“I’m Sorry... Do I Know You From Somewhere?”
Unleash the value of building and maintaining your brand
Most of us can relate to the following situation.
We’re out and about minding our own business when someone breezes up to us and in a cheery confident manner bellows at us, “Hi. How are you?”
Now I’m not sure if there’s a word or phrase that describes the passage of time between this type of event and the realisation that we haven’t actually got a clue who this person is, but it does tend to provide an immediate response within us - that somehow, we feel we really ought to know.
More often than not, the identity of this individual quickly dawns on us and we recover our composure as best we can under the circumstances.
But wait a minute.
Is it possible that it isn’t actually our fault and that there’s precious little wrong with our memory? Maybe the person that we’re now busily chatting away with didn’t leave us with a strong enough impression about themselves during our previous encounter. Perhaps they didn’t ‘engage’ or ‘connect’ with us in a way that left us with any kind of lasting impression about who they really are.
And this applies to businesses too.
As a business, if we don’t establish exactly who we are then it’s entirely possible that we may leave either no impression or, worse still, the wrong impression when we engage with our suspects, prospects or customers.
This underlines the importance that only a critical self-examination can bring about. It challenges us to ask the question, “As a business, do we actually know who we are?”
This very question alone brutally reveals the strength (or otherwise) of a company’s brand and should always serve as a prompt for some form of action.
Listed below are a number of questions that all business owners should ask themselves of their own business to determine “who they really are.”
How do my customers currently perceive my business?
Every business needs to maintain a firm control over its brand. Failure to do so leaves wide open the possibility that your customers may do that job for you and this could easily lead to a disparity between what you want to see and what you might actually see.
Ultimately, your brand is a compilation of all the perceptions and experiences your customers and prospects gather from your business dealings. Your brand is shaped by lots of things including your staff, products, services, pricing and fulfillment so it’s vital that you give lots of thought to how you ‘position’ your business. In other words, clearly define what it is you offer and, in particular, what sets you apart from your competition. Capture this and incorporate it in into your marketing communications.
If you’re still not sure what your customers’ perception of your business is, then it’s probably those very same people who are best placed to answer. Compile a list of questions, conduct a survey aimed at a segment of your market and record your findings.
How do I want to be perceived by my customers?
It‘s important that your brand reflects and resonates with your target market. Your products and services need to accurately mirror as closely as possible your customers’s needs, wants, desires, tastes, values and pricepoint.
Identify what underlying messages are needed to capture and convey your company name, logo, visual identity and all your promotional material in a consistent manner.
This is fundamental to business success.
There‘s little point in promoting your business as a thoroughbred, for example, if your target market wants you to be a workhorse. In other words, strength and reliability is preferable to speed and agility. Naturally, the converse of this is also true.
“It’s important that your brand reflects and resonates with your target market.”
What are my brand’s ‘human’ characteristics?
Much in the same way that offspring develop and mature, businesses too eventually reach a stage where they take on a ‘life’ of their own. And since brands are judged in almost exactly the same way that humans are, it follows that asking certain questions about your business’ ‘human’ characteristics are well worth investigating.
For example, is your business ‘young’ or ‘mature’? Is it ‘dynamic’ or ‘steadfast’? Is it ‘aspirational’ or ‘contented’? Is it ‘rich’, ‘poor’ or ‘middle class’?
While brand identity is essentially the way in which businesses choose to identify themselves to their respective audiences, the relationship between customers and brands are influenced most strongly by the brand’s ‘personality’.
There is also another factor that has a direct bearing on the relationship and that is the attractiveness of the brand. To measure the attractiveness of a brand, customers may be asked to describe the brand as a person. A customer may then say something like, “If this brand was a person, I’d like to be seen with them“ or “that they were desirable” or even “attractive.”
If my brand was a person, what would its ‘life story’ be?
Bring your company name to mind. Ask yourself, “What is a...” - followed by your company name. This should provoke some kind of an immediate, visual response.
Picture too, how this brand came into being and how it has evolved into the ‘personality’ it is today. What is its greatest appeal? What are its strengths? What are its aspirations?
When creating advertising campaigns, product promotions or on- and off-line marketing collateral, you’ll have a good idea what ‘personality’ is needed to accurately reflect your business.
Stand out from the crowd
By implementing these types of actions, you’ll be well on the way to delivering a strong and compelling brand, exceptional levels of awareness and strong appeal through clear and consistent messaging. This will allow your customers to more easily identify your company from all the ‘background noise’, they‘ll be more receptive to your product or service offerings which will result in strengthened bonds and increased loyalty.
So the next time you have cause to engage with your customer-base or revisit your prospect list, take every step you can to ensure that no-one responds by saying, “I’m sorry... do I know you from somewhere?”
Because the truth is, they really ought to know.
