The Real Brand Issue...
The Real Brand Issue…
is how you go about creating a strong brand
No one needs convincing about the importance of brands in business. The real issue is HOW you go about creating one.
All good commentators and writers on this subject recognise that brands are really ‘outcomes’ of many factors. There’s no getting away from the fact that the creation and emergence of strong brands is not a simple or trivial endeavour.
My concern is for the ‘brand owner’, the title I use for the founders, MDs and CEOs of companies large and small. They are rarely trained or experienced marketeers and are at the mercy of many divergent views and opinions from the marketing industry. Witnessing brand owners receiving contradictory advice from people of different marketing-related backgrounds is something I have experienced many times. It happened again last week! a business owner I know was bamboozled by one brand-related recommendation from their web agency and contradicted by another from their promotions agency. Not surprisingly, advice, however well-intentioned, is distorted by the medium in which the ‘specialist’ operates and is typically based on little or zero market intelligence.
The subject of brands and brand strategy is NOT unfathomable. I am on a mission to help brand owners (MDs, CEOs, Founders) get a grip on this subject and take ownership of their brand.
Yes, brand owners will need specialist external help to realise the full potential of their brand asset, but they can confidently lead this process by understanding the core principles that underpin all strong brands. Establishing clarity about what factors in your offer (products, services, experiences) powerfully resonate with your customers and prospects is at the heart of it. These factors I call Brand Connection Points. Close examination of any strong brand reveals this truth. This is the start of the journey to building a strong brand.
On my website and in the guide (see below), I illustrate this and bring this to life with case studies and a ‘gallery’ slideshow called ‘Brands Distilled’.
Brand owners need clear, jargon-free guidance that connects the business they are passionate about to their audience. This is the purpose behind the Brand Compass, a methodology and approach accessible to all business owners.
Brand Compass - Clear Direction for Building Strong Brands is freely available from my website, stewartredpath.com
