Ideas for Branding at Zero Cost

Are you worried about copy cats who might steal your customers?  DON'T!  That is what Branding saves you from - ideas are worth nothing; their value lies in how they are executed.  Branding is about your uniqueness and here are 3 tried-and-tested ideas for how to maintain your brand:

1  Use social media as much as you can to share about your business. A page on Facebook is a great way to attract and engage follower, but retaining them will take some commitment of your time. It is well worth investing your time on this as you can get good feedback as well as loyal customers, without spending any cash.
2  Keep your followers engaged in your journey, by sharing photos and video clips about what you are doing. Your mobile phone is your friendly reporting tool and the more interesting your shots are, the more followers your brand will gain.
3  Offer good ideas and advice when you can and soon you'll be attracting attention from those who want to learn from YOUR experiences, which no copy cat can speak credibly about.  Your journey is your own and that is its value.

Take the music industry as an example. Notice how great guitarists sustain their brand whether they go solo or join other groups? And it doesn't apply to creative industries only - even managers have their own brand which attracts staff to follow them where ever they go!  Think about Apple - it showed us that when its Essence was lost, it plunged in value and approached bankruptcy until its Founder returned and revived it with his vision.

Yes, Branding is about the users' experience of the essence on which your products and services are based. Would you like some help in clarifying the essence of your brand?  Call me at 6-03-21697704 or email evelyn@atheneumgroup.net.

BRING ME THE BRAND AND I'LL INCREASE ITS PROFITS!

Delivering the Brand's value

The skilled young man was protesting at the potential incomes in place as opposed to the lush opportunities being presented at a roll-out of a new ecosystem for entrepreneurs. Indeed, why IS brand delivery valued in some places more than others?  Here's a classic example of why:

Mum needed replenishments for her pain relievers etc, so I went to the usual store, but didn't see what I was looking for. Hmmmmm. "Do you have brand X gel?" I asked.  The cheerful, smiling new hire said "We don't have that".  "But I bought it here before - please check with the pharmacist?" "Oh - he's not coming today". (Mentally I thought 'so?').  "Is there anyone else who is familiar with the stock?" Shuffle; shuffle and another pleasant person appears.  We three trooped to the brand's display shelf and both just looked at me puzzled. I explained "these are the capsules which you swallow, I'm looking for the gel to apply on the skin" Aha! Light bulbs came on and voila! a tube of the gel was retrieved. WHERE was the gap and WHO was responsible for closing it? WHO was going to profit from the sales?

Back to that roll-out I was telling you about. The investor explained that the quality of staff did not justify higher salaries because they weren't willing to work hard enough to make the investment profitable!.  Dead silence. Then, applause from business owners.  Do staff expect to be paid for merely showing up?

The key solution lies in tying performance management ie delivery of the Brand Promise, with profitability! Firstly train staff in conversational skills and product knowledge thoroughly with role-plays.  Then have a pay-for-performance package which rewards them for bringing ideas and innovations to the workplace.  The result? Business owners increase their profits and staff get paid more too :) Train and assess.

Want help with designing a systemic approach to put this in place and build the value of your brand? Just call me on 6-03-21697704 or email evelyn@atheneumgroup.net and I'll be glad to customize a plan for you.

BRING ME THE BRAND AND I'LL INCREASE ITS PROFITS!  

Oops! Wobble, stop, grin. We're getting there :)

Ah! Sunday mornings! For many it is a time for leisure and fun. In my neighborhood I spotted a couple of trendy bikes venturing gingerly along the roadside, their riders dressed in trendy gear from cycling caps to vest, pants and shoes like the ones serious mountain-bikers wear, going for an urban ride. SO WHAT is the story here anyway?

Well, though the outfits and paraphenalia were what are common for twenty-somethings, these couple of riders were obviously senior citizens who were having fun being togged out ever so correctly and giving their muscles a stretch. The lady was in front, riding along not very confidently, and her male companion was chivalrously behind, keeping an eye on her safety while stumbling behind along the uneven pavement. Both looked quite sheepish actually, but nonetheless were smilingly determined to achieve their goals. And their keen enthusiasm was pleasantly infectious. Bravo!

With humans living longer now, more and more are making serious attempts to eat more nutritiously and improve physical fitness too. But WHY? At the personal level, obesity is now recognized as a global issue from even pre-schoolers on, and, even the not-obese middle-aged are being struck by heart disease! Ouch!

So, so, so WHAT does any of this have to do with Branding you ask? Think about it for a moment. Fair or not, the lively person attracts more business than a sluggish one. The very APPEARANCE of youthfulness / fitness exudes reliability to get something done. Have you seen that poster of a white-haired man in his 80's wearing a towel and displaying washboard abs outside Brand X Fitness Centre? Impressive, isn't it? The expectation is that what he stands for IS capable of delivering his Brand Promise. Exuding an air of good health attracts confidence from buyers. Fitness icon Jack LaLanne's products (he was born in 1914!) still sell.

You know, we had fun doing an exercise at a recent Branding workshop, to match impressions with how accurately we portrayed our professions (Brand Image) and the results were simply hilarious! One Regional Business Development Director of a conglomerate got the almost unanimous response from the group that she looked like an accountant interested in collecting money than in negotiating fair business exchanges! Fancy that!

Try it out for yourself: Ask a group of people who don't know you very well to guess what your line of business is. Your physical image just might be your strongest attraction for customers, OR conversely might even be leading them to take longer to accept your offerings.

Want some to discuss how to project and attract more confidence in your products and services? Give me a call at 6-03-21697704 and we'll get you there :)

BRING ME THE BRAND, AND I'LL INCREASE ITS PROFITS!