Do any of these scenarios seem familiar?

Scenario 1 – You’re in a large room full of people and you’re supposed to be meeting lots of potential leads. However, every time you start a conversation with someone about your services, you get the cold shoulder.
Scenario 2 – You’ve spent a lot of time thinking about your products and services, and you want potential clients to know about them. The ad went into the paper yesterday… and still no calls. This is the third time you’ve tried print as a medium, and you figure it is the last time you are willing to throw good money away.
Scenario 3 – You’ve spent a lot of money putting your website together, and you can’t  understand why no one seems interested in the site…. especially since you have the best products on the market! The common denominator? In all three scenarios, the focus is on the “thing” – the product or service – but not on the identifying features that reflect how those products and services can help your clients. In other words, your company’s brand. Owning a successful business means understanding your client and their needs, and how your company connects with those clients on an emotional level by fulfilling those needs.

Branding: the building blocks of your business.

As a business owner, it is crucial to understand the emotional connection people have with your brand. Branding is more than a logo, website, brochure or any other marketing collateral (materials or mediums) your company produces. When the topic of branding comes up, there are generally two reactions expressed:  “I don’t have the money to do branding properly”, or “I don’t want to change because what we’re doing right now works well enough.”

Not wanting to spend money when you have no money to spend is understandable. But when you plan the next steps for your business, ask yourself the following question:  “Who will want to buy my products?”  It is vital to be clear on this and not to confuse it with who you want to buy your products – if you’re honest with yourself they may not be one and the same. Not everyone will want your services, and marketing to the people who don’t is an obvious waste of time and money. So know your product and learn your demographic. To understand your demographic, you need to ask a variety of questions:

• Who is currently buying my product?
• What age group do they fit into?
• Where do they live?
• What are their values?

The more detailed and specific you can be in defining that demographic the easier it will be to create an image that connects with your clients.  Determine their age, gender, race, interests, and anything else you can nail down about the users of your product. Create a position for yourself in the market. 
Does your marketing statement or tagline capture the essence of your company? Does it tell people who you are? Positioning yourself with a tagline is crucial, because it educates and informs potential clients about your products and services. Having a tagline is crucial for a second reason in that it allows you to create compelling marketing collateral for your business. Your marketing collateral consists of any product you develop to market your company. It can be an ad in the newspaper, a billboard, your social media efforts – right down to the way you dress. “Service, quality and reliability” does not a tagline make. Generic statements have no bearing on your company. While they may be benchmarks for good business, they do not identify your business; your tagline must connect with your potential clients on an emotional level. It has to reflect your business and capture an audience’s imagination.

Here’s a few that have had a lasting impact:

• Got milk? (1993) California Milk Processor Board
• Don’t leave home without it. (1975) American Express
• Just do it. (1988) Nike
• Where’s the beef? (1984) Wendy’s
• You’re in good hands with Allstate. (1956) Allstate Insurance
• Think different. (1998) Apple Computer
• We try harder. (1962) Avis
• Tastes great, less filling. (1974) Miller Lite
• Melts in your mouth, not in your hands. (1954) M&M Candies
• Takes a licking and keeps on ticking. (1956) Timex

Creating the brand promise

Once you find your snappy tagline, it is time to connect your tagline with your clients. This means creating your brand promise, what it is you promise to do for your clients, because this is how you will shift your position in the marketplace. It’s not about you or your product, but about how you can help your clients; it’s what makes you different from the others and it is crucial in building your brand. Once potential clients understand that you’re going to help them, that it is your company’s premise and promise, then all you have to do to gain that long-term client is… live up to it.

The Next Steps

Your brand promise has to be reflected in all facets of your company, and it will require you to analyze the interactions you have with your clients. Ask yourself these questions:

How do I start a conversation when I am at an event?

Do I make an effort to discover something unique about the person I am engaging with that will help me build an emotional connection with them?

Does my marketing collateral get my company in front of the right demographic and connect it, on an emotional level, with the right potential client?

Is my company and its marketing collateral presented in such a way that it is anchored to my tagline?

Explore the finer points of your brand and you’ll see yourself connecting with clients in ways you never expected. And for those who feel that maintaining your existing marketing efforts is good enough, consider that your competition might, at this very moment, be exploring the opportunity to position itself in front of your clients.