As a Business Owner of a small to medium enterprise, it is just as important to develop & maximise your brand for you & your organization as it is for a large national or international corporation.
It is the same for a coach, a trainer, a real estate agent or a restaurant owner.
It is all about you & the relationship you have with your clients – what their perceptions are of you your employees, your organization, your products & your services.
All brands, in all industries, with all products and services, start “small”, usually with one person, one person’s idea or dream, starting a business & building a business.
- Deliver on your promises
- Build credibility, trust & confidence with your customers
- Touch the hearts & minds of your customers
- Be a safe bet
The Ten Consumer Perceptions Which Define The Brand
A brand is a set of perceptions in the mind of the consumer.
It is built around experiences that consumers have with a brand, its organizations, employees, that in turn influences the brand’s positioning and value in the marketplace.
The relationship or depth of loyalty a consumer has to a brand represents the security of earnings to its owner.
The Law of Perception & Your Reputation.
The way that you are viewed by your customers, determines your brand strength & value, and in turn your income.
When your customer really believes and feels that you are “working for them” in a true partnership, “win/win” relationship, that you actually care about them and their special needs, you will have an excellent reputation and their custom.
In this way they will be “raving fans” and your customers will be your “gold.”
A brand is built up & defined by a set of ten consumer perceptions about you, your organization, your employees and your brand.
It is the sum total of the experiences that customers have with a brand, its organisation’s employees and its products or services.
1. Brand Awareness
It almost goes without saying that it is important that customers & potential customers are aware of your brand.
Therefore to build brand awareness you will need to do the following:
1. Provide information, solutions, value add and always be forward-thinking differentiates you from your competition.
2. Build a sustainable point of difference.
Traditionally most marketers have focussed on building brand awareness – if enough customers hear about your brand over a long enough period of time then success will naturally flow.
But all too often this is not enough – a brand needs much more than awareness to be successful.
2. Brand Recognition
Brand recognition is all about your brand being recognized, noticed, identified by your customers & potential customers in the marketplace.
Customers recognize the following:
1. Your U.S.P & your points of difference in the marketplace.
2. Your product and service features and benefits.
3. The promises you make about your product & service.
4. Your customer service levels.
3. Brand Positioning
Properly & effectively positioning your business to maximize your U.S.P requires:
- Differentiation
- Positioning
“The customer’s perception of you and your product or service is their reality and it determines their buying behaviour”.
Therefore it is imperative that you properly position yourself, your U.S.P & your brand so that your brand will be seen by customers as the product of choice.
Two tips for positioning yourself & your brand:
1. Presentation: Everything you do, everything the customer sees or fails to see, contributes to the customer’s perception of you and your business. Therefore everything counts.
2. Your individual positioning it is you alone who is selling, backing up and servicing your customer -
Make your personal positioning in your market place so strong, so excellent, so trustworthy, that you will be considered the standard against which competitors are compared.
Perceptions about your positioning your U.S.P effectively is essential.
To reiterate, it is important to get it noticed, recognised & remembered. And position your U.S.P and your brand, effectively, potently, and imaginatively in your marketplace.
The important perception here is that customers understand and recognize your positioning and they have feelings and thoughts about that positioning in the marketplace.
4. Brand Values
What the organization stands for – its ethos,- is very important because it translates to how a consumer feels about those values.
Your guarantees & your promises is what the brand stands for.
Brand values also refer to a measure or valuation of the product or service.
For example, in the fashion industry, Armani & Versace command a higher dollar value over & above what the garment is actually worth.
5. Brand Image
Your brand image is all about the perceptions customers have about the character & reputation of your brand.
6. Brand Identity
Your visual identity comprises: Trademarks, logos, labels etc
What is relevant and potent is the perceptions consumers have about your identity – what it makes them feel, think, value about this brand identity.
For example:
Mercedes
Luxury motorcar, which connotes reliability, safety & success & prestige. The luxury carmaker crafts its sumptuous cars which the rich and famous love to buy and the ordinary consumer dreams of owning.
BMW
The ultimate driving machines are fast, fun & stylish and now come in many more flavours with a rapidly expanding line up.
7. Brand Personality
Brands have personalities just like people because at the end of the day brands are an extension or an embodiment of people-friendly, attractive, warm, honest, reliable, funny, strong, weak.
As such you need to look at each and every promise you make to customers and employees and determine whether in fact, you do deliver upon & honour those promises
Just like a good friendship and a strong relationship a brand’s personality is built on trust & meaningful support.
8. Brand Bet
The confidence factor
This is a way of looking at what your customers are willing to “bet” about you.
What you will or will not do in relation to what you have promised to do.
Organizations of all shapes & sizes can easily determine the value of the brand based on the confidence level of their consumers.
“What it boils down to”
No matter how fancy, clever & creative your advertisements are & no matter what values you espouse it all boils down to the confidence levels of your customers; what they are prepared to bet that you will in fact deliver on your promises.
Once again we see the imperative of delivering on your promises to your customers.
“The Safe Bet”
Another way to look at it is that the brands that people will bet on, the ones they are confident will in fact deliver on the promises are a safe bet.
The ones that are trustworthy, honest & full of integrity.
9. Brand Equity
The Customer Service Barometer
Brand Equity or Brand Value (Asset) is the loyalty & the goodwill that you build over time with your customers.
To build a truly powerful brand you must have Brand Equity, which means your customers, must:
- Love you & your brand
- Trust you & your brand
- Believe you & your brand
- Know you will always deliver on your promises
- You meet an unmet need in the marketplace.
Relationship Marketing
To be able to actually deliver on “Customer Service Excellence” you must have a meaningful, mutually beneficial relationship with your customers, between yourself, your staff and your customer.
The 4 keys to Relationship Marketing
1. Understand your customer’s needs, deliver what they want, value adds at every opportunity.
2. Old-fashioned service necessitates actually caring about another person - “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
3. Always deliver on promises and more when you can.
4. Love your customers more and your products and processes less.
The Customer Service Barometer
How well you deliver on customer service is a barometer for your Brand Equity.
Happy “raving fan” customers equates to sales, the maximisation of client duration and value and ongoing loyalty to you and your brand.
10. Brand Promise
You must deliver on these promises consistently every single time and in full.
If you know for whatever reason that there is a reason you will be unable to deliver on any promise, notify your customers and or employees as soon as possible.
Then explain “plan B” and what you will do to rectify the problem
The role of WOM – Word of Mouth
The best way to tell the world about your brand & its values is WOM.
WOM is arguably the most effective form of advertising. It is great for building new brands because it comes from a trusted source – friend, associate or relative – that usually has had first-hand knowledge & experience with the brand
