Preface: For people actually looking to get things done, congratulations! You found a piece that is going to cut through a lot of the brand bull$%!& that has been written about brands, over and over and over again. And unlike a lot of other pieces, this piece is going to help you get useful, practical things done.
Now on with the rest of the piece . . .
While there are strong brands in the market, there are many, many, many more brands that are floundering and / or dying. There are however things you can do to quickly provide better healthcare for your brand. Let’s skip past the traditional long drawn out theory based conversations and just get right to it.
Here are the steps for providing better healthcare for your brand:
1.) Realize that EVERYTHING HAS A BRAND!
2.) Understand what a brand is
3.) Understand what makes a brand successful
4.) Brand Evaluation – Take a look at your brand
5.) Brand Diagnosis – What works, what needs help?
6.) Brand Prescription – What’s the brand treatment plan?
7.) Brand Treatment – Executing the brand plan
8.) Brand Post-Treatment Evaluation – Taking another look at your brand
9.) Getting on with it already!!!
Starting at the beginning . . .
1.) Realize that EVERYTHING HAS A BRAND!
You. Me. Everything has a brand.
That’s pretty much it. On to the next one.
2.) Understand what a brand is
A brand can be defined as the psychic plaquey residue left over, from every experience a customer or prospect has ever had with a company, a product, a cause, a person, etc.
3.) Understand what makes a brand successful
For a brand to be successful, it needs to take up unique-positive-mental-real-estate. Real estate that is purposefully designed to drive behavior and loyalty.
4.) Brand Evaluation – Take a look at your brand
To evaluate your brand (or any brand) simply unpack statement #3 above. Making a checklist out of the items. For example:
A.) Is your brand unique in the minds of your target?
(This item in the checklist, and all subsequent items apply to the minds of your target. “Your Target” is a separate piece)
B.) Is your brand perceived as positive?
C.) How much space / mental real estate does your brand take up?
Defined along two dimensions:
1.) The average amount of space taken up in the head of your
average target and
2.) The number of targets with the brand in their heads
D.) Is it designed to drive a behavior, loyalty?
How you answer questions “A” through “D” above will help you determine the health of your brand. You can use this same scoring system to evaluate the brand health of competitors as well. Giving you a greater understanding of the comparative strengths and weaknesses of your brand versus the brands of competitors.
5.) Brand Diagnosis – What works, what needs help?
By evaluating what is behind your brand score and the brand scores of your competitors, you can start uncovering areas of brand opportunity. Developing designs and scenarios to take advantage of these opportunities. What is then key is to then build an action plan to capitalize on these opportunities. See step #6.
6.) Brand Prescription – What’s the brand treatment plan?
Let’s say the end goal of your brand is to drive profitable behaviors. The profitable behaviors of both your customers and your employees.
For customers, profitable behaviors would typically be purchasing, repurchasing, recommending to a friend. For employees, profitable behaviors means having your employees make profitable decisions. Especially when they come to those micro-decision-forks-in-the-road that they face every day.
In order to drive these behaviors (of both customers and employees), you need to shift perceptions. You need to shift perceptions to drive new behaviors. Some perceptions are easier to shift than others. But whether shifting the perceptions is easy or hard, shifting perceptions means overcoming barriers.
The linkage between perceptions, barriers and behaviors generally flows along these lines . . . if you know the current perceptions that drive the current behaviors, and you determine what the desired perceptions should be, to drive the desired behavior (the goal), you can then identify the primary actionable barrier that stands in the way of the current perceptions and behaviors from becoming the desired perceptions and behaviors.
More information about overcoming barriers to shift perceptions to drive behaviors can be found at: http://goo.gl/Axn9lc
This level of discipline will allow you to better design stronger brands.
A strong clear brand will drive customers to: purchase, repurchase, recommend.
A strong clear brand will allow employees to make better decisions more quickly and easily. This fundamentally is the goal of all organizations.
7.) Brand Treatment – What’s the brand treatment plan?
Given all of the elements from steps #1 through #6 above, it is necessary to come up with a brand treatment plan. Any customized brand treatment plan will depend on the health care report card from above. Based on the report card, brand treatment plans can range from: routine maintenance, to radical overhauls, and other variations in between.
The best brand treatment plan for your individual brand is dependent on your particular brand and the environment in which it lives.
For some brands living in crowded brand spaces, the answer could be to either: elevate the brand, or move the brand toward the edges of the space, or brake the brand into sub-pieces for greater flexibility, or join additional brand elements together to provide additional synergistic power to the brand.
Again, all of this is dependent on your particular brand and the environment in which the brand lives.
8.) Brand Post-Treatment Evaluation – Take another look at your brand
Whatever the state of your brand, its health should not be taken for granted. It is necessary do periodic check-ups to ensure that your brand is as healthy as it can be. This means that it is necessary to go through steps #1 through #7 more than once. The cadence of your brand health check-ups will again be dependent on both the brand and the environment.
9.) Getting on with it already!!!
Over the course of my travels I have met some really great marketers. However there are plenty marketing that is not that great. And that is fine. As long as people want to become better marketers. It is the willfully ignorant that pose special challenges. How to work past and over the top of the willfully ignorant is the subject of another piece.
It is important that everyone in the company understand at least pieces of marketing well (as well as finance and operations) so that the best possible decisions can be made. Without even a basic level of understanding, many in “C” level positions (and other positions through the company) are making marketing decisions they are ill-equipped to make. Resulting in: wasted resources, wasted careers, damage to brands, damage to companies, and it goes on . . .
And business schools are not helping as much as they should. Here is another instance where willful ignorance comes into play. One top business school explained that since they already know everything there is to know, there is no need for them to learn anything anything new or do anything differently. Staggering amounts of both intellectual deficiency and arrogance at the same time. Simply stunning.
Here is something to think about.
We know how to split atoms.
We know how to transplant hearts.
And yet collectively we still don’t explicitly know how: marketing, finance, operations, employees and customers all fit together. And this too often shows up in the brand.
There is however a better way. An easier way. Understanding what a brand is helps (this piece). Understanding integrated thinking is a big help (“Business Strategy Mapping – The power of knowing how it all fits togetherhttp://goo.gl/rPpI9).
There is a better way. It is not that hard. #WeNeedToGetOnWithItAlready
Thanks for reading this. And thank you in advance for sharing this with others. We need to make things better more quickly.
In addition to the book mentioned above, additional information can be found at the link: https://goo.gl/JInBfi.
There are also worksheets and workshops given on this methodology. All designed to make your business life easier. Again, please let me know if you have any questions. kkring@gmail.com
Thank You
#Branding, #Strategy, #BrandStrategy, #Leadership, #ChangeManagement, #Marketing, #WeNeedToGetOnWithItAlready
Business Strategy Mapping 