How “Simple” and “Clear” is your Brand and your Brand Message? Here’s a simple test…randomly select 10 or 20 customers and ask them to describe your brand and the message you convey with your brand in one sentence. Compare sentences for similarity. If they are all saying exactly the same thing…you have a clear brand and brand message. If they don’t, you are confusing your customer and confusion leads to defection and no Word-of-Mouth.
Before you take on the exercise above, try it internally. Randomly select 20 employees and have them do the same test. How did they do? My guess from working with numerous organizations is that the message won’t be the same…rarely is. Why is this? The primary reason I find is that most companies don’t build a “customer centric” brand, they build a “company centric” brand. This simply means the brand message that is created is from an internal perspective…what do we want to tell our customers about us…rather than from an external (customer) perspective…what does our customer really need and want from us and how can we provide this to them.
If you’re feeling frustrated with your brand, you’re not alone…most people I talk to feel the same way. And your brand isn’t your logo or tagline, it is what you deliver every day to your customer. Remember when our parents always said, “Actions speak louder than words?” They were right. Our actions and how we interact and treat our customers is what determines our brand.
But here’s the other issue we found when doing our research and work from our book, “Creating and Delivering Totally Awesome Customer Experiences,” confused customers DEFECT…they leave. They go where they can identify with a brand and understand it and can embrace it as something that fits into their life. If they can’t, they leave.
And now with the massive adoption of social media, I see the same thing happening to organizations social media efforts. Customers are confused about who they are as a brand and if they are confused, they don’t talk. Think about it…if you don’t understand something, are you anxious to talk about it? Most won’t even bring it up for fear someone will ask them a question or ask them to explain it and they won’t be able to so they JUST SAY NOTHING. No Word-of-Mouth and no sharing…the two key components to a successful social media strategy.
The bright spot of all this for business leaders is that if you decide to invest in building a “Customer Centric Brand” and create a clear and concise brand message, you will be well ahead of your competition because they still haven’t figured this one out yet. Take the lead…invest in creating a brand message that your customers not only embrace but are able to share and talk about. This way you win in two ways…they love the experience they have with you AND they can’t wait to tell their friends!
