So, what is a brand? It is the sum and total of what you communicate to your customers, employees and the world about what differentiates you from your competitors. If someone asked one of your customers about your business, what would the answer be? If you’re not sure, you probably need to build your brand.
What Is Your Brand?
Buyers are attracted to companies that have a solid brand. Some brands are known for quality, some for service, some for their domination in a specific market segment. Companies that focus on building and communicating their brand create more real and especially perceived value over their competitors. They also retain their customers longer. The goal is to not look like everyone else. So, how do you do it?
Get your team together and begin asking some hard questions and be honest about the answers. If you don’t know for sure, survey your customers and key stakeholders through a third party marketing firm. Questions that need to be answered are:
- Why do our customers buy from us?
- Are they confident in the level of service/quality they receive from us?
- How often do our customers “switch” to competing businesses?
- How often do they refer others to us?
- Do our margins and revenues continue to steadily grow?
- Will our customers pay a premium for our service/products?
- Are we “recognized” in the industry?
These are just a few of the questions that will begin to lead you to what you need to do to begin building your brand. A good marketing firm can guide you through the initial research process. At the same time, you will need to begin to build your identity in the marketplace by participating with industry associations, publishing articles, using trademarks and logos, conducting seminars and workshops and more.
As your brand gets built and your name becomes more recognized, you are well on your way to building an attractive company that buyers will be more than willing to pay a premium for.
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