—
Listen to the podcast here:
Create Your Magnetic Brand
It could be that for some of you who are perhaps reading for the first time or you’ve been with me through the first nine episodes, it could be that you could use a little bit of a branding make-over. Let’s take a look at that because we all fall into complacency at times. We may think that our business is performing at the highest level possible, when in fact we could use some tweaking, some revamping, some retooling. We’re always looking for ways to generate a lot more sales and more profits and make more money.
If that’s you or even if you are someone who’s looking to create a brand from scratch, you’ve got to get clear on how to make that happen so that you can make your cash register ring. In episode nine, I talked about that you first have to get real clear on what business you’re in. If you’re not clear on what you are selling, then no one is buying. For example, someone might say, “I’m selling cars.” No, you’re not. You’re selling fun behind the wheel of the car. Maybe you’re selling excitement or maybe you’re selling some comfort or some image. Someone might say, “Gerry, I’m selling refrigerators.” Are you selling refrigerators? Are you selling fresher tasting food? Are you selling perhaps fewer trips to the grocery store? You might say, “Gerry, I own a gym. I own one of these boutique gyms that are popping up all over the place that is popular with the Millennials now. I’ve got treadmills, I’ve got weights. I’ve got all types of ways for people to bulk up, trim down and look the way they want to look.” I go, “Is that what you’re really selling or are you selling a new body that is going to make someone feel more attracted to the opposite sex? Maybe that person wants to turn more heads or maybe that person just wants to have a longer, healthier life.”
What exactly are you selling? What business are you in? One thing that we’ve learned in the branding universe that I live in as those of you who know from my story in episode one, I’ve been doing branding for many years. My entire adult life, this is the only work that I do and have done. I live and breathe branding. I love what I do. One of the things that we’ve learned from Starbucks and brands like them is that people are not necessarily buying what you think they’re buying. What they showed us is that people are buying what the brands stand for. Nike and Starbucks have shown us that the products they sell are less important than the brands they market. You’ve got to get clear on what business you’re in so that you can excite, delight and ignite your market and have people do what you want them to do.
One of the things that I’m doing now is I’m looking to have my own personal chef. There’s some motivation around that because I’m going to admit this publicly. Only a few people even know this. I don’t know how to cook. I can boil an egg. I can make a baked chicken or cook a steak, but I’m not hiring a chef just to make me food. I’m hiring her to relieve me from all the stress that I associate with always having to eat out. I have an interior designer, not me, but as a client one time. She got to realize that she wasn’t just selling the ability to do interior design. She was turning mundane spaces into sacred spaces, fun spaces or amazing spaces.
In this over-communicated, over-saturated media society, the impact of advertising and marketing is becoming almost out of control. Click To TweetI’m like, “You guys come across life coaches a lot.” I’m always amazed when a life coach chooses to call herself or himself a life coach because that’s not what they’re selling. I think that quite often, people are buying the opportunity to have fewer struggles in their life, to have fewer feelings of inadequacy. Do you see where I’m going with this? Here’s the bottom line here. You have to give people a reason to buy from you. People buy for a reason, not because you told them to. People have to associate the action of buying to creating either tremendous pleasure in their life or the relief of some pain. You also have to get them to see that by not buying is going to create pain too.
In this world that we live in now, this over-communicated, oversaturated media society, the impact of advertising and marketing is becoming almost out of control. It’s things like every day, we as consumers, we in public, I don’t care what state you live in, what city you live in. Every day we’re bombarded with messages online, offline, telling us what to buy, what to wear, what to eat, where to go to get the services we’re looking for. In the midst of all that, you’ve got a lot of people who are struggling. There are a whole lot of folks out there who are facing financial hardships. They’re wondering how they can stretch their dollar. What should they buy that is going to give them the enjoyment that they’re seeking?
In the midst of all of that, you’ve got to get clear on what you want people to associate with your brand and how this whole branding process works. Jeff Bezos, the Founder of Amazon, the richest human being on the planet, he says, “Branding is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” That’s his definition of a brand. Think about that. Your brand, your reputation, what it is that you are selling or plan to sell is what people will say about you when you’re not in the room.
When you start to look at it from that perspective, that’s why the brand can no longer simply be a logo because a logo alone doesn’t capture all the things that you offer that give you an advantage over your competition. Not one’s going to see how great your brand is or the advantages that you provide by simply looking at your logo. It can’t simply be the services you offer either or your product, or you put up nice signage. The idea here is to be able to cut through all the clutter. You’ve got to be able to slice and dice your way through jungles of resistance and get people to pay attention to what it is that you have. If you have a brand that is designed to speak exactly to what your ideal customer is looking for, then they’re going to be motivated to take action.
Create Your Magnetic Brand: Give people to reasons to find your brand that they are going to be drawn to you like bees flocked on honey.
By the way, when I say being motivated to take action, it could mean that they’re going to be motivated to change some things, meaning that they may switch over to you. They’re going to stop using the product they had been using. They’re going to stop working with the service provider they had been working with. When you want people to switch over, when you want people to change, you’ve got to make sure that you give them all the best reasons possible to kick someone over the edge so that they become a customer of yours. You’ve got to stir people up so much that their want or desire for you is strong. That means answering the question, “What’s in it for me as a consumer?”
There are so many small business owners who are putting up websites and putting stuff out on social media. They think they have a brand, but their message is not even clear. Never make someone have to guess what’s in it for them because that’s always the key question, “What’s in it for me?” You never want to make your audience have to guess about what’s in it for them. It should be clear when they come across your brand, your message, the name of your brand and you’ve got to be able to speak about your brand in such a way whereby they get clear on what they will receive and how they will be better off as a result of your brand.
We’ll be talking more about this as we continue with our show. We’re going to get into this whole thing about cutting through the clutter and the jungles of resistance that I referred to. We’re going to talk about how to cut through all of that, particularly in what I call the social media crazy universe, this Twitter, Facebook, Instagram universe. I get the importance of it, but if you’re not staying and not getting notes and being remembered for offering something unique and special to your brand, then what good is it for you to be on those platforms? I understand how wanting to dive into this whole thing of branding can be a little bit daunting. When you look at it, you’re not quite sure what is it that you need to do, but it does come down to having a strong identity and that’s beyond simply having a certain look, a certain feel. It means giving people reasons to find your brand so magnetic that they’re going to be drawn to you like bees flock to honey. Until next time, take care.
Important Links:
- Episode nine – past episode
- Episode one – past episode
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!
Join the Big Brand Formula Community today:
