Tyrone Pardue

Even at a very basic level, business owners and senior managers understand that brand equity is vital to the success of their business. Without knowing all the jargon associated with branding, they do know that being different, standing out from the crowd, is how you define your brand and build recognition. When your customer experiences this positive differentiation time and time again as they purchase your products and services, you are building brand equity with that customer. This experience becomes indelibly linked to your brand and deeply embedded in your customer’s mind.

Think of brand equity as a kind of capital. When everything is going smoothly, you are growing that capital. When something goes wrong, the more capital you have, the more likely it is that your customers can forgive any small mistakes your company may make.

For a small business, branding can often seem like a daunting task. Particularly when you compare your small business to the brand giants like Google, Microsoft, Mercedes etc. They enjoy enormous brand equity built up over years of heavy brand investment and advertising, but it all boils down to a few easily identifiable steps. These simple steps apply to businesses both small and very large.

1. Positioning

Positioning is all about knowing exactly where your business is now and where you want it to be within the competitive landscape. If you have not already discussed this with senior sales and marketing management, or with your board, it is something you should do as a first step to growing your brand equity.

You don’t need an expensive branding consultant to do a meaningful and effective evaluation of your positioning. Here is a really easy way to do it, as easy as A, B, C.

"We are the only A that fills B’s need in C different way."

• Think of A as the business category or the actual product/service type that you are selling.
• Think of B as your customer’s demand or a problem they have that needs to be solved.
• Think of C as your unique advantage over your competitors. This is where the differentiation comes in.

2. Become a Story Teller

Mission statements are so ‘80s! If you want to really bore your target audience, just grind out a new mission statement. While they can be valuable from an internal managerial perspective, they have little or no value in the mind of your customer. People respond to brands emotionally. And nothing touches the emotions quite the way a good story does. Tell a story about how your vision evolved and developed into what the brand is today. The people involved, their lives and their belief in what they are doing. The product development story and how you have improved it over the years and why. Telling this kind of story helps to create authenticity, probably the most important characteristic for any brand that intends to be around for a while. A brand story well told will be remembered, and at the point of purchase will help your brand close the deal.

 

3. Be True to Your Story

You never want your target audience to think that your story is nothing more than a Fairy Tale! If you are not living up to the essence of your story, you are probably doing more long-term damage to your brand than if you never told the story at all.

Reflecting your story throughout your entire brand presence is critical. Simply put, that means that all points of contact where your customer encounters your brand should be properly aligned. From your logo and colors to your fonts and image library. Your stationery, brochures and Website must all be aligned and consistent with each other.

A great way to take this second step of being true to your story is to complete an audit of all your company’s materials, advertising, Website and printed collateral. Spread it all out on a big table, or across the boardroom floor and see if it is consistent and easily identifiable. Another good test, and one I learned from one of the world’s best newspaper designers is to cut the logo off all your materials, Web page print outs, brochure covers, letterheads, business cards and advertisements and look at them again! Would you know they were from the same company?

 

4. Build Trust

Many companies are too transaction orientated. That means their focus is almost entirely on selling more products – now. They invest heavily in sales promotions, advertising, merchandising etc. But they don’t often think about building trust in their company before the point of purchase. But this is where the real brand building starts to happen. If you can develop a relationship with your customer before they ever come to the store, go to your Website or pick up the phone to buy from you, their experience of your brand will be so much deeper.

You do this by giving something of yourself away. Take this blog post as an example, I don’t ask anything from my readers in return for the advice I give or the stories I tell in this blog. I enjoy a high readership with an almost zero unsubscribe. I have had new customers tell me that while the presentation of sample projects and portfolio pieces on my Website was important, it was not the clincher. It was receiving a little free advice, an interesting brand story or just hearing a different perspective, without strings attached that convinced them. They were able to engage with me in an unthreatening way that allowed them to form an opinion about my personal brand.

The internet provides an easy way for brands to give a little something away to a wide audience. One of my clients, Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company in Tampa, Florida recently won shelf space in Publix Supermarkets, the biggest supermarket chain in the Southeast. Since Joffrey’s was not widely known, we offered a free sample of Joffrey’s coffee on their Website and a $2.00 store coupon. This allowed potential customers to try before they buy, and get to know Joffrey’s a little before spending $9.99 on a full pound of gourmet coffee. And judging by the coupon redemption rate, consumers have not been disappointed!

5. Keep Your Finger on the Pulse

Get feedback from the marketplace so you can adapt if needed. Customer surveys, social media and search rankings all reveal critical information you need to stay focused on building brand equity.

Initiating a customer survey is not as difficult as you may think. There are online resources like www.surveymonkey.com and www.keysurvey.com that are free or very low cost. Once you review your survey results you will see why customer surveys are so important to the life of your brand.

Finally, building brand equity is a long-term proposition. Brands evolve just the way target markets and trends do. Now is a great time to begin building your brand equity. But leaving it to chance is a sure way to deplete it!

Interested in talking with me about your brand? Feel free to call me at (727) 480-4343 or email me here.