How to Live Your Brand | Krista Moore

Many companies don’t realize the impact that their brand can have on their success or how to leverage it to gain market share. Creating, strengthening, marketing, and promoting your company’s brand is the ultimate strategy for beating a competitor. People usually associate a “brand” with an image, name, or logo. But a brand is really much more than that; it’s your promise to your customers. Your brand is a way to show off your company, what makes you unique and what sets you apart from your competitors. It also relates to the quality of your products, the way you do business, and how the market perceives you. Let’s explore what a “brand” is, why it is so important, and how can you create a brand strategy.

First, understand the impact of a good brand.

Your brand motivates others to do business with you. Your brand resides in the hearts and minds of your customers and prospects. It represents their experiences and perceptions of doing business with you. Having a strong and consistent brand will deliver your intended message clearly to customers and prospects while creating an emotional connection to your target market.

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Branding gives you a competitive edge. Building your brand is essential to creating incredible value. Remember, your brand is bigger than your company. It is bigger than your sales reps and their personal relationships with your customers. Branding creates differentiation. People don’t have relationships with products; they are loyal to brands. Because of that, and not surprisingly, in competitive sales environments, strong brands consistently outperform weaker ones.

Branding is a powerful way of attracting new customers. The customer comes to you because they have heard about you and your business, feel that you can meet their needs, and they trust you. It confirms your credibility and reputation and inspires trust.

A strong brand promotes customer retention. When your brand is strong, your current customers see the value in doing business with you and it builds customer loyalty. People will be willing to pay slightly higher prices because they know, trust, and feel secure with your brand.

Use your brand to level the playing field. Even if you can’t compete with large, national companies’ considerable advertising and marketing budgets, you can compete in a different way. Use your brand to market and advertise your value. Perception is reality, and by creating and promoting a strong brand message, you can level yourself with your competi

Second, develop your brand strategy.

Branding is about making connections with people. Take your time and think it through. Your brand strategy should not be about survival; it should be about winning, about seizing opportunities and growing.

There are elements of art and finesse involved in developing a great brand strategy, and it is worth the investment to engage experienced marketing professionals.

Your brand needs more than just a cool logo to dominate your market. Sure, your logo is the first thing people see and it needs to catch their eye but it is not the only thing that drives people to buy from your company. Your entire organization should be centralized around your brand. It should drive virtually every decision your company makes.

Your branding strategy should capture what your company’s products and services stand for. It should be represented consistently in all formats such as flyers, website, social media, and in your daily sales activities. The result is a company that operates emotionally and behaviorally around a single, clear, and distinctive core concept—both internally and externally.

One of the mistakes small businesses make when faced with large competitors is to define themselves on the competitor’s terms: that is, matching their offering with their competitor’s offerings (“We can do that, too!”). But if the best you can do is be the same as your competitor then you are not giving your customer a reason to choose you.

Tom’s of Maine Co-Founder, Tom Chappell said it well, “Success means never letting the competitor define you. Instead, you have to define yourself based on a point of view you care deeply about.”

As you build your brand strategy, give your customers reasons to choose you over the competitors. Stand out. Be different. Be valuable.

Lastly, live your brand.

apple-laptop Once you have established your identity, it is time to “Live your Brand.” Living your brand is taking action and being recognized for it. This requires more than just marketing efforts. Greg Norman, a global leader in golf-inspired apparel once said, “Our success is a direct result of knowing how to market a brand and having the right people representing the brand.” Do you have the right people representing your brand? When all of your employees live your brand every day, your customers and prospects will feel the difference.

We have developed a free resource for you: The K.Coaching Brand-Building Questionnaire. This will help you gain insights into your company’s current brand and potential rebranding opportunities. Email us at info@kcoaching.com to request your copy today.

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Krista S. Moore is the Founder and CEO of K.Coaching, Inc., a sales leadership coaching, consulting, and training organization. She is a sought-after Motivational Speaker, Author, Certified Business Coach, and Talk Show Host. Moore combines her real-life business experiences, certified business coaching, and motivational style to help others achieve outstanding success in their lives and in their careers.

Moore is host of The Krista Moore Talk Show, and author of Race to Amazing: Your Fast Track to Sales Leadership. These are her “give backs” to help others continue to learn, develop, and grow into being the best that they can be.