The Secret To More Sales - Branding Your Business
When your budget is cut or the economy shrinks, that priority becomes even more critical. If it sounds like both of these situations exist for you right now, the solution lies in a new approach to your marketing and sales strategy. 
A good example of marketing in a very competitive market is Starbucks. They have carved out a huge market share selling a product that is 5000 years old. I guess you could say "coffe" was/is a mature market. What can we learn from Starbucks about marketing?
Most businesses are are not doing what Starbucks has done but are doing what we call “Backward Marketing”. It’s the most common marketing mistake in business and the most damaging. What is "Backward Marketing"? How much money is "Backward Marketing costing your business?
“Backward marketing” describes the process of implementing marketing tactics before there is a Brand Strategy to base them on.Let’s take a moment to define some terms.
A tactic is the thing(s) you do----or implement----to market or run your business: Your logo, for example; your website; your slogan; your location (if you have one); your personnel; your sales presentation; even how you answer the phone and communicate with prospects and customers. Using direct mail, sending post cards to a direct mail list. Creating a full color brochure, talking about how wonderful you are. These are all tactics.
A “Brand Strategy” is something entirely different. Your Brand Strategy is the perception you create that differentiates your business or service from your competition. Put another way, in a world full of competition, your Brand Strategy answers the question, “Why you?”
Your Brand Strategy must come before any of your decisions about any of your tactics.
We often meet business owners who show us a pretty new logo, or funny new slogan, and declare with a smile, “See, we’ve branded ourselves.” Wrong.
Everything else----your tactics----must communicate that perception. If they don’t, they aren’t strategic, and it won’t matter how pretty or funny or professionally done your post card, pocket folder or brochure is because they won’t help you grow your business. Every business uses tactics; few businesses have a strategy behind the tactics. As most businesses have painfully discovered over time, marketing before strategy usually results in disappointing results.
You may be saying to yourself, “OK, then what should my strategy be?” You won’t know it until you know enough about your competition and what is needed and wanted in the market place. Knowing your competition is important but knowing why and how your business better fills a need in the market place is crucial. You can tell someone all day long how much better your product is compared to your competition, but if the prospect does not care about or need your improvements – or betterments, they will not buy from you.
And the secret of marketing success is know what is needed and wanted by the market then by proving that you provide what is needed and wanted, better than everyone else.
Think about it. If the goal is to give consumers a reason to buy from you, rather than your competition, then you have to create a perception of difference between you and your competition; and the only way to know how to create a different perception is to know what is needed and wanted by the market. If you don’t create that perception of difference, you will be left to compete on price alone, and that’s no way to build a business.
A good example of this is Starbucks. A few years ago a cup of coffee was a cup of coffee, was a cup of coffee. People really did not think about it beyond French Roast or Regular Blend. Coffee had been around as a product probably for 5,000 years. You could get a cup anywhere for .50 cents. Then Starbucks came along and discovered people wanted and would pay for a “coffee experience”. They put together a posh store, put some foamy milk in with espresso, called it a “Grande Latte”, charged you $3.50 a cup and walla – you felt like you had a trip to Europe and a “Coffee Experience”. Starbucks created one of the biggest brands in the world by finding out what the market, the coffee drinker, needed and wanted. Then giving it to them. They did not compare themselves to Folders or Maxwell House or even the corner café.
Many business people believe they are creating a perception of difference by saying they have better ‘service’ or ‘quality’ or ‘value’ or ‘experience’, etc.” Remember that your competition is using all those same words, so when you use those words, they don’t differentiate you at all. Besides, we’ve all heard promises about service and quality and value for so long----and been disappointed so often----that we just don’t believe those claims any more.
Step 1: You have to survey your customers and prospects to find out how they feel about the product or service in your business category. What do they expect from it? What is missing they would want? How they will use it? What they don’t like about it? What problem does it helps them to solve? From this data you begin to develop ideas to build your brand. How you will position your company. What niche you will fill in the market place. You can also use this information to develop marketing buttons for your advertising and a message that will resonate with the market.
To recap, a brand is not something you just make up. A brand is something you create based on what is needed and wanted in the market place. You identify what is needed and wanted then you come up with a bright idea and develop the brand around what is needed and wanted by the market place.
Mark Hale 727-536-4173
