Lessons in brand building 02
That’s a pretty weird thing for a marketeer to say. Let me explain…
Strong brands lead. They do not follow. Brands are like people and when people are good and strong, people follow them and are attracted to them. We want those good and strong people to live up to, and maybe even exceed, our expectations.
We want them to be themselves and to be true to themselves. We want to believe in them.
I encourage business owners always to start their brand rethinking from inside-out. This means listening and observing carefully to establish what are the factors that genuinely connect what you do with your customers and wider audience. Is it your products? What specifically about your products? Is it some aspect of service that you provide? Is it something less tangible that resonates emotionally with your audience? To provide objectivity and deeper insights, I would always recommend using primary research in this process too. So listen carefully. This is about discovering your brand connection points and sources of brand power.
This is not the same as being ‘customer-led’.
The problem with the idea of being ‘customer-led’ is that the customer is never innovative. The customer is always responsive. They react and respond to the brands, products and services around them. Consequently, market research is a ‘rear view mirror’. It is great for gauging attitudes, opinions and for sounding out new ideas, but it is the job of the brand owner to innovate and find new and better ways of fulfilling the needs of people, be they emotional or rational.
Great, visionary marketing people and entrepreneurs often combine customer understanding with the courage of their convictions. This is where breakthrough brands come from. Chris Moss, the marketing director behind Orange Telecom, completely side-stepped the product tech-led mentality of the telecoms world and instead created a human-centric, optimistic vision (‘The future’s bright, the future’s orange’). Incidentally, this approach was super popular in research testing.
Unconfident brand owners copy their peers. Try this for yourselves. Take your web or brochure copy, remove the brand names, pictures and colours. Take 3 or 4 of your competitors and do the same. Now compare what you read. Is it different in how it portrays what you do, how you do it and why you do it?
Be brand-led, not customer-led and start your journey of creating a truly strong brand.
The approach of Brand Compass: Clear Direction for Building Strong Brands is specifically designed for business owners or MDs and others leading strategy. The detailed guide is freely available at https://stewartredpath.com/
