Article from insights.bt.com.au
There are countless products and services competing for our attention in the supermarket of life. And there are countless noise-makers hardcoding a million sales messages to intersect and infiltrate the psyches of an endless line of potential customers in the trolley lanes of choice.
Given the choices and voices each and every potential customer and client sees and hears every day as companies compete for market-share, the one irrevocable truth of contemporary culture is that more than ever, brand matters: Because your brand is the living fabric of trust and recognition between you and your customers.
Why?
Brand matters because your brand is your word. Your brand is the sum total of your authenticity and integrity. Blogger Scott Goodson says, “Brands are psychology and science brought together as a promise mark as opposed to a trademark. Products have life cycles. Brands outlive products.”*
PR expert Laura Lake observes: “Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects. It’s the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot.”^
Goodson points to the $19.5 billion Kraft paid for Cadbury and puts it this way: “What did they buy? The chocolate? The factories? The recipes? The candy makers? No they bought the brands.”*
The power of your brand
To understand how powerful brand is consider the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong. Lance Armstrong positioned himself as an American sports icon and philanthropist. In the mind of the public and the sponsors who poured mega-millions into his coffers he became more than a winning multiple Tour de France cyclist, he became a brand that symbolised enduring victory over everything from depression to cancer. His was a trusted face. And when brand Armstrong was exposed as a doper who had built that trust on a lie then his brand crumbled over-night. The trust and good will and with it the millions of dollars in sponsorships simply evaporated.
Creating a compelling value proposition
While it’s essential to identify, define, and integrate your brand identity and values it is equally essential to communicate what this means for your customers.
Your brand is much more than your logo, vision and mission statement. You need to create a compelling value proposition that incorporates and reflects what your brand stands for and why. It’s much more than a, ‘what’s in it for me’ customer call to action.
It’s about building a clear and unequivocal bridge between you and your customers that includes:
- How you will serve them, what solution you provide and how this will impact on their lives;
- Quantifying what benefits or values your customers will receive; and
- Identifying your points of difference by articulating what makes you better than your competitors
Your value proposition is even stronger with a strong brand
Brands and their value are not something you build overnight (tho’ their value can be lost overnight!). Nor is a successful brand a static passive creation. Quite the opposite, the most successful brands are dynamic, interactive, relational and responsive to both their customers and the marketplace.
Successful brands consistently and without deviation communicate who they are and what they stand for. There’s no ambiguity and no mixed messages. Successful brands are about connectivity, authenticity, recognition, loyalty and trust. Each day. Every day.
So how are you building your brand?
SOURCES
* https://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2012/05/27/why-brand-building-is-important/
Why Brand Building Is Important by Scott Goodson
^ https://marketing.about.com/cs/brandmktg/a/whatisbranding.htm
Public Relations by Laura Lake
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