Word Marketing Blog

Building Brand Requires Focus

What is at the absolute core of your business?

The prevailing cause of "brand rot" in a lot of businesses and organizations is a lack of focus. Focus on the true core of the DNA of that business. Jim Collins calls this "The Hedgehog Concept" in his book, Good to Great. This is made up of three questions:

1. What are you deeply passionate about?
2. What can you be the best in the world at? (and what you cannot)
3. What drives your economic engine?

For small business owners, I also like to ask them:

• What feelings do you experience (or would like to experience) connected with your business? and..
• How do you feel now at the end of every day?

These are just some of the questions connected with the razor focus or lack of razor focus that your business might be getting from you.

Several business problems lie at the heart of a lack of focus:

• Spread too thin
• No prospective customer can actually describe what you provide or who you are
• Too long throwing a lot of things at the wall to see what sticks
• Too much generalist and not enough specialist

In most businesses and organizations, the lack of focus cure can be painful to face, painful to execute, but for the long haul, profitable for sure.

Building Brand Problems for Small & Large Organizations

The benefits of long-term brand building are very similar for both small and large organizations, however some of the most common problems related to brand building are very different.

Most likely brand problems in small organizations:

• No background or skill level in developing a plan for the brand
• Lack of time
• No or little understanding of who is buying their products and services and for what reasons
• Lack of funds
• Little or no marketplace awareness of the brand

Most likely brand problems in large organizations:

• Market/Advertising position is no longer relevant, distinctive or compelling
• Marketing (and other dept) functions are not integrated
• The brand structure (if present) has become too complicated and unclear
• Current leadership doesn't have a clear and accurate view of what the brand position should be
• The brand identity standards and systems have fallen in use or are not measured and inspected anymore
• Organizational structure and bureaucracy work against an invigorated new brand position

Although these are the most common brand building problems, they are certainly not insurmountable. Building brand is an ingredient to staying in the balanced and predictable growth mode for organizations and business.

Brand Experience

The other night I gave into my craving and went to McDonald's for dinner. It was late - about 9:30p - a time when you wouldn't expect a lot of customers. While sitting in the drive thru, I quickly realized things were moving quite slowly. So I backed up to see what it looked like inside. There was a team of young baseball players crowded around the counter. Ah ha.

I proceeded to return to the drive thru lane and accepted that I would just have to wait if I really wanted that Big Mac. My stomach said I did.

Eventually I got up to the window, and the young man working was extremely nice. He apologized for the long wait and explained they were a little understaffed. When I got my food, I quickly tested a fry. They were excellent. All was forgiven.

Your company's brand is built on the total experience of your customer. That means that internal marketing is just as important as external marketing. Making sure your employees both understand and embrace the brand is vital to delivering the appropriate experience to your customers.

It also means that if you typically excel at providing the experience your brand promises, most consumers will forgive an occasional hiccup. As long as their positive experiences strongly outnumber their negative ones, the overall perception of your brand is one worth returning to.

Now that the economy is starting to recover, its a great time to look at your brand and determine where revitalization is needed. Focus spent on shaping the perception of your brand is an investment with lasting, long-term returns.

Brand Control

Today I saw the first fallen leaf.

To some, the sight might have warranted a bit of sadness: the end of summer, the beginning of shorter days. To me, who favors fall over all other seasons, it brought a feeling of repose, with anticipation of cooler days, warm fuzzy sweaters and football. It's all about perception.

The same is true about your brand. Did you know that when it comes to your brand perception, you actually have no control? It's true, no matter how nervous this statement may make you. You have influence, but the control lies completely in the minds of your audience.

Your control rests in the way that you present and manage your brand. It's about making sure that everything you want your brand to stand for is executed inside and outside of your business. It's about knowing your audience and learning how to appeal to their perceptions. It's about making all details of your brand experience cohesive.

The perception of your brand may be up to your audience, but there are many things you can do to influence them. By finding a process for your brand management you will extend the control you do have and see the results in your bottom line.

Words Not Children

Your words are not your children.

This is the advice I received my freshman year of college from a very talented writer and teacher. It means accepting that good writing is an evolution, and therefore, changeable. You can throw some words away, or even trade them for others.

It's sort of the same with your corporate culture.

Your company Mission Statement is written in stone. This is something you should put deep thought and discussion into developing, for this is the one part you should never alter. It is the foundation upon which your company is built. Your Company Values and Master Plan, however, must be allowed to change.

Your Company Values are written in pen. They don't change easily or often, but on occasion must bend and adjust to varying climate, market, audience preferences or social trends. Your Company Values should be in sync with what your customer values, while also aligning with your Mission Statement.

Your Master Plan is written in pencil. It must be easy to change frequently. That doesn't mean knee-jerk reactions to what the competition is doing, or haphazard changes due to the latest fad. But your Master Plan must be flexible enough to change when conditions warrant, such as our recent economic transformation, or when the current plan has accomplished all of its goals.

Good companies realize that growth depends on a flexible strategy. The words in your current plan are not your children. It's okay to trade them in for something better.

Go Ahead and Leap!

Remember making the leap from junior high to high school? Many found the changes a bit scary. Perhaps you switched classrooms for the first time. It's likely your classmates changed. Your studies got harder and your teachers expected more. Soon you realized that the way it worked in junior high was not the way it would work in high school. And even if a really bad day made you wish to go back to the way things were, you knew deep down that it wasn't coming back.

Hopefully, you learned to embrace your new realty. You expanded your network of friends. You developed new study habits. You adjusted to a new schedule and you planned your day accordingly. And your adaptability was rewarded.

You experienced new adventures, new challenges and greater successes. You not only survived - you thrived.

It's much the same with our economy today. No matter what improvements are yet to come, the economy won't go back tot he way it once was. And that means you need a new strategy for your business, because what worked then won't work the same now. Many will find the leap to be a bit scary. But those who make it will enjoy great rewards.

The new economy demands a new strategy. Need a little help making the leap?  Let us know.

Success Today

Take time today to write down you full definition of success. Avoid using words like "lots of money" or other vague terms. If you don't know specifically what you want, how will you know when you get there? You must know for certain when you reach your definition of success.

Then ask yourself "why"? Why do I want this? Journal it out. Have a brain dump. Put it all down.

Avoid guilt for the things you desire. Feel free to share, would love to hear yours!

Questions for the New Economy

For the last several months, I have been one of the voices crying in the wilderness about this view of the economy.

It's not down, it just is.

People tend to take the economy of 03-06 and compare to what is going on today and say the economy is down. What about compared to 01-03? One of the best clarifying questions you can ask is:compared to what? What context are you referring to? The current state of reality is:where the economy is today and how do we work in it? Some folks are waiting for the economy of 03-06 "to come back" because that is the state of reality they are stuck in. They are stuck in transition between what was and what is.

Now, of course, those who are independently wealthy or managed their businesses super wisely during the last economic cycle can afford to make minimal changes. My opinion is that is not the majority. Most do not have the time to wait until the rain stops. We have to learn to work in the rain. In other words, adjust to the current reality. In order to ease our psyche, we might as well refer to this current state as "new", even though it's been in this cycle since 07.

Harvard Business School has some questions for the new economy we have adapted into our process for helping customers design strategies for the new economy. I thought I'd share them with you.

The new economy doesn't require you to just try harder, sell more, or work longer hours. It requires you to change the way you work.

Ask yourself these three questions to assess the current situation and adapt your game to the changed conditions:

1. What's the situation? Remember that in this new reality in which big businesses are failing, trust, reliability and relationships are the new competitive advantages.
2. Who else is involved? Consider your customers, prospects, and employees and what they want and need in this new economy.
3. How can you help? Determine what you have to offer that is unique — it may be innovative products, a differentiated pricing structure, or a new way of relating to customers and employees.

If You Can't Pitch, Hit

by Anna Lawrence:

At 20-years-old, he was named 2nd place in Rookie of the Year voting as a pitcher. At 21-years-old, he completely lost it.

Rick Ankiel started pitching in 1999 for the St. Louis Cardinals at the age of nineteen. He was a Cardinals top pitching prospect and carried the high hopes of many for along career as an ace.

After pitching in a post-season game at age 20, what was once so easy for Ankiel - finding the strike zone, became impossible. Mentally unable to deliver anything but a consistently bad form, he eventually blew out his elbow. After surgery and three years of physical therapy, he returned for another try, but was never able to find the pitching that once made him great.

Rather than give up on the game that drove his true aspirations, Ankiel decided to find a new way to succeed in baseball. In 2007, after three more years of learning how to be a hitter, Ankiel returned to the game to become a building block hitter for the St. Louis Cardinals. He created his own new success.

That our economy is facing great changes is apparent to anyone who has not hibernated through the past six months. While some businesses continue to hold on to that which has always worked in the past, what are you planning to do differently to ensure your business' future?

Name or name change

It isn't everything...but certainly it's an important thing.

Wikipedia says that a name is a label for a noun (human, animal, thing, place, product) (as in a brand name and even an idea or concept) used to distinguish one from another.

Naming your business, your product or service is an important process. It's really not just a matter of throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks. I've been some of the most ridiculous business names based on a play on words that seemed good at the time because everyone around the table had a good laugh, therefore, it mistakenly caused the initiator to think, "hey, everyone likes this....this will make my business successful!"

Certainly, there are a multitude of issues involved, and names do not create everything, nor do they solve everything. There are strategic factors to consider.

If you are naming a new business or, even more importantly, considering changing the name of your business, proceed with much thought and caution, and do yourself a favor, get outside viewpoint and help.