3 Actions That Make Branding Better
Whether you are a small business owner, CEO of a major corporation, president of a nonprofit, or simply an organizational decision maker, at some point you will be faced with the ultimate marketing challenge: branding. It may be a case of establishing something new or realizing that your current principles and characteristics have dried up and need reevaluating. No matter what the case is, the same holds true for both; in order for customers to understand and appreciate who you are, you have to.
That means understanding that your brand is the foundation to everything you do and even what you don’t do. It is where you come from, what you believe in, and why it’s relevant to the customer. Nick Westergaard, author of Get Scrappy, paints the picture nicely:
“Like the girders of a skyscraper, you can’t always see your brand but it’s what the rest of your work stands on.”
At any given time “branding” is at play. From the time you and the customer first hit it off up to the most recent interaction. Which also means that relationship can be made or broken by a single moment.
Offered here are just a few practical, simple (not to be confused with easy) elements for ensuring that your brand is being maximized.
GO where your customers GO.
Let’s say I am heading up a digital campaign for a university that is targeting prospective incoming freshmen. Best believe Snapchat advertising is going to get a whole lot of my attention because the platform is getting a whole lot of Generation Z’s attention. Believe me, I know, because that is where I go to stalk my two teenage sisters, who have essentially migrated from any other social platform. Nearly 23 million Snap-chatters are between 18 and 24. Over half are female. Somewhere out there a university recruitment team understands this and has a mailbox full of admission applications right now. Like this example, it is wise, actually it is a MUST that today’s digital marketer consider how relevant the marketing channel is to the target audience. A common, yet wrongful practice, especially for big brands is what we at Narratent like to call wall-plastering You know, the type of marketing that involves an attempt to cover everything, spend a massive budget, and waiting to see what sticks. What often happens is disappointment. That is because a lot of times this is all done without ever effectively doing the market research to know where efforts should or should not be placed.
Craft the RIGHT message.
Like peanut butter and jelly, messaging and audience are made for each other. Carefully crafting what words and phrases use to will allow for more relatability and trust between you and (at this point you should know who.) The most important thing to remember is that it is not just what is said, but how it is received, what emotions is triggers, and what actions occur as a result. Now before you whip out your thinking hat and start aimlessly creating stuff that you imagine your customer wants to hear, take a step back. Do the groundwork. Go find them. Talk to them. Understand who they are, what is most important to them as it relates to your business, then move forward with creating a creative masterpiece.
Think like a customer, cause well, you are one.
Every day we wear different hats. from serving the consumer to being the consumer meaning we understand the many thoughts and emotions that go into purchasing power. The purchase is driven by who (what brand) we are dealing with and how the experience they provide makes us feel. We flock to the brands that give us comfort, convenience, and meaning. Better yet, when those wants and needs are fulfilled, we are excited to let others know. Facebook, Twitter, Google Reviews, Yelp, and yes believe it or not, word of mouth, are all means to communicate to the world how happy or unhappy we are about our latest consumer experience. So flipping back into the role as the marketer, what should we do? Always have your customer hat on. Consider what you would think, feel, and do as a member of the audience you are setting out to reach. Commit to reverse engineering the customer experience from bottom to top so that customer satisfaction always has the best chance of being met.
