April 2006

"What one thing gives your business a competitive edge?"

"What does your company 'stand for' in the mind of the consumer?"

"If you could narrow that meaning down to one word or short phrase, what would it be?"

Those are questions I have posed for many years. One of the most popular answers is: Customer Service. While every business owner wants to believe that their company is among the elite in Customer Service, it's probably not the best answer. Why? Unfortunately, it's difficult to build a Brand Identity on a business component that quite frankly, every competitor claims. After all, no one promotes the alternative: Lousy Service. Of course, if a competitor were promoting "...we hate our customers...we treat them like garbage!", then this might be an edge. Otherwise, it's a consumer misnomer. After all, when everyone says the same thing, no one really says anything. The key is discovering an advantage and not necessarily fitting in with a cacophony of voices. Our job is to discover the "one thing" that will provide a competitive edge. We do that through a process known as BrandFocus.

BrandFocus serves to help answer these questions with solutions that create a competitive advantage while moving toward a lasting and profitable Brand Identity.

What is BrandFocus?

BrandFocus is the first step we take in the brand-building process. It involves the discovering of a potential branding direction for the client. This research phase is vital because, when undertaking the task of building a brand for your business, it gives us a meaningful voice. That voice is not ours, but comes from the people who are in intimate relationship with the brand--your customers and employees. Through a series of interactive exercises, we listen to those voices and develop a direction for your company to move toward in its branding process.

Why BrandFocus?

Too often, companies have utopian ideas about the relationships they hold with their customers and employees. One of the reasons our Brand-Building methods are so effective is because we build brands around fact and not fiction. BrandFocus is behind this idea. After all, advertising got a bad name when the utopian ideas being promoted did not subsequently match with the customer's experience. Our Branding process looks at who and what your business is at its very core so that what is promoted is very much in-sync with who and what you truly are. For example, when the customers of The Home Bank experience the "Welcome Home" brand being promoted, it serves to enhance their relationship with the institution. When clients of Ralph Brown and Associates experience the protective, guiding relationships and aggressive representation offered by the firm, those relationships are only strengthened. It all starts with BrandFocus.

So, what gives your company its competitive edge? BrandFocus answers that question. Yes, it might very well be "customer service." The trick is saying that without saying it--but that's a different article altogether! 

Next month: BrandTraining...It All Really Begins Here!

 © All Rights Reserved. Matthew Scott Trueblood and BrandVision Marketing. 2006.

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