“B” is for Branding
Does it seem to you that over the past five years you’ve suddenly heard the word “brand” popping up everywhere from products to politics when once a brand was only the “X” stamped on the sides of poor cows? Remember those? If only in the old film Westerns?
First, brands have been around long before the farmers branded x on their cattle so they wouldn’t lose track of whose were whose when all the farmers schlepped their cows into town for market.
But to fast forward, today there are millions upon millions of “cows” on the market that may seem to look and be a lot the same fighting for our attention. More media outlets and the internet have forever changed how as consumers we get to hear about, pick and buy what we purchase. Twenty four hours a day. So how do you tell one product or service from the next? What makes you choose? What’s in it for your customer?
That is where branding begins. And for the small business owners and Fortune 500’s I have the good fortune to work with, their “X” or logo of choice is only the beginning. And their branding is the key to their bottom line.
Here’s a few tips and thoughts about branding and how it may work best for you:
l. Branding is the most cost effective, powerful tool in your marketing kit. Your first step to selling our great product. And the one step many companies, big and small often skip over. They head straight to the sexier sounding stuff – their p.r. and social media and great looking websites and wonder all this sexier stuff is not making heads turn.
2. Branding is emotions and reason and understanding customers, and yourself and knowing what makes you meaningfully different from the others. It affects every area of your business. You may not be the first or the cheapest or the most or least expensive. But how do customers feel about you? Do they trust you?
3. If you’re having a problem in any other area of your marketing and your business, and it’s sapping the fun and sales out of you, look first to the solution to your problem in your branding. What was your original strategy? Do you have one?
4. Don’t try to do this all by yourself. The hard work of looking deep into the the soul of your own brand can be grueling and waste your time and money. I have yet to meet a successful company (including my own) who has figured this stuff out objectively on their own.
5. Discover what makes you or your excellent product or service meaningfully unique not only to you but most importantly to THEM and you will discover your audience is looking for you!
Let the good times roll!
Leah

“A” is for Authentic
If you’ve lived for 45 years, you may be finding yourself now naturally longing to be more authentic than you remember being since  maybe back when you first learned your ABC’s. And A” was for apple.” Authentic would have been too big a word.   But you didn’t need to know it. You just were it. Flash forward and today authentic is what you need to know and be in business in order to make it. It’s more than a buzz word.  It’s your bottom line. And eureka! Authentic is where you happen to come from now more naturally.
Authentic is what makes you unique. Unique and relevant is what makes you a “B” – for brand that then relies on a kit of marketing tools to build the communication that lets people know what makes you unique.  Then you can bring in the “C.” C is for cash and what you can earn a lot of from knowing your authentic persona, and then capitalizing on it. Simply, what makes you authentic is the key to your prosperity. Simple but not always so easy.
So here’s a few things I think authentic is and isn’t as a checklist for your own business:

1. Authentic is what’s true to you.   It’s not a bible to be set in stone. But it is a heart that is steeped in conviction. It’s ever growing. Fluid and dynamic. Like your life.
2. Authentic is what resonates with and motivates you, your customers, clients and investors on a deeply personal level.

Authentic isn’t:

1. Different. People will not pay you for being  different. They will however pay you well for being unique.
2. Authentic isn’t for sissies. It is for those who only want to put their hard efforts into growing bold brands that make a difference.

So here’s two questions to think about before our next blog time together. Do you know what makes your brand unique? Are you ready for this to be your time?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and any questions. If you’d like to speak with me personally, I’d be happy to. Please click on the “e-mail Leah” button and I’ll get back with you quickly about setting up a time. I am on West Coast time.

Welcome and thanks,

Leah