Last week show featured Paul Parkin, the founding partner of SALT Branding. Paul overwhelmed the audience with five of his power-hitting Brand Building Strategies for the Recession Survivors:
1. Building a Brand Plan – Create a brand plan that will give you a clear and simple story.
- Who are you?
Building a brand is about creating a unique and compelling story about your brand.
- Who are you selling your product to?
If you do not understand your customers, then how will you make a brand promise that will be relevant to them?
- What are you selling?
- How are you going to market your product?
- Why should they care about your product?
Building brands is about creating a compelling story, a big idea, then developing a strategy that will help you achieve it – long term and short term.
2. Remain Focus – Paul uses the Wizard of Oz analogy. Dorothy had a clear mission to get home to her family. In order for her to achieve the mission, she had to visit the Wizard. But along the route, there were witches, poppy fields and flying monkeys. All of these things were short term distractions which could have prevented her from achieving her goal.
The more distractions, the less focus and the more confusing your story will be.
One of the biggest problems facing most businesses is the need to prioritize and focus, whether they are a start-up company or a Fortune 500.
3. Standing out from the crowd. It’s all about differentiating and standing for something.
Paul uses the example of his first client, Computer Literacy, an online book store. Computer Literacy did not have the marketing dollars nor the traffic to compete with Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Borders. How did they differentiate themselves? They change their name to Fatbrain. Remember, the littlest thing makes a big difference!
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the brand ‘Google’? Yes, the king of search! Google continually reinforces that message to be branded in your mind.
Not only should you be recognized for standing for something, but you should stand out from everyone else. How? Look at the comparisons between Google’s home page and the other search engines. Google has a simple page with one search box, while their competition overloads their pages with news and advertisement. Simplicity is one of Google’s strategy to stand out from the rest.
4. You’re not going to win the lottery, if you don’t buy a ticket. How are you going to join the debate? If you’re not part of the conversation, you can’t influence the conversation. Brands are changing the way people think and becoming more engaged with their users. They are utilizing social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to find their audience, create buzz around their brand and receive honest feedback about their product.
5: It’s all about the details. Branding is all about experience. What are you doing to create a unique experience for your brand? Since advertising is expensive, interacting with our community is the most effective way to building your brand. When someone interacts with your brand, whether it is how you answer the phone or how you package your product, the experience creates a touch point. Unique or unusual touch points get people talking about your business.
BIO: Paul Parkin, the founding partner of SALT Branding, an integrated branding consultancy. Paul’s career in branding spans a wide range of sectors, for Fortune 500 clients such as Disney, EMBARQ and Microsoft as well as VC-funded start-up like Mobile 365, Scale Venture Partners and Vinfolio. SALT Branding help clients bring their business strategies to life and help them create effective results that support their marketing investment.
For more information about SALT, please visit www.saltbranding.com
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What a great resource!