Brand Management

Know Who Your Customers Are

Knowing your audience is the single most important marketing tip we can give you. It’s the basis for all successful selling and the most fundamental step for all aspects of marketing and advertising.

Before you can launch a brand or extend its scope, write an ad, shoot a commercial, build a Web site, open a new location, or make any key marketing decision, you’ve got to have a clear idea who’s really buying what you’re selling.

Once you know your customer you can find out what they’re doing, how they’re communicating, how they’re relating, and what their interests are. If you know all that, you’ll know where to find them. And then you’ll know what to say to them once you do.

To get to know your target market and get into their mindset, ask yourself if you can answer these questions definitively.

1. Who does our brand appeal to?

2. Who makes up the majority of our customers? Why?

3. What do they know, like, love or dislike about our product?

4. What do they know, like, love or dislike about our brand?

5. Is there a difference? How do we know that?

Because there’s no longer a “one-size-fits-all” marketing solution, asking these questions is becoming ever more important. Do your homework and you’re on the way to getting control of your brand.

Know Your Brand Image

Quiz: What’s the difference between your brand and your brand image? Answer: Everything. A brand is just a name. Its image is its importance in the mind of the consumer. Call it Branding. Brand Image. Brand Essence, Brand Personality. Brand Promise. It’s all the same thing. What your brand stands for in the mind of the consumer is as important as – or in many cases more important than – what you make or do.

In real estate, it’s location, location, location. In marketing it’s brand, brand, brand. Everyone talks about it. And most of us take it too much for granted. It’s not just name, it’s the collective experience people have with your product or service. It’s not something you can hold in your hand. It’s not tangible, it’s not permanent, it’s subject to emotion. Yet it’s the sum total of what you make, do, sell, service, or show to the world.

Separate Your Brand from the Competition

Is your advertising any different than anyone else’s? If your advertising doesn’t separate you from your competition, you’re wasting your money. Your brand, every brand, needs a clear, distinct point of difference.

What’s going to make the consumer choose your brand over the competitors’? What’s the point of differentiation? If your advertising, marketing, promotion, and website doesn’t separate you from your competition, you’re wasting your money. Find your difference. Turn it into a competitive advantage.
And sell the difference like crazy.