Branding 101 for Small Businesses
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Presented for the Rocklin Chamber of Commerce as part of their Business Excellence Series. This presentation focused on: - What branding is - Steps in Creating Your Brand - Brand Marketing Strategies - Online Brand Management - Offline Brand Management
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Branding 101 for Small Businesses
- 2. The Art of Listening and Storytelling Review from 1st Marketing Workshop
- 3. Branding Your Business 101 What you will learn: – What is Branding? – Steps in Creating Your Brand – Brand Marketing Strategy – Online Brand Management – Offline Brand Management
- 4. A Brand Defined If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter, or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection, or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer. A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.
- 5. What’s In A Brand? • Defines who you are and what you do • Sets you apart from others • Emphasizes your unique value • Communicated through everything your company does
- 6. Be a Spotted Zebra In a land of stripes - Flying Hippo Web Creations
- 7. Why is Branding So Important? • Trust • Loyalty • Premium Pricing
- 9. 1. Market Research: Know Your Customers The most important part of developing your brand is getting to know your customers: – How they think and feel about you – Demographics – Psychographics – Buying habits – How they feel about other brands
- 10. Where to Start? • Indirect Research online – Social media – Forums – Keyword Tools – Competition • Direct Research – Interviews – Focus Groups – Questionnaires
- 11. Activity – Identifying Your Dream Customer The idea is to picture your perfect customer. We don’t just mean an ordinary customer but a raving fan. This exercise is a message to yourself. It help keeps your ideal customer in your mind, so you remember who you are branding to.
- 12. 2. Define Your Brand – Elements of an Effective Brand Name • The name conveys a great deal of information – Clarity – Memorability – Uniqueness – Emotional Connection – Credibility – Timeless
- 13. 2. Define Your Brand – Your “IT” Factor? • What is your story? – What do you do? – How do you do it differently? – Why do you do it? • How does the public see your company? • What are your values as they perceive them? • Think in terms of personal characteristics • If your company were a person, who would it be?
- 16. 3. Design Your Brand • Logo • Tagline • How your brand is expressed through: – Brand voice – Brand style – Brand behavior
- 17. Design Your Logo • Text Logo e.g. Google • Image Logo e.g. McDonalds • Abstract Symbol – e.g. Nike
- 18. Clean & Functional Logos • Simplicity is key – stick with 2 if possible • Colors can spark associations - Choose carefully! • A single image or word without distractions • Must be easy to reproduce • Looks good big or small
- 19. Taglines • Optional but another way to capture attention • Can you tell me some memorable local taglines that stick out for you?
- 20. 4. Your Identity System • Where Visual Elements are Used – Marketing materials including books, pamphlets, flyers, websites, etc. – Products and packaging – Signs – Email Newsletters – Clothing – Stationary
- 21. Consistency Is Key • The public should get the same message every time they come into contact with you • Be consistent across all media • A seamless user experience is important
- 22. Activity – Your Brand – Survivor Style • If you could only choose a few items to represent your brand experience, what would they be? And what one skill would be the most valuable to you? – What objects would you take with you to recreate the brand experience? Object A, B and C. – What one extra special ingredient would you add to the mix? Could be music, a smell, a mood. – What one skill would be the most critical to the brand’s survival?
- 25. Vision, Values and Story
- 26. Branding Alignment Love the Brown & Brown brand. Our logo includes a cheetah and we say "Our corporate culture is built on vision, speed, agility and strength that allows us to thrive in the very competitive insurance environment.“ – Stephen Makis
- 28. Interactive Brand Strategy • A good marketing strategy is interactive and engages the customer • Engage your customer whenever they’re looking for information • Provide information they need when and where they need it • Integrate all marketing channels
- 29. Interactive Brand Strategy (cont’d) • All strategies need to be backed up with strong SEO • On social media have someone respond to comments and questions • Track analytics and monitor behavior
- 30. Word Of Mouth • Best brand marketing strategy is to focus on recommendations • Word of Mouth can be more powerful than the best advertising • Effective as the recommendation is coming from a trusted source
- 31. Word Of Mouth
- 32. Recap • Brand Marketing Strategy – Interactive brand strategy with a focus on word of mouth marketing – Guided by Vision, Values & Story & the 4 P’s.
- 33. Activity • Determine what you & your company DO NOT stand for – Things you can’t stand, don’t like doing or want to stop doing. • Now write all the opposites on your side
- 34. Choosing Which Branding Strategies to Use
- 36. The Importance of SEO • SEO optimization is important to branding • Make sure your website and social media profiles come up in related searches • People are going to research you • Have a proactive SEO strategy in place
- 37. Email Is Still Number One • Email is the main mode of communication online • Build an email list and market directly • Enhance your branding and create an emotional bond
- 38. Branding On Social Media • Find the appropriate social media platforms for your brand – Not just Facebook & Twitter – includes sharing sites, industry specific networking sites, forums and more • Consider each site’s capabilities • Go where your audience is • Consider number of users
- 39. Content Marketing • A strategy in which you regularly publish articles, blog posts, videos or other content • A great way to gain exposure and communicate your brand message
- 40. Online Reputation Management • Some people may say something bad about your company • You need to act and handle it with the best service possible • Encourage good reviews • Always stay ‘on-brand’ when responding to bad reviews
- 41. Activity • Brainstorm keywords and keyword phrases that you can use for your website, social media profiles, and content marketing in general. • Take home activity: Create accounts and complete the social media checklist.
- 43. Design Features • Design features are important for conveying your brand message on and offline • Choose colors, shapes, fonts and placements that are consistent with your brand image • Manage and control design features carefully
- 45. Your Employees Are The Face Of Your Brand • Your employees are components of your brand • Make sure they understand it • They are the face of your brand • Choose an employee to be a representative of the company
- 46. Wow Your Customers • Go a step beyond the competition • Bend over backwards for your customers • A great way to establish your brand through word of mouth
- 47. Establish Offline Ambassadors • Identify your biggest supporters • Cultivate a good relationship with them • They’re helping to spread your brand
- 48. Get Out And See People • Make a habit of attending live events or other opportunities to meet customers face to face • The more you do this the more you will build your brand • Many brands fail to do this
- 49. Conclusion What you learned: – What branding is – Steps in Creating Your Brand – Brand Marketing Strategies – Online Brand Management – Offline Brand Management
- 50. What is the top idea you plan to take home and implement? Any concerns or challenges you see with applying what you learned to improve your branding?
- 51. Thank You! • I’m here to help. Book a 45 minute appointment at www.calendly.com/RebekahRichards • Contact me at: – www.JuceboxLocalMarketingPartners.com – 916-415-8625 • Want a copy of the slides? Drop your biz card in the basket. I’ll also send you ‘21 Ideas for Promoting Your Business Online’
Editor's Notes
- Ask audience how they define branding and write it on flipchart. Then tell them it is so much more and show the video.
- Your brand defines who you are and what you do, while also setting you apart from others like you. You brand emphasizes the unique value that you offer your customers. As our friend Jason Drees would say, this unique value is What you REALLY do! It's the reason they buy from you and not from someone else. If you have no brand, you are a commodity and commodity providers compete primarily on one thing….which is???? Your brand is communicated through everything your company does, from its design motifs and logo to the products, services and promotions it offers. Who can name some brands we are all familiar with who have mastered creating an emotional connection? (Starbucks, Coca Cola, Apple…Pairings!…)
- So, why are brands so important? It’s easy to think of BIG brands of the world like Apple, Walmart, Ford. But today, branding is incredibly important to small businesses – if not more so. [click] One thing that makes big brands appealing is that they are established right? And that builds trust – customers know what to expect, they know that business isn’t going anywhere, they can easily return a product if needed, etc… So when customers are looking for a small business to patron, that reassurance is gone. They have to make their judgments based on what’s in front of them …. Typically your logo, your storefront, your website if you’re shopping online. The more you can do to present a professional appearance, the more credibility and trust you’ll gain. Customers are more likely to purchase from a business that appears polished and legitimate. It’s like the old adage, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover…” …. But we all do! We have emotional reactions to appearance that are hardwired into our brains, and those reactions influence our decisions, whether we realize it or not. I can personality think of a time when I was looking for a heating and air company online. I did my google search and began visiting the websites that showed up. I found this one that had such a unique brand full of personality and was so polished, and stood out especially in that space …and I chose it because of that! I knew that THAT was the kind of company I wanted to do business with. [click] Brands can also inspire loyalty. When you have guidelines around the experience you want to create for customers, that experience will always be consistent and customers will know what to expect, keeping them coming back and recommending you to others. In the case of the heating company, I was so pleased to discover that the customer service and experience they delivered was consistent with the branding they had presented online, and that it was consistent every time I did business with them – no matter who came to our house, that I become a longstanding client and recommended them to others. [click] Lastly, brands can help justify premium pricing. If you’re not a brand, you’re a commodity. Your brand is your way to distinguish yourself from the competition and communicate the intangible benefits of your product or service, so that price is not the only factor you’re competing on. I’ll give you an example… let’s think about office supplies. You’d think they’d be more of a commodity at this point right? A pen is a pen is a pen. WRONG. I mean, you can certainly still find the off-brand cheap pens of course. But you can also find pens priced at hundreds of dollars. While the quality may be better to some degree, a big part of that is the branding. The company marketing that pen is marketing a feeling – they’re marketing how that pen will make a person feel when they’re holding it. This is also, if not more true, with service products. In this case, you don’t have a product that customers can see, taste or touch before they buy it. You’re selling knowledge and skill and you have to establish trust and credibility in your ability to deliver.
- The most important part of developing your brand is getting to know your customers. You may hear marketers talk about developing your buyer persona. Brands don't actually exist in the objective world. They exist inside the minds of customers. So, you need to get inside your customers' heads and understand what they think and how they feel about you. You need to understand the demographic you cater to, as well as psychological factors such as how they see themselves and how they think about money. You should know their buying habits, which brands they buy from, and how they feel about these brands.
- The absolute best research: interviews with existing customers.
- The most powerful aspect of a brand is the brand's name. The name conveys a great deal of information. The best names are short and punchy, like Dell or Starbucks. This makes them easy to remember. A great naming strategy is to use a nonsense word. You can then brand that word as your company's name, and your company is the only association people will make with it. Just think of Yahoo, Pepsi and Dreamworks. These are invented words that are now associated exclusively with a brand. Google has even become a verb in common usage.
- In order to formulate your brand, you have to see how your company is viewed by the public. Who do they see you as? What are your values as they perceive them? It's useful to think in terms of personal characteristics, even if you're considering the personality of a company. Just like a person, a company can be brash and bold, or it can be gentle and unassuming. It can be smart, strong, athletic, youthful or conservative. If your company were a person, who would it be?
- 1. Brand Voice: What does your brand sound like? What are your stories? What are your key messages? Is your voice attractive or descriptive? Does it contain personality traits such as charm, wit, and humor? Is anyone listening? Why should they? 2. Brand Style: What does your brand look like? Is it properly dressed for the occasion? Does it get noticed? Is it time for style make-over? Would “your dream buyer” be attracted to your style? 3. Brand Behavior: Does the behavior of your brand match what it says it is? Beyond your voice and style, does your brand behavior say that you are authentic? How can you not just “say”, but actually “do”? This connects your “IT” Factor with your Dream Buyer I’m not going to
- There are three kinds of logos: text logos, image logos, and abstract image logos. Some logos mix all three of these types. A text logo is simple and just presents the name of the company or a letter associated with it. Think of Google's simple lettering. Most companies use their name as a logo. Very recognizable brands like Apple or Starbucks can get away with using no text. Image logos show an image related to the company. Examples are McDonalds' golden arches and the apple that is Apple's logo. Starbucks' logo is a stretch but still related: Seattle, the hometown of the company, is a seaport and the logo is a siren beckoning sailors. An abstract symbol is something like Nike's swoosh. It doesn't say the company's name or show an image related to the company, but somehow the movement of the swoosh communicates the brand's message.
- Logo Colors The first thing to consider with colors is that most good, recognizable logos use only one or two colors. Simplicity is best. The most used colors in brand logos are red, blue, and black or greyscale. However, many companies use other colors as well. Colors need to be considered carefully because each color sparks certain associations in the mind. You want your logo's colors to spark the associations you want to make and not something else.
- These visual elements are used in: Marketing materials including books, pamphlets, flyers, websites, etc. Products and packaging Signs
- A good brand is consistent. The public should get the same message every time they come into contact with you. Consistency is especially important online where you have many more touch points with your market than offline. Image plays a bigger part online, so consistency across all media is key. Your brand should also provide a seamless user experience. The user experience should be in harmony with the image your brand projects. Apple is a company that does this well. Their brand communicates that they produce the trendiest, high tech products that improve our lives, and that are clean, simple and easy to use. Their marketing, their products, and their customer service all strive to communicate this message.
- Done by a former employee of Disney
- The keys to marketing a brand are consistency and making an emotional connection. Your brand needs to be consistent so that it delivers the same message and customers feel you're a company they can trust. The emotional connection includes the associations your brand makes in a customer's mind. A brand communicates emotionally when it makes the customer's life easier, it makes them safer, it lets them be who they are, it's part of their family, and so on. You establish this emotional connection by solving a specific problem your customer faces. Note that we didn't say you solve all of their problems. Not only is this impossible, but it's also not ideal. Instead, you want to focus on one specific problem that you solve and that no one else solves in quite the way you do.
- Finally, in choosing your branding strategy, consider the three pillars to every good brand: Vision, values and story. Vision – Your brand vision is where you want your brand to be next year, in two years, in five years, and so on. Values – Your values are the core principles that never change and are totally non-negotiable. Story – The story of your brand is why and how it came to be. Stories resonate with consumers and help to create that emotional connection you need.
- The branding strategies you use will be based on a combination of your identified dream buyer in combination with the 4 P’s. These 4 P’s are fairly self-explanatory, but let’s take a look at positioning, which is perhaps the least understood. Positioning means how a product is sold. This is a very important consideration and it’s easy to see why when we look at an example. First, you need to figure out what you stand for … this is also called your positioning statement. This is a critical part of your brand identity – it’s the foundation. Your positioning is what differentiates you from the rest of the crowd. Perhaps you offer really high quality of craftsmanship if you are a woodworker, or use unique materials than others. Perhaps you are extremely fast or efficient. Or maybe you don’t claim to be the BEST at one thing, but bring a well-rounded set of skills to the table, offering a one-stop shop. Imagine that you have two companies that sell chocolates. One sells big bags of individually wrapped chocolates that are reasonably priced and made in the shapes of animals, cars or other objects. The other company sells tiny packages which each contain only two chocolates, but the chocolates are made with very high-quality ingredients. It should be obvious that these two products will be sold differently. The former’s target market is most likely families or businesses, especially during the holiday season. The latter is for couples, real chocolate lovers and luxury gift-givers. How these products are packaged and where they’re sold are important branding considerations.
- You should send a clear message both online and off and integrate all of your marketing channels. A good marketing strategy is interactive and engages the customer. What does it mean to be 'interactive?' In today's media landscape, consumers are no longer stuck with a few big marketing channels, such as TV and the newspaper. Today, people go out and find their own sources of news and information, including information on products and services they need. To be interactive is to engage your customers wherever they're looking for information. You do this by establishing a presence on social media, offering apps, engaging with your website, producing videos, and so on. The idea is to create as many potential touch points as possible with your audience, providing the information they need WHEN and WHERE they need it. All of these marketing channels need to be integrated so they create a web that sends people back and forth to each. For example, television spots should include the URL or your website or a message that says, 'Follow us on Twitter at…' Your website should have links to all of your social media profiles and a call to action urging visitors to check them out. At every touch point, send customers to all of your other marketing channels.
- All of this is backed up with strong SEO. People may encounter your brand but lose track of the name with all of the media noise around them. They'll then search for you using a search engine or social media search. If you've targeted keywords well, your website or profile will come up in their search. On social media, you need a real person to respond to comments, inquiries and questions. Rather than making it smoother and easier for you, automating your social media can actually cause harm. Some large companies have learned this the hard way when they gave customers laughable canned responses, which were then shared with thousands of others. Social media requires real human interaction. The final element of an interactive strategy is to track analytics. If you can't do sophisticated visitor behavior tracking on your website, at the very least monitor behavior using Google Analytics. A wealth of information can be found using this program to help you improve your strategy.
- The absolute best brand marketing strategy is to focus on recommendations. There is no more powerful marketing than a close friend telling another close friend about your products. Studies have shown that this is more powerful than the best advertising. This is because it's not coming from the company itself but from a trusted friend. Today, when people are wary of being marketed to, and especially on social media where recommendations from friends are everything, it's important for brands to focus on recommendations in their marketing strategies.
- Drawing Your Line1. Draw a big circle.2. Draw a line down the middle.3. Draw a single stone on the left side. That’s you, or your business.4. On the other side of the line write down what you DON’T stand for.These are the practices you can’t stand, the things you’ve never liked doing, believed in doing – or at least want to stop doing. Then once you get a really unlikable list going, refine it down. Circle the words that really make you itch with disapproval (it’s okay to even feel annoyed, mad or even smug about all the things you are not).5. Now go back and write in all the opposites on YOUR side of the line.These are the beliefs that make you unique. Or perhaps they are old-fashioned, simple even – and yet you feel all the more strongly about them. You’re lucky you have a strong opinion. But most likely, if you feel like you operate in shades of grey, this exercise is a fun way to get your point-of-view a little stronger in contrast. Use the information from this exercise to help you better determine your 4 P’s and your vision, values and story
- There are many ways to go about marketing your brand, but you should always start by going back to your dream buyer persona. After all, the aim of brand marketing is to create an impression in their minds. It’s only natural that you should start with their tastes and preferences. The most important step in choosing a strategy is to conduct market research. You need to know your market well and this is the only way to obtain objective data about them. It is too important for you to make assumptions. Through market research, you can discover how the people in your market see themselves and the brands they buy.
- It takes a great deal of effort to maintain an online presence but the branding benefits are well worth it. You need to know what's going on with your brand and use the internet to leverage the exposure it offers.
- Search engine optimization is important for online branding. You need to make sure that your website and social media profiles come up in searches related to your brand. When people encounter your brand, even in print or in person, they're going to head straight to Google and see what else they can find out about you. Put a proactive SEO strategy into place and make sure you're ranking for relevant keywords.
- Although there are now many ways to communicate online, email is still the main mode of communication. It's good to build an email list and market directly to your list members' inboxes. This is a good way to enhance your branding and the personal nature of email makes it excellent for creating an emotional bond.
- No matter what individual branding strategy you employ, it’s a given that it will involve social media. However, there is a wide array of options when it comes to choosing a social media platform. You need to find the appropriate social media platforms that best communicate your brand and accomplish your branding goals and use them effectively. Each social media site offers different capabilities in terms of updates, messaging, links and so on. Consider the site’s capabilities and how you can use them. Some are better suited for certain goals as well. Some are suited well for SEO, some for driving traffic, some for brand exposure, and some for customer engagement. Define your purpose for your social media branding first, and then choose the platform that best offers what you need. Another way to choose your platform is to go where your audience is. Find out where your current customers socialize online. Or consider your customer demographics and choose the social media that suits their demographics. One more consideration is the number of users. At the time of writing, Facebook is the most popular social media site on earth by a longshot. If one social media site has hundreds of billions of users, it only makes sense that you should be there.
- Many businesses find content marketing a good way to build their brand. Content marketing is a strategy in which you regularly publish articles, blog posts, videos or other content that helps your target market. It's a great way to gain exposure and communicate your brand message.
- It's possible that someone is going to say something bad about your company online and it’s inevitable that many others will see it. This is why you need reputation management protocols in place. When a complaint or negative comment is posted about your brand, you need to swing into action and handle it with the best customer service possible. A proactive method of protecting your reputation online is to encourage good reviews and positive comments. When you have a great number of good reviews on a site like Yelp, a few bad ones aren't so damaging. Whenever responding to negative comments, remember to stay ‘on-brand’. Never get angry. Your handling of the situation should give others who see the interaction the right brand message. How you respond to these situations is as much a part of your brand marketing as any other activities you engage in.
- Group (time permitting or individual if time limited) Circle all of the keywords and keyword phrases in each category that you feel describe your business. Add any that aren’t there. We want to sum up how dynamic and unique your business really is. See how the words elicit the voice, style and behavior of your business. Now in each category, I want you to decide which is most important and rank your top 3. Follow your instinct on this. They often stand out on their own accord if you let them. Now I want you to partner up with the person next to you and use the top ranked word from each category to tell your business story. Ask them how those words in your story made them feel? Do they put you at ease, make you feel reassured, alive, inspired, challenged? This feeling (or energy) is what your brand identity needs to convey if it is to be in alignment with your intention for your business. By drilling down to the right words we can start to make the abstract more concrete. We can also start to have clarity around exactly what language and visuals communicate your message. Its so important to know what effect/feeling/energy your brand has on people and to make sure its in alignment with your intentions. Create online accounts and complete the checklist below. Add or replace networks with ones more relevant to your brand, where necessary.
- Offline brand management is just as important as online brand management, but we often let it fall by the wayside in this age of technology overload, assuming that what's online is what counts most. However, this is a big mistake. Offline brand management should be just as high a priority.
- Design features are important for conveying your brand message whether online or off. Choose colors, shapes, sizes, fonts and placements that are consistent with your brand image. Manage these design features carefully. For example, don't let a vender just grab your logo off the site and do with it what he or she pleases. It may appear differently than you want it to. Control every aspect and provide the materials vendors and others need so that you can maintain this control.
- Your employees themselves are components of your brand. Make sure they understand the brand and their place in its story well. They'll be the face of your brand when you come into contact with customers both online and off, but especially on the front lines in the real world. You may choose one employee or the CEO his or herself to be a sort of representative of the company.
- Good customer service and attention is all too often lacking today. If you go a step beyond the competition and bend over backwards for your customers, it will wow them and prompt them to tell others about you. This is a great way to establish your brand through word of mouth.
- Identify those who are your biggest supporters. These are influencers who are well-connected and like to talk about your brand and advocate for it to others. Cultivate a good relationship with these people because they're helping to spread your brand without any work on your part.
- Make it a habit of attending live events, trade shows and other opportunities to actually meet customers face to face. The more you do this, the more it will build your brand. This isn't a difficult thing to do, but many brands, and especially those whose main presence is online, fail to do it.
- You should now have a good understanding about the basics of branding. There is a great deal of work ahead of you in shaping your brand, growing it, maintaining it, and keeping it strong and relevant. Here’s how I hope your customers feel about you after you apply what you learned today…