Having talked with hundreds of business owners and leaders over the past few years, I’ll bet you’ve been thinking of a common business term in a way that’s costing you money. The word to which I refer is “branding”.
From an historical point of view, branding is defined as a badge or a maker’s mark. It’s shorthand for which company produced the product – “What brand of running shoe did you buy? What brand of car do you drive?”
Leaders using the “image” definition for branding are hurting their organizations. Branding in today’s marketplace is much, much more than a logo or a tagline.
Today’s economy has radically shifted the meaning of branding from image building to relationship building. Unfortunately, not many companies have kept up with this shift and it is costing them customers, revenue and sustainable growth. The moment you come to this realization, you will never again look at your organization in the same way.
Branding must be about the formation of lasting and valuable customer relationships. To do this, you have to take a hard look at your company’s performance. It is what your organization does, not what it says, that shapes a customer relationship.
Every interaction (sales, service, invoicing, shipping, installs, etc.) creates a personal reaction within your customer. When the interaction is good, strong customer relationships are formed and the brand grows. When they are bad or uneven, no amount marketing will undo the damage to your brand.
A company organized around delivering relevant customer experience to its must-have customers differentiates itself from the competition. Its margins are sustained and market share increases. That’s building a brand not on an image, but on performance.
Do not let a dated definition of brand drive your organization into commodity hell. The costs are simply too high.
Note: This is the first in a series of five monthly articles on Performance Branding. Each has a short, accompanying video. Enjoy and be sure to return next month to find out why Performance Branding is a leader’s job.
To learn how organizations have benefited from our services, check out our case studies section >
