As I was driving home from yet another brilliant business event the other night I had the honour to present at, it hit me hard; the majority of business owners do not truly understand the power and importance of building a solid brand.
In fact, many are putting their head in the sand when it comes to building brand assets hoping to never have to worry or talk about it ever again. These are generally incredibly talented and smart people, so why don’t they care enough about investing in one of the most important business assets?
Or maybe I should ask, why should they care about branding in the first place? Isn’t it just one of these made up things for someone to make money from the believers?
Yup, it is made up, in fact the whole purpose of branding is to ‘make up’ an image or perception in your customers’ minds about you or your business. And perception creates reality.
Quite frankly, branding often does seem like one of those fancy concepts some big wigs pimp about from sunrise to sunset from their swanky offices to get paid (or laid).
Yeah, I used to work in advertising and might have been pimping about branding all day too (sadly without the swanky office and Don Draper, but definitely from sunrise to sunset or sometimes from sunrise to sunrise).
So why am I still pimping about it now?
Because it is your job as a business owner or entrepreneur to take charge of the perception people have about you and your business. If you don’t, well, then you leave it up to chance and it might not end up being the image you’d love to portray and you might not attract the people you’d like to attract.
Let me try to explain here why a good brand strategy might just save your butt in today’s fast-moving world with increasing competition.
This morning I spoke to a friend who is also a meditation teacher and he told me that he just hasn’t figured out why one of his competitors is so much more popular and attracting a lot more people to his courses online than he is.
So I had a look and noticed that besides the lack of great marketing, the former has a very hobby-looking brand whilst the latter, looks like a pro.
And you know what the funny part is, they both teach the same meditation techniques learnt from the same teachers.
However, their brands tell a different story! One looks a lot more credible, professional and modern and hence people are more willing to spend their money with him even if the courses are more expensive than most programs out there.
Of course my friend is happy for his competitor as it’s all about getting more people to meditate but he also needs to eat every now and then (although I have heard of certain monks who stay in a meditative state for years without eating).
Right now more than ever before new businesses are popping up left and right only to close down again after a few years, sometimes months. It truly pains me to see people’s dreams (and souls) getting crushed just like that.
Branding is certainly not the only reason for many businesses not to make it, however having a proper brand strategy helps and will play an even more important role in the future.
I often see the fear in people’s eyes when futurists talk about how big scale mergers and acquisitions are going to crush small businesses or how crypto currencies are going to ruin our markets or how there will be increased competition due to an alien invasion or how we are all going to have to start new businesses on Mars because there is no more space on earth.
Some of these threats are absolutely real, maybe not the alien invasion one, but most of them are not going to take down the businesses that are built on solid foundations.
If you have a loyal following of customers that love your brand, it doesn’t really matter if a competitor comes to town with cheaper products, because your customers don’t want them, they want YOU aka your brand!
But doesn’t everyone want cheaper? I’m glad you asked. Let me answer by asking you a question. Why are people spending thousands of dollars on a branded Gucci handbag when they can get a very similar one, made in the same factory from the same fabrics for a tenth of that price?
You guessed it right. They want that brand, not the no-brand. Brands help people express themselves and it makes them feel like they belong to something, and the need to belong is one of the most important human needs.
A great brand strategy helps your customers understand what makes you different to your competitors and why they should absolutely fall in love with your brand.
Remember you can’t be all things to all people but you can be ‘the one and only’ to a select group of raving fans.
Remember the Rolling Stones (yup, one of my favourites)? They, like many other bands have attracted a loyal following of raving fans. You are either into them or not at all. They carved out a unique brand and hence attracted serious evangelists.
It didn’t matter if other talents popped up, they still sold out their shows because people wanted them!
As product offerings become more varied, more competitive and cheaper, we need to be smarter about our brand strategy and future-proof our very own businesses. The good news is that it is very likely that your competitors are not focused on building brand assets (unless they are reading this article and coming to their senses).
To help you get started with your brand strategy, I’ve written a step-by-step guide you can find here.
You can either put your head in the sand or start building a brand worth falling in love with. I know what I’m doing…
Here is to creating ripple effects of awesomeness and brands worth falling in love with!