Branding- How Do You Know It's Working for You?
"Branding", say that word and one could assume you are talking about making a permanent mark on your cattle with an iron. Cowboys did this to tell there cattle apart and protect their investment. In business today, branding is still about putting a permanent mark on your customer's mind. How your customers feel about you is all that counts. Therefore, you must stand out in their perception. The trick to successful branding is to make your company stand out for the right reasons.
So how do you know when or if your branding process is working? Simple, you check in with the important people, your customers. Survey them in a multitude of ways, but find out how they "feel" about you and your company, product, or business. Notice I said "feel" not think. Again, you are trying to establish what you mean to them. Watch how they interact with you and what they say to other potential clients about you. Are they giving you referrals? Why do they choose you? When you start to get 99% positive response and people start talking about your product or service in terms of your business name, then you really know its working like: "I want an "Inteligit" website!" or "Wow, I got "Nordstrom" service at that place!" Then you know that your brand "sticks" and is defining you in a positive light.
True recent story, I had a client who had a tremendous amount of expertise and competition. The competition started "dressing up" by improving its brand by getting a new logo, website, business cards, commercials, etc. My client started losing business to him strictly due to perception and not quality service as my client clearly offered a better value. Our answer was simple, say that you are quality in your communiciation media. Step up your "Brand". He did and the rest is history, he is doing 10 times more business and very successful as he should be.
Bottomline, when your customers say good things, trust you, select you over others, and you start making money than you ever dreamed of , then you know your branding process is working.
So how do you know when or if your branding process is working? Simple, you check in with the important people, your customers. Survey them in a multitude of ways, but find out how they "feel" about you and your company, product, or business. Notice I said "feel" not think. Again, you are trying to establish what you mean to them. Watch how they interact with you and what they say to other potential clients about you. Are they giving you referrals? Why do they choose you? When you start to get 99% positive response and people start talking about your product or service in terms of your business name, then you really know its working like: "I want an "Inteligit" website!" or "Wow, I got "Nordstrom" service at that place!" Then you know that your brand "sticks" and is defining you in a positive light.
True recent story, I had a client who had a tremendous amount of expertise and competition. The competition started "dressing up" by improving its brand by getting a new logo, website, business cards, commercials, etc. My client started losing business to him strictly due to perception and not quality service as my client clearly offered a better value. Our answer was simple, say that you are quality in your communiciation media. Step up your "Brand". He did and the rest is history, he is doing 10 times more business and very successful as he should be.
Bottomline, when your customers say good things, trust you, select you over others, and you start making money than you ever dreamed of , then you know your branding process is working.
posted by Ramona at
12:32 PM
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