your brand promise.

Are you confident that you’re communicating your value and therefore, your brand, effectively to your customers and prospects? Much of business failure can be traced to the way companies communicate - or fail to communicate – effectively with their stakeholders, including customers, prospects, partners, employees and anybody else who has an interest in your business. Whether you’re planning a new business, have just launched it, or have been running it for a while, it’s critical to avoid the most common pitfalls companies make communicating their value, brand and solution. In this article, we discuss branding as a tool and provide tips for you to brand your company as well as why you should consider branding yourself.

Consistently Communicate Your Brand.

Every company and individual has a brand (this isn’t just for the 100 pound gorillas of the business world). Do you know your company’s brand? This is the message that you are communicating on a regular basis to customers and prospects…it’s the impression you leave with every customer and potential customer…..even if it’s not the statement that you want to make. Your brand is communicated through every customer touchpoint - from phone to the internet and via email, direct mail, advertising and every other opportunity you have to reach out to your target market(s). Your brand is communicated by every employee in your firm from the CEO and sales team right down to your department directors and shop floor managers. Your brand is what sets you apart from others in your industry and makes you unique.

A brand can only succeed and achieve its goal of supporting growth if it satisfies three key criteria. If any of these factors fail, you risk major malfunctions to your business and bottom line:

1. Leaves a positive impression
2. Is aligned with your customers‟ needs and
3. Is delivered consistently, as promised.

Why Do People Buy A ‘Brand’ Any Way?

There are many reasons for buying a brand including the fact that the brand identity:

• Fulfills a short or long term need
• Has an emotional connection
• Has a perceived Price/Quality relationship
• Is “hot”—meaning the brand is en vogue
• Represents who you are or want to be aligned with

Let’s look at an example of how a brand has succeeded in achieving these goals. FedEx is a world leader in package delivery. Their brand and philosophy are simple—when it absolutely has to there overnight, FedEx will do it. Every employee knows and understands this. But beyond understanding this, they believe in the brand mission and understand their role in making this happen. Every employee, regardless of their position, knows the brand‟s philosophy and works to deliver on its promise. This is the only way a company can live its brand.

There are several questions you need to ask yourself to ensure you’re delivering a brand value that will generate profit, including:

1. Is the message you are conveying consistent?
2. Is this the message you want to be heard and experienced?
3. Do your customers understand how you differentiate yourself from like organizations?
4. Do they experience your brand in the manner that you want them to?
5.  Does reality align with your promise?
6. Finally, is your brand what your customers seek and truly value the most?

Components of a Successful Brand

In the past, companies would develop a product and then promote it. As a global economy, businesses continue to evolve and become more dynamic and competitive. Organizations must redefine their value and sometimes their business model in order to succeed. This redefining leads to the creation or reinvention of their brand

How do you create a unique brand? This must begin with the development of a baseline to understand your strengths/weaknesses as well as opportunities/challenges in the market place. It requires an open mindset if you‟re branding your company.  Ask the following questions:

• What is the unique valuemy company offers?
• How do others perceive this, now?
• Does this perception need to change?
• Why would I purchase my company‟s brand?

Next, you must evaluate your company‟s brand to ensure the following components exist:

• Vision: Where do I see my company going? What is my ultimate direction?
• Positioning statement: How will it be positioned in the marketplace?
• Value Proposition: What makes my company unique? What service or need does my company fulfill?
• Competitive Advantage: What makes it unique from the competition? Are I just- as-good or better than the competition?
• Leveraged Strengths: Based on an internal assessment, do we really understand our strengths and weaknesses? If so, how can I leverage these strengths?
• Communication Plan: What and how do I communicate our plan to others? What is my communication strategy?

We finish by sharing key strategies that will help you create and reinforce your company brand:

1. Focus on the Needs of Your Target Market: Understanding your target market will allow you to develop a brand position. As a business owner, how confident are you that you truly know what your customers need, want or expect from your company? Many business decisions are based on a gut instinct of what you believe customers want and not necessarily because you asked them directly. You must ask existing customers as well as former and potential customers to ensure their concerns and expectations align with the value you provide. This will translate into your brand position.
2. Recognize And Act When Outside Factors Impact Your Brand Perception. Customers do not reside in an isolated world. Recognize how external factors (i.e., recession or
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   varying industry regulations) might impact their decisions and their ability and interest in conducting business with you. If you recognize these and address them this will strengthen customer loyalty. Many businesses in the recession have lowered their prices to address customer challenges. As long as they did not forgo their customer value, this makes a solid impression upon customers who will stick around long after the recession has passed.
3. Carefully Review All Communication. Is your message consistent in all of your communication? This includes everything from written documents, presentations, advertising, your website, brochures and direct mail to email, sales presentations, phone calls, etc… Every employee must communicate the same brand value at every level of the organization. One employee who isn‟t consistent with delivering your value can truly cause harm to your image and your bottom line.
4. Develop a Solid Elevator Pitch: Given that an adult’s attention span is 15-30 seconds, do you have a pitch that highlights your brand in that short window? What are the key points you need to convey about the VALUE you provide (not necessarily the products and services)? It’s critical that your pitch is concise, AND compelling. The pitch objective is simple–to develop a message that ensures the other person wants to continue the dialogue.
5. Present your Company Passionately. This is your business-your baby, in many ways. Therefore, it‟s personal but you must be able to step outside of the company and honestly ask yourself, “Why would I do business with me?” It‟s a simple question, but the answer may not be so easy to address. Once you‟ve identified the answer, make sure you convey this in words as well as in your body language. A sincere passion for the value you provide will go a long way in business.
6. Take Risks to Meet Customer Needs. In this dynamic, ever-changing market, you need to evolve with the times. Have you or your company remained stagnant? What worked in the past may not be as effective today. Reviewing and tweaking your business model as well as your personal skill set will be paramount to future success. It‟s dangerous to simply stand still and not make changes nor address changes in the market. We know that risk-taking is a scary proposition but it is the key to growth and to maximize your brand value.

Branding is essential and doing this right will make the difference between success and failure for your organization.