Brand First – Market Second
“Anyone who…”
How many times have we heard someone start their sales pitch with those two words? How many times have you done it? How many times have I done it?
I’m reading an interesting book by Julie Cottineau, entitled “Twist: How Fresh Perspectives Build Breakthrough Brands”. Much of what she has to say revolves around creating a well-defined brand before you start spending money on marketing. Marketing here includes anything from your logo and website to your social media strategies and your handouts.
She talks about finding your “twist”. She encourages us to “…look (beyond) your category at other successful brands for inspiration and then applying those best practices by twisting them (together) with your brand…” to allow you to stand out from the crowd.
One of the worst things you can do as a business is blend in. If I ask you to imagine the website of a massage therapist, most of you will come up the same images and color palette. The author asks her workshop students to “…image a (financial advisor’s) website talking about saving for retirement. The response is inevitably “Stylist couple in their 60s who are fit, dressed in white, and usually walking barefoot on a beach. They have short gray hair and piercing blue eyes that look off into the sunset with longing. They appear to have confidence in their financial future.”
It’s Déjà vu all over again. According to Belch & Belch: Advertising and Promotion, consumers see 1500 to 4000 ads a day, but remember only 76. Blending in will not allow you to stand out.
A few years back I was talking with the lovely and talented Jevonya Allen. At the time, she was just starting a new networking group that she called “Networking with a twist”. As you know, I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut, and I immediately said “No – it has to be “twisted networking”. Networking with a twist give the impression of the same brand with an attempt to convince me it was going to be different. However, twisted networking made me think of something totally off the rails. I didn’t know what, but I was intrigued enough to want to find out. This is what branding should be all about.
By the way, Jevonya’s Twisted Networking now has 9 chapters in three States and is growing like gang-busters.
In her book Twisted, in order to discover your true brand, the author provides four questions that, as she says, “…are deceptively easy to ask, but take hard work, a thorough exploration, and dedicated time and effort to answer”. Her four questions are:
1. WHO? Are the most profitable targets for the brand. Identify the specific emotional triggers for your potential customers.
2. WHAT? Will compel them to choose you and stay loyal? You need to create a more distinctive brand promise.
3. WHY? Should these (now) high-priority targets believe? This is where your personal story should come into play.
4. HOW? Is the brand felt in every touch point? This is where the marketing, social media and other activities finally come in. As the author explains, “…let your brand framework guide both your marketing and social media marketing activities.
When developing your brand, or when re-branding, you should look to other brands you admire for inspiration. Don’t confine your search to others in your specific marketplace. This will result in your brand only being an unidentifiable shadow of everyone else.
As the author says “(your brand) … is going to form a first impression and then be a source for continued reinforcement that your target has made the right choice”. Nail down your brand first, then, instead of marketing to “anyone”, you’ll be marketing to someone.
As expressed by Jeff Bezos, “A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well”.
