Branding is one of those cliché words use by all marketers and advertising reps. It is also one of the main concerns of business leaders. How to make a prospective customer think of your brand? How to be “top of mind” (here goes another).
Branding is very easy to throw out when considering an advertising campaign.
In our marketing experience we consider Branding more an operations approach than a promotions department function.
Do you want to create a branding strategy for your business? Read on, we’ll let you in our little secret.
Branding is not about what you broadcast in advertising, is about what you deliver to your customers.
If you are serious about Branding your company into the minds of your market here are the basic three stages of building a Brand.
1. Integrate Differentiation. One of the first rules of marketing is “Differentiate or Die” the trick here is that many times the differentiation approach is different through the many departments in the organization. Sales has one approach to what is different about your product or service, and they preach those differences in their sales calls. But this approach could be very different from production, and they are focus on items and quality. The result is that customers see a different perspective form different departments about what is the main competitive advantage of your products or services.
2. Experiential Association. It is a must, that customer interactions with your business must relate and translate your offerings to their experiences. In other words you need to find ways to associate what your customers are doing already, to the features of your branding experience. This makes marketing not only a function of one department but the objectives of a customer centric enterprise.
3. Anchor these experiences in all customer points of contact. There is nothing more deceiving for a customer, than the frustration of receiving a different output than that promised by the sales people. Customer service, production, manufacturing, technical support and every single person who interacts or has something to do with the customer, needs to breathe and act upon your branding objectives, to be able to translate and reinforce that experience to the customers. Your product and service must be configured to satisfy those exact promises about your brand.
It is not what you say it is what you do, which creates your Brand.
When we understand this, we know that branding and marketing are no longer just a function of advertising your business, but a mind set of doing business, a discipline of performing with excellence.
PROSES is currently developing a software solution which will enable your business to integrate these three aspects of Branding performance, across your organization. To participate in these project and receive a FREE seminar and software package contact us now.
