We often get new client inquiries for help with branding. Are you increasingly looking to make your brand awesome? Depending on the business, and where it is in the life cycle, that can be a tall order.
Feelings have a critical role in the way customers are influenced.
David Freemantle
There is a brand, and there is branding. One is a noun, and one is a verb.
But the funny thing is that when it comes to what defines a brand and what defines your branding, the noun and the verb are switched. Branding is defined by things like a logo, look and feel your website copy, and all the visual details that go into managing your brand. It sends out a vibe, and it’s made up of many things.
Related: How Do You Continue to Improve a Memorable Brand
A brand, on the other hand, is defined by your actions. How do you serve your customer? What interesting service do you offer? How do you approach relationships with business partners and vendors? A brand is defined by your actions, by what you want to stand for.
The most important thing to remember, it’s not about you in the sense that you are in control. You are not. But you can influence.
Brands deliver an emotional connection to a business’ products and services. Most purchase decisions have critical emotional components, which is why brand marketing is so important.
Your brand represents a collection of your customers’ perceptions of how they see you, how they feel about you, and what they say about you. It communicates every time it touches a customer. This makes you, as a marketer, responsible for this communication ‘moment of truth’.
Here are the key actions, you as the brand marketer, can take to improve each ‘moment of truth’:
The best brands extend their value propositions beyond products and services
Awesome brands change how people view the world surrounding the brand. Take the Red Bull brand as a great example. This brand wants consumers to explore their limits. Their advertisements are loaded with examples of these limits. They are illustrating that we are defined by what we make happen. If you relate, then you are pulled into their world views.
You can probably name a few brands that do a great job of making such a difference that you remember and tell your friends about. These brands are consistently showing their conscience and offering it as something prospective customers can buy into.
Tom’s Shoes is such a brand. For each pair of shoes we buy, Tom’s donates a pair of shoes to the poor and needy. Many consumers buy from Tom’s for their promises as much as their products.
Or Zappos … they don’t sell shoes. They deliver that extra dose of love we all need from time to time. There is no secret here. Zappos became Zappos because of the fanatical customer support it offered. That is the company’s brand.
As Tony Hsieh, the Zappos CEO, puts it, back in 2003, we thought of ourselves as a shoe company that offered great service. Today, we really think of the Zappos brand is about great service, and we just happen to sell shoes.
Don’t interrupt, rather involve
The best marketing is about involving customers that are more engaging. And much less about interrupting. It is really all about making friends and building relationships and trust with customers. Taking away the sales approach
The best brands engage consumer emotions
Great brands drive greater engagement by creating emotional responses. They find that these emotions propel better enduring connections.
The FedEx brand does this very effectively. Simply put, the FedEx brand is synonymous with “reliability.” Define your benefit to customers in the most straightforward terms possible. If your promise is reliability, then you need to offer reliability in everything you do — from your products and services to your website and communications. Peace of mind. FedEx famously built its brand around a singular idea: by coming through when something
“absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”
Help consumers help themselves
The best brands offer lots of help/advice …giving value in every interaction. You see this very often with online brand marketing.
Deliver value propositions people care about most
… and they will care more about the brand. JetBlue is one brand that does this as well as it can be done. Their brand success centers on the achievable – the simple things – they knew would make a difference for their guests.
This set the stage for direct TV and XM radio, the provision of first-class seats to everyone, more legroom, great snacks, and high-end service at lower end pricing. No other airline others these value propositions. They are different and their brand stands out because it represents those differences the best.
Simple. Attainable. Targeted. They delivered.
JetBlue recently launched a brilliant new ad campaign called “Air on the Side of Humanity”. Have you seen it? You might want to check it out.
They ingeniously use pigeons as a transposed metaphor for frequent flyers who are challenged by business travel and crowded flights. Believe me, I can relate. The spot shows crowded skies full of pigeons while an off-camera narrator says “the reality of flying is not very pretty”. It’s a royal headache and a major inconvenience.
They show crowded jostled pigeons on a building ledge lined up single file facing the camera while the narrator says, “They pack you in there, you hardly have any space for yourself. Hey, I’m a big guy and I need some room to breathe”.
As the narrator continues talking about the future situation being bleak the camera focuses on a man’s legs sitting on a park bench throwing crumbs to pigeons on the sidewalk as the narrator says, “They throw you crumbs and act as if it’s a 5-course meal”.
Next, they show a lonely pigeon on a busy pedestrian sidewalk as people walk around ignoring a confused bird as the narrator says, “I feel completely ignored”. Then the narrator asks the question, “There’s gotta be a way to fly with a little respect, you know?”
Then they cut to a different voiceover announcer which says, “Enjoy JetBlue’s award-winning service, free unlimited snacks and the most legroom in coach.” An awesome way to engage customers with their value propositions, isn’t it?
What I love about this engagement approach is that it takes a customer experience perspective that no doubt was derived through deep customer insights. As a frequent flyer myself I was able to relate to the spot on multiple levels.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.
It’s up to you to keep improving your branding and brand marketing. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Do you have a lesson about making your brand marketing better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on continuous learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
My Favorite Brands and Why I Like Them So Much
12 Ways You Are Losing Brand Attention and the Action NeededHow Do You Continue to Improve a Memorable Brand
