When you are creating a brand, you are creating a belief in the hearts and minds of your customers about yourself, your company, your values. That means keeping the promises you make … even the ones you imply.
Here are nine morals – much like Aesop’s Fables – that will help you build your brand and live happily ever after.
Moral 1: Advertising, marketing and branding are not the same animals and can’t accomplish the same thing.
The differences may seem subtle, but they are there. Both advertising and marketing are mechanisms used to connect customers and businesses. Branding, on the other hand, is the creation and support of a perception, an image of someone or something based on unique, emotional experiences. Branding is a feeling. You feel trust, loyalty, comfort, love, need, desire and happiness for brands because of beliefs derived from very precise experiences.
Moral 2: Be careful what you promise.
When individuals and companies don’t deliver on their brand promises, they fail to create or maintain uniqueness in their brand categories. That means no brand loyalty among your customers. In the reverse scenario, when a company over-delivers on its promises, it is able to create a feeling of belonging, of culture and of family. You want customers to feel married to your company.
Moral 3: Separate yourself from the pack.
When businesses get mired in sales quotas, short-term goals, statistics and so forth, the people inside those businesses become robotic. Their eyes are focused not on how the brand is doing, but on what the numbers tell them. You must consider what you can do to differentiate your business from all the others that offer the same services or products. The differentiator must be the level of service, the unique experience you offer each of your customers.
Moral 4: Perspective is everything.
You need to look at your customers and say to yourself, “If I were one of my customers right now, what would I love to have from me?” Then, do it!
Step Two: gauge your employees’ loyalty to the company, because loyal employees provide the ultimate experience for customers. When you walk in your customers’ and employees’ shoes, your perspective widens, and so does your concern about what’s important.
Moral 5: You (and your brand!) are probably not as great as you think they are.
You may or may not be aware of the Lake Wobegon Effect, but it is a phenomenon from which many of us and our businesses suffer. It’s the human tendency to think we are better than we actually are. The implications in your personal life are obvious – maybe you alienate people with your superior attitude. But in business, the effects can be just as devastating. As a remedy, always keep part of your gaze directed outward, and always be ready to re-evaluate your brand. Constantly ask yourself how you can improve upon the experience you offer your customers.
Moral 6: Understand your company’s “reach of influence.”
Think about the ripple effect. You throw a rock in the water and ripples radiate out in all directions. But be aware the ripple effect works both ways. Just as happy customers sing your praises, unhappy customers will be quick to spread the word about poor service. You want to make a big enough positive splash that delivering on your brand promise ripples indefinitely!
Moral 7: Don’t pretend to be something you’re not.
Everyone has a brand identity, but they don’t all understand their own brand correctly, or even know what it is. You cannot develop an authentic, sincere brand without this understanding. You don’t want your customers to feel like they are being “sold” based on a false business persona. When you are sincere about trying to understand your customers’ needs and desires, a genuine connection is made that is the foundation of trust. And customers who trust a business keep coming back to that business.
Moral 8: The easiest way isn’t always best.
Technology has made communication so much easier. But if you’re not careful, too much of a reliance on technology can erode your brand. Technology should help you streamline your operations, create new opportunities, reach a broader customer base, and reinforce your carefully developed brand. In the final analysis, let technology be the beginning of expanding, extending and sustaining it.
Moral 9: Don’t drive your customers to a flawed service.
A common mistake for many business owners is that they drive customers to a business that does not already have a brand identity in place. Appearance without substance – advertising and driving people to your business, without a powerful brand identity – leads to failure.
All of these lessons work together to bring us to one critical conclusion: If you want to be successful, you must build a powerful emotional brand. You must stop looking at customers with dollar signs in your eyes and start creating relationships with them. This may seem like an expensive proposition, but believe me, it’s less expensive in the long run than neglecting customer relationships.
When your customers see that you truly value them and care about the service you can provide them, they will be customers for life – and that’s the real secret to long-term success.
Scott Deming delivers sales, marketing and customer service presentations to clients across the globe after owning his own marketing and advertising firm. His latest book is “The Brand Who Cried Wolf: Deliver on Your Company’s Promise and Create Customers for Life.”
