Anyone who is going to shell out cash usually wants to know what the item will do for him or her. As a matter of fact, 70% of all purchases are made on an emotional level. So for the most part, buyers are not interested about the logical features and benefits of the purchase. If they were, the vast majority of us would be driving little, fuel-efficient cars with one-speaker stereos.
Think of your brand as a pledge; a promise you make to your customers, prospects, employees, and even your vendors. It is requirement that you have the ability to back it up. You cannot shape a successful, long-term brand on unsupported claims and wishful thinking.
To separate you from your competitors, your brand, your pledge, has to differentiate you from the businesses in the minds of your prospects. This is the reason you cannot use quality, integrity, or price when positioning yourself in your marketplace. So many firms claim to offer these specific characteristics that none of them stand out from the competitors.
Logos, brochures, advertising and other types of marketing may, in some instances, be individual elements of a branding campaign, but unless they are part of the system of determining a company's capabilities, direction, opportunities, and indeed its core, they cannot, and must not, be referred to as branding. To say that a new logo, for example, is equal to a new brand is to conceive that I can compete at The 24 Hours of Le Mans by placing decals all over my car. Even if it ends up looking good, it's still not ready to, or able to, compete.
The conclusion is the fact that every business, including yours, has a brand. The question is whether your brand is being determined by outside factors, or if are you actively building it on your terms.
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