Branding Basics

Strong Brand: Every Company Needs One

We appreciate those who get to “the point” quickly, succinctly, and memorably. They are unique standouts, never confused with others. We gravitate to them because they add maximum value, at minimum cost, to our lives. Example: NJ Governor Chris Christie

 
Likewise, we gravitate to the vendor that gets to “the point” — Here’s your problem, our unique solution, and why you must act now — quickly, succinctly, memorably. Never do we confuse a unique standout — a strong brand — with its competitors.

HINT: You know you have a strong brand when your customers can describe it — in one sentence — without mentioning your product.
 

Otherwise, you’re stuck in the white noise — indistinguishable from your competitors — where choosing your company is as confounding as picking a card in a magic trick.

 

  • What a Brand Is: A unique value proposition that evokes gut reactions from target/actual customers: military, industrial, commercial, and consumer

  • Brands & Products: Products and services are incidental brand-delivery vehicles — they come and go — and either boost or kill the brand. Customers buy solutions and value, not products … and certainly not technologies

  • Brands & Selling: A unique, strong brand lowers your cost of sales — it’s Teflon for the sales funnel. Continuously sharpening your brand is a necessity, not a luxury, through every economic cycle — especially a recession.

  • What a Brand Ain’t: A photo, product/industry/technology description, tagline, and fancy logo (“Do They Understand Your Brand?”)

  • CEO’s Neck on the Line: If the brand is murky to employees, investors, partners, customers, and suppliers, they’ll redefine it to suit themselves — killing revenues and share value, and putting the CEO’s neck on the line (“NBC’s Brand: Clear as Mud”).


Strong Brand: Teflon for the Sales Funnel

In today’s competitive world, it’s impossible to distinguish one vendor from another. Look, for 15 seconds, at a typical Website; what do you see? Product attributes, posted for and by product designers. Waste of words. White Noise. Confusion. No brand. Window shopping. Search-engine optimization (SEO/SEM) and social networking can’t fix that!

This discussion isn’t about Website design — it’s about effective communication. There are simple homepages that grab us, fancy ones that repel or bore us.

Why my obsession with your homepage?

Your company’s homepage is its brand container, the jar that exposes its jam; its barcode; its book cover; its opening argument; its billboard — in fact, the most-visible indicator of your brand’s strength and ingredients.

A weak brand on your homepage is reflected everywhere: in CEO speeches, sales pitches, employee training, channel recruiting, financial documents, exec summaries, product brochures, advertising, and, therefore, in customers’ guts. (“Brand Always Pulls the Revenue Cart”)

 
Strong branding begets easy selling. The ideal salesforce is a group of ordertakers, every CEO’s utopia. You want ordertakers? Invest in becoming a unique standout, in creating a strong brand: Teflon for the sales funnel. The stronger the brand, the faster and easier the sale.

Weak branding begets slow selling. Weak branding means life in the white noise — locus of slow sales, no sales, or being ignored altogether. It’s true. If customers don’t grasp your brand, your sales funnel will operate like a clogged drain (“Branding vs. Blending”).
 

Creating a Strong Brand is Your #1 Priority

 

Strong Brand: Teflon for the Sales Funnel

CEOs: Weak Brand => High Cost of Sales
Investors: Weak Brand => Anemic IRR

 

 

Marc Rudov Discusses Branding Impediments

with

Steve Bengston of PriceWaterhouseCoopers

The Root of Weak Branding is Poor Communication

(Click on icon above to hear interview)