It’s important to understand that while we divide demographic data from psychographic data, most demographic data is actually a subset of cultural data. What people of different ages and genders are likely to be doing and thus are likely to buy has a lot to do with their culture. Further, things like age involve certain shared experiences which shape peoples’ thinking, and it is these shared experiences that are the reason why people of different ages think differently.
What makes demographics appealing is that they can be quickly learned. This means that it is often easiest to break target markets into demographic information. Most traditional ad media, such as magazines and televisions shows, release information about the demographics of their consumers. Certainly, in many cases such a broad categorization of people can be highly useful. Airwalk, for example, found that it could target people based primarily on age, and that their ads would work worldwide allowing them to expand quickly. On the other hand, any large demographic group can have subsets that are not always in agreement on everything. Further, any group you might not normally consider in your target demographic can have large subsets who are interested in your product. This means that great care needs to be taken when selecting demographic targets because more and more demographic lines are growing thinner. Oftentimes, what you’ll find is that demographic variables need to be paired with psychographic ones based on people’s emotions, values, beliefs, and interests.
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0070898332/student_view0/chapter18/video_cases.html
Age
Every age group has certain things that are likely to speak to them; songs that they love, TV shows that they watched, major events that shaped the way they think about the world. A picture of Kennedy means something different to someone who was old enough to vote for or against him than it does to someone who was born 30 years later. These shared moments make age an important target for many companies and in many ways can turn age into a psychographic variable.
It’s common for companies to seek after younger age groups, for example, as it’s often presumed that these consumers are more likely to select a new brand. However, it’s important to keep in mind that the vast majority of the money is owned by older consumers. So many other companies have found great success promoting themselves to older consumers, including American Girl, a maker of children’s dolls, that realized that middle-aged aunts and mothers were the ones buying dolls for their seven-year-olds. By choosing to work to gain the approval of older consumers for a product intended for children, American Girl was able to sell its dolls for four times more than other doll companies could. Further, American Girl grew from a few million to a few hundred million dollars in sales at a time when the doll industry shrank by about 50 per cent.
Dove Body Wash for men has also been targeting older males having found what they believe to be an important, underserved niche market. They have met with initial success, but it’s still early to tell if it’s going to be long-term success. Keep in mind, however, that age groups are often not stable. Many companies that focused on this demographic have found that their target grew up on them causing their tastes to change. Further, shared experiences can only take a company so far. Not everyone protested against the war in the Sixties; only a handful of people became Goths in the Nineties, and only a small percentage of the population watches any given TV show now.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2009/sb20090612_217280.htm
Income
Although income might seem like an important target, some customers, after all, certainly can’t afford certain products. Luxury brands, however, have become a moving target according to Wharton:
“Today, it is much more difficult to conjure up a consistent picture of luxury living. People may live in expensive homes and drive luxury cars but purchase Evian water by the case at Costco and live with barely any furniture,” he said. "They might have two bean bag chairs, but they have the car.”
Yes, it is true that the point of targeting is to choose the people most likely to buy a product, and certainly people with higher incomes are seemingly more likely to buy expensive cars. In many cases other demographic or psychographic information will serve to refine a target better. Education, for example, often leads to greater support of the arts. An interest in fashion or image can lead people to purchase products that seem to be out of their price range. Still, because income is often quoted by the media in which you might place your ads, it can be useful for making traditional print and geographical decisions. After all, neighborhoods are often most easily divided by housing prices, and census data is based on income not interest.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1126
Geography
People in different areas are also more likely to know each other and are more likely to have shared opinions and experiences. Beyond this, where someone lives influences where they shop. So if you own a retail store, geographic targeting needs to be included in your marketing mix. How big this geographic region is depends on the type of store you have. Some restaurants can draw people for miles while a small corner store is likely only able to draw people from a few blocks.
If you don’t own a retail store but are planning to sell products to retail stores, geographic targeting is still important for you in selecting which stores to send salespeople and other promotional materials to. Sometimes such geographic selections are based on other demographic information within the target area but not always. For example, Seattle buys more books per person than nearly any other city does so publishers can take advantage of this by targeting Seattle stores over others. Kinko’s has used geography as one of its primary demographics--not based on who lived in the areas they located in, but what types of businesses were located in the area in order to target people who could afford and would need quick printing jobs.
Features of a Good Target
Easy to Reach
Your target needs to be easy for you to define and reach with your promotional efforts. You should be able to explain who your target market is, how many people are in your target market, and the best ways to market your products to them on a single page. If you can’t do that, then you need to better refine your target market.
Responsive
Some people hate to be advertised to; they dislike the types of promotions you can afford to do, etc. Unless you have found some other way to reach out to these people, you shouldn’t include them in your target market. You should look for people who are most likely to respond to your ads, which is why I created “Wiki Targeting” as a means of discovering who is most likely to respond to your promotional method.
Semi-Permanent
Many target demographics come and go. Flappers, for example, helped to define the early part of the 20th century, yet within a few years after 1930 they had all but disappeared. Today, hipsters are beginning to grow away from their temporary culture and, as a result, companies which catered to them, such as American Apparel, are losing money and in danger of losing relevance altogether. It’s important that you pick a target that will be around for a while or that you be prepared when that target changes.
Financial Evaluation
Some of the greatest ideas have seemed financially infeasible or have had no basis with which to evaluate their viability. At the same time, however, many seemingly great ideas have failed when a simple evaluation would have let their founders know that they needed to come up with additional concepts and change strategies to make the business work. This is what makes evaluation tricky because, on the one hand, over-evaluation can kill great ideas while, on the other hand, a lack of evaluation can allow you to think that a bad idea is great. My experience, however, has been that businesses tend to under-evaluate. Indeed, out of the dozens of businesses I have been involved with, none have over-evaluated. I have just heard of this danger. General evaluation doesn’t have to be a complex task. Basic wiki targeting and a review of general census data can give a business a pretty good idea of how things will work.
There are three things you need to determine in a financial evaluation:
1 ) The number of members in your market.
I cannot emphasize the importance of this enough especially for niche retailers. I remember the case of one business which failed to do this. The business was designed to serve upper, middle-class parents in an up-and-coming neighborhood. Everyone seemed to think that their opening was a good move and their business model was sound. They received loans, grants, and other forms of support. Yet they didn’t remain open for a full year because their neighborhood only had a few hundred upper, middle-class parents which made it impossible for them to survive.
Never assume there are enough people to support your business. You should always at lease see how many people there are of a given interest or population. You can check populations of an area using census data and interest by checking Facebook’s ad service to see how many fans there are of a service or Google’s Keyword Tool to see how many people are searching for a service. While neither of these gives perfect estimates, they are useful for evaluating general interest and the ease with which you can advertise to those with a general interest.
2) Spending habits of the market.
It’s important to know how much money people are likely to spend on your products in a given year. Census data usually provides some fairly good information on average household spending. In addition, you can look at various industry sizes and divide these by the population to learn what an average person spends on something. Finally, surveys are a good way of learning about a specific market. Of course, for many new innovations, such as new products or the development of new target markets, there is no way to know for certain what people will spend on them. In such cases you really do have to take a chance.
3) Who your competition is in a market.
Who you’re competing against and what their strategies are will alter your strategy. You need to evaluate how many of your customers your competitors are likely to be able to keep when you enter the market.
4) Cost to serve.
Whether because of their media preferences which require you to spend more on marketing costs or because of their expectations, some targets cost a lot more to serve than others. You need to determine what it will cost to serve any one group so that you can subtract that from your expected earnings.
Caution--Too much evaluation will cause you to miss important factors. I don’t think you should be excessive in determining the value of any niche. I have just seen too many businesses that opened children’s boutiques in neighborhoods which had young college students, so no one had kids, or made similar mistakes. It’s important that there at least appears to be enough people in your target for you to earn money.
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Psychographic Information
Psychographics are true emotionally based targeting methods based on peoples’ actual thinking which are made up of; the lifestyle choices people make, what a person values, and how they feel about the world or different subjects. In the modern world, psychographics are rapidly becoming the most important targeting method both because they are based on the emotional choices people make and because they dominate Internet marketing. After all, search ads, SEO, website content, Facebook content, and more are all based on your targets interests as are blogs, and many websites you can advertise on. When buying ad space from a network like Google or Facebook, you gain an advantage by knowing what types of websites your customers will commonly visit as well as what types of ads they are likely to respond to.
When developing psychographic categories, it’s important to consider more than just the obvious as some of the best psychographic categories your customers fall into may not be obvious. For example, an organic produce company might be able to attract a lot of customers interested in biking, or who are interested in French Cooking, certain politicians, etc. By discovering these less obvious psychographics, you not only improve your reach but gain an advantage over competitors who might be all competing for the same marketing space.
Culture
Shared attitudes are what define a culture, not racial or geographic demographics as many might think. Although these things can indicate which culture a person is likely to have chosen in the modern world, I would argue that culture is about the choices people make. So while some people have these values instilled in them and are likely to share them with others of a similar demographic, it is important to keep in mind that the boy who grew up in the Midwest and chose to become a “hipster” is more likely to buy the same types of clothing as a “hipster” from New York than he is to buy the clothing that the “cowboy” he grew up next door to or who even happens to be his brother. This doesn’t mean, of course, that you should ignore the Irish culture or the Midwest culture. It just means that you should be aware that we live in an extremely diverse world. So it could be argued that even when values are instilled, they must ultimately be chosen. After all, when people leave home to go to school everyday, they are thrust into a plethora of other cultures and must choose which of these to fit in with. Later, these people will leave home altogether and will only have the direction of peers which will likely come from a number of cultural groups.
Value Systems
People’s value systems strongly define what they respond to in promotions as well as their purchasing habits. A few of the values marketers often target include; trend setter, family, friends, social acceptance, and social responsibility. There are, of course, many other values. Depending on what you’re selling, knowing your customers’ values can give you an important edge over your competition.
What makes values tricky are that people often stereotype values based on their own values. They presume that people who care about the same things as they do will care about the products they’re selling. Because of this, these business owners select their target based on their own values. Remember that you’re unique so you’re not necessarily your target audience. After all, only a small percentage of the population runs a business, which means that those who do are not like the average person. There are many companies who have used value-based targeting for a good effect by finding an underserved set of customers, or by actually researching the values of their target market.
Fox News, for example, realized that many with conservative values felt that they were being ostracized by other media sources. So by developing a product for them, they were able to attract a large audience base. Wal-Mart understands that its core customers hold strong family values so it refuses to sell certain products that don’t live up to these values. As with everything else, it’s important to research the interests of those who hold certain values rather than just assume what they are.
Hobbies and Goals
The Internet is quickly becoming divided based on peoples’ hobbies and interests. People search for sites based on keywords; they read articles based on their interests rather than based on the site where it’s located; they list their hobbies on Facebook; they tweet what they are doing, and they get apps that help them do very specific things. So while hobbies may not define people more than they did in the past, it is far easier to reach people with specific hobbies. In fact, at times this is the only real way to reach certain people. Add to this the fact that brands based on empowerment are entirely about empowering people to engage in certain interests or hobbies, and you have what can be the most powerful psychograph.
The challenge with hobbies is that these can be more fractured and harder to pinpoint than other targeting information. For companies like Nike, which were made to appeal to a specific group, this can be obvious. Mountain Dew has also managed to target people based on their hobbies; going after those interested in computer games and alternative sports. For many other companies, however, hobbies can remain elusive. Other than an interest in the arts, for example, what interests might a frequent ballet goer have? In a large part, hobbies are also useful as a frame of reference extension. To this end, Nature Valley, an energy/granola bar, had a series of ads to get hikers and bikers to use them as their quick bite to eat on the trip. Various arts organizations have worked to become a dating stop for couples going out on the town. By targeting hobbies, a company can become the product of choice for a given situation, allowing them to expand their sales into new areas. Further, selecting a hobby to market to makes it easier for a company to run public relations campaigns by donating to or hosting events related to that hobby. A company that discovers those interested in crafts are likely to buy from them, for example, could host crafting events, have a craft-based contest, and more as a way to attract customers.
Media Preferences
Media preferences can serve two important goals: first, targeting based on media preference can help a company to choose where to place their ads; second, media preferences can help a company choose how to frame the message of their promotions. This goes deeper than simply trying to place ads in a magazine or showing which targets consumers, people who are interested in something, are likely to watch YouTube clips paying homage to it. They are likely to mention it in a tweet on their Facebook page, etc., which means that you can target customers based on the name of the show they like. Further, bloggers can be targeted for press releases and contests based on their interest in something that cues you that they might be interested in your product.
Beyond simple targeting, having a target audience with specific media preferences allows a company to create better designed ads and copy. People who like a movie such as “Star Wars” have a shared experience and will respond to certain aspects of an ad better than others. Those who read a specific magazine clearly respond well to design elements within that magazine allowing a company to better adjust their own design guidelines. As with all psychographics, media preference has been growing and will likely continue to grow in importance both because it is easier now to target people based on preference but also because this psychographic is based on peoples’ personal choices.
When developing psychographic categories, it’s important to consider more than just the obvious as some of the best psychographic categories your customers fall into may not be obvious. For example, an organic produce company might be able to attract a lot of customers interested in biking, or who are interested in French Cooking, certain politicians, etc. By discovering these less obvious psychographics, you not only improve your reach but gain an advantage over competitors who might be all competing for the same marketing space.
Culture
Shared attitudes are what define a culture, not racial or geographic demographics as many might think. Although these things can indicate which culture a person is likely to have chosen in the modern world, I would argue that culture is about the choices people make. So while some people have these values instilled in them and are likely to share them with others of a similar demographic, it is important to keep in mind that the boy who grew up in the Midwest and chose to become a “hipster” is more likely to buy the same types of clothing as a “hipster” from New York than he is to buy the clothing that the “cowboy” he grew up next door to or who even happens to be his brother. This doesn’t mean, of course, that you should ignore the Irish culture or the Midwest culture. It just means that you should be aware that we live in an extremely diverse world. So it could be argued that even when values are instilled, they must ultimately be chosen. After all, when people leave home to go to school everyday, they are thrust into a plethora of other cultures and must choose which of these to fit in with. Later, these people will leave home altogether and will only have the direction of peers which will likely come from a number of cultural groups.
Value Systems
People’s value systems strongly define what they respond to in promotions as well as their purchasing habits. A few of the values marketers often target include; trend setter, family, friends, social acceptance, and social responsibility. There are, of course, many other values. Depending on what you’re selling, knowing your customers’ values can give you an important edge over your competition.
What makes values tricky are that people often stereotype values based on their own values. They presume that people who care about the same things as they do will care about the products they’re selling. Because of this, these business owners select their target based on their own values. Remember that you’re unique so you’re not necessarily your target audience. After all, only a small percentage of the population runs a business, which means that those who do are not like the average person. There are many companies who have used value-based targeting for a good effect by finding an underserved set of customers, or by actually researching the values of their target market.
Fox News, for example, realized that many with conservative values felt that they were being ostracized by other media sources. So by developing a product for them, they were able to attract a large audience base. Wal-Mart understands that its core customers hold strong family values so it refuses to sell certain products that don’t live up to these values. As with everything else, it’s important to research the interests of those who hold certain values rather than just assume what they are.
Hobbies and Goals
The Internet is quickly becoming divided based on peoples’ hobbies and interests. People search for sites based on keywords; they read articles based on their interests rather than based on the site where it’s located; they list their hobbies on Facebook; they tweet what they are doing, and they get apps that help them do very specific things. So while hobbies may not define people more than they did in the past, it is far easier to reach people with specific hobbies. In fact, at times this is the only real way to reach certain people. Add to this the fact that brands based on empowerment are entirely about empowering people to engage in certain interests or hobbies, and you have what can be the most powerful psychograph.
The challenge with hobbies is that these can be more fractured and harder to pinpoint than other targeting information. For companies like Nike, which were made to appeal to a specific group, this can be obvious. Mountain Dew has also managed to target people based on their hobbies; going after those interested in computer games and alternative sports. For many other companies, however, hobbies can remain elusive. Other than an interest in the arts, for example, what interests might a frequent ballet goer have? In a large part, hobbies are also useful as a frame of reference extension. To this end, Nature Valley, an energy/granola bar, had a series of ads to get hikers and bikers to use them as their quick bite to eat on the trip. Various arts organizations have worked to become a dating stop for couples going out on the town. By targeting hobbies, a company can become the product of choice for a given situation, allowing them to expand their sales into new areas. Further, selecting a hobby to market to makes it easier for a company to run public relations campaigns by donating to or hosting events related to that hobby. A company that discovers those interested in crafts are likely to buy from them, for example, could host crafting events, have a craft-based contest, and more as a way to attract customers.
Media Preferences
Media preferences can serve two important goals: first, targeting based on media preference can help a company to choose where to place their ads; second, media preferences can help a company choose how to frame the message of their promotions. This goes deeper than simply trying to place ads in a magazine or showing which targets consumers, people who are interested in something, are likely to watch YouTube clips paying homage to it. They are likely to mention it in a tweet on their Facebook page, etc., which means that you can target customers based on the name of the show they like. Further, bloggers can be targeted for press releases and contests based on their interest in something that cues you that they might be interested in your product.
Beyond simple targeting, having a target audience with specific media preferences allows a company to create better designed ads and copy. People who like a movie such as “Star Wars” have a shared experience and will respond to certain aspects of an ad better than others. Those who read a specific magazine clearly respond well to design elements within that magazine allowing a company to better adjust their own design guidelines. As with all psychographics, media preference has been growing and will likely continue to grow in importance both because it is easier now to target people based on preference but also because this psychographic is based on peoples’ personal choices.
Selecting a Target
For many, working to discover target markets seems to be the most boring part of marketing. I would argue, however, that some of the greatest innovations in business involve the discovery of new ways to reach a unique set of target markets. This is because targeting cannot be an emotionless exercise of statistics. The purpose of statistics is to help understand the emotions of the majorities and underserved niche markets. So anything done with this information has to be emotional. Targeting is about looking for people to build a relationship with. It’s about appealing to people, about creating a positive reaction among those who are most likely to purchase your products.
We target specific sets of people because emotions are a very personal thing. It is, therefore, almost impossible to spur strong emotions in every person in the world with the same message and product. This is where targeting comes it. Targeting is the process of reaching out to those your message and product are most likely to appeal to emotionally.
Far too many small businesses become overly concerned about leaving out a few customers and try to take a broad approach to their marketing. What they need to understand is that targeting isn’t about excluding potential customers. It’s about finding the best way to include those customers most likely to make your business money. There is a common saying in business that 80 per cent of your revenue comes from just 20 per cent of the population. While this exact figure isn’t set in stone, it is true that almost all of your money and, hence, the vast majority of your profits will come from just a few customers.
Indeed, there are many cases where a business has a number of customers who contribute so little revenue that the business actually loses money serving them. Some only do so in order to avoid looking bad. Further, it’s impossible for you to reach every potential customer through your marketing efforts. As an example, Target, the second-largest retailer in the U.S., spends billions on marketing in the form of product selection, promotions, pricing, location selection, etc. Yet they only sell a little more than $200 worth of products per person in this country. Given that TV’s, computers and groceries for a month cost more than that, we have to presume that this means that most people are not shopping at Target despite the billions of dollars they spend on attracting customers. It’s important then to focus ad dollars on the customers most likely to buy your products rather than trying to reach as many customers as possible.
Indeed, the vast majority of your promotional and strategic decisions should be made on the basis of your target market rather than on the opinions of anyone else. Mckee in an article for “Business Week” gives the following example:
Years ago, one of the home pregnancy test brands created an award-winning advertising campaign that was particularly successful at reaching its childbearing-age female prospects. Due to the nature of the ads, the company received a handful of complaints from older women who thought they were in bad taste. Its response? Press on. It wasn't that the company didn't care about the complaints; it simply recognized that older women were not the target audience for a pregnancy test, and it should therefore not be overly concerned about what they thought about the ads.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2009/sb20090612_217280.htm
In other words, the company continued to embrace an ad model that made some people upset because, in truth, what should matter to a company are their core customers, and people have such variable tastes that anything a company does that one group finds funny or important another will grow angry at. Consider, for example, the case of Wal-Mart as they began to center their strategy around pleasing high-end consumers, they began to lose their existing customer base, and their same store sales started to slump. Their decisions had nothing to do with advertising, which remained generally the same. Rather, they had to do with like factors and pricing. Any businesses must center on selling to their customers; thus any strategy which detracts from this goal will fail.
Who you choose to target depends as much on your brand as your brand depends on your target. You shouldn’t develop one without developing the other. (The exception is artists and those using wiki targeting who create a certain product and brand around their art and so must discover their target.)
In order to select a target market, you must understand three things; first, who is using a product or service like yours and why are they using it? Which of these people is happy and unhappy with the service they are receiving from your competitors? Finally, which of these people are you best able to serve?
A good target market, then, are those not being served by your competition as well as you could serve them and are preferably dissatisfied with the service being given to them by the competition. Remember that this quality of service comes from the fulfillment of emotional needs rather than the fulfillment of physical needs. This is why there can be so many restaurants in an area because people often seek some variety in the food market and so will go to multiple restaurants within the course of a year.
We target specific sets of people because emotions are a very personal thing. It is, therefore, almost impossible to spur strong emotions in every person in the world with the same message and product. This is where targeting comes it. Targeting is the process of reaching out to those your message and product are most likely to appeal to emotionally.
Far too many small businesses become overly concerned about leaving out a few customers and try to take a broad approach to their marketing. What they need to understand is that targeting isn’t about excluding potential customers. It’s about finding the best way to include those customers most likely to make your business money. There is a common saying in business that 80 per cent of your revenue comes from just 20 per cent of the population. While this exact figure isn’t set in stone, it is true that almost all of your money and, hence, the vast majority of your profits will come from just a few customers.
Indeed, there are many cases where a business has a number of customers who contribute so little revenue that the business actually loses money serving them. Some only do so in order to avoid looking bad. Further, it’s impossible for you to reach every potential customer through your marketing efforts. As an example, Target, the second-largest retailer in the U.S., spends billions on marketing in the form of product selection, promotions, pricing, location selection, etc. Yet they only sell a little more than $200 worth of products per person in this country. Given that TV’s, computers and groceries for a month cost more than that, we have to presume that this means that most people are not shopping at Target despite the billions of dollars they spend on attracting customers. It’s important then to focus ad dollars on the customers most likely to buy your products rather than trying to reach as many customers as possible.
Indeed, the vast majority of your promotional and strategic decisions should be made on the basis of your target market rather than on the opinions of anyone else. Mckee in an article for “Business Week” gives the following example:
Years ago, one of the home pregnancy test brands created an award-winning advertising campaign that was particularly successful at reaching its childbearing-age female prospects. Due to the nature of the ads, the company received a handful of complaints from older women who thought they were in bad taste. Its response? Press on. It wasn't that the company didn't care about the complaints; it simply recognized that older women were not the target audience for a pregnancy test, and it should therefore not be overly concerned about what they thought about the ads.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2009/sb20090612_217280.htm
In other words, the company continued to embrace an ad model that made some people upset because, in truth, what should matter to a company are their core customers, and people have such variable tastes that anything a company does that one group finds funny or important another will grow angry at. Consider, for example, the case of Wal-Mart as they began to center their strategy around pleasing high-end consumers, they began to lose their existing customer base, and their same store sales started to slump. Their decisions had nothing to do with advertising, which remained generally the same. Rather, they had to do with like factors and pricing. Any businesses must center on selling to their customers; thus any strategy which detracts from this goal will fail.
Who you choose to target depends as much on your brand as your brand depends on your target. You shouldn’t develop one without developing the other. (The exception is artists and those using wiki targeting who create a certain product and brand around their art and so must discover their target.)
In order to select a target market, you must understand three things; first, who is using a product or service like yours and why are they using it? Which of these people is happy and unhappy with the service they are receiving from your competitors? Finally, which of these people are you best able to serve?
A good target market, then, are those not being served by your competition as well as you could serve them and are preferably dissatisfied with the service being given to them by the competition. Remember that this quality of service comes from the fulfillment of emotional needs rather than the fulfillment of physical needs. This is why there can be so many restaurants in an area because people often seek some variety in the food market and so will go to multiple restaurants within the course of a year.
Provide Support for Your Brand
You support your brand by giving reasons why you can claim to provide the benefits to people that you do. Axe beauty products claim they help men attract women because they help to make them smell the way women want and by helping to make them look attractive. Wal-Mart is family oriented because they refuse to sell certain movies and music, and they also provide affordable, family products. As you can see, in many cases brand support isn’t necessarily something that makes you better or even different from your competition. Still, for many companies, certifications, the awards that they’ve won, that their products are natural, or press they’ve received are important parts of their brand.
It’s important to understand, however, that as important as these things might be, your brand is not the awards you’ve won or that your products are all natural or organic. A natural food store isn’t selling organic food. Its selling high-quality, healthy food, aka food that’s high-quality and healthy because it’s organic and natural. If you’ve won an award for your cupcakes, you’re not selling cupcakes. You’re selling super-tasty, high- quality treats that will make people happy which have won major awards for doing so. The goal of brand support isn’t to act as a benefit but to help prod people towards thinking about your benefits while also helping to support your claims.
As an example, while Kashi, an all-natural food company which makes energy bars and cookies from whole grains does state that they are “Seven whole grains on a mission,” they do so in support of activities that are fun or that show that they taste great. Kashi’s ads show people having adventures in exotic locations, little kids sneaking cookies out of cookie jars, etc. People eat Kashi because it helps make them healthier and gives them energy to do the things they want to do, and it tastes great. It does all these things because it’s made of whole grains.
Cheerios has a similar approach except, rather than young people on adventures, they show older people having fun with their grandkids, painting pictures, etc. The message being that Cheerios helps its customers do what they love to do for longer because it’s good for their heart. In both of these cases, the message is that the food helps to empower the person who eats it and helps them live better. It does this because it’s healthy.
Apple used brand support in a very unique way and was able to make itself young and hip while also working to make Microsoft appear stodgy in comparison. This is surprising in a way, after all, because Microsoft is the maker of computer games, Xbox, open technology systems that allow people to use flash games, indie cartoons, and more computer games then you can shake a stick at on their machine, while Apple seeks to make life difficult for these creative media. Apple was able to pull off its creative brand by mentioning reviews in just the right way, highlighting its creative software while highlighting poor reviews of Microsoft in a humorous way.
It’s important to understand, however, that as important as these things might be, your brand is not the awards you’ve won or that your products are all natural or organic. A natural food store isn’t selling organic food. Its selling high-quality, healthy food, aka food that’s high-quality and healthy because it’s organic and natural. If you’ve won an award for your cupcakes, you’re not selling cupcakes. You’re selling super-tasty, high- quality treats that will make people happy which have won major awards for doing so. The goal of brand support isn’t to act as a benefit but to help prod people towards thinking about your benefits while also helping to support your claims.
As an example, while Kashi, an all-natural food company which makes energy bars and cookies from whole grains does state that they are “Seven whole grains on a mission,” they do so in support of activities that are fun or that show that they taste great. Kashi’s ads show people having adventures in exotic locations, little kids sneaking cookies out of cookie jars, etc. People eat Kashi because it helps make them healthier and gives them energy to do the things they want to do, and it tastes great. It does all these things because it’s made of whole grains.
Cheerios has a similar approach except, rather than young people on adventures, they show older people having fun with their grandkids, painting pictures, etc. The message being that Cheerios helps its customers do what they love to do for longer because it’s good for their heart. In both of these cases, the message is that the food helps to empower the person who eats it and helps them live better. It does this because it’s healthy.
Apple used brand support in a very unique way and was able to make itself young and hip while also working to make Microsoft appear stodgy in comparison. This is surprising in a way, after all, because Microsoft is the maker of computer games, Xbox, open technology systems that allow people to use flash games, indie cartoons, and more computer games then you can shake a stick at on their machine, while Apple seeks to make life difficult for these creative media. Apple was able to pull off its creative brand by mentioning reviews in just the right way, highlighting its creative software while highlighting poor reviews of Microsoft in a humorous way.
Give Your Brand Some Personality
People respond to each other and become friends with each other in a large part based on personalities. Personality is so important to people’s emotional well-being and so built into our psyche that humans see personifications in everything from animals to objects. So at some point people will personify your business. The personality they give to your company will be far more positive if you work to develop something positive. Just as important, a set of personalities assigned to your business will make it far easier for you to write copy, develop ads, and make other decisions because you won’t be working with a blank slate. Further, the effectiveness of these promotions will be enhanced because they will all work together.
When developing a personality set for your business, there are two important things to keep in mind: first, your company isn’t necessarily you. It is tempting to assign your personality to your company, and it seems like it would be easier. However, it’s important to bear in mind that people are buying into the company. So you must consider how many people would buy into you. Even where a company’s personality chooses to defy expectations, it must match your customer’s needs. Second, the personalities of companies are never as complex as those of humans. Companies’ personalities are more like arch types or fairy tale heroes. They shouldn’t be overly involved or have layers that surprise people.
A brand needs to be something which people can easily befriend. I choose the word “befriend” because people feel something akin to friendship with the most powerful brands. Gucci, Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, Tiffany’s, and Disney are all examples of brands that people have built a relationship with.
Examples of Company Personalities:
Three of the largest technology companies (Apple, IBM, and Intel) have each developed powerful brands in very different ways:
Apple is-Stylish, imaginative, creative.
Steve Jobs’ genius has been to realize that a technology company sells what are, in essence, accessories and/or major pieces of decor within the home, and people will pay more for something stylish. So by choosing to focus its efforts on making its computers and other products more stylish, it has managed to boost not only its sales numbers but the price of many of its products. With its uniquely beautiful user interface design, many of Apple’s ads closely resemble those you would expect from a fashion company. Over time they have also shifted much of their focus away from technology to music and entertainment. Indeed, they made a big fanfare over taking the technology out of their name to reflect their more creative focus.
IBM is-Reliable, knowledgeable, optimistic, brilliant.
When many people think of a company that is truly brilliant and knowledgeable, they think of IBM, a company that has reinvented itself many times to remain one of the most cutting-edge companies for over a century. IBM’s brilliance comes in a large part from its ability to showcase its new problem-solving technologies. When it creates supercomputers like Watson, it doesn’t just set out to sell them to hospitals to help doctors answer questions. It puts them on TV, pitting their computers against humans, showing that they are on the cutting edge in a bold way. IBM’s goal of “Building a smarter planet” shows not only its focus on brilliance and knowledge but how completely optimistic it is. It is working, after all, to make the world a better place in everything from alternative energy to safety and medical care.
Intel is-Fun-loving, creative, innovative.
For the past few years, Intel has been successfully reshaping its image by creating ads that feature it not only as creative and innovative, as one would expect from a technology company, but also as fun-loving. With ads featuring “employees” acting like silly fans of inventors interacting with robots, or making the cartoon character Homer Simpson into a genius they have improved their success.
When developing a personality set for your business, there are two important things to keep in mind: first, your company isn’t necessarily you. It is tempting to assign your personality to your company, and it seems like it would be easier. However, it’s important to bear in mind that people are buying into the company. So you must consider how many people would buy into you. Even where a company’s personality chooses to defy expectations, it must match your customer’s needs. Second, the personalities of companies are never as complex as those of humans. Companies’ personalities are more like arch types or fairy tale heroes. They shouldn’t be overly involved or have layers that surprise people.
A brand needs to be something which people can easily befriend. I choose the word “befriend” because people feel something akin to friendship with the most powerful brands. Gucci, Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, Tiffany’s, and Disney are all examples of brands that people have built a relationship with.
Examples of Company Personalities:
Three of the largest technology companies (Apple, IBM, and Intel) have each developed powerful brands in very different ways:
Apple is-Stylish, imaginative, creative.
Steve Jobs’ genius has been to realize that a technology company sells what are, in essence, accessories and/or major pieces of decor within the home, and people will pay more for something stylish. So by choosing to focus its efforts on making its computers and other products more stylish, it has managed to boost not only its sales numbers but the price of many of its products. With its uniquely beautiful user interface design, many of Apple’s ads closely resemble those you would expect from a fashion company. Over time they have also shifted much of their focus away from technology to music and entertainment. Indeed, they made a big fanfare over taking the technology out of their name to reflect their more creative focus.
IBM is-Reliable, knowledgeable, optimistic, brilliant.
When many people think of a company that is truly brilliant and knowledgeable, they think of IBM, a company that has reinvented itself many times to remain one of the most cutting-edge companies for over a century. IBM’s brilliance comes in a large part from its ability to showcase its new problem-solving technologies. When it creates supercomputers like Watson, it doesn’t just set out to sell them to hospitals to help doctors answer questions. It puts them on TV, pitting their computers against humans, showing that they are on the cutting edge in a bold way. IBM’s goal of “Building a smarter planet” shows not only its focus on brilliance and knowledge but how completely optimistic it is. It is working, after all, to make the world a better place in everything from alternative energy to safety and medical care.
Intel is-Fun-loving, creative, innovative.
For the past few years, Intel has been successfully reshaping its image by creating ads that feature it not only as creative and innovative, as one would expect from a technology company, but also as fun-loving. With ads featuring “employees” acting like silly fans of inventors interacting with robots, or making the cartoon character Homer Simpson into a genius they have improved their success.
Brands Frame of Reference
One of the most powerful ways of getting people to think about your product is to build a frame of reference into your branding efforts. A frame of reference is the way people use your product, the times and circumstances therein when they do use it. Snickers uses this consistently in their advertising; showing eating Snickers as a way to stave of hunger quickly and pass time while positioning itself with funny ads showing people in need of a quick pick-me-up. Effective frame-of-reference marketing is what has allowed Snickers to position itself as the second, best-selling candy bar.
Godiva, another candy, has positioned itself very differently by creating promotional campaigns, price points, and packaging which makes it the candy for special occasions. This in turn allows it to charge a lot more than most candies do for its product while avoiding direct competition with giants like Snickers and M & M’s. The danger of using frame of reference is that your product will become limited in its functionality, reducing the number of times that people will buy it. After all, if people only purchase a product during specific times, then you have a shorter selling window to get them to make a purchase.
Sometimes you don’t have a choice however, after all, if your brand isn’t what you want it to be. It’s what your customers think of it. Oreo found itself trapped in a frame of reference that limited its sales to either special, indulgent moments or picnic-type settings. In order to combat this and increase its sales, it created snack packs in order to encourage people to buy it for their kids’ lunches or on the go in much the same way they might purchase any candy bar. When developing a frame of reference, you need to carefully consider your target audience to determine what it is that they are doing when they use your product or a product similar to it. After all, if Oreo was stuck on what people normally did with cookies, they might not have created snack packs. Instead, you must also consider what it is your target wants to achieve so that you can find possible ways of expanding the ways in which they will use your product.
Godiva, another candy, has positioned itself very differently by creating promotional campaigns, price points, and packaging which makes it the candy for special occasions. This in turn allows it to charge a lot more than most candies do for its product while avoiding direct competition with giants like Snickers and M & M’s. The danger of using frame of reference is that your product will become limited in its functionality, reducing the number of times that people will buy it. After all, if people only purchase a product during specific times, then you have a shorter selling window to get them to make a purchase.
Sometimes you don’t have a choice however, after all, if your brand isn’t what you want it to be. It’s what your customers think of it. Oreo found itself trapped in a frame of reference that limited its sales to either special, indulgent moments or picnic-type settings. In order to combat this and increase its sales, it created snack packs in order to encourage people to buy it for their kids’ lunches or on the go in much the same way they might purchase any candy bar. When developing a frame of reference, you need to carefully consider your target audience to determine what it is that they are doing when they use your product or a product similar to it. After all, if Oreo was stuck on what people normally did with cookies, they might not have created snack packs. Instead, you must also consider what it is your target wants to achieve so that you can find possible ways of expanding the ways in which they will use your product.
Branding Sub-Benefits
Sub-benefits are used in order to explain how your company is able to provide the emotional benefits it provides. Sub-benefits don’t fill the role of providing actual evidence for your company’s claims, however. Instead, these are emotionally charged statements. For Coke, its primary sub-benefit is that it’s the original cola “The Real Thing,” and is the most common soda. These things in turn help Coke position itself as the soda which provides happiness to the people who drink it.
The second purpose of sub-benefits is to help refine and differentiate two companies from each other. What becomes apparent when reviewing the list of possible good, emotional benefits is that there are a limited number of them, which means that many companies appear to have the same overarching benefits. Developing effective sub-benefits is how these companies differentiate from each other. The two largest department stores, for example, Wal-Mart and Target, both work to improve people’s lives, yet they are completely different companies. Wal-Mart works to improve people’s lives by helping them save money so that they can get more of the things they want. In addition, Wal-Mart works hard to adhere to a strict standard of family values, refusing to sell products such as computer games or movies which they feel violate this. Target, on the other hand, chooses to make people’s lives better by allowing them to save money on more stylish items. Because of this, Target costs a bit more then Wal-Mart but is presumably more likely to have the things that fashion-conscious customers want to buy in the first place. Target focuses its efforts on being socially conscious in a more fashionable way. It refuses to sell guns, for example, as a means of appealing to its customer base.
Certainly it’s true that Wal-Mart tried to imitate this form of social consciousness by making its suppliers use environmentally conscious packaging, selling organic products, etc. However, as it began to do this, it started to lose customers in same store sales. Wal-Mart’s primary customer base cared less about these things than they did about saving money. So as focusing on reducing the cost of social stewardship raised costs at Wal-Mart, their sales decreased. On the seemingly opposite end of the spectrum from Wal-Mart and Target, De Beers claims to make people’s lives better by making them feel nostalgic (creating memories), helping to build and symbolize love, and by lasting forever.
What we see, then, is that while these three companies (Target, Wal-Mart, and
De Beers) all have the same overarching brand, they prove that brand emotionally in very different ways allowing them to have different price points and different customers.
The second purpose of sub-benefits is to help refine and differentiate two companies from each other. What becomes apparent when reviewing the list of possible good, emotional benefits is that there are a limited number of them, which means that many companies appear to have the same overarching benefits. Developing effective sub-benefits is how these companies differentiate from each other. The two largest department stores, for example, Wal-Mart and Target, both work to improve people’s lives, yet they are completely different companies. Wal-Mart works to improve people’s lives by helping them save money so that they can get more of the things they want. In addition, Wal-Mart works hard to adhere to a strict standard of family values, refusing to sell products such as computer games or movies which they feel violate this. Target, on the other hand, chooses to make people’s lives better by allowing them to save money on more stylish items. Because of this, Target costs a bit more then Wal-Mart but is presumably more likely to have the things that fashion-conscious customers want to buy in the first place. Target focuses its efforts on being socially conscious in a more fashionable way. It refuses to sell guns, for example, as a means of appealing to its customer base.
Certainly it’s true that Wal-Mart tried to imitate this form of social consciousness by making its suppliers use environmentally conscious packaging, selling organic products, etc. However, as it began to do this, it started to lose customers in same store sales. Wal-Mart’s primary customer base cared less about these things than they did about saving money. So as focusing on reducing the cost of social stewardship raised costs at Wal-Mart, their sales decreased. On the seemingly opposite end of the spectrum from Wal-Mart and Target, De Beers claims to make people’s lives better by making them feel nostalgic (creating memories), helping to build and symbolize love, and by lasting forever.
What we see, then, is that while these three companies (Target, Wal-Mart, and
De Beers) all have the same overarching brand, they prove that brand emotionally in very different ways allowing them to have different price points and different customers.
Benefits are the Key to a Brand
Developing Your Brand
People do not buy products; they buy benefits or, more specifically, they buy emotions. So they’ll only buy from you if they believe that doing so is going to benefit them in some way. After all, there are oftentimes dozens, even hundreds of alternative products a customer could buy which do basically the same thing as your company does. In order to convince customers to buy your product, you must convince them that your product can fulfill their needs better than any other which requires you to connect with them on an emotional level.
It’s important to keep in mind when developing a brand that who you are or your company’s accomplishments are only of secondary importance and the only evidence that you can use to prove you actually provide customers the benefits you claim. If you provide real benefits, customers have and will forgive just about anything. Consider Wal-Mart’s case, for example. Even as millions of people claim to despise their business practices, they still became the largest retailer, indeed the largest business in the world, based on their brand of saving money and helping people “live better.” Again, your actions and the benefits your company provides people are based not on what the majority of people want; it’s based on what your customers want.
Overarching Benefits
The most successful companies provide customers with a powerful, easy-to-understand benefit which may not directly come out of their product but which the company is able to connect to it. Think about Coke, for example. Coke claims to provide its customers with happiness with its slogan “Open Happiness” and its promotional efforts. In this way, Coke has positioned itself as more than just another soda. It’s positioned itself as something that makes people happy. Its message is easy to communicate and resonates powerfully with nearly everyone in a memorable way.
Like Coke’s benefit, successful benefits work on a very basic, emotional idea which can be stated quickly and easily in just a few words. Further, these emotional benefits have a powerful impact on people so that, just as with any of their needs and desires, the product becomes a part of their lives. While there are many possible benefits your brand can provide, three emotional benefits which have proven hugely successful are: providing happiness, making life better for people, and empowering people. Because of the success of these emotional benefits in selling products for a number of companies, I would recommend starting the process of determining which emotional benefits your company offers to fulfill by trying a combination of the above three emotional benefits to determine how they would work with your company and product as well as how your customers would be likely to react to them.
As you work through the possible list of overarching benefits, it’s important to be creative. Remember, no matter what you’re selling, you can always come up with an emotional reason for people to buy it. Take tires, for example. At first glance, few products seem like they would be more basic, more generic, and boring. Michelin, however, has repeatedly shown how emotionally important tires are by having ads with images of babies riding through stormy weather on them; pointing out that everything you love is dependent on your tires not blowing out or slipping in the rain and snow.
Even if you have no real, natural benefit over your competitors, you can create one through proper branding. There is nothing inherent in the mixture of corn syrup and carbonated water that makes people happier when they drink Coke that their marketing and message didn’t create. Mountain Dew, a different, caffeinated beverage, positions itself as a leader in empowering people while Jones Soda positions itself as the fun soda. All these successful brands are not that different from each other in their ingredients, yet they develop loyal customers based in a large part on the brand and the relationship they build with their customers. Choosing the right overarching benefit is about choosing what you can achieve and what will set you apart from and above your competitors, not about the functional benefit your product may or may not actually provide.
People do not buy products; they buy benefits or, more specifically, they buy emotions. So they’ll only buy from you if they believe that doing so is going to benefit them in some way. After all, there are oftentimes dozens, even hundreds of alternative products a customer could buy which do basically the same thing as your company does. In order to convince customers to buy your product, you must convince them that your product can fulfill their needs better than any other which requires you to connect with them on an emotional level.
It’s important to keep in mind when developing a brand that who you are or your company’s accomplishments are only of secondary importance and the only evidence that you can use to prove you actually provide customers the benefits you claim. If you provide real benefits, customers have and will forgive just about anything. Consider Wal-Mart’s case, for example. Even as millions of people claim to despise their business practices, they still became the largest retailer, indeed the largest business in the world, based on their brand of saving money and helping people “live better.” Again, your actions and the benefits your company provides people are based not on what the majority of people want; it’s based on what your customers want.
Overarching Benefits
The most successful companies provide customers with a powerful, easy-to-understand benefit which may not directly come out of their product but which the company is able to connect to it. Think about Coke, for example. Coke claims to provide its customers with happiness with its slogan “Open Happiness” and its promotional efforts. In this way, Coke has positioned itself as more than just another soda. It’s positioned itself as something that makes people happy. Its message is easy to communicate and resonates powerfully with nearly everyone in a memorable way.
Like Coke’s benefit, successful benefits work on a very basic, emotional idea which can be stated quickly and easily in just a few words. Further, these emotional benefits have a powerful impact on people so that, just as with any of their needs and desires, the product becomes a part of their lives. While there are many possible benefits your brand can provide, three emotional benefits which have proven hugely successful are: providing happiness, making life better for people, and empowering people. Because of the success of these emotional benefits in selling products for a number of companies, I would recommend starting the process of determining which emotional benefits your company offers to fulfill by trying a combination of the above three emotional benefits to determine how they would work with your company and product as well as how your customers would be likely to react to them.
As you work through the possible list of overarching benefits, it’s important to be creative. Remember, no matter what you’re selling, you can always come up with an emotional reason for people to buy it. Take tires, for example. At first glance, few products seem like they would be more basic, more generic, and boring. Michelin, however, has repeatedly shown how emotionally important tires are by having ads with images of babies riding through stormy weather on them; pointing out that everything you love is dependent on your tires not blowing out or slipping in the rain and snow.
Even if you have no real, natural benefit over your competitors, you can create one through proper branding. There is nothing inherent in the mixture of corn syrup and carbonated water that makes people happier when they drink Coke that their marketing and message didn’t create. Mountain Dew, a different, caffeinated beverage, positions itself as a leader in empowering people while Jones Soda positions itself as the fun soda. All these successful brands are not that different from each other in their ingredients, yet they develop loyal customers based in a large part on the brand and the relationship they build with their customers. Choosing the right overarching benefit is about choosing what you can achieve and what will set you apart from and above your competitors, not about the functional benefit your product may or may not actually provide.
What are Brands and Branding
Branding
Brand and Target
Of all the things that help you determine strategy, a brand and a target audience are perhaps the most important. This medley is a statement about who your company relates with and how it does this.
What is a Brand?
A brand is what your customers think of your business; their belief of what a business provides for them, emotionally and functionally. In essence a good brand is the goal to strive for and drives much of your strategy. After all, a brand is what customers think of your company; the reason they buy from you. A good brand is your business’s greatest asset while a bad brand is its greatest detriment. Furthermore, there is no way your company can spurn branding. Customers automatically feel and think something about your company. Two or three decades ago some small businesses got away with ignoring what customers thought and felt. These companies made little or no effort to provide specific services and products which met customer needs. Due to exposure and demand that time has passed. Customers flock to businesses with the strongest brand, the primary reason why large companies dominate the market.
Furthermore, the Internet makes a world of products readily available to nearly every customer. More and more businesses compete with an ever-growing list of other business brands. Success mandates you guide customers towards your company, conduct their impression of your brand, and encourage them to keep your company in mind. Encouraging repeat customers is of the utmost importance.
Branding is not a burden. Knowing what you want your brand to be is the first step to more easily making decisions about your company. Business, as previously mentioned, is all about decisions: how to price your products, where to locate, what advertising methods to use, who to hire. At the center of all of these choices is your brand because your brand is your relationship with your customers, and every choice you make affects this.
What is Branding?
Branding is the conscious effort you make to guide people into thinking specific things about your company. This means, of course, that anything can become part of your branding efforts; from the prices you charge to the way you speak will all have an impact on what people think of your company. Branding can be split into two parts; what you do and what you say.
1) Actions speak louder than words or so the old saying goes. While this isn’t always true, it often turns out to be in the long term anyways. It’s important to incorporate your brand into your strategy in order to determine the tactics you’ll use and the people you’ll hire. Remember that your company’s brand, aka people’s good opinions of you, is based on their contact with your employees.
This also means, however, that the brand you work towards developing must be based on something which you can achieve. After all, if you are unable to fulfill the promises you make, people will figure it out, and it will ultimately hurt you if your branding efforts are centered around them. For example, retail businesses often claim to be focused on high quality while they are unable to afford to throw out bread that has gone a little stale. Having a quality brand means that people who truly care about quality will try this bread and then destroy your company’s reputation as they spread the word about their bad experience. On the other hand, if your brand is based on something other than quality, and it attracts people who are less likely to notice stale bread, this won’t be as damaging. Always consider what you can afford to do in your brand.
2) People judge each other and nearly everything else by the way it looks. We can all wish this wasn’t so, and we can speak philosophically about how it shouldn’t be, but in the end whether you get a customer or not depends on peoples’ first impression of your company. This makes what you say, how you dress up your company with store layouts, web designs, logo designs, ads, etc., an important part of making people think about your company in a positive way. For many businesses, in fact, this design becomes all that matters. Consider Morton Salt, for example. It sells well for a higher price than nearly any other basic table salt, yet its ingredients are pretty much the same. Further, it’s doubtful that very many if any of its customers know its history, how it treats employees, or anything else about them other than that they have an interesting package design with a little girl and an umbrella pouring salt in the rain.
Brand and Target
Of all the things that help you determine strategy, a brand and a target audience are perhaps the most important. This medley is a statement about who your company relates with and how it does this.
What is a Brand?
A brand is what your customers think of your business; their belief of what a business provides for them, emotionally and functionally. In essence a good brand is the goal to strive for and drives much of your strategy. After all, a brand is what customers think of your company; the reason they buy from you. A good brand is your business’s greatest asset while a bad brand is its greatest detriment. Furthermore, there is no way your company can spurn branding. Customers automatically feel and think something about your company. Two or three decades ago some small businesses got away with ignoring what customers thought and felt. These companies made little or no effort to provide specific services and products which met customer needs. Due to exposure and demand that time has passed. Customers flock to businesses with the strongest brand, the primary reason why large companies dominate the market.
Furthermore, the Internet makes a world of products readily available to nearly every customer. More and more businesses compete with an ever-growing list of other business brands. Success mandates you guide customers towards your company, conduct their impression of your brand, and encourage them to keep your company in mind. Encouraging repeat customers is of the utmost importance.
Branding is not a burden. Knowing what you want your brand to be is the first step to more easily making decisions about your company. Business, as previously mentioned, is all about decisions: how to price your products, where to locate, what advertising methods to use, who to hire. At the center of all of these choices is your brand because your brand is your relationship with your customers, and every choice you make affects this.
What is Branding?
Branding is the conscious effort you make to guide people into thinking specific things about your company. This means, of course, that anything can become part of your branding efforts; from the prices you charge to the way you speak will all have an impact on what people think of your company. Branding can be split into two parts; what you do and what you say.
1) Actions speak louder than words or so the old saying goes. While this isn’t always true, it often turns out to be in the long term anyways. It’s important to incorporate your brand into your strategy in order to determine the tactics you’ll use and the people you’ll hire. Remember that your company’s brand, aka people’s good opinions of you, is based on their contact with your employees.
This also means, however, that the brand you work towards developing must be based on something which you can achieve. After all, if you are unable to fulfill the promises you make, people will figure it out, and it will ultimately hurt you if your branding efforts are centered around them. For example, retail businesses often claim to be focused on high quality while they are unable to afford to throw out bread that has gone a little stale. Having a quality brand means that people who truly care about quality will try this bread and then destroy your company’s reputation as they spread the word about their bad experience. On the other hand, if your brand is based on something other than quality, and it attracts people who are less likely to notice stale bread, this won’t be as damaging. Always consider what you can afford to do in your brand.
2) People judge each other and nearly everything else by the way it looks. We can all wish this wasn’t so, and we can speak philosophically about how it shouldn’t be, but in the end whether you get a customer or not depends on peoples’ first impression of your company. This makes what you say, how you dress up your company with store layouts, web designs, logo designs, ads, etc., an important part of making people think about your company in a positive way. For many businesses, in fact, this design becomes all that matters. Consider Morton Salt, for example. It sells well for a higher price than nearly any other basic table salt, yet its ingredients are pretty much the same. Further, it’s doubtful that very many if any of its customers know its history, how it treats employees, or anything else about them other than that they have an interesting package design with a little girl and an umbrella pouring salt in the rain.
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