Get Off Your Butt Branding

In a few weeks it will be spring. That gives all of us the opportunity to do some spring cleaning of our brand. It’s that time again where you should assess the effectiveness of your brand and tighten it up a bit. Is it working as well as it should for you? Do you stand out enough from your competition? Lately I’ve been involved with entrepreneurs and presented a webinar to the large format graphics industry. From their questions it’s apparent to me that their is a lot of frustration with their brands. Many of the concerns stem from establishing an effective positing strategy. Much of the dilemma stems from the fact that many small business don’t recognize differentiators that are frankly staring them in the face. They are so busy running their businesses they just need a second set of eyes to point out just how great they really are. Take a look at some of these suggestions on Spring Cleaning Your Brand:

1) Take a hard look at your brand image. And by that I mean your logo, website, marketing materials – all the visual components of your brand. Are they consistent with each other? Be sure that the logo on your cards matches the logo on everything else you do exactly. There is no room for “pretty close he.” On your logo there are colours. Those colours make up your brand palette. You can have other colours in your brand palette so long as they compliment your logo colours. Now use your brand palette on everything else that you do. That also includes apparel and fleets of vehicles. You want the public to identify your brand through colour use. Ideally you want to “own your colour” much like UPS owns brown.

2) Do your employees completely understand the promise you make to your customers? By brand promise, I mean what exactly you are offering them. If you are a collision shop, your promise may be to bring the person’s vehicle back to showroom quality every time and delivered on time. If they do not understand your brand promise they can’t live up to it. Internal branding instructs them on how they are to represent your brand and how they talk about it. Bringing them up to speed allows them the opportunity to understand the prime direction of the brand and what valuable role they play in its success. Its remarkable how many small business don’t understand the value in communicating their brand internally. They fail to see that it is more important in many ways than external branding , because, if they don’t get it – your brand will suffer, and that costs you money.

3) Brand awareness. What is the perception on the street of your brand? By street – let’s define that as your marketplace. If their is no perceivable perception, then you’ve got a job to do. You have to get your company out there and push your brand to the masses. Get involved, show why it matters that you exist at all. Just because you’ve built it doesn’t mean that they will come. You’ve got to show your public that you can resonate with them. Show your difference in a big way. Demonstrate how you can become their greatest resource. Occupy a piece of their mind.

4) Get out of your comfort zone. The best thing that you can do for your brand is to accomplish tasks that are holding your brand back. They might include developing your expert profile so that your market sees your brand as the expert it is. Look for ways to put your opinion in front of your customer’s eyes. Maybe that would involve trying to get a regular column in your industry publication or blog. Sure, your not a writer, but you do know everything about your industry and you have wisdom to share. Push away the barriers that stop you from promoting your brand. Stop telling yourself that “that will never work,” and start winning the praise of your industry by becoming their go-to person for insight. Get out of your own way.

5) Just do it. Nike got it right. I belong to many networking groups. The one thing that i notice is that most in the room are just going through the motions. They actually expect a lead to fall into their laps, by sitting, watching and contributing nothing. What does this in-action say about their brand? I want to provide leads to people who are passionate. I look for opportunities for other people all the time. It is my absolute belief that you have to create your own opportunities. If I waited for them to come to me, things would be very lean indeed. As much as i realize that business plans are very important for start-ups, it amuses me how long a body spends sweating all the details to the detriment of just jumping into the thick of it and making it happen. Look for opportunities to join forces with like minded individuals and jointly push your brands. The next networking meeting you’re at show the people at your table that you matter. Actively listen to them – contribute great information. Give them a reason to remember you when they are talking to their network of contacts. It’s not their business you are looking for, it’s who they know. Once you get that down you join the much desired group of contact s – “those who know YOU.”

Branding is a never ending game. But the simple fact is that you have one like it or not. You can choose to define it yourself or let the street do that. My guess is that you would prefer that honour. I find pushing out my brand a great deal of fun. I embrace the challenge. I am amazed at times, just what results I am able to achieve. I am no different than you, just a small business person looking to get a great message into the hands of all whom I touch. Every effort large and small contributes to this goal.And that my friend sis how i choose to make a living.