subject: The Steps To Brand Greatness - Or Purgatory [print this page] The process of developing your little business whole is made of a series of steps - interdependent and progressively connected. Every step...
1. requires cultivation over time
2. represents an necessary complete building opportunity
3. needs to be achieved in the eyes of your customers before you'll proceed "up the ladder"
Positive Interactions
Your brand story begins with the interactions your small business has with all its stakeholders (customers; workers; vendors; volunteers, etc). Positive interactions that take place across all touchpoints accumulate to make positive client experiences. Let's use the telephone client service touchpoint as an example:
? each time a customer calls your tiny business they get to speak to a "live" person
? that person continuously has great phone manner and has been provided with the tools to assist
? over time these individual customer service calls accumulate into an overall positive complete experience for that customer
As a tiny business owner, it is vital to perceive the cumulative impact of those hundreds/thousands/scores of individual communication opportunities - embracing the philosophy that every interaction is vital can facilitate lay the foundation to build a great brand.
Consistency
Participating in positive interactions at each chance, across all touchpoints, is the next step to complete greatness. Repeated positive interactions add up to an overall complete expertise and type the premise for developing loyalty for your small business brand.
Case Study: WestJet
? Touchpoint: Phonephone Client Service - Interaction: friendly; useful; genuine
cred-i-bil-i-ty: 1. the standard or power of inspiring belief; two: capability for belief
credibility gap: 1. lack of trust; 2. lack of believability (Source: Merriam Webster On-line)
Seeing/experiencing is believing - An ongoing series of consistent and positive interactions can "inspire belief" in your small business brand.
Authenticity
The ongoing engagement of consistent, positive interactions together with your stakeholders begins to formulate your brand culture - an honest illustration of your small business beliefs and values. Michel Hogan does a nice job explaining the "authentic whole" in her manifesto "We Need a New Word for Complete":
"Authentic brands don't seem to be concerning marketing. They are not products. They live within the company. And they're held and enacted of the folks, by the folks and for the folks!...your brand acts as the muse of your company. Its principles are the framework for thought and action by everyone within the company. Without it there is no consistency, no alignment between what you say and what you are doing, no synchronicity between who you're inside and therefore the means you gift yourself outside.
You may raise-"well is not that the same as culture?" The solution is yes and no. Authentic brands are in many ways the identity of the company culture. They help that culture become visible. They additionally embody the values and purpose of the corporate, giving all this stuff a face and a voice which will be seen and heard by everybody the company touches.
Authentic brands live or die with the folks in the organization. If they don't believe the whole, if they do not feel it is their cause, no campaign or modification program on earth can help it succeed. Authentic brands feel natural. There's no want to "educate" the employees-they feel it immediately. There is no would like to launch the "new" complete on your unsuspecting customers-they need known it for years. When you are doing it day in and day trip, saying it becomes almost superfluous.
This is specifically why you must want to search out your authentic brand. Simply imagine a whole that is enduring, that lasts beyond the next ad cycle, that's sustaining and sustainable, that feeds the soul of your company and makes the full stronger. Imagine a whole that does not cause disharmony inside your company, that does not cause friction with the manner you already do things.This is often an authentic whole!"
Trust
As your little business complete develops, it instills a level of expectation from your stakeholders (complete promises). Your brand "keeps its promise" by consistently exceeding the expectations of your customers, staff and vendors - the inspiration of building trust.
Loyalty
Trust ends up in loyalty - the pinnacle of any brand. Whole loyalty is demonstrated in a number of the subsequent ways in which:
? Customers become dedicated to purchasing your product/service over that of the competition
? Customers specific a want to market your complete though Word of Mouth
? Brand forgiveness - customers choose not to dwell on the occasional service gap and continue supporting the brand. (Note: Be careful not to take advantage of the loyalty customers have bestowed upon your brand. Though it takes a very long time to make, whole equity will erode very quickly if you start breaking brand guarantees)
? Customers will seemingly pay higher costs for your products/services
Note: This text was galvanized by a nice image (Brand Stairway) designed by David Armano, author of the Logic+Emotion Blog.
Mark Smiciklas may be a Vancouver Selling Consultant. His firm, Intersection Consulting, helps small to mid-sized businesses address challenges within the areas of selling, management and business development.
