Old-school brand building focuses on product, package, position, price and promotion. But as veteran business strategist Kate Newlin notes, in a world of almost limitless consumer choices, the old rules just don’t work anymore. Brand building today requires that you react to consumers in real time and employ what Newlin calls “brand democracy,” where users help decide the characteristics of your product or service – often via social-media interaction.
Small-business owners constantly rediscover that branding is a surefire way to make or break a product, service or company. And in fact, every business can benefit from branding, right down to a professional or independent contractor working alone. It’s vital to keep up. Buyers – either business or consumer – have shorter and shorter attention spans. Entrepreneurs must constantly recharge existing brands and devise new ones.
Here are some “accelerators” revealed by Newlin’s research that can help your business establish brand passion in today’s tough-as-nails marketing environment:
• Target values, not age, race or gender. Passion brands rarely target consumers in a traditional way, as in men 18-34. More often, they identify shared values and then illustrate how the brand shares that vision.
• Differentiate with design. Consumers respond to clever, intuitive products – a well-designed idea is engaging and can trump other performance features. It becomes something we have to get our hands on it.
• Hire passionate brand stewards. Nothing sinks a brand more quickly than having people behind it who are not really passionate themselves. You will want people who are more interested in building your brand than their own. Don’t take your consumers or their passion for your brand for granted.
• Know they know you need them. We are in a tremendously aware marketing epoch. As Newlin tells her consulting clients, “there are no unfocused group people left in the country.” So, get out and watch people in bars, malls, grocery stores, movies, sports events, regardless of the category you are in. Talk to them. Follow them while they shop. Engage them. Notice that you are one of them.
• Democratize the brand. A brand today needs to live, change and grow. Let the customers in on the process. The ability of the consumer to have it “my way” is a tremendous engine of ownership. Starbucks with its “mocha-cappuccino-double-shot-skinny” ethos is the poster child of this tactic for $5. •
Daniel Kehrer can be reached at
editor@business.com.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
