The people in these companies simply go to work everyday and conduct business on a one-by-one transactional basis.

Many people in theses companies don’t think of themselves as having a brand and they end up competing primarily on cost and living on the edge of ever-shrinking margins.

The executives and/or the managerial teams in these companies, feeling victimized by market forces, often fall to grousing bitterly about customers and competitors alike.

Other companies have their marketing strategy embodied entirely in their advertising budget. These companies focus on the promise.

They describe themselves to the marketplace in the best image their ad copy can create and then rely on the hype to attract, and then retain customers.

Like hopeful singles at the community dance, they get all dressed up and hope others will find them attractive.

Still other family businesses rely on extra-business, personal relationships to keep customers.

They count on the loyalty, friendship, and shared experiences of the past to guarantee continuing business in the future.

For these companies, regardless of what they may say in public, business is primarily a personal matter.

This has always been more prevalent in small towns and less urban areas where competition is never as sharp as that on the fast track.

They seek security in a mutual sense of community. These companies rely on personal bonds to compensate for other competitive deficiencies.

(It was against those players that the Walton family and their Wal-Mart organization gained the traction that led their company to the top of the Fortune 500 list in 2002.

It is also worth noting that this is a family owned business that began as a single operation in a small town.)

All of these alternatives eventually play out in a way that leaves these organizations reacting to the initiative of others, hoping to survive what’s happening to them, trying to get by or endure in the face of forces that are beyond them.

All of these strategies are passive. They predispose the organization to reacting to external events. With any of these strategies, the weaker businesses will die off first, while stronger ones linger, even thrive at times, but the end game has surely begun even for the fittest.

The more effective strategies involve hedging your bets---reducing the risk of loss on a speculation by compensating transactions---by using multiple offensive tactics rather than relying on only one that is passive and defensive.

Taking The Offense:

The best choice for any business is to take the offense.

You can build a strategy allowing you to redefine the game. You can develop initiatives that allow you to play to your advantages on your own turf, within your realistic capabilities.

What do you have going for you as a family business or a privately held business leader?

Several possible factors are a size that lets you be nimble, market and customer intimacy, speed of decision-making and the ability to think together and act in a focused way on your strategic intent.

You are the guardian of your identity. You do control your strategic intentions.

You can make the brand promises that are the most meaningful to your customers and build an organization capable of delivering what your customers value most of all.

Too often, brands are seen as the province of the marketing department.

Some companies pour large sums of money into advertising in order to inform you of their brand's promise.

However, they can be much less diligent in simply helping their workers understand the complexities of the promises and their roles in ensuring that the product continuously lives up to the customers expectations.

A sharp marketing department can craft a siren's song of promises that draws people to you, who then find themselves running face to face into the same old crew, working in the same old ways.

Additionally, people in general often ignore or minimize the elements that they don’t want to face, and they try to make a partial solution be sufficient.

While there are many strategies for companies of all sizes who compete in today’s business environment, there is only one real posture that leads to breakthrough results. Take the offense.

Make it happen in ways that play to your strengths.

35. Having Meaningful Brand Equity Conversations In Your Workplace

Tool Preview: A structured set of questions to take you, and a cross-functional team of your people, through a conversation about how they can work to increase the worth of your brand. When you’ve worked your way through the entire list, you’ll have a group with a clear idea of what you’ve promised customers, who also know how to maximize the unique value that you can consistently deliver. [Read Now]

Fred Gaston’s Company Story: This story is about recognizing the value that your customers seek in your band and how efforts to ensure that you deliver what you promise can pay big dividends. [Read Now]

Building The Capability To Fulfill Brand Promise:

Understanding what to do isn’t enough. You have to set the stage to make it happen. Then, you have to lead the organization that does it.

Keeping Your Promises:

Have you ever thought deeply about the brands that hold your loyalty?

It isn’t by accident. There is an experience that occurs which forms the basis of a potentially powerful bond. You really like what the product does for you.

You feel good about it, and by extension, the company associated with the goods or service.

Perhaps you feel quite stylish in those sunglasses, or maybe those potato chips have just the right amount of salt, less grease but they still possesses a robust taste.

Maybe the deodorant works better than any you’ve ever used, or your after-shave is the same as your dad’s and there is an emotional bond with the product that bridges the generations for you.

Not every brand garners your loyalty. Those that achieve it have a valuable asset.

It might be difficult to exactly pinpoint the equity in the strength of that loyalty, but they can count on your continued patronage.

They can protect that value by ensuring that your expectation is met.

If the chips get too salty, or if the after-shave’s aroma no longer evokes those memories, your loyalty will soon flag.

Your expectation is a result of the brand promise. The same product can meet different expectations for different people.

Those sunglasses may look cool to you and yet cut glare and filter UV rays dependably for someone else.

The bottom line, however, is that the company (not just a few key people) understands its brand promise and faithfully fulfills it better than its competitors.

There are two ways that promises are made and expectations are formed.

One way is explicitly. People say clearly and directly, “You can count on me to do this or that.” “If you want this, then give me that.” These comments are explicit. While people may quibble about the terms of the deals they make, it is pretty clear that there are expectations being formed. Promises are being made. Deals are closed.

The second way is implicitly. The deal may never be put into words or even consciously thought about, yet expectations are established.

People who act together over time as if they have an understanding about what’s going to happen, make implicit promises.

If I call you every day to chat and you take my calls and chat with me, an expectation forms after a while, that I’m going to call you tomorrow as well. I have never said that this is what I’ll do. You have never asked me to call daily.

Yet if after the pattern has been established, I quit calling, you’ll wonder what happened. You might wonder if it was something you said. You might wonder if I’m okay.

You might think any number of things depending on your personality.

But, you will wonder. Acting “as if” we have an understanding actually creates one.