Brand building is not simple, but it is powerful.
A brand is actually a living, complex organism. Brands must stand for something. They must be built on a foundation and idea that supports the product or service in various ways. In order to properly position a brand, you must reject sameness and conformity. When positioning is planned and executed successfully, it elevates a brand above others in ways in which people can’t help but notice and be attracted to it.
And also…affiliated with it.
The human mind looks for things that are different. It looks for things that are unexpected. So, building a brand that stands in abundant contrast to others in it’s competitive space will attract attention and create a competitive “moat” in the marketplace.
In order powerfully position your brand, three things must be accomplished:
1. Be different
You don’t just need merely differentiation. You need radical differentiation that makes sense. You can’t attract a loyal following if you are not noticed. Of course, there is more to a powerful brand than being different, but if you blend into the background, what’s the point? Typically in most product categories, there are more choices than ever before.
Your differentiation must be something that makes you meaningfully different from others in your product category.
You must take care not to take this too far in the extreme. Just because you do doesn’t mean people will want to do business with you. It may actually have the opposite effect.
2. Be focused
In order to keep your brand in a powerful position, you must be zen-like in focus. The complex and intricate your goals list is, the harder it will be for you to actually achieve those objectives. Complexity sends mixed signals that will end up damaging your focus.To have powerful focus, you ail need to gather all your energy and concentrate it on just a few brand-related goals.
When we have a problem we can’t fix ourselves, we reach out to a specialist. Specialists cost more than generalists, because they demand a premium for their elevated expertise. Many businesses take the opposite path. They want to be generalists. All things to all people. They do this out of fear and a scarcity mentality. They are more worried about the business they aren’t getting rather than the business they could get by being focused. This approach further pushes you into the commodity sector, meaning your offering is no better more or less than any other.
3. Be relevant
One of the things business leaders have to constantly be diligently watching is where the marketplace is going. If the marketplace is going in a divergent direction from your brand, major trouble is brewing.
If you aren’t relevant, you really aren’t in business.
Executing a powerful brand strategy is not about merely surviving, it’s about abundantly thriving. Many business owners are so unfocused themselves on what business they are actually in, they fail to clerkly articulate it in brand building terms. Clarity is power, especially in brand strategy and building a brand-driven business.