In today’s world any Kent and South East business worth its salt needs to pay special attention to not only how its people are interacting with its current and prospective customers but also how its businesses visual and digital representation is too.
This guide unlocks the secrets of branding for small and medium sized businesses in Kent and the South East. We will be using some big brands to make points but we will be reducing down the thinking into five key secrets for unlocking a successful brand, helping you understand and make changes to further strengthen your business for the long term through the power of its visual and verbal representation.
Why is brand important?
Well, remember back in the day when the latest camera was a big deal. It had new features which it’s competitor didn’t have and it looked different and felt different.
Well those days are gone comparatively speaking. Companies in Kent and the South East and the whole of the world for that matter can no longer cross their fingers and sell products and services purely of the back of the features and benefits because most of their competitors are offering the same as them. Think Samsung and Apple.
And this is where great branding makes the difference. There are lots of companies who make and sell trainers but one leads them all, Nike, but why? Three things, 1. They make great products which were born out of desire to help athletes go faster for longer. 2. They have a logo which has become a cultural icon 3. They have a tagline which perfectly sums up the place they want to occupy in the minds of their customers.
When the folks at Nike say ‘Just do it’ they are staring into the souls of millions of people around the world. These folks, big, small, round, tall, fat, thin can get up and head to the park and run round it 10 times, why? because they’re wearing Nike and Nike told them they could.
When done right, a great brand is a licence to print money.
But enough of all that, you want to know the secrets to a successful brand for you business, not a global giant like Nike. Well, let’s get down to it. First off,
What is a brand?
A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or business. But what does that actually mean? Well, think of it like this. When you think of the tech giant apple, what do you think of? Beauty, simplicity, different, maybe even:- a part of my daily life? OK not apple, what about Volkswagen? Is it words like ‘Quality’ or ‘German engineering at its best’ or is it ‘the company who lied to me?’
Everyone has their own view of the world and the things that are important to them. A brand is what people say about the product, service or business not what the company says about it. Volkswagen is a great example of this. To some, Volkswagen is a brand tattoo into generations of families. ‘We bought her, her first golf, just like her father 20 years ago’. That same family may not be smiling so brightly about Volkswagen today, Why? Because they were lied to and not just a little white lie but a huge sh*t storm of a lie.
That same family who were devoted brand advocates for Volkswagen for so many years have suddenly had second thoughts and jumped ship to Volvo and who can blame them?
And this leads to the first secret of unlocking a successful brand and this applies to your local business as much as it does VW, size doesn’t matter (in this case).
The first secret of unlocking a successful brand
Understanding your Difference
What does that mean? What is your difference as a business? and saying ‘it’s our people’ doesn’t cut it. We want you to think really hard about your business and your competitors business. What are the differences between them? What can your business own that your competitors can’t. Could it be heritage, 5th generation family business, could it be scale of operation, understanding your difference plays a pivotal role in building a really strong and ownable brand.
There are lots of different ways of working out your difference. Here are some tips to help you uncover your difference.
What Is your Story?
Go back to the beginning. When you first turned the wheels of your business. How did it start? Why did you start it? to make money isn’t an answer. What are the key attributes which drive the business everyday.
Why do customers come to us and not the competition?
Look at your business against your competitors. Why do they use you over them? Is it price? Is it service? Maybe you don’t know. If not find out buy asking them.
Ask your employees to answer this question
Why does our company exist? It’s a tough question. Ask them to reply with either a short sentence or key words which they believe sum up the reason the business is operating. Again it’s not about money, that’s a result of what the business does.
Take out exercise
Three questions to uncover your difference.
Pull together key stakeholders from your business. Include a valued client as well if they feel comfortable to be involved. Make some tea and coffee and on a flip chart or writing wall if you have one, write down these 3 questions. Who are we? What do we do? Why does it matter? The first two are easier to answer but the more you can refine the answer the better. The 3rd is tough. Uncovering the key truth in that answer will go a long way to understanding your difference as a business.
The second secret of unlocking a successful brand
Trust
Trust has to be earned, you cannot simply buy it. And that’s where a lot of small and medium sized business go wrong. They want results yesterday, cash flow is king. Cash flow is the life blood of a healthy business but so is making sure the way you are communicating with your customers is too, and that takes time and consistency, there are no short cuts.
The biggest brands in the world are the biggest brands in the world because they have spent decades understanding and nurturing their visual personality and appearance to stay engaged with an ever changing world of demanding customers. That thinking applies to all businesses, not just the big boys, in fact that’s why they are the big boys in the first place.
So here are some practical tips for your business to build trust with new and existing customers.
Be yourself
How many times have you been in a situation where you are being sold too? Also manipulated into buying something. It stinks, you walk away feeling like you’ve been slimed. Instead of sliming people, be your natural self, talk to customers as you would a colleague or friend.
Ask for feedback
It’s slightly arrogant to assume you know exactly what your customers want from you. Don’t leave it to chance, businesses and buying habits change all the time, ask customers for feedback, don’t second guess.
Keep an open mind
We’ll all been on the receiving end of an angry customer face to face, arrggghhhh or over email. Well, before you hit back with ‘But’ take your time and open your mind up, they may have a point and winning them over could lead to a favourable google review.
Build reviews into your customer service process
People are 4x more likely to post a negative review than a positive one. Damn those human beings. Well reviews are really important today. Build them into your customer service process. If customers are happy, ask them to leave a google review. If needs be incentivise them to do so.
Takeout exercise
Ask the audience survey
How do you feel when you’re talking to someone and you know they are really listening, not waiting to say something else, just listening, it feels good right. Well that’s what you’re doing with your customers when you ask for their feedback, it shows you really value their opinion and they’ll appreciate it and hey, guess what it does, builds trust!
Smartsurvey or surveymonkey are great online tools for putting your survey together. Ask them to fill out a survey for you. Be honest, ask them questions like ‘What do we not do well?’ ‘What do you expect from us?’ ‘What changes to our service or product would make your experience with us a better one?’ The more specific you questions the better the responses. The outcome of this survey helps you to build stronger relationships with your customers, unknot the issues and helps you focus on build a better business.
The third secret of unlocking a successful brand
Be Real
How many times have you seen a really dry branded advert on Facebook? God knows who’s actually going to click on it. Or some god awful headline selling a product which is so abstract it’s difficult to even understand.
As we said previously, trust is the short cut to brand advocacy. How are people going to trust you? By being real, being authentic. Nothing is perfect, this goes for businesses as much as human beings. Being real and down to earth, talking in a way your customer can relate to you, thinking about their wants and needs over telling everyone how great your business is will help you reap the rewards.
OK, great you say but please give me an example, some context. OK, let’s take GoPro: the worlds greatest action camera is a great example of a brand playing on being real to the max. The GoPro camera is a storytelling machine, all GoPro need to do is collate their customers footage and play it back to them. It’s the ultimate in adrenaline fuel storytelling reality. It doesn’t really get any simpler than that. It maximise the power of the product and puts it’s customers at the heart of the stories it tells, brilliant!
Another example, let’s go local to give it more context. The Gallagher Group is the South East’s premier Building, Civil Engineering, Aggregates and Property Development companies. The Gallagher Group is a great example of a regional brand being real. It has been part of the fabric of the south East for over 45 years and in that time has built a reputation as not only being a very success business in its own right but one which invests in the communities it works within. Whether that’s supporting the local football team with naming rights for Maidstone Utd or organising DEMELZA BIKE RIDE for charity across Europe fund-raising nearly £20,000 in the process, the Gallagher Group aren’t just talking about being real, they are doing it everyday. People sniff bullshit a mile away, so be real, be authentic and try not to worry if sometimes your message goes off piste once in a while, be brave and be real.
Take out exercise
Voxpops your employees
Send round an email inviting staff who want to take part to do a quick video voxpops giving three words that best sum up the business and why. This is a great way to build internal engagement and also creates great content for you to put out across social. This is what are staff think of the business, we’ll love to know what you think too, please post to social our social, the good, the bad and the lovely. Just be real.
The fourth secret of unlocking a successful brand
Think of your customers as family
Wait, my family life and work are separate and that’s how I like it thank you very much. Well, don’t worry, we’re not asking you to invite them round for a BBQ on Sunday. This is all about perceptions and mindset. Ask most people ‘what is the most important thing in your life’, most people will say ‘Family’, why because it’s who we love, who we represent and care for everyday of our lives. So, with that in mind What’s the most important thing in your business? Customers. You can say staff but who pays their wages and yours? Customers. The most important thing in any business. With that in mind, isn’t it a good idea to think of your customers as your corporate family.
You can’t chose your family the saying goes, sometimes like you annoying uncle or mother in law, you have to work with difficult customers, but that’s all part of running a business. Surely it makes a lot of sense when dealing with customers to think in a family context, you are representing their needs, wants and desires. You want them to be really happy with you all the time, that way they feel happy and contented and there’s no reason for them to wonder or get divorced, god forbid!
Here are some tips for helping you think of your customers as a family
Always Put Your Customers First
It’s easy when things go wrong to blame someone else. Well don’t take responsibility and rectify it no matter what it takes. If you don’t you’ll be just another business trying to make a quick buck, if you do, you’ll show integrity and will be reward for it in the long run.
Communicate more
Don’t assume your customer have everything they need from you. You don’t want to bombard them with useless information but make sure you are talking to them regularly either face to face or digitally to keep them engaged and happy.
Value the relationship
It’s easy to take long standard clients for granted. Well don’t they are you most precious asset, look after them, constantly surprise and delight them. This goes for all customers really. Make sure they know you really value them.
Take out exercise
Each year offer them something for free
What giveaways??? Well you need to think about what that ‘Free’ thing is but yes. It could be a luxury hamper for Christmas or an invitation to a corporate event. It could simply be connecting them with another business who they may like to collaborate with.
The fifth and final secret to unlocking a successful brand
Strive to constantly innovate
Innovate what exactly? Innovate can mean different things to different businesses. OK we’ll give 2 examples here to help explain. Let’s start with being innovative with how you tell the world about your business.
Telling innovative stories
A good story well told will draw people in, excite them, and ultimately you’ll leave them wanting more. Any brand can be charismatic, even yours and to be the one for which there is no substitute.
As an example, a business has traditional sent out a lot of brochures as a tool to drive leads and conversions. It works to a point but you don’t necessarily convert as many as your gut is telling you. How can you change this? Bring the brochure to life digitally and we’re not talking about a crappy old page turner pdf. Take 3 of your best selling products and create 3 testimonial videos for each one featuring your key target audiences. Now, you have created new digital content, which is real, remember GoPro, now you have this content its time to make it work really hard for you to drive those conversions you know the brochure isn’t delivering.
Think YouTube or Facebook. These platforms allow you to target so precisely that when you video is shown say on YouTube, you know the person viewing it is already warm to what you’re offering and are more likely than not to click to find out more. Not only that, your competitors are still peddling out a brochure as they always have because it works to a point that they happy to settle for, luckily, you’re not.
A really effective way of drawing out these differences is by doing a SWAT analysis on your business. It’s a great way of unearthing the good bits, the bad bits and the lovely bits. Another exercise is mapping. Working across four axis points each with their own description your can plot where you and your competitors sit in the marketplace. You may be surprised at the results.
Product innovation
Remember when everyone went to the high street to get mum those mothers day flowers or new book they were looking to read. That still happens and we hope long may that continue but the reality is the internet has opened up a complete new high street where anything can be bought and sold.
As an example of product innovation, enter Freddie’s Flowers. When you order Freddie’s flowers through his online shop, flowers are cut to order, so last ages and sent out same day in beautifully design boxes direct to your door by van or bicycle. How convenient is that? Another we all know is Airbnb. Who would thought 12 years ago people would be willing to let strangers live in their homes for days at a time? Well now you can travel the world over, experiencing places and staying in homes rather than uniformed hotels, what a great idea, this shift in attitudes had a lot to do with the globe economy at the time, but now it’s just normal, and the most innovate thing about Airbnb? They the worlds biggest accommodation provider who doesn’t own any accommodation. Clever aye.
Here are some tips for building innovation in your businesses DNA:
Look at the marketplace
What is everyone else doing? Are their businesses coming into the market you are unaware off and not sure how they are operating. Do a secret shopper, find out. There maybe things you can learn to help keep that competitive edge
Look at your service or product offering
Do you need to streamline your sales process? Are you using technology which is helping you process sales quicker and effectively. Does the service need refreshing? Are the products becoming tired and a whole new range is on the horizon? Are you ready to implant it?
Take out exercise
SWOT analysis
A SWOT analysis is a great to understand why to understand the health of your business. It will shine a light on the great bits, good bits and the not so good bits. It will also throw up opportunities to take advantage of. Bring together all key stakeholders and even valued clients if willing. Make tea and coffee and spend a good 1-2 hours either draw up on a writing wall or flip chart a SWOT diagram and work through each section. You will be surprised of what the outcomes will provide.
The sixth bonus secret to unlocking a successful brand
Convenience
The way to satisfy customers today is to provide convenience. That is the ultimate goal. If your business can provide a service or product which is more convenient than your competitor you’ve got them. Amazon and airbnb are earth changing examples of that. Rightly or wrongly Amazon has made the purchasing of products and services so eye watering simple and convenient that everyone else is playing catch up. One wrong more on a check out page, staff not picking up the phone or late delivery of substandard goods today does huge damage to your brands reputation. The Amazon effect has change everything. So remember when think about service, think convenience, think Amazon. Amazon’s is a huge multinational you say, yes it is now. But it started in a garage on the 5th July 1994. When and where did you business start?
Here are some tips for building convenience into your business:
Streamline the customer journey
When was the last time you took a good look at the customer journey from initial contact through to conversion? Take a look, where can you make life easier for your customer. Can you cut out processes which currently have to undertake and bring in house?
Make everything easy to understand
Clunky check out pages or poor delivery of products. Staff who aren’t really engaged or simply don’t know what the company stands for. Making sure you are exceeding all areas of the customers interactions with your business will only lead to growth and further enhance your business reputation and in turn your brands. Remember a brand is what they say its is not you.
So that’s it, we hope this guide has opened up your mind to the power of branding and given you some practical examples to help you understand better how successful branding is much more than just an apple or a tick or a smile for that mate.
We hope this guide has really resonated with you and hopefully it has thrown up some thoughts in you mind about your business, about things you are doing really well and maybe some you aren’t. As we said know one’s perfect.
Thanks for reading right to the end. We know you’re busy and we really respect your time so hopefully the fact that you’ve got to here means that you’ve found it worthwhile.
