For a long time, products and services themselves were sufficient. But today, the rise of competition has fundamentally altered the marketplace. As innumerable products and services vie for our attention and our custom, novel experiences have emerged as one of the primary ways for brands to differentiate themselves. If your brand can be part of a sensual or emotional experience, you may be able to create a significant point of differentiation in the mind of your customers.
Read moreCreating A New Order: Differentiate A Brand By Creating A Ritual
Is there a brand of cookie you eat a certain way? If you remove one side of a chocolate sandwich cookie and eat the creamy center before you munch on the delicious, crunchy exterior, advertising may have taught you how. Beauty brands also create rituals: from bronzer to beard oil, concealer to cologne, these companies create products that become part of our daily routines. What ritual can you create for your brand? Will doing things in a new way help your customers? Can your products find a way into our daily habits? Will creating a new habit differentiate your brand from your competitors?
Read moreTell Me A Story: Differentiate a Brand with Narrative
Every brand and every product has a story. For some, this story provides a wonderful way to differentiate a brand. When a brand comes from a long tradition or has evolved over many decades, the brand story can take on a life of its own. But newer brands have stories too. The unique way that products are made or designed can separate one product from another in profound ways. People love stories; brands that provide them can capture a unique place in the mind.
Quote for the Week: Money is like Gunpowder
Money is like gunpowder. It holds the potential energy of value. But without the spark of an entrepreneur, it does no work.
— Kyle Kirk
Read moreLet’s Get Personal… Differentiate a Brand by Adding a Personality
Does your reputation preceded you? Do people turn to look when you enter a room? You may be able to differentiate your brand by becoming its public face. People have a hard time connecting with corporations, but they can, and do, feel connected to the real people that lead those businesses. Even a fictional personality can make a brand more accessible and less abstract in the mind. A personal approach to brand differentiation can make it easier for consumers to relate to what you sell, and can create a clear point of differentiation between your company and all the rest.
Read moreThere's Nothing Like Style: Differentiate a Brand by Creating an Aesthetic
Most brands create at least some amount of aesthetic. The logo and brand identity demonstrate a point of view that can be hip or serious or fun — it provides a glimpse into the psychological position that the brand is attempting to develop. But many companies take this much further. Small businesses can do the same. When an entrepreneur goes out of her way to develop a unique aesthetic, the brand is more easily remembered.
Read moreUnited By A Single Purpose: Differentiate A Brand By Creating A Community
Building a brand community is one of the most effective and influential ways to spread the message of your organization. By creating an identity for your customers you can create a sense of belonging. Groups give us identity and a goal — two powerful motivators. When you harness these psychological dynamics, you can energize your customer base and inspire deep loyalty. Today we'll take a look a the three critical steps entrepreneurs must take in order to build a brand community.
Read moreHow Do They See Me? Six Ways to Create A Unique Brand
How am I different? Why should anyone choose my business? What do I offer that is unique or special? These are some of the most difficult questions for entrepreneurs to answer. But in an age of unlimited consumer choice, the answers are what makes one brand successful and dooms another to failure. Calling attention to your business is the only way that customers understand what you have to offer, and differentiating yourself from the competition is the best way to build a customer base in the modern age of innumerable brands.
Read moreQuote for the Week: Destinations are Merely Suggestions
Forgive Me! I Won't Do It Again! Fixing Customer Relationships Part 3 — Intention
No matter how sincere the apology or how appropriate the restitution, there's little point if there's no attempt to prevent another mistake in the future. Customers want to know that business owners recognize problems and want to resolve them. The future of any relationship depends upon a belief that a negative incident won't be repeated. For this reason, an intention to cause no further harm must be part of the apology process.
Read moreThere's Gotta Be A Way to Fix This… Fixing Customer Relationships Part 2 — Restitution
“Restitution” comes from the Latin roots “re-“ and “statuere” — to establish again. This is precisely the purpose of restitution: to establish again the relationship that was damaged by some blunder. In order for an exchange to occur, the money a customer trades for your goods and services must equal the value that they feel in their minds. But when a customer is mistreated, that balance changes. Restitution is an attempt to rebalance the scales.
Read morePlease Accept My Apologies: Fixing Customer Relationships, Part 1 — The Apology
The way you handle problems is a significant aspect of your brand. Customers won’t separate their personal experiences from your advertising and your products and your website — they see all parts as a cohesive whole. Creating policies and procedures to deal with negative events is as much a part of building a brand as designing a marketing campaign or creating an attractive window display.
Read moreWhat Have I Done? What to do When You've Angered a Customer
You will make mistakes. Your actions following those mistakes will determine what kinds of relationships you build. When we make a mistake it’s up to us to determine what to do next. This week, we will examine what to do when we screw up and, by deconstructing that process, come up with ways to fixed broken customer relationships.
Read moreQuote for the Week: Knowledge is Nothing Until it is Shared
Knowledge is nothing until it is shared. When the wise remain silent, they become a burden to the earth.
— Kyle Kirk
Read moreThe Value of A Customer: define a brand based on the average sale
Your prices are a part of your brand communications. When customers see a high price tag they receive a message, “This is worth more than other products of this type.” But a question immediately follows: “Is it worth what they’re charging?” We expect high prices to reflect the real worth of an offering, and we are often willing to spend more — but only if we know that we will receive more. Every aspect of the customer experience justifies the price tag. Any missteps shatter this perception. The price you charge and the experience you provide must be clearly defined as you develop your brand.
Read moreHarder, Better, Faster, Stronger: Define a Brand by Improving an Existing Offering
New brands can develop when an entrepreneur takes an existing product or service and adds features that are completely new. These characteristics can easily define a brand. As we've already seen with automobiles, a singular focus on a set of features can define a company and its products.
Read moreQuote for the Week: A Blank Page Is An Open Ocean
A blank page is an open ocean: chart your course; raise your sails.
When you begin your journey of entrepreneurship, the options are endless. You can choose any destination, chart any course, and choose how you want to get there. You will find storms. You will run short of supplies. You may face mutiny or encounter hostile strangers. If these threats scare you, don't leave shore. But if the lure of the journey proves stronger than your fear, you may discover opportunities you never knew existed.
Read moreNothing Replaces Relationship: Define a Brand by Developing Unique Relationships
The kind of relationships you create with your customers can be a way to define your business. If long-term relationships are the key to your profitability, that part of your offering must also be clearly communicated in your brand.
Read moreLeave the Rest Behind: Define a Brand in Relationship to the Competition
How you position your business is partly the result of the kind of business you want to open, but it’s also related to the market you choose to enter. Blank page entrepreneurs must employ the skill of prediction — they must to be able to peer into the future and look carefully at the present in order to choose how to present their offering and their brand. Your brand must find a niche that meets an existing need but neither copies existing businesses nor injects itself where it’s not needed.
Read moreThe Offering
The leader of a nation was faced with threats of terrorism. He took three of his most senior advisors to the edge of a large forest and said, “I need to discover the best way to find the individuals who threaten our country and I am challenging each of you to come up with a plan for how to deal with this problem. I have here a rabbit, which will represent a single terrorist. I will release him into this forest, and each of you will be tasked with finding him and bringing him back to me using whatever methods and tools you see fit to employ. I give you unfettered access to every technology and weapon we have at our disposal. You will draw lots to see who goes first.”
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