Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

Build Your Brand Build Your Business By Susan Gunelius President & CEO KeySplash Creative, Inc. www.KeySplashCreative.com

What is a brand?

What a brand is NOT .

A brand is not a logo.

A brand is not a product.

A brand is not a slogan.

A brand is not an ad.

A brand is not a company.

A brand is a promise.
A brand promises something to consumers.
A brand sets consumer expectations .
A brand meets those expectations in every consumer interaction and experience .

Brands that don’t keep their promises fail.

What is a brand?

The Elements of Branding
Tangible
Logo
Color palette
Typeface
Intangible Image Messages Promise Brand Perception

Tangible Brand Elements
Elements of a brand that consumers can see and touch such as logo, typefaces, and colors.
AT&T uses Pantone Process Blue as the primary color and the AT&T Clearview font for its corporate identity, logo and marketing materials.

Intangible Brand Elements
Elements of a brand that consumers indirectly attribute to that brand and anything that bears that brand name or association such as messages, image and promise.
Harley Davidson communicates messages related to freedom and has an image of camaraderie. When combined with the tangible elements of the Harley Davidson brand, the brand promise is clear and consistent.

3 Steps to Brand Building
Consistency – messages, image, and so on must be consistent or consumers become confused and turn away from the brand.
Persistence – brands are not built overnight.
Restraint – don’t be tempted to go too far.

Brands are built by consumers, NOT companies.
Companies put out the messages and nudge consumers in the desired direction, but consumers create brands through experiences and emotions .
It is essential that building your brand is a top priority for your business!

Brands are built from Consumer Perceptions
Communicating consistent messages
Setting consumer expectations
Delivering on those consumer expectations every time
Branding affects every part of your marketing strategy.

Strong brands develop over time.
The strongest brands OWN a word or phrase in consumers’ minds.
That is the brand’s position relative to other products on the market.

What word does your brand own? Owns Inexpensive Reliability Luxury Performance Owns Owns Owns

If brands were people, who would you rather hang out with? There is a reason the Mac Guy vs. PC Guy commercials are so successful. BRAND POSITIONING

Great Brand Examples

Take the Brand Perception Snap Shot
What 5 words do you use to describe your brand today?
What 5 words do your customers use to describe your brand today?
What 5 words do you want consumers to use to describe your brand in the future (i.e., your ultimate brand goal)?
Find the gaps and fill them!

How to Build a Brand

A.R.M.S. 4 Steps to Brand Building Success
Awareness
Recognition
Memory
Spreading the word

Slow Down!
Strategy first
Tactics second
What’s Twilight? Oh yeah, I’ve heard of Twilight before. It’s that vampire book. I have to read Twilight. I keep hearing about Twilight. It must be good. Have you read Twilight yet? Everyone is talking about it. You have to buy Twilight! I’m telling everyone. It’s so good! Unaware Awareness Recognition Memory Spreading the Word Spreading the Word

Know Your Competition
It’s not enough to know what you’re doing.
Research your competitors and know them as well as you know yourself.
Exploit their weaknesses Differentiate your business from theirs Establish your unique niche Position yourself against them Seek out opportunities

Develop Internal Brand Advocates
Your employees are your most powerful brand advocates.
Educate them about your brand.
Give them a reason to want to advocate your brand.
If your employees believe in your brand promise, they’ll want to advocate your brand.

The Role of the Brand Champion and Brand Guardian
What do you think of when you hear the names:
Hugh Hefner
Martha Stewart
Steve Jobs

The best brands have powerful brand champions and brand guardians behind them.

The 21 st Century Brings Us …
The Chief Brand Officer
Get One!

Building Brands Externally
Remember,
consumers build brands,
NOT companies.
You must set and meet customer expectations, or people will be confused and your brand will be meaningless.

Building Brand Loyalty When consumers’ expectations and feelings about a brand are continually met or exceeded, they become loyal to it, knowing it will continue to meet those feelings and expectations in the future. The develop confidence , trust , and security in the brand and choose it over other brands.

Brand loyalty can evolve into a Cult Brand. Cult brands are loved by specific groups of die-hard brand loyalists.

Cult Brands can grow into Relationship Brands
Relationship brands are built on experiences.
They often fill a void.
Consumers self-select how they want to interact with the brand by choosing from brand experiences.
Often those experiences are shared among groups.

Relationship brands are powerful.

People look for new ways to experience and share relationship brands.

People talk about the brands they love.
Word-of-mouth marketing is powerful.
Loyal brand advocates are every brand manager’s dream.
Remember that Breck Shampoo commercial, “And she told two friends, and she told two friends, and so on, and so on, and …”

Tools to Build a Brand
Remember the 3 steps to brand building:
Consistency
Persistence
Restraint

Brand Promotions
Sales, discounts, coupons, etc. are effective in boosting short term buzz about your brand and traffic to your business.
Consistency: ensure your promotions promote your brand promise rather than confusing it or undermining it.
Persistence: test promotional tactics to see which efforts drive the best results rather than giving up after one failed attempt.
Restraint: don’t let your competitors drive you to pursue promotions that run counter to your brand.

Marketing and Advertising Materials
Brochures, point-of-sale collateral, signage, ads, direct mail, etc.
Consistency: Make sure your copy and design match your brand promise.
Persistence: Research and know your customers and target audience before you invest.
Restraint: Timing and placement can make or break the effectiveness of advertising. Invest wisely.

Sponsorships
Local events, organizations, teams, schools, publications, and so on.
Consistency: Choose organizations to sponsor that match your brand promise.
Persistence: Don’t invest in sponsorship and leave it at that. Extend your participation with advertising, promotions, event marketing, and more.
Restraint: Understand the audience related to the sponsorship to ensure it matches your target audience. Disjointed sponsorships won’t help and could hurt your brand.

Events, Trade Shows, Conferences
Online and offline (virtual trade shows and webinars are growing faster than traditional training, professional events and trade shows)
When the economy struggles, events, trade shows and conferences deliver highly targeted and motivated audiences.

Brand Identity Materials
Logo, stationery, invoices, signage, etc.
Make sure your brand promise translates into the tangible elements of your brand identity to ensure consistent and persistent communication of your brand to all audiences.

Publicity
Press releases, local news, radio and television interviews and appearances, speaking engagements, charitable events, and more.
Make your business newsworthy by establishing yourself as an expert in your field and making yourself available for speaking and appearances.
Get involved in your community.

Social media marketing offers the single largest opportunity for entrepreneurs, small businesses mid-size companies, and large corporations to build their brands and build their businesses .

Social Media Marketing
Social media is a term used to define the online communications tools of Web 2.0 that are rooted in conversations, engagement, and active participation.
Social media marketing is any form of direct or indirect marketing used to build awareness, recognition, recall and action of a brand, business, product, person, or other entity.

The Proof
W ith a multi-million dollar budget to spend as she pleased, Cindy Gordon of Universal Orlando Resort instead told just 7 people about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter .
A nd within just 24 hours 350 million people around the world heard the news .
A ll by telling just 7 people.

Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrary.tv
Gary Vaynerchuk grew his father’s local wine store in Springfield, New Jersey to a $50 million per year business with HALF of those sales coming from the Web.
How did he do it?
Through the power of the social Web.
Gary’s passionate and informative video blog posts on WineLibrary.tv quickly drew audiences from around the world as word spread about his contagious content.
Today, Gary is a sought after social media speaker, makes frequent appearances on television, and recently signed a multi-million dollar book deal where he will share his knowledge and experience of using social media tools to grow a small business.
And it all started with a blog.

Keys to Social Media Success
Brand consistency in message and image.
Set and meet customer expectations based on the brand promise.
Let the audience take control.

The Marriage of Building Brands and Business through Social Media
Consumers have more options than ever thanks to the ease of finding information online.
The social web has created an online conversation that most companies still don’t know how to leverage.
Social media presents a unique opportunity for companies to engage with current and potential employees, position the brand as a brand of choice, and develop an ongoing dialogue that ultimately creates loyal brand advocates and guardians.

What are the popular tools of social media?
Blogs (Blogger, Wordpress, TypePad, MoveableType, etc.)
Microblogging (Twitter, Jaiku, Plurk, etc.)
Social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, etc.)
Social bookmarking (Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, etc.)
Podcasting (iTunes, BlogTalkRadio, etc.)
Photo sharing (Flickr, Picasa, etc.)
Video sharing (YouTube, Google Video, Viddler, etc.)
Online chats and telephone (Skype, Google Voice, etc.)
And many, many more

But where to begin?

Multiple departments can get a piece of the social media pie.
Marketing
Create Content
Blogs
Twitter
YouTube
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
MySpace
You name it!
Customer Service
Direct Dialogue
Blogs
Twitter
YouTube
Public Relations
Commenting
Blogs
Twitter
YouTube
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
Other social bookmarking sites
Review sites like Yelp and Epinions
Executive
Thought Leadership
Blogs
Twitter
Human Resources
Networking
Facebook
LinkedIn
MySpace
Bebo
Niche networking sites
Blogs
Twitter
YouTube

Step 1: Find Your Best Audience
The social web gets more crowded everyday.
Your efforts are for naught if you’re not spending time in the right places.
Take time to find the people you want to communicate with, and then join the conversation.

Example: Playboy
Playboy U Social Network
Twitter
Facebook
MySpace
YouTube
MetaCafe
FriendFeed
Blogs
Mobile content
And more
Surround people with branded experiences.

Southwest Airlines
Blog and Twitter profile include non-official and entertaining conversations by real employees in their own voices.
Notice a REAL person is tweeting with you! Southwest Airlines can be found all over the social web.

Step 2: Content is Key
What you say is the most important key to success on the social web.
Be human, be honest, be transparent, be you! Personality is important to engaging with others in social media.
Leave jargon and corporate rhetoric out!

Example: Walmart
Written by employees
Given flexibility
Personal voice
Readers feel like they’re “in the know”
Employees feel like they matter

Jet Blue
Another example of making a corporate brand more human by putting a name to the Twitter profile.
The Jet Blue Twitter profile always shows who is “on duty” and tweeting!

Step 3: Research, Research, Research!
Check out what your competitors are doing.
Find companies that are doing great things and copy them (no sense in reinventing the wheel).
Find out what your target audience is looking for, what engages them, what keeps them coming back for more, and then give them more of it!

Comcast
Twitter profile, @ComcastCares, is a popular customer service site. The fact that a specific person is connected to the profile increases the “human” factor and gives the profile a personality.
Look at all of this useful info! And to make Comcast more human, you can even check out Frank’s family website and blog!

Step 4: Give More than You Receive
Don’t just publicize company news. Give more by creating interesting, useful and valuable content that can’t be found on a traditional Web site.
Answer questions, ask questions, be engaging and real.
For every hour you spend “publicizing” through social media, spend at least 3 hours engaging with people in your network.

Example: Whole Foods
Most of the Whole Foods Twitter stream is @replies.
Targeted content adds value: Additional Twitter profiles for specific topics (e.g., @WFMCheese, @WFMWineGuys, @WholeRecipes), for specific metro areas, and dozens for specific store locations.
The Whole Foods blog provides recipes, industry news, green tips, and more.
Additional company blogs by the CEO, about special ingredients and food podcasts.
On Facebook
Flickr photo profile
ALL adding value and giving the Whole Foods brand a personality and direct dialogue with consumers.

H&R Block
Twitter profile and blogs which answer questions, particularly during tax season.

Step 5: Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
Diversify your social media presence to connect with a broader audience and build your network.
Just be sure to remain active in all your social media ventures.

Example: Dell
Dell operates several Twitter profiles targeted at specific audiences (e.g., @DellOutlet, which generated $2 million in direct revenue in the past year).
Dell runs a number of blogs targeted at specific audiences (e.g., Direct2Dell is a highly popular blog for Dell consumers).
The Dell Community is the Dell customer social network.
Dell is on Facebook and LinkedIn (a group for Dell partners).
There is even a Dell forum.

Google
Google has 102 company and product blogs to choose from (and growing)!
Dozens of Google employees write blogs, too!
Google owns Blogger, YouTube, Feedburner, Orkut, Jaiku, Google Docs (for document sharing), Gmail, Picasa, Knol, Google Voice, and more! Google should have a strong social media presence.

Social Media for Brand Building – A Two Way Street
Brands and businesses get more exposure than ever thanks to the social web.
By building a network through blogging, microblogging, social networking, and so on, your brand messages can be seen by a huge audience faster than ever before.
Social media also gives you the opportunity to learn more about prospective customers and competitors than ever before by reading their online profiles, blogs, Twitter streams, and so on. It’s an incredible market research tool!

How ALL Small Businesses Can Benefit from Social Media
How do you and most of the people you know find information about business, products, and services?
A key benefit to building your brand online through social media is the enormous SEO boost your business website can get.

5 Ways to Build Your Online Presence, Your Brand and Your Business
Each new blog post is a new entry point to your website. If you published 1 blog post each day for a year, that’s 356 MORE entry points to your blog than your traditional website provides.
Google includes blog posts and Twitter updates in its search algorithm.
Your great social media content could get linked to by other social Web users through blogs, Twitter, and so on, which means even MORE entry points to your blog.
The more time you spend creating great content and building relationships with other people on the social Web, the more people will get to know you, trust your content, and link to it or share it.
All of that content creation, linking, and sharing means more entry points to your blog and website, which also boosts your site’s search engine rankings. And more traffic = more opportunities to build your brand and your business!

For Brand Building Think Out of the Box
Start a blog written by employees for customers. Leave comments on other blogs where your target customers spend time.
Get on Twitter and be active!
Answer questions on LinkedIn.
Start a blog written by the CEO (no corporate rhetoric, please!) like Zappos.
Create groups and fan pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
Create a Facebook app.
Try vlogging (upload your videos to TubeMogul.com for instant distribution to multiple online video sites and for tracking)
Start a weekly podcast (you can set up an online radio show through BlogTalkRadio.com in minutes).
Find online forums and social networks where your target customers spend time and join the conversation.

Most important!
Test various social media marketing tactics but remember, success comes from persistence and actively participating over time.
Ultimately, pursue the social media marketing tools that you actually enjoy and can stick with rather than spreading yourself too thin across multiple tools. Quality content and interaction is more important than quantity.
Recruit employees to participate to share the time investment. Just be sure to train them on your brand promise and messaging first!

Build Your Band of Brand Advocates across the Web
Network with your target audience and professionals with connections to your target audience across the Web for maximum exposure.
Build relationships which lead to loyalty.
Loyal followers will talk about you and your brand. They’ll advocate your brand, guard it, and promote it for you.
Bottom-line to social media success – active participation, relationship building, creating amazing content and engaging other people who then become your band of brand advocates.

Think of it this way …
If your social media participation is 100% self-promotional, then you’ll fail.
Imagine you’re in a conversation with a person and all he does is talk about himself. Imagine that he never gives you a chance to speak throughout the conversation. Is this someone you’d want to continue speaking with now or in the future? Chances are you’d want to run away as far and fast as you can. The same holds true for social media participation.

Whatever you do
Take control of your brand
Make it their own,
Self-select social media experiences to engage in with the brand, and
Become loyal brand advocates and brand guardians).
Don’t be afraid to let consumers (and employees):

That’s where the power of your brand comes from.

Tips for Brand Building Success through Social Media
Make it easy and non-threatening for your audience to participate.
Create a 360-degree loop of information sharing.
Be accessible.
One sentence of corporate rhetoric will ruin everything!
Don’t try to “do social media on the side. It takes time and persistence. Commit or don’t bother.

Protect Your Brand
Trademark your brand name, logo, packaging, etc.
Contact your attorney or visit USPTO.gov for more information.
Invest in a great logo, brand design, Web site design, blog design, marketing materials and ad design, etc.
Hire a talented freelancer through a site like iFreelance.com, Guru.com, Elance.com, or GetaFreelancer.com.
Remember Search Engine Reputation Management.
Get your brand name in your domain name, Twitter ID, Facebook profile, and so on before someone else uses it!
Monitor your brand mention online using tools like Google Alerts and Twitter Alerts.
Flood the Web with your amazing content to ensure your intended brand messages appear highest in Google search results and bury negativity.
Invest in legitimate SEO help through sites like SEOMoz.org or an SEO consultant.
Twitter Alerts via TweetBeep: www.tweetbeep.com Google Alerts: www.google.com/alerts

10 Next Steps to Build Your Brand and Your Business
Identify your goal for your brand and its ultimate position in the minds of consumers and against the competition.
Determine the word or phrase your brand should own in the minds of consumers. That is the heart of your brand promise.
Create messages, experiences, and images that consistently communicate that brand promise.
Find your best audience (or audiences).
Communicate your brand promise through integrated marketing tactics.
Join the online conversation across the social Web and build your band of followers and brand advocates.
Allow them to take control of their brand experiences.
Be real, be honest, be accessible, be engaging, and be true to your brand promise.
Test, analyze results, and try again.
Be consistent and persistent while exercising restraint.

That’s how you a brand is created and that’s how you use the social web to build your brand and build your business!

Most Important JUST GET STARTED!

Contact Susan Gunelius
Website: www.KeySplashCreative.com
Blogs: www.KeySplashCreativeConversations.com and www.WomenOnBusiness.com
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/susangunelius
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/susangunelius
LinkedIn: www.Linkedin.com/in/susangunelius
Email: [email_address]
Phone: 352-552-2371
Books by Susan Gunelius (available on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Borders.com & in book stores):

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Build Your Brand and Build Your Business

by KeySplash Creative, Inc. on Jan 28, 2010

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Build Your Brand and Build Your Business — Presentation Transcript