If you missed it: Part 1 of 5 (Branding Yourself), Part 2 of 5 (9-part Branding Strategy), Part 3 of 5 (A Strong Branding Foundation) Branding is like SHOWCASING yourself, or Part 4 of 5 (Your Branding Presence):

Just as you’ve spent all this time, effort and energy into building your brand, there’s the relentless management of your brand that often trips people up. You might spend months meeting with the architect and making plans for a new house. You meet with all the right people and ultimately your house moves beyond brick and sheetrock to the beautiful masterpiece it has always been in your mind. Your new house is exquisite! You announce your open house and everyone comes for a visit. What fun to showcase your new loft!

But then fast forward a few months and it’s time for Christmas. You’d love to host a holiday gathering, but the first question your spouse asks is “have you seen how filthy this place it?!!!” You can spend hours building what is beautiful and dreamy. But without regular maintenance and upkeep, it’ll be hidden by the dust and grim that builds up!

In your own branding, you have got to remain on the forefront of the assault of protecting and maintaining your brand. Perhaps there’s new news that comes out in the local paper about your company and it’s not good. You’ve got to jump out there and defending your brand (and possibly doing whatever it takes to correct the mistakes if indeed there were any). Another cool way to stay on top of what’s being said about your brand is staying in touch with what’s being said about you. Through cool tools like RSS and Google News Alerts, you can stay on top of whatever is being written about your company’s name. Without this information, you are left unarmed, abandoned to the unknown as to whether or not good/bad things are being said about you. In the online world of blogs and forums of all kinds, things can be said about you without you having a clue – but with the right tools, you can know if there are conversations happening that mention your name. To their surprise (especially if it’s a blogging frenzy against you because of somone’s bad experience). You could stand back, aloof and saying to yourself, “who cares?” – OR – you can choose to engage in this blog discussion and try to clear the air a little. Nothing will shock the bloggers more than hearing directly from the one who has ulimate responsibility over your company’s brand name. This can go a long ways in repairing your brand image and you might even win a few converts because of your engaging personality!

As well, don’t let yourself (or others) get lazy in maintain a consistency about the key elements of your brand. Especially if you are launching a new logo anytime soon, make sure anyone and everyone who has access to the old logo knows to destroy the old logo! Lazy folks just use whatever is easiest to find and often dilute the efforts of your strategic branding strategy! If appropriate, post your “media kit” on your page so any external sources (media) can download the current logo, headshots of CEOs, or even brief biographical information.

Here’s a good link that reinforces the importance of managing your brand!

The final step in the branding strategy is to simply craft a PLAN! Make yourself a schedule – and know right up front that you can’t do it all at once. Small baby steps – but steps with a goal! Be strategic and systematic about it – it’s a long-term strategy to build credibility – it’s all about getting people to KNOW, LIKE and TRUST you.

Finally, here’s an article by John Jantsch, founder and creator of Duct Tape Marketing, that rounds out our 5-part series on branding! Hope you enjoyed it!   Thanks to the other Marketing Twin, Donny for keeping these posts going while I’ve been in Benin, West Africa.  I’ll return on Tuesday night so pray for a safe return.

-Randy

themarketingtwins@1429creative.com

p.s.  Did you hear the exciting news from the Double Take LIVE Broadcast on Tuesday?  If not, here it is:  On Wednesday, October 8th at NOON CST, the Marketing Twins will be interviewing for it’s 3rd Double Take LIVE Broadcast a Gold Medal winner from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  Stephanie Brown Trafton won GOLD in the women’s discus as part of the Track & Field competition.  Stephanie’s faith will inspire us all as she pulls back the curtain on what life is like as an Olympic athlete and how her faith rescued her Olympic dream!  You may have even seen Stephanie on the Oprah Winfrey Show earlier this week.  Mark your calendars for these two key dates:  Friday, September 19th when registration begins and Wednesday, October 8th for the actual call !!  Go to our UPCOMING EVENTS page for more details!

If you missed it: Part 1 of 5 (Branding Yourself), Part 2 of 5 (9-part Branding Strategy), Part 3 of 5 (A Strong Branding Foundation) Branding is like SHOWCASING yourself. With all the emphasis the past couple of weeks on the political conventions, consider this quote from the Republican National Commitee:

“The convention will showcase Sen. John McCain and his vision for America to the 45,000 convention participants joining us from around the country and the millions more participating from home.”

Branding is a necessary effort in the marketing process. Alone, however, it is incomplete without more substance and specific invitations (these political conventions can be viewed only as “fluff” by alot of people but they are intended to launch the candidates into a season of specifics and strategic moves that will compel voters in Novemeber). But coupled with an effective plan for closing the sale, branding can incorporate a gallery of your values, your history and your personality into a coherent and magnificent display that makes potential customers take notice! Thus all the fanfare at these conventions!

PACKAGING – While my political leanings lean away from Obama yet not completely toward McCain, I would cast my vote for the former in terms of packaging their brand. His brand is the subject of many critics (some say it’s just hype), but there is no doubt that his brand has resonated with millions. But I’m not even talking so much about his message which is open for debate and likely to cause some of you ulcers if we spend too much time talking about either side! I just think his packaging is crisp and clear and consistent. Even though I’m not an Obama supporter, I signed up to receive all his materials (and McCain’s too) because I like political marketing. I would cast my own vote for Obama in terms of marketing materials. There’s a consistent look and that is important in branding. The way that all of your marketing collateral fits together is essential in branding. Keep consistent!

Another critical element of branding might bring some of you back into this conversation. Just as logos speak volumes about your brand, nothing resonates more clearly with people than your STORY. John McCain wins this one. While the other side might think the RNC is over-using the POW angle, there is no doubt that McCain’s story resonates with many voters. It’s who he is AND it tells alot about his values! If people were to go to your website, or look around your store, do they get to hear your story anywhere? Do they hear what’s important to you, and the importance of your journey? Stories invoke emotional responses with customers and it’s an effective part of your branding. The use of audio and video clips to showcase your story is essentially essential!

You can also showcase yourself in the way your email signature reads, the way your voicemail sounds, or the way your Facebook profile page is arranged. While politics often get a bad name for manipulating voters or simply offering superficial imagery or lame rhetoric, take notice of how most of what politicians are doing can be considered branding. We can learn from how they operate (and then maybe do it without as much partisan among your prospective customers!)

ONLINE PRESENCE - We can’t even begin to give this section the time it deserves. But hopefully, if you are a regularly reader of this blog (or other marketing blogs), you’ll know well the importance of blogging, podcasting, email marketing, and so much more. Do you have a Facebook or Myspace profile? Do you Twitter or have a Linkedin page? What about local online profiles or other social media and social networking sites? Got any videos out on YouTube or some other video networking site? There is no doubt that one key to enjoying a strong Search Engine Optimization success is to having a strong online presence.

TRADITIONAL “OFFLINE” PRESENCE – Back before there was the internet, businesses would employ a number of effective paths toward positively branding themselves. In this category: sponsoring a Little League baseball team, hosting a charity event or being one its major sponsors, participating in civic organizations, conducting workshops, speaking a luncheons and special events, writing articles for industry publications or local papers, appearing on radio or TV shows, and so much more.

PUBLIC RELATIONS – Certainly some of the above can be lumped into a category most people call “PR” – and those rules are changing (see David Meerman Scott’s best-selling book for more details on how the rules are changing). In the old days, you created press releases and begged your local journalist to include it in their paper. Now, sophisticated readers are wanting news more often and certainly faster, so journalists are often searching for news . . . and for the most part, Google is their modern day informant! Electronic media allow companies to publish their own press releases to the web and if done right, the ones writing articles find them! The old “buy-beg” strategy for advertising and PR is gone: we now have so much more control. And because of the internet, our PR strategy can be much more limber and flexible to include so much more (without having to worry so much about expensive the 1/2 page ad space is!) With an effective website and corresponding blog, companies can brand themselves from a variety of angles. And they can make changes on a consistent basis to keep the content fresh and relevant.

This is of course another important area to highlight the importance of Search Engine Optimization. If prospects or journalists are interested in finding out about YOU, then if you are not getting top search results when someone Googles your name, then you are virtually hidden on the web – out of sight, out of mind! SEO is not magically achieved in an instant. If you think to yourself, “I need to get online so that when someone Googles me, they find me” and you think that’s going to happen overnight, then you need to better understand SEO and what John Jantsch calls “earned press” (this is a new terms for the inappropriate “free press” term – the former obviously indicating that a business can be rewarded for the hard work it takes in creating a strong online presence). We all enjoy “free press” – but let’s not fool ourselves . . . if we get top search results (in the Top 10 listings), we can pat ourselves on the back for the work it took to achieve such success.

David Meerman Scott recently likened this “online presence” to being a regular at the local pub or coffee shop. While some public relations is about promotion and announcements, having an effective online strategy may just be as low-key as hanging out at the local hangout. Simply participating in the conversation and community. You’re not necessarily overtly promoting yourself, but you are building credibility because you give people a window into who you are. As you regularly participate in the fellowship of the community, you increase awareness of your values and your personality (KNOW), you’ll engage in developing relationships that bring positive experiences (LIKE) and you’ll eventually achieve that level of loyalty where people put their complete confidence in you and what you offer (TRUST). If you don’t want to get to this level, simply walk into the coffee shop, don’t greet anyone, pin your business card or flyer to the community bulletin board and walk out. The community around you is happening – are you engaged in it? Or are you just concerned about telling people about what you have to offer?

So what’s going on in your community? Do you know? Do you participate? Or are you too busy promoting yourself in the name of PR that you don’t hear what’s going on?

Stay tuned on Friday for my FINAL installment in this branding series.  I’ll be returning from Benin, West Africa next week.

Part 5 of 5 (Managing Your Brand & Planning Your Brand Strategy)

-Randy

themarketingtwins@1429creative.com

p.s.  Did you hear the exciting news from the Double Take LIVE Broadcast yesterday?  If not, here it is:  On Wednesday, October 8th at NOON CST, the Marketing Twins will be interviewing for it’s 3rd Double Take LIVE Broadcast a Gold Medal winner from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  Stephanie Brown Trafton won GOLD in the women’s discus as part of the Track & Field competition.  Stephanie’s faith will inspire us all as she pulls back the curtain on what life is like as an Olympic athlete and how her faith rescued her Olympic dream!  You may have even seen Stephanie on the Oprah Winfrey Show earlier this week.  Mark your calendars for these two key dates:  Friday, September 19th when registration begins and Wednesday, October 8th for the actual call !!  Go to our UPCOMING EVENTS page for more details!

If you missed it: Part 1 of 5 (Branding Yourself), Part 2 of 5 (9-part Branding Strategy)

Today we examine the foundation of your branding strategy. Without this focus, you’ll go nowhere.

1. Know who it is your trying to reach. Your ideal client. Your target market. Identify, as specifically as possible, this group. Nail them down demographically and geographically if such exists. And what some call “psychographics” – know well your customer’s likes, dislikes, and what how they live and make decisions. You might call this “understanding your buyer persona.” Know the language and the mannerisms of this group.

When I was a missionary, we worked in a French-speaking country of Africa. In Benin (where I am right now), the common language of all the various people groups was French. It was the common denominator of all groups and it’s what was used on the surface. But you can guarantee, even among the well-educated (where French was well-spoken), when conversations turned to arguments, these Africans would break into their own dialect! That’s where you can draw from a well of emotions and you can best articulate your pain. Even more so, out in the rural area where we worked, French was not spoken by many people. If we had wanted to, we could have chosen to speak in this common “state” language and we might have made inroads into the psyche of certain ones. But we were seeking to change hearts and wanting loyal followers, so we were compelled to go deep. As we learned not only to speak the local dialect but as well we learned to live and act as closely mirrored to this group as people as an American family possibly could – well, I believe we made long-lasting and loyal inroads into the lives of the Aja people.

As you identify WHO it is you are trying to reach, this will keep you from going “generic”. The most effective strategy will always improve if we narrow our reach rather than go for a mass market appeal. If I’m a street evangelist, rather than standing on the street corners in a busy intersection hoping someone will listen to my rhetoric, if I were to determine the needs and pains of a specific group of people and choose to live and dwell among them, my reach would go deeper.

2. Articulate clearly and repeatedly your core message. Once you identify the pain/need of your targeted segment, you will want to identify two messages that will help you reach this group. First, it’s your internal message. “We want to be the #1 choice for (your industry) among (specific demographic). We want to blow away (our competition) by (doing something different than your competition).” This is your rallying cry. It’s posted on your employee breakroom or on a post-it note next to your computer. Secondly, your external message is developed. This is not necessarily a mission statement because those tend to be mostly about ourselves and offer non-resonating generalities (“We pledge to the best service and best quality for the best price.”). Rather, try articulating a message that resonates with the pain/need of your target market (“We will offer the fastest oil change for Moms and Dads who would rather spend time with your kids than have to mess with automotive repair.”) When you do this, you generate a host of key words and phrases that resonate with your target market segment. These are words that include their pain, your specific solution, your differences, and their benefit for choosing you. You will use these in ALL your marketing communication so that these keywords remain associated with YOUR brand (not to mention the SEO benefits which we’ll talk about later).

3 – Compete effectively. As you seek to excel in this area, make sure you know: (a) who you are competing against, and (b) the factors/influences working against you. First, know your competition. For a private Christian university, you might think the most obvious competition would be other private Christian schools. But most institutions likes this will also (and should also) include public schools as well. Secondly, know the forces at work against you. This could be as obvious as the economy or less obvious as some rumor that is circulating about you (Obama has heard a few of these about his religious affiliation). Do your research as best you can. Be in touch and tuned in. Ask around. People love to talk.

If any small business is going to compete effectively, you know the deathnail is being generic. As we discussed earlier, you could spend all day talking to people about how great your service is, how efficient your equipment is, how friendly your employees are, and how great your prices are. John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, does something with his clients. He extracts the first few paragraphs of a business’ website (or brochure) and then snags the equivalent from that of their competitors. He then erases all mention of identifying marks. Like the ol’ Pepsi challenge, he lays out the information side-by-side and typically businesses can’t identify which is there because they all look the same! Be unique!!

One thing we did recently at a coaching clinic seem to bring home the point. First of all, ask yourself, “what is my competition doing BETTER than me?” Then figure out a way to bridge that gap – developing the products or services so that you can compete more effectively head-to-head with your competition. By doing so, you are stripping away their ability to be different! But then the fun begins! This is where we spend time with clients brainstorming – DREAMING! Dream outloud (with duct tape applied firmly over the mouths of naysayers and critics) about what you could do that would WOW your customers! What could you do/offer that none of your competitors provide? DON’T YOU DARE GO GENERIC! Whatever you do, it’s got to pass this test: does it cause your customer to stand at attention and ask, “Really? You do that? I’ve never heard anyone do that before!” Then set your sites on achieving this goal. It may take months or even years, but unless you’re dreaming about it NOW, you’ll never differentiate yourself. Could you be the ONLY one in town to offer _____? Could you be the only ______ distributor in your county? Could you offer the _______ guarantee – the only such guarantee of its kind in your industry?

That’s the foundation for an effective branding strategy. Know who you are trying to reach. Consistently speak your core message(s). Be different so that your customers have a reason to look your way.

Ready to showcase your brand to the world? In Part 4, we’ll look at establishing your branding elements, including how to not only have an exciting ONLINE presence, but as well to engage in traditional branding strategies that will go a long ways in enhancing your reputation and credibility among your customers and prospects.

GO TO: Part 4 of 5 (Your Branding Presence)

-Randy-

themarketingtwins@1429creative.com

p.s.  This is your LAST CHANCE to register for our next FREE Double Take LIVE Broadcast with Sheila McDoniel.  The call is tomorrow (TUESDAY, 9/9) at 12:30 CST and I’ll be attempting to call in LIVE FROM BENIN, WEST AFRICA so don’t miss it.   We’ll also be making an exciting announcement on that call regarding a future interview we have planned so you don’t want to miss out!!  Here’s a HINT:  What do the Marketing Twins and NBC (yes, the TV network!) have in common?  Find out tomorrow at our Double Take LIVE Broadcast so register now!