Posts Tagged brand identity
Brand Touchpoints Drive Your Brand Image
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Touchpoints on April 4, 2011
Visited a local italian restaurant not long ago. Good food and good service, which was to be expected for the mid-range prices they were charging. What wasn’t expected, though, were the folding tables and chairs (think church potluck supper decor and you have it). This little disconnect made me pay closer attention to everything else about the place – the tableware, wall decorations, lighting — all of it. I’m not certain the image the restaurant owners were trying to create, but I don’t think it was “Wednesday night church supper.”
The image for all brands — yours and mine — is formed as a direct result of the experience folks out there in the real world have as they engage with the brand. Brand touchpoints.
Some business owners and brand managers have sweated over every conceivable brand touchpoint to ensure they’re in sync with the brand identity they’ve strategically crafted. They’ve identified them, prioritized them based on their affect on brand image, and then actively manage them to ensure they’re properly delivered.
Most, like my restaurant friends, have done only a superficial job, focusing on the obvious touchpoints of product, advertising, and customer service at the expense of not considering all the other possible, perhaps just-as-important, touchpoints. The result is a disconnect between the desired brand identity and actual brand image being formed.
If you haven’t created a formal brand identity and don’t actively manage your important brand touchpoints in support of that identity, then you’ve lost control of the brand image that your target audiences will form about you. Simply, brand touchpoints drive your brands. And your business.
So, what are you doing about it?
Who Are The Faces Of Your Brand?
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Identity, Brand Touchpoints on October 11, 2010
Who are the people that represent your brand out there in the real world?
Your sales force? Without a doubt.
Customer service reps? Absolutely.
Service providers? Yep.
Anybody having direct customer contact? Of course, yes.
Certainly, you’ve empowered these employees to deliver their respective brand touchpoints in a way that supports your brand identity — they know what to say and how to act.
No doubt, there are other employees working for your company who are not on the front lines. When these behind-the-scene workers were trained, I’m guessing they were presented with only on the barest elements of your brand identity, if at any all. True?
Remember the Butterfly Effect?
Could some of these behind the scene employees actually be the butterfly who’s seemingly insignificant actions result in dramatic consequences? Can you really ever know until perhaps it’s too late?
The driver of the branded delivery truck, wrecklessly and obnoxiously weaving through traffic. The auto mechanic carelessly forgetting to tighten the battery terminal after re-connecting it. The rude parking lot attendant at the hospital. The administrative assistant who spells the customer’s name wrong. The stocking clerk ignoring a customer in need of assistance.
I could keep going, but so can you, I’m sure.
While you can’t possibly micro-manage the actions of every employee, you can ensure that each is fully aware of exactly how they, too, should meet your expectations for delivering their respective brand touchpoints so they’re in sync with your brand identity. The culture of conviction, passion, and commitment that you instill in your front line ambassadors should take root with your behind the scenes employees as well.
Because you just never know who the face of your brand will be in a given situation, and what affect that face will ultimately have on whether you win or lose business.
Here’s Hoping (Your) Business Never Returns to Normal
Posted by Mike Paffenback in General on October 7, 2010
Everywhere, folks like you are working hard to get business back on track, pushing sales and revenue to pre-economy of mass destruction levels, or better. But for you, I sincerely hope business never returns to normal. Because there’s a better way for small to mid-sized businesses like yours to succeed than by being “normal.”
Normal is routine; following the curve; complacency. Normal is status quo; competing admirably; working for your fair share. Normal is expected. You can probably achieve a normal level of success by being… ummm, normal. But, is that what you really hope for?
The other day I posted here about Seth Godin’s book, “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable.” The interesting thing about being remarkable is this: if all businesses were truly remarkable, then being remarkable would no longer be remarkable. Being remarkable would be normal.
The good news for you (if you agree with the premise that standing out — in a good way — will lead to more customers and prospects noticing your brand) is that most businesses — including your competitors – aren’t remarkable; they’ve settled for remaining normal. But you, intrepid business visionary, shouldn’t.
Breaking the norm doesn’t have to be radical, expensive, complex, or even revolutionary. It might feel uncomfortable, even risky: that’s an indication you’re probably on the right track. But if you’re committed, passionate, and focused, the ends will more than justify the temporary sweaty palms you’ll experience.
Here’s some help to get you started:
If you could take 10-20 actions that would change your business — for better or worse – what would they be? Think about product changes, changes to the distribution and/or supplier channels, packaging, programs, customer service — everything and anything.
Now, push those 10-20 actions to the extremes in one direction, and then the extremes in the exact opposite direction. What if you doubled your prices? What if you cut them in half? What if you added something to the product? What if you took something away? What if you added more sales personnel? What if you sold direct online?
When you’ve settled on whatever it is that will change your norm, embrace it fully and completely as a key component of your brand identity and through each of your brand touchpoints.
Right now, as the economic pendulum seems to be swinging upwards once again, do something you normally wouldn’t: consider ways to ensure that your business never returns to normal.
Brand Communications: Exactly What Is It?
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Identity, Brand Messaging, Brand Touchpoints on October 5, 2010
For years I referred to what I did for a living as “Marketing Communications.” That is, communications activities that specifically supported the marketing efforts of a client’s product or service.
But experience has led me to a more evolved perspective. And it’s based on the larger view that ”brand,” or more specifically “Brand Identity,” plays a central role in a company’s ability to sell more of their stuff.
The brand identity is the strategic platform developed to define what the brand stands for, what its value is to customers and prospects, and the decisive differences and advantages over competitive offerings. (Do you have one for each of your brands?) At its core, this should remain constant for the individual products or services that will be marketed under the brand identity.
Now comes the communications part, and there’s two primary areas to consider here: content and contact.
Content is what you say. It’s the messaging that comes directly out of the brand identity. It conveys why the product or service is better, different, of value, etc. The content should be consistently delivered and reinforced in the next part of the equation, contact.
Contact is what you do. It’s the various brand touchpoints — those significant and seemingly insignificant interactions or ways folks engage with the brand. It could be sales pitches, advertising, social media, trade shows, the receptionist, invoices, delivery personnel, community goodwill, sponsorships, public relations, packaging, etc. Each and every contact should be carefully considered, ensuring the desired content is delivered as prescribed in the brand identity.
Collectively, it’s ”Brand-Centric Communications.” But that’s too mind-numbing to say. Let’s just leave it at “Brand Communications.”
What is “A Brand?”
Posted by Mike Paffenback in Brand Identity, Brand Image, Brand Touchpoints on September 20, 2010
This question was recently posed to a LinkedIn group to which I belong.
Not surprisingly, the responses were varied and, depending on one’s perspective, correct. If ever there was a loosey-goosey marketing term, “brand” is probably it.
The question got me thinking, and I submit the answer lies in one or more of three key areas, depending on who you’re asking:
- The Brand Identity: this strategic platform is developed by internal company management and answers the questions, “what do we want this brand to be when it grows up, and what are the steps we need to take to ensure it happens?” To these brand stakeholders, this is “A Brand.”
- Delivery of Brand Touchpoints: how the various brand interactions with target audiences (customers, prospects, influencers) are delivered will affect what those audiences actually believe about the brand, regardless of what was planned in the Brand Identity. Delivery of the touchpoints should be in sync with the brand identity platform. To those responsible for delivering these touchpoints, this is “A Brand.”
- Formation of the Brand Image: As target audiences interact with the brand touchpoints, they form an impression about the brand — good or bad — depending on their individual experience with the touchpoint(s). To those creating an opinion as a result of these experiences, this is “A Brand.”
“A Brand” is a both process and a result.
It’s an interesting question to post to an Internet social group, but the more important question is what, specifically, is your brand? What’s your brand identity? How synchronized are the delivery of your brand touchpoints with this identity? What’s your brand image being formed this very minute by your target audiences?
Now, those are good questions to answer, aren’t they?