Yeah I know another week, another tongue in cheek title. Look deeper though and actually there is a great deal of substance to this statement and it has even greater significance if you own and run your own business.
Last week I talked about the importance of a strong brand. The power of a strong brand is phenomenal, but it has to be nurtured and it has to have a level of commitment from the top in any business right through every layer of the business.
Have you planned your brand, or is it a by product of your business, an accidental passenger, a quick fix?
A lot of businesses see branding purely as the logo. Frequently the extent of brand investment is down to paying a graphic designer (worst still the printer themselves) to come up with a brand logo. Then the work is considered done.
Your brand is everything and planning and nurturing it is critical in helping you establish a relationship with your customers.
Let’s face it there are just a plethora of brands out there. How are you going to cut through this clutter? This is where a well planned brand strategy will help you position you in the minds of the customers you want to attract.
Working as a business coach, one of the first things that I work on with clients is the strategic plan and within this we try to establish the values of the business.
Values are the “why we do this” in a business. Values are the essence of your brand.
For example if you have a value of integrity, then your brand must reflect this core value. If it doesn’t then your customers will just not tolerate the mismatch.
Integrity is not a value just for the business owner though, it must permeate the whole organisation.
So how come so many businesses promise integrity and have it as part of their mission or value statements and yet never deliver it?
Just last week my Wife had a problem with her car, and it requires roughly €500 in repairs and a new part. Great no problem, our local garage has a sign in the reception which clearly states their values and guess what integrity is one of them. I’m sure she was intantly reassured.
Furthermore the person she dealt with was equally reassuring. Of course we can source the part and we will contact you on Wednesday or Thursday to confirm when you can come in for the repairs.
Today is Wednesday one week later!!
Where is the integrity in that. Integrity is doing what you say you will do.
Sadly we all know that this is a common issue. All the more annoying when you know that the business owner will be sitting in the pub on a Friday night complaining how poor the economy is, and that there just isn’t the business out there. If that happens twice a week, that business has just lost €50,000 per year in business, not to mention the opportunity lost of ongoing repeat business.
There is a tangible price to pay if you don’t look after the intangibles.
Your brand is not what you say it is, it is what you do, how you present yourself, how you treat your customers, how clean your premises is, how friendly your staff are, how quickly you deal with customer complaints, how often you say thank you for the business, and how you set expectations for your customers.
All of these components are in themselves important and therefore you need to plan out each one and how you intend to realise them for your customers.
You need to create systems to ensure that delivery against these promises is not accidental but consistent and to a consistently high standard.
To some extent you need to take what are intangible qualities of your brand and put in tangible systems to measure your delivery for your customers.
Action Steps
Start today and firstly isolate your brand values. Don’t worry about the visual brand for the moment. Focus on the intangibles.
What values are intrinsic now to your business success and more importantly what values will be intrinsic to your future success.
This is the start of creating a truly powerful planned brand.
Remember ask your customers too what they think. Ask your team, they must be a part of this process.
Once you are clear what you want to stand for then you can start the process of ensuring that you position your brand correctly with your customers.
My advice here is always to get professional branding help. Do it right first time around. You don’t have to spend a fortune but you do need a considered approach, so choose who you work for carefully.
Best of luck, Ronan
Ronan Kilroy Certified FocalPoint Business Coach
Profitability, Productivity, Possibility.
