Written by Bill Napier
"Hands On"Marketing Consultant igniting B2C & B2B brands focused on driving growth & profitability. Noted Writer & Speaker specializing in business transformation.
March 27, 2024
"Hands On"Marketing Consultant igniting B2C & B2B brands focused on driving growth & profitability. Noted Writer & Speaker specializing in business transformation.
March 27, 2024
NO ONE WILL READ THIS....DEFINING YOUR BRAND A ROADMAP AND AUDIT EXERCISE
WHAT A BORING HEADLINE ... I KNOW
Everywhere in retail, it seems that the retail brand is:
50% OFF EVERYTHING ... AND ... NO PAYMENTS UNTIL...YOU ARE DEAD
Gone are the days when retailers and manufacturers truly went through the exercise to define "WHAT IS OUR BRAND"?
"Personally, I don’t think many manufacturers and many retailers in our business care about their brand, for we’ve replaced Products with Price, Brand Positioning with Cheap, and Passion with Sameness.
Essentially we’ve “Commoditized Everything” and made the shopping experience all about “The Deal”, at the expense of the experience".I hope in this case that is not true because I’m going to give away some great ways to help your business define your brand and marketing strategy so you can be more relevant to today’s consumer.
I’ve been working with companies for over 40 years, developing marketing plans, messaging, go-to-market strategies, and more, helping them define their brand and go-to-market strategies. Believe me, it’s not as easy as you think, because your brand is probably not what you think it is. It’s what everyone else thinks it is, especially your Stakeholders and what they believe it is! Most company owners define what their brand is, or what they the owners think it should be. Then they communicate this to their employees and probably never really know if their perception is in fact reality.
In actuality, the owner’s vision is probably wrong more often than not.
If you go through this exercise, you MUST ask these questions of your Stakeholders independently and NOT as a group discussion, do it anonymously. The reason for this is simple. Then compare the anonymous answers in a group review. You want to discover any disconnects you may have and I bet there are a lot of them.I bet your company hasn’t done the hard and tedious work necessary to really understand what the “stakeholders” of the company think.
What’s a Stakeholder you ask? Well consider these entities as Stakeholders:
1. Owners
2. Salespeople
3. Customer Service Employees
4. Warehouse Employees
5. Delivery Employees
6. Your customers
7. And everyone else in the business not listed above.
I remember a company my agency worked with back in the 90s. They were in the printing and packaging business reporting approximately $30MM in sales. The primary founders/owners had passed away and left the business to their 3 sons. When we went to work for them, all 3 brothers wanted to run the show and needless to say, there was some chaos. They all told me their different visions of their “Brand”, yep all different, and in their minds, each was correct. Rather than argue with them, we went undercover in an experiment that led to the process we use today.
What we will share with you today WILL help you define your brand and the necessary steps you should take to get real with YOUR Brand’s Reality.
I personally went to work in the shipping and receiving department for several days for this client to understand what the thoughts and feelings were of their employees. I believed that these people would reveal to me “the truth” as to what they thought about the company and the company’s Brand. My hunch was correct because they were honest….brutally honest.
Essentially, they thought the new management was a bunch of Silver Spoon Morons that had no experience, and worse … they talked down to the employees, showed no respect and so much more. However, we also found out that these same employees loved their managers & supervisors, respected the sales management and salespeople, and worked hard to show it to those individuals.
WHEN WE WENT IN WITH OUR S.W.O.T ANALYSIS -(STRENGTHS-WEAKNESSES-OPPORTUNITIES-THREATS)
THE FIRST AREA WE ADDRESSED WAS THREATS
50% OFF EVERYTHING ... AND ... NO PAYMENTS UNTIL...YOU ARE DEAD
Gone are the days when retailers and manufacturers truly went through the exercise to define "WHAT IS OUR BRAND"?
"Personally, I don’t think many manufacturers and many retailers in our business care about their brand, for we’ve replaced Products with Price, Brand Positioning with Cheap, and Passion with Sameness.
Essentially we’ve “Commoditized Everything” and made the shopping experience all about “The Deal”, at the expense of the experience".I hope in this case that is not true because I’m going to give away some great ways to help your business define your brand and marketing strategy so you can be more relevant to today’s consumer.
I’ve been working with companies for over 40 years, developing marketing plans, messaging, go-to-market strategies, and more, helping them define their brand and go-to-market strategies. Believe me, it’s not as easy as you think, because your brand is probably not what you think it is. It’s what everyone else thinks it is, especially your Stakeholders and what they believe it is! Most company owners define what their brand is, or what they the owners think it should be. Then they communicate this to their employees and probably never really know if their perception is in fact reality.
In actuality, the owner’s vision is probably wrong more often than not.
If you go through this exercise, you MUST ask these questions of your Stakeholders independently and NOT as a group discussion, do it anonymously. The reason for this is simple. Then compare the anonymous answers in a group review. You want to discover any disconnects you may have and I bet there are a lot of them.I bet your company hasn’t done the hard and tedious work necessary to really understand what the “stakeholders” of the company think.
What’s a Stakeholder you ask? Well consider these entities as Stakeholders:
1. Owners
2. Salespeople
3. Customer Service Employees
4. Warehouse Employees
5. Delivery Employees
6. Your customers
7. And everyone else in the business not listed above.
I remember a company my agency worked with back in the 90s. They were in the printing and packaging business reporting approximately $30MM in sales. The primary founders/owners had passed away and left the business to their 3 sons. When we went to work for them, all 3 brothers wanted to run the show and needless to say, there was some chaos. They all told me their different visions of their “Brand”, yep all different, and in their minds, each was correct. Rather than argue with them, we went undercover in an experiment that led to the process we use today.
What we will share with you today WILL help you define your brand and the necessary steps you should take to get real with YOUR Brand’s Reality.
I personally went to work in the shipping and receiving department for several days for this client to understand what the thoughts and feelings were of their employees. I believed that these people would reveal to me “the truth” as to what they thought about the company and the company’s Brand. My hunch was correct because they were honest….brutally honest.
Essentially, they thought the new management was a bunch of Silver Spoon Morons that had no experience, and worse … they talked down to the employees, showed no respect and so much more. However, we also found out that these same employees loved their managers & supervisors, respected the sales management and salespeople, and worked hard to show it to those individuals.
WHEN WE WENT IN WITH OUR S.W.O.T ANALYSIS -(STRENGTHS-WEAKNESSES-OPPORTUNITIES-THREATS)
THE FIRST AREA WE ADDRESSED WAS THREATS
Our solution:
All the Owners should go play golf and get out of the way until they learn the business and earn the respect of ALL their Stakeholders. They should turn over the day-to-day operations to their managers and supervisors and focus on the vision and future mission of the company.
With that said, let’s talk about the process we developed that may help the company truly define what the brand is, and what needs to be done to achieve that Holy Grail of Brand Equity.
The following are the basic steps necessary to fully understand the who, what, and where the brand is and how to make the necessary changes to complete the vision.
Every employee needs to fill out our Brand questionnaire. It should be done anonymously so that the “stakeholders” can be candid and honest about what they believe your company and brand stands for…or doesn’t stand for. Yep, this may take each employee 1-2 hours to complete, and even longer to tabulate the results into an action plan.
That’s the hard part, charting every answer from each stakeholder, because that is the only way you’ll begin to truly visualize the truth about your brand’s platform.
All the Owners should go play golf and get out of the way until they learn the business and earn the respect of ALL their Stakeholders. They should turn over the day-to-day operations to their managers and supervisors and focus on the vision and future mission of the company.
With that said, let’s talk about the process we developed that may help the company truly define what the brand is, and what needs to be done to achieve that Holy Grail of Brand Equity.
The following are the basic steps necessary to fully understand the who, what, and where the brand is and how to make the necessary changes to complete the vision.
Every employee needs to fill out our Brand questionnaire. It should be done anonymously so that the “stakeholders” can be candid and honest about what they believe your company and brand stands for…or doesn’t stand for. Yep, this may take each employee 1-2 hours to complete, and even longer to tabulate the results into an action plan.
That’s the hard part, charting every answer from each stakeholder, because that is the only way you’ll begin to truly visualize the truth about your brand’s platform.
This area asks your employees, in their own words, to describe your business. It also asks them to define what they think the goals of the company are or should be. Obviously you want everyone to have the same goals as you, but you may be very surprised with the outcome. There are a lot of questions in this section.
Measurable goals are critical and without measurable goals, you cannot continually improve.
Measurable goals are critical and without measurable goals, you cannot continually improve.
Ok, you probably think you know who your audience is, right? My question is, what research have you done, and based on that information, have you tailored your business vision and mission on that audience?
Here we ask some fairly basic questions, but the answers require you to do some research.
I’ll wager that your customer of 3-5 years ago is NOT your customer of today, and because of that, your vision of your Brand may be becoming irrelevant. You Must do this every few years to be sure you are RELEVANT.
Here we ask some fairly basic questions, but the answers require you to do some research.
- Who is your target customer?
- What are their demographics/Ethnicity and Psycho-graphics?
- How do they shop, what do they shop for, what are their wants, needs and desires, interests and lifestyles.
- Where do they live?
- How do these consumers want to be communicated with and so much more.
I’ll wager that your customer of 3-5 years ago is NOT your customer of today, and because of that, your vision of your Brand may be becoming irrelevant. You Must do this every few years to be sure you are RELEVANT.
This section is especially interesting when all the Stakeholders complete this area. I’ve found more often than not, that perception again is not reality.
If this happens with your company, you MUST need to rethink how you communicate to your Stakeholders first, before you communicate with the consumer.
There are several questions in this area that you’ll get a lot of different answers from the responders. Why? Because you probably have not done the “basics” when it comes to developing your brand, much less building it.
If this happens with your company, you MUST need to rethink how you communicate to your Stakeholders first, before you communicate with the consumer.
There are several questions in this area that you’ll get a lot of different answers from the responders. Why? Because you probably have not done the “basics” when it comes to developing your brand, much less building it.
This is an area where you can really learn where you have assets or liabilities when it comes to your “front-line people” these are the Brand Emissaries for your business.
If they don’t know the answers to these simple questions, you have a problem because these people are the first encounters your consumer has with your store and your Brand. How you are different from your competition, and please describe the key factors you believe will make your company/products a success?
1. How is your company different from your competition?
2. What elements of your products/services “specifically” set you apart from your competition?
3. What areas of your current positioning, advertising, people, website, etc., are successful and why?
If they don’t know the answers to these simple questions, you have a problem because these people are the first encounters your consumer has with your store and your Brand. How you are different from your competition, and please describe the key factors you believe will make your company/products a success?
1. How is your company different from your competition?
2. What elements of your products/services “specifically” set you apart from your competition?
3. What areas of your current positioning, advertising, people, website, etc., are successful and why?
I HATE THIS PART
Everyone hates this exercise, including ME, because it requires sincere “soul searching” AND a lot of time.
Everyone needs to be brutally honest in answering these questions, for you cannot have an actionable Brand Strategy if you don’t address your shortcomings and failures first. Remember, anyone can make a sexy commercial, great ads and in-store sales materials, but it all fails if you do not deliver on the “promise”, and that is what a Brand is….Your Promise! (When you download the document, we give you many questions to ask and soul search under each category below).
1. Strengths
2. Weaknesses
3. Opportunities
4. Threats
Everyone hates this exercise, including ME, because it requires sincere “soul searching” AND a lot of time.
Everyone needs to be brutally honest in answering these questions, for you cannot have an actionable Brand Strategy if you don’t address your shortcomings and failures first. Remember, anyone can make a sexy commercial, great ads and in-store sales materials, but it all fails if you do not deliver on the “promise”, and that is what a Brand is….Your Promise! (When you download the document, we give you many questions to ask and soul search under each category below).
1. Strengths
2. Weaknesses
3. Opportunities
4. Threats
Targeted Message: State a single-minded word or phrase that will appropriately describe your expectations once the assignment is completed.
Communication Strategy for Your Brand: How do you believe your Brand should be positioned to convince your target audience of your relevance?
In our worksheet, we have 5 distinct questions that will give you insights as to what your employees think and feel about your Brand. You’ll be surprised at how many great ideas can come from this section.
Communication Strategy for Your Brand: How do you believe your Brand should be positioned to convince your target audience of your relevance?
In our worksheet, we have 5 distinct questions that will give you insights as to what your employees think and feel about your Brand. You’ll be surprised at how many great ideas can come from this section.
Here is an area that is critical for your business and for ensuring that you set the standards by which your competition competes.
Yep, knowledge is power and superior knowledge can infect an individual with passion on a particular subject. I’m surprised with what little training is done both at the retail level and by the manufacturers.
Here we outline some questions and we ask the employees to rank the good, bad, and ugly. (Yep this is where the management may get Butt-Hurt).
Yep, knowledge is power and superior knowledge can infect an individual with passion on a particular subject. I’m surprised with what little training is done both at the retail level and by the manufacturers.
Here we outline some questions and we ask the employees to rank the good, bad, and ugly. (Yep this is where the management may get Butt-Hurt).
Personally, I don’t think many manufacturers and many retailers in our business care about their brand, for we’ve replaced Products with Price, Brand Positioning with Cheap, and Passion with Sameness.
Essentially we’ve “Commoditized Everything” and made the shopping experience all about “The Deal”, at the expense of the experience.
Oh, that company I mentioned at the beginning of the article? We worked with them for over a year with the processes we developed and outlined here. Today their sales are in excess of $110MM, with three facilities, and the owners are thriving….as are their employees and Stakeholders.
Contact me to discuss or get our Brand Worksheet
[email protected]
Essentially we’ve “Commoditized Everything” and made the shopping experience all about “The Deal”, at the expense of the experience.
Oh, that company I mentioned at the beginning of the article? We worked with them for over a year with the processes we developed and outlined here. Today their sales are in excess of $110MM, with three facilities, and the owners are thriving….as are their employees and Stakeholders.
Contact me to discuss or get our Brand Worksheet
[email protected]
