5 Ways to Boost Brand Awareness – The Concept of the Purple Cow
Is your business a normal cow or is your business a purple cow?
Seth Godin’s concept of the purple cow came from his observation of cows. After looking at them for a while they all look the same, common and ordinary. But a purple cow would be would stand out and draw attention. Read more
Get Noticed through Social Media Marketers
There is no denying the power of social media in today’s society. Look at any product and you will see the logos for Twitter and Facebook. Watch people waiting for the elevator and see how they spend their time checking and updating their Facebook or Twitter accounts. It is important for any business looking to gain the attention that they need to succeed in the modern marketplace to understand the importance of social media. Of course, just understanding its importance will not get your business noticed, you need a professional with the ability to navigate you through the social media maze. Read more
Bric-A-Brac Branding
Below is the seventh article in our $150 competition sponsored by BizSugar.com. It’s submitted by Michael Bennett Cohn, who is the publisher for the online magazine Revolving Floor. Good luck to everyone who contributed an article!
Most small brick-and-mortar businesses don’t brand the inside of their establishments. I didn’t realize this until I started playing Foursquare, the shopping scorecard social media iPhone game. Foursquare awards users points for “checking in” at their favorite restaurants, bars, convenience stores, etc. Often, in recent months, when I’m taking out my phone during an idle moment waiting for my food, or a drink, or to pay, I’ve found myself thinking: “I should check in here on Foursquare!” followed quickly by “What the heck is the name of this place?”
There’s plenty of branding inside chain establishments like Olive Garden, McDonalds, 7-11, or The Cheesecake Factory. That’s because the chain, taking the long view, wants customers to stay interested in the brand, so that they’ll see each franchise as just one manifestation of the greater whole.
But once you enter an independent restaurant, bar, shop, or even grocery store, if you forgot the name of the place on the way in, then you’re probably not going to be reminded of it again until your next visit.
When I was in college, I worked at a place in Lawrence, Kansas called Joe’s Donuts. The catchy name was just a coincidence, as the original owner’s name really was Joe. The food was good and cheap, the place was open late and located near a couple of nightclubs, and Joe’s was hugely popular with the students. (A donut-loving girl once introduced herself to me on campus after overhearing me say that I worked there.) Customers regularly asked of their own volition if we sold t-shirts. We didn’t. I talked to the proprietor, Ralph (Joe’s son) about it. “Yeah, the kids ask about those, so sometimes I think maybe we should make some,” he said. “But what would they say? ‘Eat at Joe’s?’”
Ralph also kept the store closed on Saturdays, which would have surely been his best day for business. I tried to convince him to give it a shot. He shrugged. “It’s not a question of profits,” he said. “I just don’t want to work Saturdays.” The closed storefront was noted weekly by disappointed would-be customers, leading to widespread speculation as to what Ralph did with his Saturdays. “That’s when this place is closed,” was the only explanation that he offered querulous donut-buyers.
Around this time (1991) localized versions of Monopoly were a popular gift item. The Monopoly people scoped out our little college town, and determined that Joe’s Donuts was enough of a landmark to warrant a spot on the board (instead of, say, Park Place). They approached Ralph and asked him to pay for the privilege. He refused, and he continued to refuse as they kept lowering the cost. Ralph told them that he didn’t play Monopoly, and that he wasn’t interested in participating at any price. But the truth was that the Monolopy board based on Lawrence, Kansas just wasn’t complete without Joe’s Donuts. People would expect it to be there. And, indeed, it ended up on the board anyway.
At the time, Ralph saw this as a triumph of practicality over silliness. His business was successful in the physical world, and that was all that mattered. But times have changed. Nearly every local business has been reviewed on Yelp, they all show up on Google Maps, and that inevitable sales call from Foursquare is perhaps the loudest knock yet on the doors of those who don’t want to be dragged into the 21st century. (“We can prove that 100 of your customers check in with us every day. Do you want the ad they see to be from you, or your nearest competition?”)
It’s increasingly understood among online startups, even those focused on direct-response business, that they need a recognizable name, logo, and design. That’s just part of the deal. So is participating in the social media basics, such as tweeting and setting up a Facebook fan page. The social media landscape is eclipsing reality so quickly that brick-and-mortars are already part of it, whether they want to be or not.
In other words, every small business has a brand now, even the no-name bodega on the corner with no signage anywhere. Even proprietors who like to think that they can’t, or won’t, be bothered with something as abstract as shaping their customers’ long-term associations with the place are going to increasingly find that this attitude is not tenable. The no-name bodega on the corner will end up on Yelp as “No-name Bodega On Corner,” or not at all. And places that don’t bother to remind customers where they are will get fewer online mentions. It won’t be long before someone looking for, say, a toothbrush, will enter a search into their phone and then scan their surroundings through the viewfinder, looking for augmented reality signage hanging in the air. Those signs won’t be “hung” by the proprietors; they’ll be hung by the aggregators. And businesses who haven’t taken their image seriously by that point are literally going to disappear.
In New York, there’s a joke about what to tell a tourist when they ask you where to find the best pizza in the city. The answer is “Ray’s.” And there are indeed many pizza places called Ray’s throughout New York. Also, they have no connection to each other.
It’s a good joke, but it won’t be funny for very much longer.
Photo Credit: tandemracer
Building Your Brand By Branding Yourself
No doubt about it, brand and brand awareness is huge! For the most part branding is why we choose Coke over Pepsi, or like Nike instead of Reebok. Branding has us consumers believing there is a big difference between Ford and Chevy, or that Miller is better than Budweiser. For large companies the equity in their brand is priceless, and sometimes the sole differentiator between products. But for a small business entrepreneur the brand dynamic is much different.
Want to focus your efforts on the one thing that will blow your business wide open?
It’s not the brand of your products, or services you should concentrate on, it’s the brand of YOU that will take your business to the next level.
That’s right, it doesn’t matter what you do, sell, market, or peddle, the way to make it HUGE is by branding yourself!
Small business entrepreneurs are in a unique situation to leverage their brand more than GE, Coke, HP, Dell, or any of the other big name businesses in the United States. Do you know why? Small businesses by their very nature are able to connect and interact with their customer base on a much more intimate level than Budweiser ever can dream of.
Think about it. When you are doing business, like it or not, for the most part your customers are buying YOU. That’s right, when you don’t make the sale, don’t close a consulting contract, or somebody walks out of your store empty handed it’s not the products or services they are turning their back to, it’s you. I know that hurts to hear at first, but by building your own brand you can change that.
So how do we go about building our personal brands?
1. Be Transparent and Be Yourself
A large component of brand building, is building a trust in your product or service. Branding yourself is no different. People build trust over time when they feel like they know someone, and are not being fed a line of BS from them. Be yourself, never try to emulate or become a charachture of what you think people want to see. Also, be transparent. Let your customers know you, know what you stand for, let them have a peak behind the curtain at the Wizard of Oz once in a while. The more they identify with the real you, the more likely they are to do business with you, and the stronger your personal brand becomes.
2. Become an Expert in Your Field
Another way to say this is…know your stuff! This doesn’t mean you need to know everything there is to know about widgets in order to sell them. But it does mean that you know enough to become a trusted authority on widgets in your region. How does this help build your brand? You may not be the national expert on widgets, but when your customers feel they know and trust you personally (thanks to #1 above) they are more likely to be a customer of yours even if you’re not the world renowned expert on widgets…just know enough to answer their questions and you most likely have their business.
3. Never Fake It
Nothing will erode your brand, and cost you more customers, than when you are faking it. What do I mean by faking it? If you are not 100% into what you are doing, the message you are sending, or the product you are endorsing your customers will know it immediately and shun you like the plague. When people can see you love what you are doing, and are totally into your work, it becomes contagious. People love dealing with people who love what they do, and I am sure there is some law of attraction that proves this. Don’t love what you are doing? Stop doing it, and do something you do love.
4. Network, network, network
Leverage any and all networks available to you in order to build your brand, demonstrate your expertise, and let people get to know you (#1-3 above). This could be brick and mortar business networks, online social media outlets, or any other medium where you can get in front of people who can help build your business and your brand. How many of you get a friend request from somebody on Facebook you don’t know, yet accept their request anyway because when you check them out they have a million friends? Most people do that because we think “hey all these other people are following them, I should too”. Same thing will happen with your business network and your personal brand. Because everyone is following you more people will want to follow you, thus strengthening and reinforcing your brand. Another law of attraction in action.
5. Do the Little Things
I can’t stress enough how important it is to do the little things. The little things aren’t really little! When you do them consistently, they become one big thing and that in an of itself can differentiate you from your competition which is what branding is all about. When building your personal brand you want to stick out. Make that email, phone call, or follow up just a little different, a little better. Stand out just a little more than your competition and guess who is going to get the business? I say “little better” on purpose, it doesn’t take something drastic to get the attention of your customer, the little things are the big things!
If you apply the five concepts above you will see your personal brand start to emerge, and the brand equity you will be creating is priceless. Nothing will blow your business wide open more than being a brand unto yourself. Coddle and foster your brand with the same care and attention you devoted to starting up your business and it will quickly become your number one asset.
What have you done to brand yourself?
