Brand strategy is a big priority in my line of consulting work.
And 9 out of every 10 clients ask me “how” to brand themselves / company better.
First, I’ll admit I’m not a “branding expert.”
But I’m a marketing expert…
And branding TOTALLY falls under marketing -am I right?
So here’s my take on a brand strategy:
I don’t think you should set branding as a primary goal if you’re starting a business, or if your business is relatively new.
In other words, if you’re in the GROWTH stages of your business, trying to “get” new customers…
Your brand strategy should flip to a marketing strategy.
Why?
Because branding is about “protecting” a company image…
It’s about reminding the market ‘why’ they like you in the first place.
“Coke – the real thing”
Coca-Cola didn’t START branding – they BUILT their company first.
You need to build your company FIRST –
The branding comes from the CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS.
Think about this for a moment:
When a realtor client comes to me for consulting and tells me they want to “brand themselves”, my first question is “OK, tell me what you commonly hear about yourself from clients”
“Well, that’s the problem, I don’t have enough clients yet, and I want to brand myself to get them”
WRONG!
We can’t just put out a huge billboard that says “#1” “BEST” and so on and have people automatically follow along.
(Well you could, but you’ll more than likely end up in the same bankruptcy pool like the others before you.)
I’ll further this brand strategy example with my own business…
I believe I’m DAMN good at what I do for my clients…
In other words…I’m the “best”. 🙂
But I don’t have a real “brand” yet.
However, in the last year or so, I’m ‘kinda’ starting with branding…
ONLY because I NOW know exactly what I do for clients –
AND, more importantly, how THEY describe what I do for them.
For this example, I’m widely known as “the entrepreneur’s secret weapon.”
THAT’S my brand.
The reason is, I’m hired by entrepreneurs to help them build their business through marketing, technology, personal coaching and so on just like a ‘regular’ consultant…
What makes ME UNIQUE & VALUABLE however, is that I constantly train with the world’s best entrepreneurs…
I spend tens of thousands of dollars learning, absorbing, AND USING what I’m taught… (it doesn’t just sit on my shelf or hard drive)
I then filter out what doesn’t work, ask my clients what they **specifically** need, reach into my ‘vault’ of knowledge and apply it to their business.
So I’ve completely cut the learning curve down to almost nothing for them AND, I’ve relieved them from spending their precious hard-to-come-by “extra” time learning-reading, etc.
So, that makes me a “secret weapon” to my clients because they leap over everyone else that have to go learn, test & adjust it all on their own.
Follow?
So I didn’t really “know” how to brand myself until I built my business model.
I didn’t “know” what real ‘value’ I brought to the market until my clients TOLD me.
I could have “branded” myself as “the best entrepreneur coach” or something like that…like every other Joe-Blow out there.
But I waited until my business was built.
Same goes for you.
Build your business FIRST – THEN brand.
Don’t blow your marketing budget on billboards, newspaper ads and whatever else the advertising companies tell you.
INVEST those marketing dollars into building your business first, finding the customers, getting the interaction with them…
THEN worry about branding.
Like this? I’d love to learn what your thoughts are – let’s get a conversation going below…