“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” —Jeff Bezos

Many Small Companies Don’t Realize They Have a Brand Awareness Problem…

Some companies stick in our mind,…others don’t. A company with a high level of positive brand awareness amongst  consumers can shorten the buying decision process. Positive Brand Awareness is tantamount to Trust. Is your company known for one service or product category or multiple categories. Is your brand known for providing incredible value for the dollar spent or being “too bloody damn expensive”? Both of those a distinctive brand message. Gainly awareness and clarity about which message your brand is sending out it vitally important.

If Jeff bezos is right (“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”) we need a way to listen in on what is being said in that room.

Just What Is a Brand?

Often the first thing that small business owner think of when they hear the word “brand” is the logo on their signage, their brochure or the shirts their employees wear  wear but those are only symbols and not the real essence of just what a brand is.

Your brand is your company’s personality as seen through the eyes of your clients and potential clients..

It’s how your company is seen and perceived in the media and in your customer’s mind. You certainly want a personality your target market will approve of, remember, and prefer every time they decide to purchase.

Not sure how to go about branding your small business? I can help point you in the right direction.

A brand is more than a logo and a corporate color scheme. A brand is a set of values, ideas, experiences… It’s the words we write, the things we say and the vision that drives us. Logos, colors and images are just a way of “giftwrapping” those core ideas for public consumption.

At The Small Business Systems Co. we works with small businesses to help figure out just what their brand really is… Who their true audience is, what the core of their message should be and what sets them apart from the crowd.

What Does Being A “Brand” Do For You?

• Being seen as a “Brand” helps differentiate you from the flotsam and jetsam in the marketplace. You want your services and products to be seen as more than just commodities
• Being a brand builds customer loyalty. People stick with brands sometimes for no more reason than they just recoginse and trust the brand over the generic competition.
• Being a trusted brand can help you command higher pricing. A brand identity attracts an enhanced  perceived value and customers loyal to the brand  will willingly pay more just for the brand name even if the brand is delivering the same value as the generic service or product.

What Is A “Brand Identity”?

These are the tangible sysmbols that people assiciate with you with you brand. The include your brand name and logo and any tagline or taglines associated with the brand. Your corporate indentiy so to speak.

The Stories That Make Up Your Brand

I still rememebr the impact when I first discovered and read Set Godin’s classic “All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low Trust World” and the voice in my head that said “This guy gets it!“

People relate to stories. Stories connect people to your brand.

“All marketers tell stories. And if they do it right, we believe them. We believe that wine tastes better in a $20 glass than a $1 glass. We believe that an $80,000 Porsche Cayenne is vastly superior to a $36,000 VW Touareg, even if it is virtually the same car. We believe that $225 Pumas will make our feet feel better–and look cooler–than $20 no names. . . and believing it makes it true.”

Seth Godin has also said:

“Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem.  Marketing helps others become who they seek to become”

Seth makes a point that there is a difference between bad marketing, the kind of marketing that interrupts potential customers and pressures them into buying a service or product they may not need or want and good brand marketing messages. Good marketing is where a brand helps customers amd is a positive force in society.

“The other kind of marketing, the effective kind, is about understanding our customer’s world view and desires so we can connect with them”

Carrying on the theme of storytelling in 2017, Donald Miller published his book with his take on story telling as a marketing tool: Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen, in which he wrote about modern marketing and messaging. In it he detailed a 7 part marketing (story) framework in which:

1. You have a Character typically the customer and the customer is on a heroic journey (as describe by Joseph Campbell) where they have a problem they need to overcome.
2. The Problem is an obstacle or challenge that the the hero customer is facing and the story narrative, the plot-line is what the audience you are delivering your message to follows.
3. On the hero’s journey she or he meets up with a Guide. Your business your brand is this guide and your brand can help provide the hero customer with a plan, a map, to help them conquer their problem.
4. Your brand, your company has a detailed clear actionable Plan, a road map to help solve the problem.
5. As the hero’s guide you then provide the hero with a Call To Action something they can then do to start taking the specific steps in the plan that will solve their problem
6. Your story then vividly explains the outcome that Result in Success, the conquering of the heroes problem and obstacle in their path.
7. And the consequences of not following the plan, the potential negatitive outcome are explained Helping Them Avoid Failure.

Ready To Get Started Working With Me?

Let me be your guide, your Tonto, your Sancho Panza your faithful sidekick and squire on your hero’s journey.

I contract, design, build and even host responsive database business applications for Contractors Builders and Remodelers as part of ParadigmProjects.com and for other small businesses as part of TheSmallBusinessSystems.com.