Building a Brand: A How-to Guide for a Small Business Image

As marketing types, we confess to having a visual bias when it comes to the expression of creative branding. We tend to experience a brand primarily through our eyes, by watching how it draws us into its world. And when we’re working with clients on building brand projects, one of our first steps is to create a book of selected pictures and graphics that create a feeling of the brand’s character.

Check out our thoughts on creative marketing.

Do you express feelings and emotions often with your customers? Are you aware of the ways you can influence brand attention? Well, remember this: the more feelings and emotions you express, the more attention to your brand. And the more influence it can create. Not rocket science is it? But without it, you will be losing attention to your brand.

As long as it’s positive, there is no such thing as too much brand attention. If you play your cards right, you can roll all of that great attention into growth for your company.

The front line of any brand in the marketplace is not the advertising, packaging, or product design. It is the interaction that the customer experiences that determine the brand’s reputation to a large degree.

It is human and emotional, and at that critical time when a customer engages with one of your employees or someone in your channel, or even one of your products, your brand will either be enhanced or diminished.

Let’s dig further into this important marketing topic.

Building a brand.

Importance of branding

One of the truths of modern business is that there is almost nothing that your competitors can’t duplicate in a matter of weeks or months. If you have a great idea, you can be certain that somebody will copy it before long.

And not only will they follow your lead, but they may also be able to do a better job or sell the product or service at a lower price. The question then becomes, “What competitive edge do I have to offer that cannot be copied by anyone else?

The answer? Your business brand identity.

No branding, no long-term differentiation. No differentiation, no long-term profitability. Brands can activate a passionate group of people to do something like embrace an important community issue. Products or services can’t do that.

Most brands sell products or services. GM sells cars. Amazon sells books. Real estate brokerages sell homes. Killer brands, however, satisfy the desire to get at the emotional heart of the matter.

Let’s review five killer brands and what they stand for. This is the best way to appreciate the importance of branding, emotion, and most importantly, brand identity.

Check out these examples: My Favorite Brands and Why I Like Them So Much

JetBlue

JetBlue’s 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.

Simple. Attainable. Targeted. They deliver.

Nike

Ask anyone who works in marketing what Nike stands for, and you’re likely to hear the same three words: “authentic athletic performance.” Their goal is to be associated with customers that desire to be high-performance, high-notch athletes, achievers, and winners. Nike is the name of the winged Greek goddess of victory, and the logo represents the spirit of this goddess. It is wrapped in emotional appeal.

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 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 think the Zappos brand is about great service, and we just happen to sell shoes.

Ritz Carlton

Ritz Carlton’s desire is to create guests for life. The brand desires to represent stories of extraordinary service and random acts of kindness. Ritz Carlton focuses their attention on impeccable service standards to separate itself from other hotels. What Ritz-Carlton has done so well is operationalize it so that culture and brand are one. Much like what Zappos has done.

FedEx

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.”

So is this what killer branding is all about for companies?

We think so. Not just about business … make it personal for customers. A great way to stand out.

How to build a brand identity.

How Creative Branding Helps Marketing

So what are some of the best ways different businesses use their creative branding to market their products and services? Let’s take a close look at some of the best uses of branding forces:

Differentiation

There is no more powerful component of a brand’s force than its differentiation. JetBlue’s brand screams out how it is different. And better. Free Direct TV and XM satellite radio on board their aircraft. Leather seats. Unlimited snacks. Great legroom. Think of these discriminators, and you’ll think of the JetBlue brand.

Unique positioning

Businesses should always be looking to reinforce their unique positioning. Like Best Buy and its employee expertise in home electronics. They have continued to strengthen this unique positioning with their Geek Squad and Tweep Force.

Positive experience

The Starbucks experience. Certainly, defines a positive brand feeling for its target customers. Unique products. Unique store atmosphere. Experiences to stimulate all the senses … visual, hearing, aroma, taste, and touch.

Unforgettable

Have you ever been to a Whole Foods store? Not your average presentation style of culinary products. Helping customers visualize the full store and product experience. And taking grocery shopping to an interactive and collaborative new level. Unique and unforgettable. No wonder more top-of-the-line grocery chains have been quickly following Whole Foods’ lead.

Positive image

Create positive mental images? In our opinion, no one is better at this than Zappos, the online shoe and clothing retailer. Focused on delivering happiness and being the best in the business in customer service. Lots of use of surprising customers with random acts of kindness and special service.

Communications

A brand communicates every time it touches the customer … the moment of truth. It communicates with words, stories, emotions, and its personality. Yes, it’s personality. Marketing needs to manage all of these communications, making marketing responsible for each ˜moment of truth”.

We include everyone in the marketing realm. No one does more of this communication management or does it better than Google. They live and breathe their personality.

Immersion

Customer immersion in the products and services. Disney World is certainly very good at customer immersion in its entertainment themes. Bass Pro Shop is very good at immersion in its products by setting up areas around its stores where customers can go and try their skills with these Bass Pro Shop products. A unique branding style.

Giving back

As Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream brand puts it: “There is a spiritual aspect to our lives, when we give we receive. When a business does something good for somebody, that somebody feels good about them.” And that emotion reflects positively on the brand.

How to build a brand strategy.

Building a brand … making your brand stand out

Be useful or entertaining … or be ignored.

We focus on five areas to make a brand stand out … just 5. Think about these areas for your brand.

Distinctive voice

When we’re working with clients on a creative branding project, one of our first steps is to create a book of selected pictures and graphics that create a feeling of the brand’s character.

The next step though is the expression of the brand through words. The message, we feel, is just as crucial and maybe more so.

Taco Bell isn’t a luxurious brand, and it doesn’t pretend to be. Instead, the brand’s voice is one of a trusted friend that will never fail to make you laugh. Just look at their sauce packets, which feature unique messages that have diners staring at their condiments for far longer than normal.

Fun phrases such as, “Pick me!” and “Will you marry me?” manage to bring humor into the fast-food experience, and their Twitter account carries that same fun-loving attitude — even when their customers complain.

The account doesn’t feign pretentiousness, and by having a genuine brand voice, Taco Bell adds a human side to its marketing.

When you tell your creative branding story, create a distinctive voice with unique images … dare to create different feelings and emotions with your communities.

Reflect Your Culture

The front line of any brand in the marketplace is not the advertising, packaging, or product design. It is the interaction that the customer experiences that determine the brand’s reputation. It is human and emotional, and at that critical time when a customer engages with one of your employees or someone in your channel, your brand (your product and reputation) will either be enhanced or diminished. Who does it the best? We would say Zappos.

Here is a great example … of how Zappos uses the element of surprise so effectively. Note this story is told by the customer:

When I came home this last time, I had an email from Zappos asking about the (returned) shoes, since they hadn’t received them. I was just back and not ready to deal with that, so I replied that my mom had died but that I’d send the shoes as soon as I could. They emailed back that they had arranged with UPS to pick up the shoes, so I wouldn’t have to take the time to do it myself. I was so touched. That’s not the company practice.

Yesterday, when I came home from town, a florist delivery man was just leaving. It was a beautiful arrangement in a basket with white lilies and roses and carnations. Big and lush and fragrant, I opened the card, and it was from Zappos. I burst into tears. I’m a sucker for kindness, and if that isn’t one of the nicest things I’ve ever had to happen to me, I don’t know what is.

Those kinds of examples are justified by almost any cost, and the cost hit Zappos takes by doing this is paid back multiple times over by the customer loyalty they generate from making people happy.

Customers crave a consistent brand experience

Much like the user-friendly and intuitive interface enjoyed on Apple devices, the clean Apple Store design makes the space easy for consumers to navigate and find what they need. From the employee enthusiasm that welcomes you into a store to innovations like geek chic gadgetry, the first-of-its-kind Genius Bar for technical support, and even a cash register-less check out—all of these factors work in unison to deliver an on-brand consumer experience.

The ultimate lesson: Invest in quality internal communications and inspired brand training for your teams. Your employees are the advocates who keep the brand promises you make and deliver the consumer experience a brand needs to thrive. Take advantage of what your competition forgets. Repeat after me: “culture and brand go hand in hand.”

Customer personalization

Explore the use of customer personalization to create WOW from your customers to create a stronger market branding.

Have you ever used customer personalization to improve the experiences your customers receive from your business? If so, have you noticed its impact on your market branding? The process of personalization is amazingly powerful:

In a study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, researchers tested the effects that mints had on a control group (where no mints were given) to measure their effectiveness in increasing tips (think of tips as a measure of great customer experience).

The results were surprising, to say the least:

The first group studied had waiters giving mints along with the check, making no mention of the mints themselves. This increased tips by around 3% against the control group.

The second group had waiters bring out two mints by hand (separate from the check), and they mentioned them to the table (i.e., ‘Would anyone like some mints before they leave?’). This saw tips increase by about 14% against the control group.

The last group had waiters bring out the check first along with a few mints. A short time afterward, the waiters came back with another set of mints and let customers know they had brought out more mints, in case they wanted another.

That last group is where waiters saw a 21% increase in tips. They still were bringing out only two mints.

The researchers found that it was the perceived personalization of bringing out the second set of mints and mentioning it to customers (Hey, I thought I might see if all of you are satisfied or if someone could use an extra mint.) that made the difference.

Our takeaway:

It wasn’t the mints; it was the personalized experience that they created. It made it clear to customers that the waiter was thinking of them.

Be sure to incorporate this into your offering: How can you follow up with customers in a personalized manner with free support, training, or reward for trying out your product or service?

Need some help in capturing more customers from your branding design strategies? Such as creative branding ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

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.

Improve a Memorable Brand: 7 Original Ways To Continue Improvement

Improve a memorable brand.

Are you looking to improve a memorable brand? We often get new client inquiries for help with improving their brand. Depending on the business, and where it is in the life cycle, that can be a tall order.

Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.

Seth Godin

Neil Patel knows a thing or two about building memorable brands, also, doesn’t he?

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, but it’s made up of many things.

A brand 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.

Related: Building Key Requirements for a Strong Brand Identity

A significant portion of a company’s value is intangible, so a strong brand is a significant competitive advantage. As Philip Kotler wrote:

The art of marketing is the art of brand building. If you are not a brand, you are a commodity. Then the price is everything, and the low-cost producer is the only winner.

Brands, marketing, and communication have long been highly related. From TV ads and press releases to events and endorsements, the way consumers view a brand will influence their decision making, so crafting and reinforcing a brand image has long been a top priority for marketers.

The most important thing to remember, it’s not about you in the sense that you are in control. You are not.

Here are seven ways we recommend to clients on how they can continue to make their brand better:

Deliver value in every interaction

Always strive to help people help themselves and achieve their goals.

Zappos is a favorite brand of ours who are always striving to add value to their customer service. 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 think of the Zappos brand as adding great value through great service, and we just happen to sell shoes.

Brand awareness campaigns.

Bring your brand values to life

Illustrate values to show your brand has a conscience. Offer something that customers can buy into, not just buy from you.

Another favorite brand of ours is Toms. It is a great brand illustrating an extraordinary brand promise. And a promise that customers like to buy into.

With every product you purchase, TOMS will help a person in need. One for One.®

In today’s world, branding is more important than ever. A brand is a promise, pure and simple. It is a set of fundamental principles as understood by anyone who comes into contact with a company. A brand is an organization’s reason for existence.

Toms has this one nailed, doesn’t it?

Brand personality.

Brand awareness marketing … build a brand personality

A brand personality is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to the brand. It is something to which the consumer can relate. An effective brand will increase its brand equity by having very distinctive traits.

The truth is many companies fail to recognize the importance of creating brand experiences through brand personality. They bog down their online persona with boring corporate speak and industry jargon. Or, they blow it by not keeping the experience consistent, ultimately confusing customers or making them feel as if something is amiss with the company.

Think about it – when it comes to our go-to brands, we choose the ones that often stand out with because of the feeling we get from them.

Define your brand by what you make happen

Your goal is to extend your unique selling positions beyond your products to influence perceptions of the brand.

Red Bull is an awesome example of showing what is humanly possible. One whose objective is to extend customer limits to achieve more.

JetBlue is another very distinct example. 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.

Simple. Attainable. Targeted. They made it happen.

Improve a memorable brand … co-create your brand with your customers

Instead of bombarding customers with interruptions, involve and engage them more.

Ask anyone who works in marketing what Nike stands for and you’re likely to hear the same three words: “authentic athletic performance.” Their goal is to be associated with customers that desire to be high performance, high notch athletes, achievers, and winners.

Nike is the name of the Greek winged goddess of victory, and the logo represents the spirit of this goddess. It is wrapped in emotional appeal.

Check out this Nike example of inclusive marketing using this Derek Jeter commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X03_bNuihLU

Brand awareness strategy … aim for the heart

As often as you, engage the emotions of your audience and get them to resonate with their experiences. P&G examples of their ‘thank you mom’ videos are awesome. Here is a recent one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57e4t-fhXDs

There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion. Hands down the best, in our opinion. Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the experiences are important to remember.

These videos grab and hold your emotion, don’t they?

Create a brand experience consistency

Much like the user-friendly and intuitive interface enjoyed on Apple devices, the clean Apple Store design makes the space easy for consumers to navigate and find what they need. From the employee enthusiasm that welcomes you into a store to innovations like geek chic gadgetry, the first of its kind Genius Bar for technical support, and even a cash register-less checkout—all of these factors work in unison to deliver an on-brand consumer experience.

The ultimate lesson: Never overlook or undervalue your brand organizational culture. Invest in quality internal communications and inspired brand training for your teams. Your employees are the advocates who keep the brand promises you make and deliver the consumer experience a brand needs to thrive.

Take advantage of what your competition forgets. Repeat after me: “culture and brand go hand in hand.”

The bottom line

Remarkable isn’t always the same. Get in the habit of doing the “unsafe” thing every time you have the opportunity is the best way to see what’s working and what’s not.

The key to being remembered is being remarkable. Don’t let your brand take the back seat, stand out.

Markets and customers are constantly changing. Therefore a business must constantly adapt its branding to the changes in the marketplace.

To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.

We can do better. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.

And remember, brands are verbs … what they do matters more than what they say.

Looking to create a smashing brand image?

Need some help in capturing more customers from your branding design strategies? Such as creative branding ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

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?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

New York Yankees … 11 Awesome Lessons From Yankees Brand

The CVS Rebranding Strategy: a Case Study

Building a Brand … A How-to Guide for Small Business

6 Favorite Brands and Why I Like Them So Much

Brand Management … 12 Ways to Humanize the Brand to Build Trust

Walmart E-commerce Strategy … 6 Reasons Why It Won’t Beat Amazon

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and Link

Losing Brand Attention: Simple Action You Can Take To Prevent It

Losing brand attention.

Do you express feelings and emotion often with your customers? Are you aware of the ways you are losing brand attention? Well, remember this: the more feelings and emotion you express, the more attention to your brand. And the more influence it can create. Not rocket science is it? But without it, you will be losing brand attention.

Feelings have a critical role in the way customers are influenced.

David Freemantle

As long as it’s positive, there is no such thing as too much brand attention. If you play your cards right, you can roll all of that great attention into growth for your company. Here are some of the mistakes businesses make with their branding and the best and most creative steps to get people to notice you and your brand.

The other day one of my readers commented I was the oldest person she knew social media content all the time.

Then she said it was a compliment.

We both laughed.

Then there was an awkward pause.

While her statement clearly wasn’t true, being relatively seasoned in business means I had learned many valuable brand lessons that would have been great to know when my business career started.

That’s how it has always been.

So, in keeping, here are 12 ways for losing attention to your brand and, most importantly, what you should be doing to prevent them:

Losing brand attention … not listening

Wondering what the most important part of being social is? It is listening, hands down in our opinion. And listening means hearing. So if you don’t start with great listening, you will immediately turn off a majority of consumers.

I learned this one quite early in my marketing and management career. Remember your first step in online marketing is not broadcasting messages. To establish great attention to your brand, build engagement with consumers by making listening to the backbone of your conversation.

Only focus on traditional branding messages

Have you noticed how much marketing has changed in the last decade? Most people have. So when you use just traditional marketing techniques, customers imagine you are stuck in time. Not a good thing.

One tip we think is most important is storytelling. Think about the stories that you were told as children. They are etched into our subconscious. Use pictures and videos to tell your stories in creative new ways. Ways that will be remembered and talked about.

The rising cost of consumer attention … no consistency

Do you know your target customers and their likes and dislikes? If so, this in your guide to consistent topics.

Always be consistent in the subjects you know your customers are interested in. Select the new variants but stick with the subject categories.

What is consumer attention?

Lack any brand personality

Everyone has a personality or at least 98% of the populace. Your business reflects the personalities of its leaders either by choice or by accident. You know which is best, don’t you?

Every successful brand has a specific tone of voice. One that relates to the brand’s personality. And yes, of course, a brand has a distinctive personality. Decide what personality you want for your brand and let your tone reflect it. Take the initiative.

Complex messages.

Complex messages

It is difficult to be heard above all the noise in the marketplace. So if you want to grab attention and hold it, you must avoid complex messages.

Make your marketing stand out with simple messages. The best technique is with great visuals that convey your messages.

Not a people person

A Chinese proverb once said if you don’t like to smile, don’t open a shop. The same goes for being a person who doesn’t like to deal with people. Nothing is more damaging to business.

Being social is all about making friends as well as building and exploring customer relationships. Continually look for new ways to engage customers and remember engagement is a two-way street starting with listening.

Limited learning

Now more than ever, things are changing at blazing speed. Consumers notice businesses that are stuck in time, refusing to learn.

There are only two ways to keep up. They are continuous learning and applying what you learn. Spend time understanding changing trends and patterns. Apply them as often as you can.

No networking effort

Don’t like networking either on or off-line? Not sure why you are in business, are you?

Don’t be fooled by the deceptive simplicity of being social on-line. Building an effective network takes a lot of time, energy, and resources. Schedule time to make it happen and devote the energy required.

Frequently falling behind

Yes, all the changes in the business world are adding to your workload. No doubt about it. You can’t stay the way you are without falling further behind.

Familiarize yourself with new tools and applications, and select the ones that help to reduce your workload and that can help you and your customers in other ways. Consider carefully what platforms are best for your customers. You can’t do them all.

No message relevancy

You are always adding new customers, aren’t you? And current customers are trying new things and ways. Ignore these at the peril of your marketing message relevancies.

Derive timely and valuable insights to customer wants and needs. Talk about useful, helpful topics on these insights. Give your customers good reasons to return.

Too much, too fast

Never bite off more than you can handle. If you do, you will become frustrated and, most often, give up.

Employing social media takes a lot of time and energy. And there are no shortcuts. So start small and grow a little at a time. Be patient, it takes time for good results.

Put emphasis on content quantity

It’s not about the quantity of your marketing content. Put your energy in quality content rich with information that is interesting and helpful. It is not the number of fans you have. Nor is it about the numbers of people you follow. Fans count very, very little … make no mistake.

Forget about the fan numbers and concentrate on the engagement of customers and making friends. Relationships build trust and customer advocacy.

The bottom line

To be effective in this new era, we as marketers need to see our jobs differently. No more just focusing on metrics like clicks, video views or social media shares. We must successfully integrate our function with other business functions to create entire brand experiences that serve the customer all the way through their experiences throughout the business.

We can do better at grabbing and holding attention. Much better. But first, we need to stop seeing ourselves as crafters of clever brand messages and become creators of positive brand experiences.

Does your business have a winning value proposition?

Need some help in capturing more customers from your branding design strategies? Such as creative branding ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

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?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.

New York Yankees … 11 Awesome Lessons From Yankees Brand

The CVS Rebranding Strategy: a Case Study

Building a Brand … A How-to Guide for Small Business

6 Favorite Brands and Why I Like Them So Much

Brand Management … 12 Ways to Humanize the Brand to Build Trust

Walmart E-commerce Strategy … 6 Reasons Why It Won’t Beat Amazon

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

What We Can Learn from the Beatles Brand?

David Freemantle once said: Feelings have a critical role in the way customers are influenced. And the more feelings and emotions you create, the more attention to your brand. And the more influence it can have. Who are the Beatles? Not rocket science is it? I am a baby boomer and grew up under the influence of the Beatles Brand. It is not surprising then of the branding lessons learned from this influence.

Check out our thoughts on creative marketing.

Have you ever defined your favorite brands and questioned why? It is a key exercise we often use with our clients. It helps to evaluate what should be the heart of your company’s strong brand identity.

We believe the heart of all killer brands is the promise they commit to delivering to their clients. No matter how clever or memorable their brand marketing, if they fail to deliver on that promise, they fail. And those promises represent what the brand stands for and their strong brand identity.

What do the Beatles and branding have in common?

You might be tempted to answer, nothing, but in fact, the Beatles were revolutionary, not only in the music industry but also in the way they utilized branding to improve their reach as rock stars.

As long as it’s positive, there is no such thing as too much attention for your brand. If you play your cards right, you can roll all of that great attention into growth for your company. Here are some of the best and most creative steps to get people to notice you and your brand.

Let’s examine the lessons the Beatles taught marketers about social media-based branding:

Live their story.

Who are the Beatles … live their story

Does your brand have a story? You know—a story that’s captivating and inspiring; has real meaning and comes from the heart of what you’re all about as a brand. It’s a story your customers believe in and they stand behind it through their behaviors and actions. The Beatles built many stories through their public years and lived many of them. They were great reputation builders.

Build a brand personality

A brand personality is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to the brand. It is definitely something to which the customer can relate. An effective brand will increase its brand equity by having very distinctive traits.

The truth is many companies fail to recognize the importance of creating brand experiences through brand personality. They bog down their online persona with boring corporate speak and industry jargon. Or, they blow it by not keeping the experience consistent, ultimately confusing customers or making them feel as if something is amiss with the company.

Think about it – the Beatles brand experience was defined by their music, their album covers, their movies, and their interactions with the media. And they made the most of them to define their brand personality.

Define your brand by what you make happen

Your goal is to extend your unique selling positions beyond your products to influence perceptions of the brand.

The Beatles are a very distinct example. Their brand success centered on the achievable – the simple things – they knew would make a difference for their audience. They were different and their brand stands out because it represented those differences.

Simple. Attainable. Targeted. They made it happen.

These brands know how to show emotions.

Show emotions

Can you ever remember seeing the Beatles in the public without experiencing their emotion? I can’t. And the emotional influence was a great brand builder.

The Beatle facts … relentless innovation

The glue that bonded the Beatles was the group’s live performances. They didn’t worry about following musical trends. They created their own trends, which is what discontinuous change is all about.

The Beatles history … marketing strategy

The Beatles attracted audiences, sold albums and expanded their brand for years beyond their time together. What lessons can a rock group teach the rest of us about marketing?

Marketing is marketing, after all, and there is always something to be learned from the world’s best, even if their strategies and styles were most unique. And they completely eschewed mainstream music industry promotion and big advertising campaigns.

Who are the Beatles … cultivate raving fans

The Beatles started building their tribe of rabid fans early in their career. Many of the original followers are still awesome brand fans decades after they left the stage as a band. I would include myself in this group … how about you?

The Beatles brand … be an experience

Not only did the Beatles significantly impact the music industry, but they also brought to their audience an entire experience. Their followers began not only copying the group’s attitude toward music but also mimicked their hair, clothing, and virtually everything else about the group.

The bottom line

Remarkable isn’t always the same. Get in the habit of doing the “unsafe” thing every time you have the opportunity is the best way to see what’s working and what’s not.

The key to being remembered is being remarkable. Don’t let your brand take the back seat, stand out.

Markets and customers are constantly changing. Therefore a business must constantly adapt its branding to the changes in the marketplace.

And remember, brands are verbs … what they do matters more than what they say.

Look for ways to optimize.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your branding design strategies? Such as creative branding ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, 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 him on 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.

17 Mistakes to Avoid in a Social Media Response

Do you have a strategy for a negative customer social media response strategy? It just is logical that you occasionally deal with negative customers, no matter how good you are.

Social media response strategy.

How well you deal with these customers will determine whether you are dealing with a crisis or a non-issue. So it is essential that you avoid cardinal sins in a social media response strategy, in this regard.

It is pardonable to be defeated, but never to be surprised.

-Frederick the Great

Social media has been around for a decade now, so it should be easy to figure out how to leverage it, right? Not so fast. New ideas? Definitely not that new, but a good refresher.

In 1865, Gregor Mendel published the paper that established him as the father of genetics. However, it went largely unnoticed until it was rediscovered decades later and became widely recognized as one of the great discoveries in the history of science.

Why do some ideas quickly spread far and wide while others go nowhere at all?

There are recommendations on how to beef up social media marketing everywhere you turn. But which ones will make the grass grow the best?

The ultimate goal of all the points I list below is this: eliminate the fluff from your marketing strategy and focus only on the things that work.

How 3M Disruptive Innovation is So Successful

Social response … keep this in mind

How many times have you seen companies requesting people to friend them on Facebook? Like farming, followers were the name of the game. Sad but true.

The truth is that social media marketing tactics are really about cultivating relationships with potential customers. Fan ‘skins’, by themselves, are of very little value.

In part it is true, but things get complicated by all the misinformation circulating about social media. From leveraging tactics to tracking issues, you are bombarded with conflicting messages, including whether social media marketing is worth using at all.

Here is the bottom line:

These are 17 cardinal sins we use most often for training our clients. We believe they are the ones most critical to the success of your social media marketing and community engagement.

They will destroy much of your social media marketing gains if they occur:

Limited to no brand personality

Always create a personality through laughter and having fun in the workplace. Be able to laugh at yourself.

Wear your enthusiasm and your passion at all times.

Being a poor listener

Avoid censoring at all costs. Listen carefully and try to understand your customers’ viewpoints.

Not responding quickly and directly

Respond directly and early response time matters. Time is critical and you have very little.

Social response … offering excuses

Always explain without offering excuses. Remain calm under fire at all costs.

Ignoring the solution?

Ignoring the solution

Fix problems if they exist. Acknowledge the issues and communicate your solutions.

Not keeping staff informed

Provide all the information to your staff. Keep everyone in the loop and up to speed.

Not utilizing your community

Build followers of passionate defenders. Let them defend you with their views.

Ignoring the opportunity

Try to turn the problem into an opportunity. Don’t neglect to spend time finding the opportunity from your adversity … it often will not jump out at you, will it?

Forgetting the walkaway option

If it is a lose-lose situation and you see you are not making headway, be prepared to walk away. When is the issue over? Sometimes it is obvious, sometimes not … but monitor closely for a while.

Social media response strategy … not being yourself

Readers can easily see through marketing speak. Be passionate about what you do and let that show through your personality. Ensure people see you as a real person and not a mouthpiece.

When you are communicating in the world of social media, say who you are and who you work for. Don’t be sneaky with your comments.

Avoid ghostwriting. Be genuine and real.

Are you paying attention to value add?

Limited value add

Try to add value to everything you post. Be useful or entertaining or you will be ignored. Share tips, tricks, and insights.

People’s time is very valuable and they are looking to learn and enjoy new things from you.

Make listening to you worth their time.

Light on engagement

Answer questions readers ask, ask questions of others and thank people even if it is just a few words.

Communications is a two-way activity, isn’t it?

No preparation

If you are going to participate in social media, be prepared and know generally what to expect. Be engaged with people.

That really is the only way to understand the online culture, tone, best practices, and protocol. And remember, things are constantly changing, so be prepared to learn consistently as you go.

Weak on consistency

Social media is a time-consuming effort. You must spend time in a consistent way. You cannot post and then depart for a week or more. And, oh, by the way, it takes persistence to achieve success.

Readers expect responses quickly and new content regularly and if they don’t see it, they won’t be back.

Not listening carefully

Pay attention to feedback from your audience. Appreciate suggestions; it will make what you do even better.

Always acknowledge inputs.

Learn from experiences

Be real and honest. Don’t be afraid to admit mistakes or change your opinion on things. Be quick to make changes when you do.

Showing you are not having fun

People are easy to read, aren’t they? If you are not enjoying what you are doing, others will notice and won’t interact.

So why participate in that losing mode?

The bottom line

There are a lot of misconceptions about social media marketing. Just because you read something in a blog post or hear something from a credible source doesn’t mean it is true or true for you and your business.

Always do your research, and continually try to improve. Social media marketing is here to stay, and it can drive a lot of business for you, assuming you are leveraging it correctly.

There is more opportunity to fail in social media than to succeed if we treat it like any other marketing vehicle.

Social media requires us to get away from being promotional and sensational and instead treat our customers with special attention. Special attention to being social, building relationships, and creating trust.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

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 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.

Check out our thoughts on creative marketing.

Related post: Walmart E-commerce Strategy … 6 Reasons Why It Won’t Beat Amazon

As long as it’s positive, there is no such thing as too much brand attention. If you play your cards right, you can roll all of that great attention into growth for your company.

The front line of any brand in the marketplace is not the advertising, packaging, or product design. It is the interaction that the customer experiences that determine the brand’s reputation to a large degree.

It is human and emotional, and at that critical time when a customer engages with one of your employees or someone in your channel, or even one of your products, your brand will either be enhanced or diminished.

Let’s dig further into this important marketing topic.

Importance of branding

One of the truths of modern business is that there is almost nothing that your competitors can’t duplicate in a matter of weeks or months. If you have a great idea, you can be certain that somebody will copy it before long.

And not only will they follow your lead, but they may also be able to do a better job or sell the product or service at a lower price. The question then becomes, “What competitive edge do I have to offer that cannot be copied by anyone else?

The answer? Your business brand identity.

No branding, no long-term differentiation. No differentiation, no long-term profitability. Brands can activate a passionate group of people to do something like embrace an important community issue. Products or services can’t do that.

Most brands sell products or services. GM sells cars. Amazon sells books. Real estate brokerages sell homes. Killer brands, however, satisfy the desire to get at the emotional heart of the matter.

Let’s review five killer brands and what they stand for. This is the best way to appreciate the importance of branding, emotion, and most importantly, brand identity.

Check out these examples: My Favorite Brands and Why I Like Them So Much

JetBlue

Simple. Attainable. Targeted. They deliver.

Nike

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 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 think the Zappos brand is about great service, and we just happen to sell shoes.

Ritz Carlton

FedEx

“absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”

So is this what killer branding is all about for companies?

We think so. Not just about business … make it personal for customers. A great way to stand out.

How Creative Branding Helps Marketing

So what are some of the best ways different businesses use their creative branding to market their products and services? Let’s take a close look at some of the best uses of branding forces:

Differentiation

Unique positioning

Businesses should always be looking to reinforce their unique positioning. Like Best Buy and its employee expertise in home electronics. They have continued to strengthen this unique positioning with their Geek Squad and Tweep Force.

Positive experience

The Starbucks experience. Certainly, defines a positive brand feeling for its target customers. Unique products. Unique store atmosphere. Experiences to stimulate all the senses … visual, hearing, aroma, taste, and touch.

Unforgettable

Positive image

Create positive mental images? In our opinion, no one is better at this than Zappos, the online shoe and clothing retailer. Focused on delivering happiness and being the best in the business in customer service. Lots of use of surprising customers with random acts of kindness and special service.

Communications

A brand communicates every time it touches the customer … the moment of truth. It communicates with words, stories, emotions, and its personality. Yes, it’s personality. Marketing needs to manage all of these communications, making marketing responsible for each ˜moment of truth”.

We include everyone in the marketing realm. No one does more of this communication management or does it better than Google. They live and breathe their personality.

Immersion

Giving back

As Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream brand puts it: “There is a spiritual aspect to our lives, when we give we receive. When a business does something good for somebody, that somebody feels good about them.” And that emotion reflects positively on the brand.

Building a brand … making your brand stand out

Be useful or entertaining … or be ignored.

We focus on five areas to make a brand stand out … just 5. Think about these areas for your brand.

Distinctive voice

When we’re working with clients on a creative branding project, one of our first steps is to create a book of selected pictures and graphics that create a feeling of the brand’s character.

The next step though is the expression of the brand through words. The message, we feel, is just as crucial and maybe more so.

Fun phrases such as, “Pick me!” and “Will you marry me?” manage to bring humor into the fast-food experience, and their Twitter account carries that same fun-loving attitude — even when their customers complain.

The account doesn’t feign pretentiousness, and by having a genuine brand voice, Taco Bell adds a human side to its marketing.

When you tell your creative branding story, create a distinctive voice with unique images … dare to create different feelings and emotions with your communities.

Reflect Your Culture

Here is a great example … of how Zappos uses the element of surprise so effectively. Note this story is told by the customer:

Those kinds of examples are justified by almost any cost, and the cost hit Zappos takes by doing this is paid back multiple times over by the customer loyalty they generate from making people happy.

Customers crave a consistent brand experience

Customer personalization

Explore the use of customer personalization to create WOW from your customers to create a stronger market branding.

Have you ever used customer personalization to improve the experiences your customers receive from your business? If so, have you noticed its impact on your market branding? The process of personalization is amazingly powerful:

In a study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, researchers tested the effects that mints had on a control group (where no mints were given) to measure their effectiveness in increasing tips (think of tips as a measure of great customer experience).

The results were surprising, to say the least:

The first group studied had waiters giving mints along with the check, making no mention of the mints themselves. This increased tips by around 3% against the control group.

The second group had waiters bring out two mints by hand (separate from the check), and they mentioned them to the table (i.e., ‘Would anyone like some mints before they leave?’). This saw tips increase by about 14% against the control group.

The last group had waiters bring out the check first along with a few mints. A short time afterward, the waiters came back with another set of mints and let customers know they had brought out more mints, in case they wanted another.

That last group is where waiters saw a 21% increase in tips. They still were bringing out only two mints.

The researchers found that it was the perceived personalization of bringing out the second set of mints and mentioning it to customers (Hey, I thought I might see if all of you are satisfied or if someone could use an extra mint.) that made the difference.

Our takeaway:

It wasn’t the mints; it was the personalized experience that they created. It made it clear to customers that the waiter was thinking of them.

Be sure to incorporate this into your offering: How can you follow up with customers in a personalized manner with free support, training, or reward for trying out your product or service?

Need some help in capturing more customers from your branding design strategies? Such as creative branding ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

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.

More reading on brands and branding from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Are you looking to improve a memorable brand? We often get new client inquiries for help with improving their brand. Depending on the business, and where it is in the life cycle, that can be a tall order.

Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.

Seth Godin

Neil Patel knows a thing or two about building memorable brands, also, doesn’t he?

There is a brand, and there is branding. One is a noun, and one is a verb.

A brand 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.

Related: Building Key Requirements for a Strong Brand Identity

A significant portion of a company’s value is intangible, so a strong brand is a significant competitive advantage. As Philip Kotler wrote:

The second group had waiters bring out two mints by hand (separate from the check), and they mentioned them to the table (i.e., ‘Would anyone like some mints before they leave?’). This saw tips increase by about 14% against the control group.