RESOURCES - The FOCUS Report

Want to Know More About Business Marketing Intelligence? Starting Here Will Help. The FOCUS Report is a our very own e-mail newsletter - a.k.a. 'e-zine' - is dedicated to keeping our clients and subscribers up-to-date with thoughtful, relevant news articles and opinion on how to build your online business. Enjoy!

The Branding Process - Developing Your Brand

  [  ...about social bookmarks]

By Roger Griffin, Associate Partner
FOCUS Business Marketing Intelligence

Last month I looked at "Building a Winning Brand" as an 8-Step process, one that allows our clients to achieve clarity and perspective that really make it easy to choose from alternative business options. This month, I’d like to delve into just how to begin your own Personal Brand development program:

Where have you been?
A good starting place is to review the past history of the brand, heritage, values, beliefs, roots, etc. Unless you are clear about what you are and where you’ve been in the customer and potential customer’s eyes, you don’t know where to start if you have no starting point. For a long-term business, this can be a wonderful exploration of the past. Take the time to appreciate the heritage, culture, beliefs and relationships you have and have had with your stakeholders. Look at your memorabilia, past graphics and images. Don’t skip this step. It is very important to everything you do and cannot be ignored in developing your brand.

Where are you now?
How are you performing on financial and non-financial metrics? How do you stack up against the best in your class? Compare:

How different is your Brand Proposition?

• How relevant is it today?
• How respected is it?
• How well known is it?

How does your brand stack up in a analysis against your key competition regarding strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (a.k.a. SWOT)? Do an internal SWOT analysis with your staff & stakeholders to see how they perceive it.

What is your Brand Vision?
What is that long-term ‘aspirational’ view of your Brand? Can we define what the benefits are; to which customers; and relative to what competitors? Ask yourself:

• What do our defined customers want and expect?
• What are we good at?
• In what aspects can we be better than the competition?
• What is our brand’s competitive advantage?

Some Tips

1. Don’t do it alone. You need to ask your key stakeholders (internal and external) for their input and perceptions of where they see you right now.
    
2. Write it down. You can’t rely on your memory when it comes to pulling together all the perceptions and looking at them objectively.
    
3. "Perception IS reality". Don’t be defensive. Look for all the possible perceptions and positive negative and unknown issues as people see them. Watch out for the unknowns - they really say how much people know or don’t know, and it is likely to be much different from your assumptions. The key is that you need to accurately know their assumptions and perceptions for that is the basis on which people make their decisions.
    
4. Whenever you ask someone’s opinions, perceptions or beliefs, always say, "Yes, and ...". Never say "Yes, but ..." There is no right or wrong.

OK! Get going and begin building yourself a Better Brand!

Special thanks to John Torella of the J.C.Williams Group for his pioneering work in the art of retail branding.

Print This Page

We'll send you a FREE Estimate for Your Next Project. Fill out a Projects Estimate form and we will contact you within 48 hours. Roy McClean, FOCUS Business Intelligence; Vancouver & Whistler.