What is your company's brand reputation?

Quick… what is the ONE thing customers or prospects think about when they think of your company?

If you have to think about it too long, your marketing needs improvement.

A few quick examples using the automotive industry:

• What brand stands for SAFETY?
• What brand stands for PERFORMANCE?
• What brand stands for ENGINEERING?

I hope you answered Volvo, BMW, and Mercedes (in that order).

What is a brand?  Your brand is much more than your logo, your advertising, or your web site.  Yes, all of these are involved in COMMUNICATING your brand, but what really IS your brand?

Your brand is the markets perception about your company.  A brand should reflect your companies values, it should evoke some type of emotional response in the market, and at the very least, it should reflect your position in the market.

Ideally, your brand is a PROMISE you make and keep in every marketing activity, every action, every corporate decision and every customer interaction.  It is everything that consumers THINK ABOUT when they think about your brand.

APPLE is probably the best example in the market right now.  The APPLE brand says “cool”, “creativity”, “passion” “simplicity”, “quality” and “market leadership”.  If you ask 100 people what they think of when they think of the APPLE brand, you will get one of more of the above adjectives.

So, how do you build a brand reputation?  Slowly and deliberately.  It takes time, but it can be done.  The MOST IMPORTANT element of building a brand is CONTINUITY of the message across all platforms.  Think about what message is communicated via your web site, your trade show booth, your sales brochures, your e-mail campaigns, mailers, presentations, Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc.  Your message needs to be absolutely consistent.

DO THIS NOW:

1.  Decide on your message.  What position do you want to take in the market?  What is your CORE EXPERTISE?  What emotions/values/feelings do you want your brand to generate in your prospects?

2. Audit your marketing materials:  Are they consistent.  Do your materials (and your web site) show nothing different about your company?  What is your USP? (Unique Selling Proposition  Why should customers do business with you (quality is NOT the answer).  Make sure that all your materials reflect the same message.

3. Update your materials:  Get all your materials on the same message.

4. Train your employees:  Employees talk about your company all the time.  They all need to be saying the same thing.  They should all be your best sales people.

5. Go Social:  Do not overlook the power of social media.  Yes, I know you have heard all the hype.  But if you do not have an update LinkedIn page, you are missing the boat.

6. Keep at it:  This is not a “one-time project”.  It takes consistent effort.  But it must be done.  Assign someone in the organization (or hire AmeriStart) to do it.

I could go on and on, but the above advice is the most important.  Do it now.

Dedicated to your success in America.

Jim Worrell