Everyone wants to build a “brand” but what does that really mean? Everyone seems to have a different definition. We all agree it’s important but there are a lot of different roads a business can take to accomplish this lofty goal of having an impactful brand.
I’ll avoid what you can Google yourself. Here are some of the common things you can find on the Internet when asking the big question, what is a brand?
“It’s the perception customers have about a product or service.”
“A brand is the personality of a business.”
Respectable answers, but not what you hear the average business owner or entrepreneur talking about when they are thinking about a brand. Usually the answers are more like this:
“I want to be like Apple” or “I want to be very premium and exclusive” or “I want to be a millennial brand” or my favorite, “I want my brand to be twice as big next year”
Sometimes they’ll just say they have a logo and a website. Even better, they’ll often admit they don’t have a brand and don’t have time to build one. Now there are plenty of mid-to-large size companies who are much savvier about this, I know. They can rattle off the attributes of their brand that they paid a lot of money for some research company to develop.
But for the rest of the business owners out there without the luxury of time, money, research, and fancy ad agencies, I’d like to propose a much simpler approach to building a brand that matters.
It just takes a little bit of introspection to get started. And yes, of course, it takes a little work too. But it can be mapped out into easy stages that you can take on one at a time.
So, before we get into the steps, let’s go back to our first question, what is a brand? I’d like to invite you to think of a brand the same way you’d think of a person you’re meeting for the first time.
- Before you meet this person, they already have an identity that is true to them.
- For you, that person is an image you’ve built based on what you hear and see.
- And over time, you know and connect with that person based on your interactions.
Similarly, in the eyes of a customer, a brand is defined by their identity, your image of them, and your connection built over time.
I like to call it your truth, your image, and your brand love, or the love you earn from customers over time.
So, when building a brand, I encourage you to think along those same lines:
1. Brand Truth — Unearth what makes your business special
2. Brand Image — Share your story with your community
3. Brand Love — Build a genuine connection with your customers
Easy right! Okay, so we’ve simplified the concept. And you may think you are doing some or all of these things.
But typically, we barely skim the surface when executing against brand building ideas.
Maybe you know that your truth is that you have the most effective yoga class in your neighborhood, but you haven’t taken the time to compare yourself to the other classes to understand what your similarities and differences are in the eyes of the customer. Maybe they love your music or the intensity of the workout, or that the building is clean.
What I see all the time are businesses that haven’t gone very deep on building their brand image.
Specifically, I mean they haven’t exhausted all the resources in front of them for getting the word out about their business. They may do a couple of obvious things, but they question the validity of other ideas, or are unwilling to put money against new ideas, or don’t even know the new ideas exist.
And even the businesses that have an amazing relationship with their customers, don’t always take the next step to go above and beyond for the customer. They do the job they are paid for and stop there. They are afraid to upsell because they don’t want to ruin the relationship, but what if that person needs the thing you have. Or what if they have friends that need that thing and you just lost a great referral.
The list goes on and on.
But if you can start treating your business relationships with the same care that you do your human relationships, you will be on your way to building a brand with real value.
As we’ve just scratched the surface on Brand Truth, Brand Image, and Brand Love, we’ll continue to dive deeper on these topics and more on the blog, on the podcast, and on YouTube.