Branding from Z to A

From Z to A – here’s a map for building your company’s brand. Many of these are connected, but if you work through this list with an open mind, you’re on your way to creating a brand that sticks.

• Z. Zoom. Don’t boil the ocean. Get things to market quickly. Speed, particularly in information products is key. Test quickly and often. More rough tests yield better results than long-term ridiculously expensive studies. We’re talking small business here. Not neuroscience. Zoom. The fastest brand wins. Who’s first is more important than who’s better. The first one there gets the coveted space in the mind. Later brands have to work to dethrone the early bird.
• Y. You have define who your customers are. And who they’re not. Define your buyer personas and talk directly at them, not being afraid to push away other people. YOU will get much farther ahead – never try to be everything to everybody because then you become nothing but noise.
• X. X-ray your brand. Look through all the layers that make up your brand and company. See how they work together or not. Fix the pieces that are not adding value or create friction for your customers or get in the way of attracting new customers. It’s about taking a critical look – ask a customer to help with this – or better yet, a cross selection of good customers who would be willing to give you their unvarnished opinions. Then listen.
• W. Walk your talk. Don’t just put fancy words on the wall. Live them.
• V. Value – If you’re not delivering killer value, think again. There is way too much clutter out there. Deliver value through your products and services and you’ll attract customers. They’re looking for making their time and money go farther. That doesn’t mean you need to be cheap. You just have to make time and money with you well spent. Viral, Vitality
• U. Useful – Make sure that your brand is helping your customers and future customers either get more done, or feel good about who they are. Being useful is about making a difference in someone’s life whether personal or professional.
• T. Trust Build trust with everything you do. WIthout trust you have nothing. It takes time to build but only a moment to destroy it. And in internet time, violations of trust spread like wildfire. Trust is one of your most precious assets. Timeless – While your brand and company needs to keep current with the times, you don’t have to be the speedracer. In the face of rapid change, offering qualities that can endure such change are attractive to many  people grasping for stability.
• S. Strategy – it takes a strategy. You can’t be successful with a shotgun approach. Know where you want to go and follow the course. But don’t be so rigid that you’re unwilling to make adjustments along the way.
• R. Responsibility – Never pass the buck. Take ownership when things go well and when they don’t. When a customer is unhappy with your brand, it’s a huge opportunity to score a win by quickly resolving their issue to the best of your ability. Or at the very least being upfront about the situation and why you can or can’t fix it. Few companies do this well.
• Q. Question everything you do – does it add or take away from the value your customers get?
• P. Profit. If you don’t know how you’re brand will earn you a profit, see S. Profit is not a bad thing – find the right pricing structure that provides killer value while earning you the profit you need to stay in business and thrive. I say thrive because there’s no point being in business just to exist. Consider, too, your positioning, purpose idea, promotions and persist. P is a really useful letter. Spend some time here.
• O. Own your suck. Enough said.
• N. Nurture your brand. It’s the little things you do every day that make the winning difference. Many companies roll out dramatic gestures but don’t invest in the hard work it takes to execute well. It’s a commitment thing. Pay attention to the details after the initial fanfare has faded.
• M. Monitor the conversations people have around your brand and your industry. It provides you the chance to respond quickly to unsatisfied customers as well as spot opportunities for creating value and being useful. Monitoring doesn’t have to be complicated. Start with Twitter and Google alerts. It’ll be eye opening.
• L. Live your brand – It’s not static. Your actions and those of your employees are the things that people base their image of your brand upon. It’s what they think it is – not what your messages say. Live it everyday. Make sure that matches what you’re saying about it.
• K. Kickass. Banish mediocrity and make a difference. That can be as simple as putting service into customer service. Most companies make that so difficult that it’s a huge opportunity to get traction in the market.
• J. Jam. Use emotion and design to connect on a gut level.
• I. Innovate. Be different from everyone else in your niche. A me too brand won’t cut it anymore. You’ve got find your voice, your brand personality and connect. Do it by doing something different than the rest. Connect two very different ideas to make something powerful. Always find ways to innovate in your area, whether through product and service design or customer service.
• H. Humanity. Brands are not meant to live on spreadsheets alone. People buy from humans. They crave human contact. Make sure your brand appeals to humans. An easy way to do that is to have real humans answer the phone and not make your customers push 9 buttons to speak with someone. Make your brand easy to connect with.
• G. Greater good. Make sure your brand has a purpose greater than just making you a tidy profit. How are you giving back to those that buy from you? How do you support the communities in which you work? Is it by providing jobs? Helping the less fortunate? Never forget that givers get. Don’t just take.
• F. Friendly. Make your brand so friendly and approachable so people are drawn to your company.
• E. Evangelize. You want people evangelizing your message. But they won’t do it unless they believe in you. They’ll evangelize if you rock and do what you say you’ll do by when. It’s about taking action. Not talking.
• D. Differentiation – you MUST differentiate yourself. You must have a unique reason for being. Otherwise, why be? Fail to define what differentiates you from your competition relegates you to obscurity. Don’t let that happen. Spend some time here.
• C. Context. Success going forward will go to those who make content useful. Those that provide the context for the content. Those that add meaning and clarity out of the clutter.
• B. Brand Promise. What is your reason for being. Your core. What you stand for. Define it. Then live it and feel it. It becomes the yardstick you measure your actions against.
• A. Accountability. Make sure you and your employees take accountability for your actions – good or bad. Don’t pass the buck, make excuses or blame someone else. Even in that someone else is a company that produced a key part of your product and service. If you’ve integrated into your product and it’s your name on it. You’re accountable. Own that.

Tagged as: Branding, small business