Branding is the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product to service the consumer through advertising, campaigns with a consistent theme.
Branding aims to establish the significant differentiated presence in the market that attracts and maintains loyal customers.
If I say Brand to you, what does that mean?
- The image that you putting forward. You branding yourself in a certain way to be seen by the public in a certain way
- If I think of a Brand, I think of their logo
- The sum total of the experience that people have and how they perceive your brand and visual otherwise.
Certainly in everyday language people when you say brand they normally think of a logo. But it only part of it. So we look at this definition.
Your brand lies deep within your DNA of your business and in the heart and expectation of the end user. It is defined by your story, your dreams and what others say about you. It’s the platform from which you advertise, market and sell.
This diagram explains it well.
The brand is like an iceberg, the logo is the tip of the iceberg sticking out of the water. You only see 10% of an iceberg so the rest of it is below the waterline. So how your staff behave, the personality that you project, your price, whether you are more expensive or less expensive, the perceived value of what you deliver, your reputation, the language you speak, and the customer experience. All those and many more are just a few of the things that actually make up your brand.
So, if people walk in to your bakery, the name might be above the door but the experiences they have is what your brand is about. The name and the logo do matter but the total experience of how they feel when they are in your store, that’s what matters.
In thinking about franchising, you are building a package for somebody else so that’s why this stuff really matters at this foundational level. You are building a package for somebody else to project forward. You have enjoyed a certain level of success in the business you are already running, so there is something in this idea of franchising that said well maybe that is for us and maybe we can package this and take it to another whole level. So you have probably dealt at least some of that first stage.
Establishing who your ideal customer is absolutely critical in this journey to package your business for somebody else. When you have a stand-alone business, you can often be a little relaxed on this point. I will give an example of a firm that Brian’s working with in Western Australia. They have a key business and they used to also handle Rolla doors but they realised in their journey to package their business for franchising, that the Rolla doors was confusing and was really a side area to the business. So, they realised that focusing on keys was actually a really important part of the package to franchise.
Looking at your customers, whether they are a male or female, where they sit in the overall market place really matters because it helps you profile where you should sit, who you are talking to, what language to use, what colours to use, what those people like, where you will advertise, whether you use a medium such as Facebook or will you use google AdWords or will you use direct mail, or email. So much which happens later all come back to identifying who your ideal client is in the first place.