Brand and Deliver!

By Jack Sims

Branding is a "hot" topic right now, but in reality it's been around for a long time—it has always been a factor in the growth of companies, products and services. But many smaller- to medium-sized companies have not really understood the magnitude of the opportunities that a successful branding program can bring. You see, they tend to think that branding or brand building is only for the "big boys." My answer to that is, if you don't act like a big boy, then you can't possibly become one.

Marketing Mistakes
The biggest mistake companies make is the lack of consistency in their marketing communications. They simply produce an ad, flyer, mailing, brochure, etc. without any consideration as to what any one piece has to do with the other. All of your pieces MUST look like they come from the same place or person, or you can't possibly expect consumers to get a feeling for what is the essence of your brand.

The second mistake is using the wrong person or people to develop the marketing or creative look for their company or products. The consistency problem can be easily overcome; the marketing and creative development is not quite so easy. The development of your corporate image and everything that is seen or heard by the trade or consumers is going to cost X $'s to create and produce. This look and feel will deliver millions of impressions to your target audience over its lifetime. The production costs of all of these pieces will cost the same, regardless of the images that you print, film or even skywrite. So it pays to invest in creative, great design, especially when those costs are amortized over the millions of impressions it will be making.

Target Your Audience
Most of us tend to look at our marketing data, and assume that we know who our target audience is, right? We all understand the demographics, and we keep on sending our "stuff" to the same group of people. Well, frankly, this is just not good enough. You really need to find out who your real target audience is. And the only way to do this is to ask them. I don't mean read the latest research document; I mean go out and ask them. Call your customers on the phone, make an appointment and go meet with them face-to-face. Ask them all about themselves and then build a complete profile that you can share with everyone in your company. Ask them how you are serving them—what you are doing right, and what you are doing wrong!

Once you have all of the information, create a "profile" that all of your communication pieces are targeted towards. One of the tools that I have used is to actually name the person and even to create a large cut out of our ideal customer. The most recent was for a client who was marketing a VCR to DVD conversion service. We called our ideal customer Mildred. Whether we were producing a TV spot, print ad, direct mail piece or the Website, the measurement of success was not what we thought, but what Mildred would think. It's what your customer thinks about your product or service that counts.

Promise and Expectation
There are basically two words that branding really comes down to. The first is promise. Your product or service is basically making a promise to your target audience, and the more you keep your promises the stronger the brand will get. The promises will vary by the business you are competing in, but will include the specific features and benefits of your product or service.

From the purchaser's point of view, the operative word is expectation. They have a real expectation of what your product or service will do for them and they expect that you will meet or exceed this expectation. You must position your company to get a bigger share of customer's mind, leading to the point of it all—your getting a bigger share of their wallet over the long haul.

If you just do these few things, you will be well on your way to growing your business into a brand and delivering additional profits to the bottom line for the long haul.

Copyright Jack Sims 2003

If you'd like to learn more about branding, consider these AMA seminars:

• Successful Product Management
  
• Managing Your Marketing Communications Mix for Better Bottom-line Results
  
• Customer Satisfaction Management
  

Author Bio: Jack Sims is an author and branding consultant who has founded and grown two nationally ranked agencies. His book Growing Small Businesses into Big Brands is available at www.jacksims.com or www.amazon.com. Contact him at brandtothebone@earthlink.com or via the Web at www.jacksims.com