Brand is Experience
The way your customers feel about the experience they've had with your company is how they feel about your brand. Their perception is reality.
It used to be that you could run a schedule of advertising and influence the way people felt about your brand, product, or service.
People today understand traditional marketing technique. They've learned about them as school and university for years - so they not as easily influenced by 'old school' advertising campaigns. IN fact many now actively resist these techniques.
Internet and cell phone technology have made people more connected with each other than ever before and giving them almost instant access to information about virtually anything.
So now they can experience your brand, product, or service in many ways - phone, face to face, traditional advertising, internet (website or search engine), Facebook, truck sidings, shops etc.
They now have much more choice and control over whether they decide to deal with you and how. There's also a chance they'll now know more about you and your brand before you get to mee them for the first time.
So the way they feel about their experience with your brand is how they feel about your brand and how they bow control the choice i.e. you can no longer change how people feel about your brand with advertising. All it does is remind them to think about it.
If your brand isn't your logo, positioning line or ad campaign, what is it?
It's the views and opinions people have accumulated from the quality fo their experience; the appearance or presentation, customer service, your shop or office environment, the design of your product or service, the way you talk - to them, and about yourself.
Your brand is not something you create or manipulate. It is something you find - it already exists - you need to find it within your organisation. Your brand is the reason why I'd choose your organisation, product or service over your competitors
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Different
The challenge is that your brand must differentiate you: it can't be the same as your competitors just with a different name
Relevant
Your brand must also have strong relevance for the customers and for today's market place.
Memorable
Your brand can't be bland. Safe, middle of the road, short term thinking won't get you where you want to go.
The best brand strategies will go way beyond design, advertising and sales promotion.
They will help develop new markets, inspire product development, open up new business opportunities and provide focus for your key decisions and fro the way your organisation does everything it does.
Today's new media
The new media and technologies are building communities and building brands.
However to make them work for your brand you need different tools to the traditional approach of repetitive advertising, jingles and slogans.
TV, radio, press ads, billboard or similar media are no longer as important or effective as they were.
Today, people appreciate the open direct, transparent approach - they want you to be real, to see who you really are. They reject message that contain manipulative old-style spin. The prefer simple, honest, useful communication.
So the actions of a brand - what it does - rather than promotional claims, will determine its future success
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