Christopher.Brown
New member
- Jun 4, 2013
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Branding Defined as it Applies to Our Industry
At the suggestion of Mike Phillips I am uploading this.
After much reading and researching of many successful individuals across many industries and varying business models I documented the commonalities, concepts, and constructs of highly successful business models that effectively reach out to their target customer base and self promote their brand.
What follows are my findings and experiences in a few different industries.
These concepts apply DIRECTLY to detailing because it is a service and ANY business wants to create a brand, which is essentially an image, that exudes quality and trust.
So take it for what its worth, I believe there are many points here that may help business owners. :dblthumb2:
My hope is that you find it as interesting and useful to read as i did to compose it
* * NOTE * * This was meant to be handed to someone in print, with them filling out the first page prior to reading
_______________________________________________
Branding Manifesto:
[1] List the names of 3 Brands you have loyalty toward [minimum 5 years]
A:_______________________ years of loyalty [____]
B:_______________________ years of loyalty [____]
C:_______________________ years of loyalty [____]
[2] List positive feelings, attributes, & mental images associated with these brands.
A: _________________________________________________________________
B:_____________________________________________________________________
C: ___________________________________________________________________
D: ______________________________________________________________________
E: ___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
[3] Why loyal? Please note specific aspects that draw you back to each brand.
A: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
B: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
C: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
D: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to [1] identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and [2]to differentiate them from those of other sellers.
Why focus on branding?
Branding is about adding additional levels of intangible substance and meaning to a business; thereby increasing its value to customers, employees, and business owners.
To succeed in branding a business, the first step is identifying a product or service to offer the marketplace. The most important element of any business, after its standard of quality, is its Reputation. How will this business's reputation [brand] be perceived in the market?
Since branding not only influences buying decisions of customers but also the internal decisions and behaviors of the business entity itself, it is VITAL to the overall governing principals of each and every business.
A more fluid definition of branding: The sum total of all perceived functional and emotional aspects of a product or service.
These concepts are significant because they can ONLY be projected onto the product or service by the customer or potential customer.
Branding should strive toward the same attributes of proven successful businesses:
1] Highly valued by customers and employees [trust]
2] Familiar and highly visible [familiarity]
3] Trusted quality [integrity]
4] Indicate success [strength]
5] Illustrating a vision that inspires [inspiration]
6] Create an aura of energy [excitement]
THESE ARE THE ASSOCIATED INTANGIBLE ESSENCES OF BRANDING.
To illustrate branding further, imagine a brand that begins with a product quality of X. Anything associated other than the base quality of X is branding….
This means marketing, customer reviews, repeat business, market share.. etc etc.
Take NIKE, they started with basic shoes with quality of ; nothing fancy by any means. But what are immediate thoughts when it comes to NIKE?
One don’t just think shoes do they?.. Most people are inclined to think of: concepts of competition, feelings of self fulfillment and courage, and images of winning athletes…
Nike intrinsically understood branding before it had the ability to invest in multimillion dollar campaigns. They named their company after the winged goddess of victory and created a simple image to represent this. They started simplistic and small, yet the framework they laid allowed exponential growth and development of their brand.
Before a company can attempt branding, it must first interpret the wants/needs of your customers/prospects to find a niche product or service within the marketplace. Once this basic condition is met, the business will hone in on the specific goods/services it wishes to offer to the marketplace, thus introducing a product that fulfills the needs/wants that the customers/prospects have within themselves. In essence this is the heart of the niche business model.
A strong brand is so distinct [in the emotional mind of the individual] that people will go out of their way to choose it over another, even if the other is better by most respects, because the perceived benefits of the brand of choice FAR outweigh the cons. [price, inconvenience, availability] Therefore: a brand is what the company stands for and what is known for. ….. Think NIKE… what are they about? Also, what hat are their perceived intentions within the market and or with the public?
If individuals harbor a personal connection with a brand, they will happily share it with people closest to them, acting as a means of personal connection.[/B] Thus, the brand will automatically generate its own goodwill in the hearts/minds of the clients because they are willing and WANTING to share it with others because they perceive it as an extension of themselves; automatically creating unique culture in the mind of individuals and group alike.
This cyclical loop is the foundation of brand loyalty, which is continual client satisfaction because the need/want of the client [actual or perceived] is consistently delivered. This leaves the client emotionally fulfilled, and wanting to return to these feelings, while the business is financially fulfilled AND goodwill rich because satisfied clients spread the infectious gospel of a business's benefits to other potential clients. People are attracted to that which they themselves strive for; so if your business has an image of a successful, caring, and community conscious entity it will attract likeminded individuals in droves. Who doesn't like this sort of integrity driven business?
What keeps an almost unyielding bond of brand loyalty is the client’s emotional satisfaction.[/B] As a loyal customer, it is unquestionable that, feelings of self-fulfillment will undoubtedly ensue with each use. ANY business, in its wildest aspirations, cannot hope to offer or promise this level of satisfaction, with built in loyalty clauses, with any product or service they provide.
The beauty of customer loyalty is that each client interaction is a completely different experience in the mind of that individual; even if they are using/experiencing the same IDENTICAL product/service.
Therefore, branding is so unquantifiable and essential that is stands as one of the top 3 fundamental concepts to a business. Whys is that? Because it’s the cornerstone of how your product is presented and perceived; equally to those who know it or to those who encounter it for the first time. This is because your product, no matter what it is, promotes a unique and dynamic aspect or an entire lifestyle that inhabits and captivates the hopes, dreams, and aspirations within in the mind of each individual person.
This bond is so unyielding that people will do most anything to have the experience or feelings associated this lifestyle. Once this lifestyle is fostered in the mind of the individual as being embodied in the essence of your product, you have won them for life, as long as you continually provide the same impressions of this lifestyle over time. This includes interactions that do not derive a profit.
These are especially important because they demonstrate a business's intentions are broader than profit alone-- they establish a genuine and personal rapport with those individuals who may hand over their hard earned money.
This Personalization establishes trust within the client's mind. Proving that they are not just another ding of the cash register, but rather they are a valued individual person who happens to use a business.
How do you define this cultural lifestyle?
It starts internally within the business model; using concepts, single words, or phrases that you wish your business to stand for or promote to the community.
If these ideologies are not the guiding principles of how the business operates and perceives itself, then how will the authenticity of those who operate it seem to clients?
Probably insincere or phony at best. Therefore, these have to shade how decisions are made, which people are hired, how protocols are carried out [internally and toward the customer], and everything else in the business scope. This way everyone; customers, competitions, vendors, employees, and owners all have total transparency and thus integrity of their actions. This results in a reputation worth its weight in gold in the minds of the customers and thus heavy in the pockets of the business owners.
If businesses fail to realize that they are part of a community, and that their product/service should seek to provide a responsible and readily available service/need to those in the community, then they are handicapping themselves from the onset.
Authenticity is the benchmark for all businesses in the modern age. Look at AIG, Enron, or WorldCom. Without authenticity a business’s credibility is perceived as a used car salesman; insincere and untrustworthy.
Branding begins with two key components Identity and Reputation.
IDENTITY – characteristics which define, inspire, and create intrigue for a business. [FAR AND AWAY THE MOST CRUCIAL COMPONENT OF ANY SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS]
► WHO are you? [define business – broadly & specifically[Org. Clarity is Priority #1]
► WHAT are you offering?
WHAT do you stand for? [beliefs]
WHAT do you want to be known for?
WHAT characteristics and practices distinguish you from a competitor?
► WHOM are you targeting? [focused or broad group(s)?]
► WHY are you in this business? [purpose]
WHY should the consumer care about your business? [/B]
WHY should people want to work for you?
► HOW will your actions resonate this identity?
HOW will you execute your business? [principles & methodologies]
HOW will your employees view their environment?
REPUTATION ->This is a two-fold endeavor, stemming internally from primary philosophies, concepts, and values which represent the value base of the company. Usually it’s a combination of the three.
How does a business want its employees to view it? Does it want them to be happy, thus enabling them to look beyond themselves and watch out for the best interests of the company, because they know and feel the company is already doing this for them from the onset?
A business MUST first strive to impart a sense of trust and overall security to its employees before it makes its first dollar.
Reputation is infectious. If your employees are gushing with positive feeling about your product and toward those who run it, then how can a business fail being sincere AND honest? If everyone is onboard with the company culture; a climate of togetherness is authentically generated on every level and permeates to all those who come in contact with the employees-- clients and prospects alike.
Once a company’s reputation is established and is fostered to organically grow within the principals of a positive employee-centric appreciation and retention philosophy; it will naturally spread to the clients. This is where the exciting heights of a positive internal reputation are allowed to soar.
Clients and prospects are quite perceptive and instantaneously pick up on employees who love their work. This, coupled with a quality product the client eagerly emotionally associates with themselves, will propel clients to go to great lengths to express, share, and appreciate a product they feel has so greatly enriched their quality of life.
What do you want your business to communicate to those who use it? How? And with what intentions?
These could be as simple as: trust, reliability, easy, or as complicated such as creating feelings “a unique place of belonging,” within the customer's mind.
These concepts should be the guiding principles of each action and decision of the company, as they will govern the overall direction of the company as these dynamic principles grow and develop over time.
And, as these principals evolve, the avenues which they explore will change over time. Therefore, a company with a built on philosophies that embraces change and continual self evaluation, within the grand scale of business, will easily enable a business to flow into discovering and exploring new and potentially potent profitability avenues within the overall business scope and model.
© Christopher Brown 2013
At the suggestion of Mike Phillips I am uploading this.
After much reading and researching of many successful individuals across many industries and varying business models I documented the commonalities, concepts, and constructs of highly successful business models that effectively reach out to their target customer base and self promote their brand.
What follows are my findings and experiences in a few different industries.
These concepts apply DIRECTLY to detailing because it is a service and ANY business wants to create a brand, which is essentially an image, that exudes quality and trust.
So take it for what its worth, I believe there are many points here that may help business owners. :dblthumb2:
My hope is that you find it as interesting and useful to read as i did to compose it
* * NOTE * * This was meant to be handed to someone in print, with them filling out the first page prior to reading
_______________________________________________
Branding Manifesto:
[1] List the names of 3 Brands you have loyalty toward [minimum 5 years]
A:_______________________ years of loyalty [____]
B:_______________________ years of loyalty [____]
C:_______________________ years of loyalty [____]
[2] List positive feelings, attributes, & mental images associated with these brands.
A: _________________________________________________________________
B:_____________________________________________________________________
C: ___________________________________________________________________
D: ______________________________________________________________________
E: ___________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
[3] Why loyal? Please note specific aspects that draw you back to each brand.
A: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
B: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
C: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
D: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to [1] identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and [2]to differentiate them from those of other sellers.
Why focus on branding?
Branding is about adding additional levels of intangible substance and meaning to a business; thereby increasing its value to customers, employees, and business owners.
To succeed in branding a business, the first step is identifying a product or service to offer the marketplace. The most important element of any business, after its standard of quality, is its Reputation. How will this business's reputation [brand] be perceived in the market?
Since branding not only influences buying decisions of customers but also the internal decisions and behaviors of the business entity itself, it is VITAL to the overall governing principals of each and every business.
A more fluid definition of branding: The sum total of all perceived functional and emotional aspects of a product or service.
These concepts are significant because they can ONLY be projected onto the product or service by the customer or potential customer.
Branding should strive toward the same attributes of proven successful businesses:
1] Highly valued by customers and employees [trust]
2] Familiar and highly visible [familiarity]
3] Trusted quality [integrity]
4] Indicate success [strength]
5] Illustrating a vision that inspires [inspiration]
6] Create an aura of energy [excitement]
THESE ARE THE ASSOCIATED INTANGIBLE ESSENCES OF BRANDING.
To illustrate branding further, imagine a brand that begins with a product quality of X. Anything associated other than the base quality of X is branding….
This means marketing, customer reviews, repeat business, market share.. etc etc.
Take NIKE, they started with basic shoes with quality of ; nothing fancy by any means. But what are immediate thoughts when it comes to NIKE?
One don’t just think shoes do they?.. Most people are inclined to think of: concepts of competition, feelings of self fulfillment and courage, and images of winning athletes…
Nike intrinsically understood branding before it had the ability to invest in multimillion dollar campaigns. They named their company after the winged goddess of victory and created a simple image to represent this. They started simplistic and small, yet the framework they laid allowed exponential growth and development of their brand.
Before a company can attempt branding, it must first interpret the wants/needs of your customers/prospects to find a niche product or service within the marketplace. Once this basic condition is met, the business will hone in on the specific goods/services it wishes to offer to the marketplace, thus introducing a product that fulfills the needs/wants that the customers/prospects have within themselves. In essence this is the heart of the niche business model.
A strong brand is so distinct [in the emotional mind of the individual] that people will go out of their way to choose it over another, even if the other is better by most respects, because the perceived benefits of the brand of choice FAR outweigh the cons. [price, inconvenience, availability] Therefore: a brand is what the company stands for and what is known for. ….. Think NIKE… what are they about? Also, what hat are their perceived intentions within the market and or with the public?
If individuals harbor a personal connection with a brand, they will happily share it with people closest to them, acting as a means of personal connection.[/B] Thus, the brand will automatically generate its own goodwill in the hearts/minds of the clients because they are willing and WANTING to share it with others because they perceive it as an extension of themselves; automatically creating unique culture in the mind of individuals and group alike.
This cyclical loop is the foundation of brand loyalty, which is continual client satisfaction because the need/want of the client [actual or perceived] is consistently delivered. This leaves the client emotionally fulfilled, and wanting to return to these feelings, while the business is financially fulfilled AND goodwill rich because satisfied clients spread the infectious gospel of a business's benefits to other potential clients. People are attracted to that which they themselves strive for; so if your business has an image of a successful, caring, and community conscious entity it will attract likeminded individuals in droves. Who doesn't like this sort of integrity driven business?
What keeps an almost unyielding bond of brand loyalty is the client’s emotional satisfaction.[/B] As a loyal customer, it is unquestionable that, feelings of self-fulfillment will undoubtedly ensue with each use. ANY business, in its wildest aspirations, cannot hope to offer or promise this level of satisfaction, with built in loyalty clauses, with any product or service they provide.
The beauty of customer loyalty is that each client interaction is a completely different experience in the mind of that individual; even if they are using/experiencing the same IDENTICAL product/service.
Therefore, branding is so unquantifiable and essential that is stands as one of the top 3 fundamental concepts to a business. Whys is that? Because it’s the cornerstone of how your product is presented and perceived; equally to those who know it or to those who encounter it for the first time. This is because your product, no matter what it is, promotes a unique and dynamic aspect or an entire lifestyle that inhabits and captivates the hopes, dreams, and aspirations within in the mind of each individual person.
This bond is so unyielding that people will do most anything to have the experience or feelings associated this lifestyle. Once this lifestyle is fostered in the mind of the individual as being embodied in the essence of your product, you have won them for life, as long as you continually provide the same impressions of this lifestyle over time. This includes interactions that do not derive a profit.
These are especially important because they demonstrate a business's intentions are broader than profit alone-- they establish a genuine and personal rapport with those individuals who may hand over their hard earned money.
This Personalization establishes trust within the client's mind. Proving that they are not just another ding of the cash register, but rather they are a valued individual person who happens to use a business.
How do you define this cultural lifestyle?
It starts internally within the business model; using concepts, single words, or phrases that you wish your business to stand for or promote to the community.
If these ideologies are not the guiding principles of how the business operates and perceives itself, then how will the authenticity of those who operate it seem to clients?
Probably insincere or phony at best. Therefore, these have to shade how decisions are made, which people are hired, how protocols are carried out [internally and toward the customer], and everything else in the business scope. This way everyone; customers, competitions, vendors, employees, and owners all have total transparency and thus integrity of their actions. This results in a reputation worth its weight in gold in the minds of the customers and thus heavy in the pockets of the business owners.
If businesses fail to realize that they are part of a community, and that their product/service should seek to provide a responsible and readily available service/need to those in the community, then they are handicapping themselves from the onset.
Authenticity is the benchmark for all businesses in the modern age. Look at AIG, Enron, or WorldCom. Without authenticity a business’s credibility is perceived as a used car salesman; insincere and untrustworthy.
Branding begins with two key components Identity and Reputation.
IDENTITY – characteristics which define, inspire, and create intrigue for a business. [FAR AND AWAY THE MOST CRUCIAL COMPONENT OF ANY SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS]
► WHO are you? [define business – broadly & specifically[Org. Clarity is Priority #1]
► WHAT are you offering?
WHAT do you stand for? [beliefs]
WHAT do you want to be known for?
WHAT characteristics and practices distinguish you from a competitor?
► WHOM are you targeting? [focused or broad group(s)?]
► WHY are you in this business? [purpose]
WHY should the consumer care about your business? [/B]
WHY should people want to work for you?
► HOW will your actions resonate this identity?
HOW will you execute your business? [principles & methodologies]
HOW will your employees view their environment?
REPUTATION ->This is a two-fold endeavor, stemming internally from primary philosophies, concepts, and values which represent the value base of the company. Usually it’s a combination of the three.
How does a business want its employees to view it? Does it want them to be happy, thus enabling them to look beyond themselves and watch out for the best interests of the company, because they know and feel the company is already doing this for them from the onset?
A business MUST first strive to impart a sense of trust and overall security to its employees before it makes its first dollar.
Reputation is infectious. If your employees are gushing with positive feeling about your product and toward those who run it, then how can a business fail being sincere AND honest? If everyone is onboard with the company culture; a climate of togetherness is authentically generated on every level and permeates to all those who come in contact with the employees-- clients and prospects alike.
Once a company’s reputation is established and is fostered to organically grow within the principals of a positive employee-centric appreciation and retention philosophy; it will naturally spread to the clients. This is where the exciting heights of a positive internal reputation are allowed to soar.
Clients and prospects are quite perceptive and instantaneously pick up on employees who love their work. This, coupled with a quality product the client eagerly emotionally associates with themselves, will propel clients to go to great lengths to express, share, and appreciate a product they feel has so greatly enriched their quality of life.
What do you want your business to communicate to those who use it? How? And with what intentions?
These could be as simple as: trust, reliability, easy, or as complicated such as creating feelings “a unique place of belonging,” within the customer's mind.
These concepts should be the guiding principles of each action and decision of the company, as they will govern the overall direction of the company as these dynamic principles grow and develop over time.
And, as these principals evolve, the avenues which they explore will change over time. Therefore, a company with a built on philosophies that embraces change and continual self evaluation, within the grand scale of business, will easily enable a business to flow into discovering and exploring new and potentially potent profitability avenues within the overall business scope and model.
© Christopher Brown 2013
