Brand – Your Most Important Asset

Many Business-to-Business and Professional Services organisations underestimate the importance of the brand in their sales process. They feel that their customers buy features and benefits and are not influenced by the brand image.

Many SME business owners believe branding is “something for big business” or similarly to some graphic designers have a very narrow and incorrect perception that a brand is the business logo and the corporate collateral.

Both of these extreme points of view are incorrect. So let's define BRANDING:

A brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer.
A brand is the sum total of each customer's experience with your organisation.
A brand is an investment into the perceptions your consumers have about your product or service.
A brand is a means of self expression. Brands are mirrors, reflecting status, dreams and values. Brands communicate with customers to establish trust and relationships.
Brands are about creating a position - "owning" a place in the consumer mind.

The goal of branding is to become the name people think of immediately when they want what you sell. The question is - do your prospects think of your brand when they want what you sell?

From Webber to Website
The number of B2B and Professional Services firms that maximise their brand potential is very small and this presents a great opportunity for everyone that understands that a brand is the sum total of each customer’s experience with your organisation. Everything from the way your phone is answered to the way every team member describes what your company does at the weekend BBQ.

Stark Reality Marketing can assist you in moving your brand up the consumer mind ladder and making your company more profitable.
Whether you think of clothing, cars, packaged or household goods, a financial advisor or a lawyer, there a number of brands that will pop into your mind first, followed by another 2 or 3 brands. Most people have difficulty naming more than 3 products or services in any one category.

Perception is Reality. The perception your customers have about your business is directly related to your profitability. The world's most famous brands are the most profitable.

A famous survey of 25 leading brands in the USA from 1923 illustrates the point perfectly. After 72 years, in 1995:
- 20 of those brands were still in first place
- 4 were in second
- 1 was in fifth
After 6 decades, only 5 out of 25 had lost their leadership position.

Branding has a major impact on the nature of ongoing relationships with business customers. It can attract new business customers with less effort. If branding activity is constant and effective it can make ongoing sales much easier.

"In an increasingly homogenous market place, with low barriers to entry, the only real differentiating feature that a marketer can use to attract customers is what consumers perceive about your product or service and their relationship with your brand."
Gene Stark

To create brands that are truly different and stand out is a challenge because virtually every category of product and service is now overcrowded. Brands are about creating a position - "owning" a place in the consumer mind. Brand positioning is hence most importantly about focus and simplicity.

Position, Position, Position, in marketing the most important real estate is the space inside the mind of your customers and prospects, which is why brand names and their positioning statements are vital to securing a place in the mind of your target audience. For examples of Stark Reality Naming and Positioning please visit the Portfolio page of the site.

The greatest weakness in the competition is that most are trying to do everything and be everything to everybody. The result is mediocrity and 'me too' products. Creativity has a price, but with Stark Reality Marketing you are guaranteed to get the big ideas tailored to your budget.

The design of a brand requires serious research and understanding of your customer and prospect needs, examination of what is being offered by your competitors and how those offers are being communicated. Illustrated below is an effective brand design Mind Map. The blue lines represent INPUTS and red represent OUTPUTS. Where you begin in the diagram is highly dependent on whether the business is start up and you are designing a new brand, or an existing business and you are re-designing a brand.

Brand Design Diagram

Stark Reality Marketing is a specialist branding consultancy focusing on accountable and effective advertising solutions for Professional Services and B2B organisations. To assist you in developing and growing your brand, we use proven scientific principles that will increase the return on your marketing investment. Call us to find out how you can begin your Branding journey to greater profits.

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