Branding; You Are The Brand

The people and companies behind the above brand names are well known. They are established. They have earned the right to be positioned where they are in the public's eye. Are you or your product clearly associated with the solution you seek to provide? What about your product? What about your name? How are you positioned in the marketplace? As an entrepreneur, a small businessperson, you have to be ever so keenly aware of every minute detail and opportunity to brand yourself. You need to be the expert. Your product must solve the problem, and the world needs to know about it. Branding therefore, may be the most important marketing challenge you face as your business plan unfolds.

It's all about public perception. Is Coke the real thing? Does Hershey make the finest chocolate? Does McDonald's offer the best tasting, most nutritious hamburger? Does GM make the finest cars? We have been trained by skilled marketers to make the above associations. We have been conditioned over time to accept the advertising as real, whether we actually believe it or not. Very clever indeed, these markers have been. You cannot afford to be any less convincing in your efforts.

As CEO of your own organization, you will most likely not have the extensive resources that a major company or big name star has. You probably are the marketing department, the advertising department, the sales team, the accountant and so on. As such, you must remain acutely aware of your image, the perception of each and every customer, and to a great extent, the marketplace as a whole. Your position in the marketplace, often dictated by the perceived quality of your products, your celebrity, your reputation for service, your leadership in your field and your consistency will certainly have a great deal to do with the effectiveness of your brand. You are the brand.

As the brand, you must take the position that you will always be under scrutiny, under the microscope. Assume leadership. You may not be the biggest guy in your field, but through leadership you can establish a market presence that will help you to become positioned along with the major players in your market. Take the lead on local issues or take a stand on a national issue that relates to your product, service and market. Through association, you will be perceived as a market leader, regardless of your size. Attempt to resolve a small problem and associate it with a greater one and you will achieve a level of notoriety, one that you can leverage to increase your brand awareness.

Your company must be credible. That is to say that your products and services must do exactly what you say they will. You must also be credible personally. If you cannot be rightfully associated with your product or service offering, it will be difficult for the public to be receptive to such a contradiction. Honesty and integrity will be assets of great value to you as your marketplace gets to know you.

You must be consistent. You must find your niche, take your stance, establish some position and build from it. If you change every week or every time a new wind blows, people will not take you seriously. They will begin to doubt your leadership and find it difficult to perceive you as a credible source for your goods and services. You will lose whatever market position you have gained and whatever leadership position that you have achieved by wobbling among various directions. The public sees consistency as strength and strength as character. When you are a small company, struggling to grow, the perception of you in the marketplace is a critical factor.

Your developing marketing plan should certainly include these concerns as well as the incredible importance of your awareness of market image. Since you are the brand, few components within your business plan should receive more of your attention than the development of the public's perception of you, your evolving position in the marketplace and the development of your brand image.
 
 
About the Author
Daniel Sitter is the author of the popular, award-winning e-book, Learning For Profit. Designed for busy people, his new book teaches simple, step-by-step accelerated learning skills, demonstrating exactly how to learn anything faster than ever before. Learning For Profit is currently available at the author's web site http://www.learningforprofit.com/ and from numerous online book merchants. Mr. Sitter, having expertise in sales, marketing and personal development, is a frequent contributor to several publications.

Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/11474.html
 

If you wish to add the above article to your website or newsletters then please include the "Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/11474.html" as shown above and make it hyperlinked.

Some other articles by Daniel Sitter

Wake Up and Learn Something New The US Government has just released last month's job creation figures. It was the lowest number in two years. This is a revealing and disturbing snapshot of what is actually happening in the real ... Learn Faster, Change is Coming Challenges posed by recent economic and market shifts, though predicted for some time, have instigated chaos in the lives of many business professionals and factory workers alike, ... Sales 101: Learning About Price vs Cost For as long as there have been documented records, there have been merchants, or as we are called in modern vernacular, salespeople. People want things. People ... Sales 101: Asking For The Order "Ask, and you shall receive", a biblical principal that offers some of the best sales advice for beginning salespeople and experienced ... Expect the Best and Get It The famous prayer of Jabez, where Jabez prayed for prosperity, is a model of expectant thinking that we can all benefit from. "And ...