Sensible Branding

7 signs you need to test your brand

Can you explain to someone in 20 seconds or less what’s the one thing that makes your business stand out from your competitors?
If not, you need to test your brand.

Some may try to tell you that your brand is defined by your logo. Your logo is not your brand - it’s just your logo. Visual identity is an important element of brand. It may mean your business stands out, but not necessarily for the right reasons. Equally you may believe that you have great products and competitive prices, but it’s no good offering great products if your delivery is unreliable and your aftersales service is practically non-existent.

Neither visual identity or good products alone offer the edge that is required in an increasingly crowded marketplace. If you want to stand out in the crowd you need know who you are and what you stand for. To succeed in the 21st century, business must build long-term relationships with customers who return time and again. The brand rubber really hits the road after the first sale is made.

Brand is: ‘The culmination of a person’s total experience of your organisation, good or bad. It is the effect on your stake holders of all that your company says and does.’

So, does your business stand out for the right reasons? Are customers coming back? Would they readily recommend you to their friends? If you can’t be sure then it’s time to re-evaluate what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong and what you could do better.

Can everyone in your business, particularly those with direct customer contact, easily explain your business strengths?
If not, you need to test your brand.

Let’s assume for a moment that you, as the business owner, know all you need to know about your business. You’re clear about who you are and what you do. But what about your staff, the ones you rely on to ‘deliver the goods?’ Are they able to say to customers, suppliers, friends, whoever, just what is great about your organisation and makes them want to be part of it.

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of the commitment of your staff to your business. In the end, it will be the people at the coalface that deliver the implementation of your brand strategy, and that will happen best when your people understand just what it is that you’re all about.

Communication is paramount. Lack of communication is a sure-fire way to develop a negative, low energy, cynical culture. If you want your people on board, you have to talk to them and make sure they understand you.

You also have to involve them. Your staff should be your advocates; your champions. They should be able to promote the strengths and benefits of your business with confidence, because they understand and believe in what you do.

So, how do your staff really feel about your business? Are fully on-board? Are they your champions? Are they giving you their best or is it just a job? If you can’t be sure then it’s time you found out.

Do you have a meaningful vision statement that explains who you are, where you’re going and how you’re going to get there?
If not, you need to test your brand.

Ah, the old ‘vision’ statement. The one that you feel you should have but no-one can remember what it is. At the end of the day it’s just one of those trendy things that serves no useful purpose isn’t it?

Well, think about it. Do you have some sort of idea of where you want to go with your business? Assuming you do then you’ll need to have a strategy of how that’s going to happen. So you have vision, and the dreams of what you want, but is it based on reality or mostly on an aspirational hope of what you may be able to achieve if everything goes well?

Vision is a widely misunderstood concept in business. Great vision doesn’t just say ‘this is what we hope for the future’, or ‘this is what we do’. It has to be much broader, and better defined than that. Rather it should say ‘this is what we believe about this company, this is what we value, this is what we are here for, this is where we are headed and this is how we are going to get there’.

The challenge is building a vision that can be embraced by the whole organisation and one that forms the basis on which your strategy is formed.

Do you have a meaningful vision statement? One which everyone in your organisation can remember and buy into? If not, then you need to find out if you really do know where you’re going and if you can get there.

Does your business ‘live the brand’ every day? Are your values reflected in everything you do?
If not, you need to test your brand.

Values underpin your character. They exist to inform and influence decision making across the organisation. Values will dictate the way your company responds to crisis and describes the way the organisation actually behaves.

When did you last articulate your company values? – Do you know what they are? – If you asked your staff would they be able to tell you?

Successful businesses are crystal clear about their values – and they consistently live them out.

Any business only truly ‘lives the brand’ when it has permeated throughout the organisation such that the day-to-day behaviours of the business are at one with the brand. Your behaviours articulate your brand and what it means to you.

The way you behave forms the day-to-day framework of normal activity. It’s about the way staff and board alike behave towards each other, their clients and other stakeholders in ways that strengthen brand promises. In the end, it’s behaviours that form the basis of experience, and experience is what drives retention – both internally and externally.

So, does your business live out your values each and every day and deliver a consistently positive experience for everyone you deal with. If not, it’s time you did something about it.

Does your short-term business planning clearly align with your long-term brand strategy? Are the day-to-day decisions you’re making getting you where you want to go?
If not, you need to test your brand.

What will your business look like in 20 or 30 years time? A long-term goal makes it more likely that you will achieve what you set out to do. Remember your core purpose is the core reason it’s all worthwhile, why you exist as a business at all. However, it doesn’t happen overnight. Obviously.

Once your values, purpose and direction for the company are set, it’s important to ground the envisioned future in the day-to-day activities of the business. Make sure you don’t lose focus of what you’re wanting to achieve and don’t just fall back into old habits and ways of doing things and still hope your vision will work.

Remember too that you may not always be around. You may not be thinking of an exit strategy in the immediate future, but that should not stop you beginning to build for that event now. Do you have:

• a viable strategy in place to improve the business
• a management team committed to do what it says it will
• a defined set of targets that are being achieved
• a positive culture emerging
• a business with clear potential

If not, you need to take a step back and find out whether what you’re doing now will help or hinder what you want to be doing in the future.

Do your marketing messages authentically and
consistently reflect who you really are?
If not, you need to test your brand.

Part of any business plan is the marketing plan. There’s not much point in having great products and first class service if no-one knows about it. Your marketing plan should provide strategic options, developed in line with your vision.

The decisions you make in this area are obviously extremely important. Not only do they affect the short and long-term growth of your company, but they are vital for taking the right steps towards your vision for the business. Making the wrong strategic decisions at this point could be wasteful in time and money.

One of the biggest challenges for many small businesses is how to differentiate themselves from everyone else. With so much choice around it’s easy to be lost if you’re just saying the same things and fighting on the same level as your competitors. Don’t be tempted just to spend more money on marketing materials. Take a deep breath, and simplify your message.

Be transparent. That way everyone can see who you really are and what you stand for. If you can’t tell someone what the core purpose of your business is, and how it will help them, how can you expect them to be moved to use you or buy your product or service.

Are your messages clear? Can you quantify the return on investment of your marketing activities or are you just throwing good money after bad? If you don’t really know then you could be wasting your efforts and your budget.

Are you aware of the things that are likely to damage your brand reputation?
If not, you need to test your brand.

How important is your business reputation? If referrals and recommendations are the cheapest and most effective method of gaining customers, the quality of your reputation is foundational. It can take years to develop and it can disappear in a heartbeat. That’s never been more true than today.

Social media has become an essential communication tool for many businesses. It provides an opportunity for you to talk about your organisation and what you do.

It also offers the chance for others to respond - and it may not always be posiitive. However, you can make it much harder for people to tarnish your reputation, because essentially it is the weight of opinions that count. If the majority of feedback is good then potential customers give you the benefit of the doubt. Most are sceptical of every comment, and realise that some people can never be pleased. Therefore they are likely to discount one negative comment if the majority are really positive.

Building a strong brand reputation is a long-term process. If you leave it to chance, to the way things are, then you will hit more challenges to profitability, lower customer and staff retention, and more costly marketing to attract customers than if you strategise how to provide great experiences for everyone, every time.

Do you know what your reputation is like? Do you understand the impact it has on your profitability? If not, it’s time test your reputation and find out.

Outstanding businesses stand out.

Sensible Branding are strategic brand specialists. We help business leaders to build stronger businesses through the application of holistic branding.

There is much more to building a brand than marketing and advertising alone.

We work with you to unlock your potential by understanding the true value of your brand and it’s internal and external applications. Whether building an exit strategy or pushing through difficult growth barriers, our specialist knowledge will help you build confidence in your most precious asset – your brand.

Through the development of a range of powerful tools, including our unique brandtest, Sensible Branding can deliver solid, foundational brand principles that will help your business to succeed.

So, what is the brandtest?

The brandtest is an in-depth examination of all areas of your organisation and is designed to unlock your business potential. Aimed at micro to small businesses with up to 100 employees, the test comprises 141 questions that tease out where your business is strong, and where it can potentially lose or damage its reputation. Each brandtest comes with a bespoke report with conclusions and recommendations for action.

Can you afford not to take the brandtest? Do it NOW.