As you’re building your brand, make sure you get the distinction right.
Ford. Coca-Cola. Dell. Area 224.
These are “brands” – but we all sometimes get confused on the difference between “brand” and “model.”
Think about the experiences attached to the product or service. That’s your brand.
These Ford logos over here? Not the Ford brand. Symbols, icons, representing the company over the years. Logos. But not the brand.
Models: The Model-T, Mustang, Fusion, Explorer. Those are models – they represent the Ford brand.
But they are not the brand.
And product – heck, Area 224 is working on a few products right now. They are not our brand. They will represent our brand – just as I represent the brand myself when I’m out there in public.
Where are we going with this?
Well, we want to share three tips – you can use these ON or OFF-LINE – to help you maximize your brand-building power.
1. What does the brand stand for?
This can be as simple as “walk in, sit down, get the best haircut ever.” Cut through the BS.
Crap, I learn something new every day…Thursday, in the middle of the 4th of 5 meetings, I found myself asking this question of myself:
Why can’t you boil down the essence of this super-secret project into a dozen words?
So I went back to the drawing board – literally, yesterday evening, there was an actual drawing board, it was my kid’s art easel, I looked at it, but I digress – and here was the Area 224 brand essence, refreshed for a new digital millennium:
Helping brands use digital and social media to better tell their stories, online and off.
NOW, it all makes sense. The super-secret project? It dovetails nicely with the Area 224 brand essence. It can help clients big time. (Yes, our brand essence is 15 words, not 12. Sorry.)
2. Is what you’re doing supporting the brand? If not, why are you doing it?.
I can tell you from first-hand experience that you will drive yourself batty if you don’t have the brand essence down first. Once you do have that brand essence down pat, it’s off to the races.
When we didn’t have the brand essence down pat? Wheel spinning. Random requests from the front lines for marketing stuff. Bad advertisements showing up with faxed copies of the logo. No focus up top on the brand, thus no focus anywhere else on the brand. Missed opportunities right and left.
Digital Millennium Sidebar: Here’s where Social Proof is vital – if you’re in this social space. Engage, people. Trite but true. Engage. That means YOU, guy who has bots retweet himself 24-7.
3. Personal Brand Ain’t BS…BUT…
You are the brand. You live the brand. Be the brand. Etc.
The growth of the personal branding industry is great. And dangerous. At the same time.
Zappos – whole lotta love for that brand, and rightly so. Great story.
Tony Hseih is the CEO, has a book, has probably shared tweets with every single person in the universe.
Honestly, though, he is not the Zappos brand.
He lives the attributes, he is highly successful at it. But, party people, you don’t buy shoes from him.
You buy from the insanely awesome customer service. Not from him.
Are you there yet?
Whether it is, indeed, that simple – Build a Better Brand in 3 Easy Steps, Operators Are Standing By! – remains to be seen.
But we have seen time and again that some emerging brands don’t totally get it. But it doesn’t have to be that way.