David Brier gave a branding seminar last night and I dropped in to check it out. Besides, Roshini Rajkumar invited me and you definitely want  a vibrant and dynamic person like Roshini on your side.

Anyway, even though I’m in the marketing biz, there’s always more I can learn. And I did. In fact, I took almost three pages of notes.

Here’s my major takeaways from the evening…

If you’re going to do something, do something remarkable…

If you do the same kind of thing “branding wise” that all your competitors do, the choice for buyers pretty much comes down to price. Because they really can’t tell you apart. A great case in point is law firms. They always have the same name: Wiklan, Framjam, Hoper and Skunky. Most of the time you can’t even pronounce the whole name or even remember it. They all dress the same. Their websites all look alike. Need I say more?

How many points of contact do you have with clients or customers and how do you make it special?

Is your office or store you greet customers or clients in, special, or does it look like every other similar business? If you ship to customers, do you have a special box that tells the story of your firm or do they get the standard postal service box? did you copy everyone else in your industry with your website or did you go all out to make it user friendly for your visitors? How many other “points of contact” do you have with the public and have you made them all special?

Surpass expectations – what can transform your ordinary into extraordinary?

It all comes down to knowing your customers, really understanding your customers and their wants, and anticipating what they would really like to experience. You should always be looking for ways to take their experience beyond the ordinary and make it a memorable experience. And this doesn’t just apply to consumer goods. This applies just as much to industrial goods, B-to-B goods and services.

Ordinary marketing is an expense. Extraordinary marketing is an investment…

One definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing over and over and expect different results. If your marketing is a result of “but that’s how we’ve always done it,” That’s an expense because if your business is not growing, then your marketing isn’t working. So you’re just throwing away money. Invest in creating a truly unique brand that completely sets you apart from everyone else. But more than that, create a branding package that is totally unexpected and gets people excited about doing business with you.

Don’t confuse branding strategy with marketing medium.

A branding strategy is an overall brand ”identity” that permeates your business and your marketing across multiple channels. Social media is not a branding strategy. Social media is just one channel to get your branding message across. Same with any other “media” be it press releases, white papers, sponsoring events or putting an ad in the local paper.

Your brand must stand for something.

If you don’t know what your brand is all about, why would anyone else? And why should they care? If it’s just packaging wrapped around your business rather than the central meaning of your business, people will see it for what it is. Typical shallow, meaningless marketing. Or to be more blunt, “lipstick on a pig.” You need to find the core meaning of your business and build a true “brand” from that.

Know the difference between your perception of your business and your customer’s perception.

You may perceive your business as a law firm. Your customer may perceive you as a necessary evil when they get in trouble. You may perceive your business as selling cars. Your customers may perceive you as the hurdle that comes between them and their bragging rights with the neighbor. You may perceive your business as making chocotales. Your customer may perceive you as purveyurs of a “pick me up ” when they’ve had a down day. Think about that when you’re thinking about your brand.

Don’t be a cliche.

If you sell your product or service as a “category” or a cliche, you are actually selling your competitors as much as yourself. If your advertising sells chocolates, every ad you create sells chocolates for every chocolate maker in your area. If your advertising sells Chevrolets, you’re selling Chevrolets for every dealer in your area you compete with. Get the picture? Sell the thing that sets you apart from your competitors, not the product you share with them.

Lastly, “which is cheaper” is the question consumers ask when they really can’t see a difference between your product and your competitor.

If you’re selling a product that really isn’t much different from your competitors and there’s nothing you can do about that, then you have to find some other “differentiators.” You have to create so many things about your business that set you apart from your competitors that it won’t even occur to people to ask about price. The “experience” of your brand is enough to close the sale.

Bob McClain or WordsmithBob, has been a website copywriter in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, since 2000. He has focused on developing new, more effective approaches to web writing, web content, web copywriting and Search Engine Optimization. Starting with a BA in Technical Communication and a minor in Creative Writing from Metro State University in St. Paul, McClain has worked diligently to end the use of "corp-speak" and "technospeak" online. His approach is to “humanize” the Web, using real information to guide people to buy rather than turning websites into advertisements that people can easily ignore. McClain is also the creator of Cheap SEO Website Marketing, a website devoted to helping people with the best solutions to DIY SEO at an affordable cost with tips and software reviews. More at Cheap SEO Website Marketing

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Originally posted 2009-10-27 14:22:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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