How to Brand Your Company

<ul> <li>'You gotta brand your company!'</li> <li>'Warren Buffet loves brands!'</li> <li>'You're a nobody if you don't brand your business!'</li> </ul> True words; but what-in-the-mofo-soko? <h2>How do you brand your company?</h2> Conventional wisdom thinks it's this: <ul> <li>'Get a nice logo. Get nice letterheads. Get nice business cards. Get nice ad templates.'</li> </ul> BAM! But-that-ain't-branding; that's-just-Corporate-Identity. Corporate identity != Branding. <h2>What is Corporate Branding?</h2> Why do you go to Doctor Bob despite his higher prices? <ol> <li>You have a positively strong relationship with him.</li> <li>You've built the relationship with Doctor Bob over X years.</li> </ol> Branding revolves around one question: <ul> <li>What relationship does Bob have with your company?</li> </ul> The stronger the relationship, the stronger your brand -- and the likelier Bob will choose you over competitors despite your higher prices, your slower service, your yaddas. Branding is about one $#$@%#@%@#%#@%^ thing: <ul> <li>Relationships.</li> </ul> <h2>Why So?</h2> The more you see somebody, the more you like that somebody. <ul> <li>The more you see a friend, the more you like the friend.</li> <li>The more you see an ad, the more you like the company.</li> <li>The more you do business with a company, the more you like the company.</li> </ul> For instance, you're more likely to prefer Geico over another competitor because its crazy commercials have steadily solidified a long-standing happy relationship with you. Building a relationship doesn't simply involve a financial transaction; it involves everything where a customer gets in contact with your company: <ul> <li>It can involve your after-service relationship (e.g., support, warranties, etc.).</li> <li>It can involve your pre-service relationship (e.g., ads, presentations, etc).</li> <li>It can involve anything and everything that connects you to the customer (e.g., blogs, newsletters, etc.)</li> </ul> The more you connect with the customer, the more you solidify your brand to that customer. <h2>Relationship, Relationships, Relationships</h2> Why do big-time brands rarely change their corporate identities? <ol> <li>Bob builds a relationship with a certain corporate identity over X years.</li> <li>Like a human relationship, because he's been in contact with the corporate identity a freakish number of times, he likes it more.</li> <li>As a result, he subconsciously prefers the identity over any new one presented.</li> </ol> (Think Coke vs. New Coke; blind tests said New Coke; yet, people still claimed they preferred the original Coke.) Changing your identity/product/mission/yadda constantly erodes any long-standing relationship -- making your incessant reinventions pretty-fricking-fruitless. <h3>Think of Cousin-Vinny-Who-You've-Never-Seen in Years</h3> <ol> <li>You last saw Vinny 15 years ago.</li> <li>You meet him for the first time since then.</li> <li>You kind-of-sort-of-like the new Vinny -- but you still prefer the Vinny-15-years-younger edition, because you have a stronger relationship with the younger one than the new reinvented one.</li> </ol> So: <ol> <li>Keep a unifying, consistent X.</li> <li>The longer a customer builds a relationship with X, the more he or she likes/hearts/loves it.</li> <li>If you're going to change something, do it subtly/cautiously/gradually -- while keeping what they like/heart/love intact as much as possible.</li> </ol> (X is everything your customer touches -- e.g., products, colors, uniforms, telephone numbers, customer service, etc.). <h2>Warren Buffet Buys Brands for a Reason</h2> Branding is absolutely crucial because it prevents you from competing directly on prices, features, smarts, technology -- which destroys your profit margins, and makes you likelier to see bankruptcy. <ul> <li>It's impossibly difficult to compete on prices.</li> <li>It's impossibly difficult to compete on smarts.</li> <li>It's impossibly difficult to compete on technology.</li> <li>It's impossibly difficult to compete on features.</li> </ul> The high maintenance of even attempting those things drastically increases your expenses -- eroding your margins. <ul> <li>Low margins = less room for error (which can destroy you if a bad economy hits).</li> </ul> If you're going to do just one thing to improve your company this year, do this: Brand your company. Say it together now: <ul> <li>'Branding is critically important for my company.'</li> <li>'Branding is critically important for my company.'</li> <li>'Branding is critically important for my company.'</li> <li>'Branding is critically important for my company.'</li> <li>'Branding is critically important for my company.'</li> </ul> BAM! HOORAY! HIGH-FIVE!!!!!!111one The Cardinal Rule: <ul> <li>The more people build a relationship with X, the more they like X.</li> </ul> <h2>Relationships.</h2> 2009-09-28T22:01:40-07:00 true 788 how-to-brand-your-company

2009-11-03T18:00:59-08:00