Branding has long been the domain of big businesses with big budgets. This book helps to unlock the secrets of brand marketing and shows you how to apply this powerful tool to your business on a scale that a smaller business will find economically feasible and effective. This book is arranged so that each chapter takes you through the step-by-step process of building a great brand for your business.
 Today’s
modern consumer is in many ways similar to this image of the three
monkeys – they see no advertising, hear no advertising, speak no
advertising. |
Initial Thoughts on Marketing |
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| Branding is really a part of marketing. I thought it important to set the tone for the branding aspects of the book by first discussing some of the concepts involved in successful marketing, as well as some of the pitfalls to avoid. The fact is that less than 1% of all new businesses actually survive. To avoid becoming one of the unfortunate majority, I recommend making marketing your brand a top business priority and one that you personally manage. |
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 Nike transformed the smelly gym shoe into a hot fashion
statement. Youngsters beg their parents for $175 Air Jordans, while adults, young and old, are demanding Nikes so they too can “Just Do It.” |
The Power of Branding |
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| In the first part of the book I’ll explain what a brand actually is, the power behind brands, and why branding is so important to your business success. I show how effective marketing by Nike Sneakers and Absolut Vodka established these as well-known mega brands. Not only did branding make a major contribution to their phenomenal growth, but it also revolutionized how their respective industries marketed their products. |
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 Follow the advice of Honest Abe and make sure your
brand is true to the core beliefs and values of your business. This
is important to the long-term success of your brand. |
The Discovery Process |
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| The first part of building a brand is called the “discovery process.” In this chapter, there are a series of questions and exercises that will help you discover the core values and principles of your business and how to use them as the bedrock of your brand’s foundation. The discovery process makes it easier for the business owner to get out of the day-to-day rut of running his or her business, and allows the business executive to see their company, and its product or service, through the eyes of their customer. |
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 t’s important to have an intimate understanding of your customers values,
beliefs, motivations.• Organizations do they belong to • What they do in their free time • Recreational activities they enjoy • TV shows do they watch These are just some of the questions that can help create a psychographic profile of your ideal customers. |
Who Is Your Customer, and What Do They Really, Really Want? |
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| We next move on to identifying who your ideal customers are and what will motivate them to buy your brand. We analyze and group customers into different clusters and prioritize their importance based upon key criteria: ease or difficulty of each sale, size of purchase, repeat purchases, type of products or services purchased, etc. This helps the business owner recognize the importance of each customer cluster, and the concept that it’s not just the sales volume that counts, but the quality of the sale as well. With this information, we can develop a clear picture of the profitability and desirability of each customer cluster and get a better idea of which customers should be the focus of your brand and of future marketing efforts. |
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 Being aware of trends and how to position your brand to take advantage
of them can help fuel the growth of your brand.The growing popularity of Bikram Yoga and Tai-Chi ties into the macro trend of health and fitness, yet is less strenuous on the aging bodies of Baby Boomers than the hardcore aerobics that were popular a few years past. |
Welcome to the Marketplace |
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| In this chapter, the concept of S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is introduced and explored. The business owner conducts an in-depth assessment of their business; the same is done for key competitors. The marketplace is studied for opportunities to exploit and/or threats to be confronted and minimized. We’ll evaluate competitors’ marketing efforts and assess how well they are working for them. We’ll also explore the impact that global and macro trends will have on the marketplace and how to align your brand to take advantage of these trends. |
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 Not all consumers are the same. Using research and
statistical analysis will help to give you true insights into who
is your ideal customer, what their values and beliefs are, and what
motivates them. |
“Test” Is Not a Four-Letter Word |
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| I make a strong case for market research and how it can provide key insights into creating an effective brand. Throughout the book I will challenge your assumptions as to why customers buy from you, what your customers’ motivating factors are, and what exactly your customers think are your business’s best qualities. Only through objective research can a business owner’s assumptions be endorsed or found to be inaccurate; in either outcome, the process make the business owner much more knowledgeable and intimate with his or her customers. Any biases and preconceptions are usually stripped away once the business owner begins to see their business from their customers’ point of view. |
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 Rosser Reeves (1910 - 1984) is thought of as one of the great influences in advertising.
His 1961 book, The Reality of Advertising, presented the concept
that made him an advertising icon, the Unique Selling Proposition
(USP). |
Don’t try to be better… be different! |
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| Armed with the accurate information you now have about your business, its customers and competitors, the marketplace and trends, you can begin to investigate how to “position” your brand so as to differentiate it from competing brands. We’ll look at determining a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) for your brand. The basis of a USP is simple enough to articulate, but can be difficult to answer: “Why would someone want to use your brand above every and all other options available, including continuing to use what he or she is now using, or using nothing at all?” |
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 Due to his chicken-like facial features and squawking
voice, Frank Perdue was a perfect pitchman for his chicken brand. A stickler for quality, his slogan: “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken,” made his brand positioning authentic and consistent with the brand’s promise of tender, quality chickens. |
Bringing Your Brand to Life |
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| At this point in the process we are ready to begin to bring your brand to life. This is the fun part of the branding process. We will explore the world of shapes, color and typefaces to discover the right blend that will accurately reflects your business’s individual brand identity. However, before we get into the visual aspect of your brand image, it is important to stop and consider the name of your brand and whether it is aligned with your new brand positioning. If not, change it! There are numerous examples of large, well-established companies which have been in existence for decades and change their names to better reflect a new brand positioning: Esso Oil became Exxon, and Datsun Autos became Nissan, to name just two. |
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 The AFLAC duck, whose voice is provided by comedian Gilbert Gottfried,
is the brand mascot for the American Family Life Assurance Company
of Columbus (AFLAC) – a leading provider of supplemental insurance. |
Giving Your Brand Personality |
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| What will be your brand’s personality? Will you rely on an animated character like the Energizer Bunny to bring your brand to life, or perhaps the faceless, but soothing voice of Tom Bodett of Motel 6 to project the down-home hospitality of this brand? Whatever personality you decide to give your brand, keep it authentic and consistent with your brand’s core values and beliefs. It’s important that your brand “walk the walk.” | ||
“You got to be very careful if you don’t know where
you’re going, Yogi Berra, a Hall of Fall baseball player, was known for his “malapropisms” (using words or phrases incorrectly for comic effect). Confirming and simultaneously denying this dubious reputation, Yogi once said: “I never said half the things I really said.” |
Marketing Your Brand |
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| This chapter focuses on external brand touch points, where customers interact with your brand. These include its visual aspects: signage, office design, store decor, package design, advertising, website, etc., as well as the non-visual ways your brand is communicated: through organizations your brand is affiliated with, events your brand sponsors, charities your brand supports, and how your company celebrates important business and employee achievements. In all aspects of your business, care must be taken that your brand be presented in a consistent, coherent manner, and that it communicates its underlying value. |
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 The Brand-Driven CultureA brand-driven culture starts with a company’s core values and beliefs, which drive the brand’s identity and promise to customers. This becomes the basis for the company’s culture, which sustains ongoing on-brand behavior and interaction with customers. |
Branded Customer Service |
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Customer service is an often overlooked aspect of branding. However, when there is a positive interaction between your employee and the customer that is “on-brand” and consistent with your brand promise, it will go a long way towards building strong brand loyalty and can help spawn that all-important positive “word-of-mouth” advertising all brands seek. On the reverse side, customer and employee interactions that are consistently negative or “off-brand” can have a long-term, damaging effect on your brand. This is one of the reasons why many brand-savvy companies have scrapped their “outsourced” customer service departments and have brought them back in-house where they can be closely watched and nurtured. |
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 The most famous controversy involving patents occurred
when Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell filed their respective
patent application for the telephone on the very same day, within
hours of each other.After numerous lawsuits and appeals, the courts decided in favor of Bell’s application because it had been entered into the patent ledger before Gray’s. |
Protect Your Brand |
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In the final chapter you’ll learn about the different types of trademarks, and which types of brand names are easy to protect and which are not. You’ll also learn how to register your brand with the U.S. Patent Office, which can provide a significant layer of legal protection for your brand. You’ll also learn of some of the pitfalls you can incur in creating a brand, and problems that can develop if you don’t take steps to protect your brand early in its development. |
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