This section has the concepts and tools that allow you create the connections with your customers and focus the efforts of your people to build a more powerful brand.
Seizing Brand Initiative:
There are six key elements that you can consider, regardless of your size or resources that combine to form a powerful strategy for you to take charge of your brand and its inherent promise(s).
Your Public Face:
You can control the face that your company presents to the broad market if you choose to do so.
While companies usually recognize that they project an image they often don’t give that image the attention that it deserves.
There isn’t a right image that you have to project, but there are many images that you probably want to define you.
You are better off working to portray an image that resonates with your promise and the expectations of your customers. You are courting those customers.
You want the public face of your company to display the image and the values that are integral to who you are, and what they can expect from you.
It’s just the same as wearing clothes to a job interview which show how you’ll appear at work rather than wearing your weekend casual clothes, even though they reflect a side of you as well.
There are a number of elements that define your physical presence in the marketplace. Here are some of them:
- The voices (tone, courtesy, and substance) of your receptionists.
- Your physical buildings as well as the look of your home page.
- The appearance of your people who interface with the public/customers.
- The colors of your logo, packaging, vehicles and the like.
- The “look” of your advertising.
- The feelings or the emotional impact that your image, as well as your people, communicate.
- If appropriate, your point of sale presentations.
All of these factors, obviously and subtly, influence the emotional connection that a customer or, just as importantly, potential customers come to associate with the essence of how you are “seen,” your brand.
These factors, when deliberately aligned and presented in ways that enhance your brand promise, can positively impact your sales, the loyalty of customers, and the perceived value of your offerings.
