Brand Booster 21 Day 8: Stake Holder Perceptions of Your Brand

Branding is about customer’s perception. When you want to create a brand you want to create a perception of the customer that you are the best, provide quality, or maybe even more.

It is important to have a good idea of what the customers currently think of you when you are building a branding campaign. Today customers may not know that you exist or they may have a negative feel for your business because you haven’t been practicing proper methods. Have a clear understanding on exactly what the customers think of you.

If you are unsure what the customers think of you then you may need to send out surveys and questionnaires. These types of things can help you get a good idea where you stand with the perception of the customers. It is okay if it is bad today. It will give you something to build on with your branding campaign.

Everything accomplishes up to this point has been solely the opinion of the Branding Team, now comes the time to test your discoveries with stake holders outside of the team.

These stake holders are represented as 3 groups:

1) Customers

2) Employees

3) Suppliers

Of the 3 groups all replies should be kept confidential EXCEPT for the customers unless requested. Any customer concerns expressed must be addressed. We would suggest a minimum or up to 50 individuals from each group to get a reasonable result from which to validate the Team’s work or from which to correct shortcomings.

The attached questionnaires will help your team in getting helpful results from respondents. If you feel you would like to add a few questions, remember to not make the survey too long. Go over all questions with the Branding Team to be sure they are comfortable with what is being asked.

Who ever conducts the surveys should be assisted by allowing them to say that, they are conducting the survey under the direction of your company and specifically your name as company leader. The stake holders will be much more willing to participate knowing that the request to participate is coming directly from your company’s leadership.

Once answers have been tabulated, call a meeting of the Branding Team to go over the results. Any shortcomings should be addressed. If for instance Character Values are called into question, then they should be brought to task and determined by the team if they should be changed or the attitude marked for improvement to better reflect the value.

Your Notebook To Do:

Answer the following Questions and put the ACTIONS in your To Do Notebook

• Have a clear understanding on exactly what the customers think of you
• send out surveys and questionnaires
• go over questions with your branding team prior to surveys
• address any shortcomings