Then I was seated at my table, and within seconds, one ownership decision drowned out everything I had just perceived. I reached for the cloth napkin to place it in my lap, and out tumbled a real fork and spoon, along with a plastic knife. I was so shocked that I had to take a closer look. Yep, it was PLASTIC. It looked like real flatware, but it clearly wasn’t, as I confirmed by tapping it against my plate.

I looked at some nearby tables, wondering if a mistake had been made. Nope.
They all had the same utensils wrapped in a cloth napkin. I couldn’t help laughing out loud. I’m sure the well-dressed wait staff wondered what was so funny.

Is your business like that? Are you offering your customers a plastic knife wrapped in a cloth napkin? Are you selling a better-than-average experience, only to disappoint those who realize you’ve skimped somewhere along the way?

Let me put it this way: Are you promoting Mercedes when you’re really a Pinto?

Consistency in your messages is key to your branding. Work on it, find out what you can deliver consistently, and then market the heck out of it. Your customers aren’t dumb; they’ll figure out the real you faster than you think, and they’ll laugh too if you try to fake them out. So sell me paper napkin, plastic utensils or cloth napkin, real silverware. But don’t sell me cloth napkin, plastic knife.

What Brown does for you

You’re not the only one whose time is limited and who winces at high gas prices: Since before anyone now working there can remember, United Parcel Service (UPS) plots out delivery routes with as many right turns as possible. At first, you might respond “What’s the point?” But last year, UPS managed to save three million gallons of fuel and nearly 30 million miles with that simple technique, according to an ABC News article.

UPS vice-president Jim Winestock told reporter Brian Rooney: “I’ve been known to pass up drug stores, three or four on the left-hand side of the road, just to get to the one on the right-hand side of the road.” I think I’ll make more right turns from now on, thanks to this lesson in turning a small inconvenience into a big benefit.

How to lose 50% of your customers and still make money

In a past career, I managed a Wherehouse Records store. They were a corporate chain and one of the first music stores to begin renting videos. For quite a while, their rental rates Monday through Thursday were only $1. It was a steal, giving Wherehouse a lot of rental market share because of this price point.

One day, however, they more than doubled their mid-week rental rate to $2.50. “This is going to kill our business!” I heard some employees moan. “Our customers are going to be so pissed!” proclaimed others. Our customers, of course, were very unhappy with the decision.

I agreed with those sentiments, so I let the Regional Manager know my feelings the next time he showed up at our store. “What were they thinking?” I asked him, incredulous that they could be so greedy and bring so much harm to their business. I saw this move killing their video rental business. It could even cost some of us our jobs.

“How many customers do you think we’ll lose?” he asked me. I pulled a number out of the air: “Thirty percent.” To my surprise, he replied: “What if we lose 50% of them?” Now I knew he was drinking the corporate Kool-Aid, because no one wants to lose 50% of their customers, right?

He continued: “People may grumble about the price increase, but many will stay with us and some might leave. Even if we lose 50% of our customers over this, our price increase is 150%, which means we still make more money than we lost, and it takes less staff to do the work.”

That day was a major revelation for me when it came to big picture marketing. It taught me that we all need to work on seeing past what’s right in front of us and looking into the future and how things might really play out.

Sometimes what is difficult in the short term is beneficial in the long term. Sometimes what seems ridiculous now is standard in the future. Sometimes your logo needs to fit your customer, not your personality. Sometimes fewer features on your Web site is better than more features. Sometimes less is more. Sometimes losing 50% of your business is a good thing.

This is a first of a 4 part series on “Keys to Building Your Brand”. I will follow-up with posts on; “Knowing Your Audience”, Know Your Competition,” And “What Makes You Unique”

There are no “Magic” pills

At least none I’ve found and I am absolutely certain there isn’t one for marketing or building a brand. If I do find it, I’ll let you know, well maybe I won’t, but there are some key elements to building a brand. Whether you are a small “mom & pop” or a start-up with some money to blow, there are some key elements to building a strong brand presence.

First: Know yourself; take the time to examine who you really are as a company and who you really want to be. Until your picture of what you want your company’s brand presence to be is completely painted, you’ll have a hard time making it come to life. It is important that you think through the entire perception of your brand and work on making it reality.

Why is this important?

The reality is the perceptions of your customer is going to be built completely around the strength of your brand and the stronger and broader your brand the more complete the perception. Once the audience gains a perspective it’s hard to change it.

Example: You go out to dinner to a restaurant you’ve never ate at before and the food is terrible and the service less than desirable, even though that poor meal might have been the only bad meal they’ve ever served and it was the waiters very first night, your perception will most likely be that the restaurant isn’t that great, and you probably won’t go there again for a while. In fact you are probably going to tell people about your bad experience there. That establishment would now have a pretty difficult time changing your perspective and more than likely from here on out when you hear someone mention that restaurant you are going to instantly call back your perception of that place.

So perception is key in building the right brand. Once it is set in your customer or potential customer’s mind, it’s hard to change.

Perception is such a huge thing with a company’s branding, just uttering certain brand names creates an instant perception. If you say the word Volvo, you are immediately thinking safety, Harley-Davidson; you think Motorcycle and even hear a distinct sound in your mind. What comes to your customers minds?

I’d like to give you a quick branding quiz

1. Name a brand of blue Jeans (think of answer now.)
2. Name a brand of laundry detergent. (answer now.)
3. Name a brand of soft drink. (answer now.)

(see end of post for my answers)

As you’ve looked at my answers I am probably correct with at least 80% of you. That’s because these companies have built a strong brand awareness and perception.

Fact: Every marketer who has achieved a high level of success first had to develop a recognizable brand. They’ve created that TOMA – Top of Mind Awareness. They developed their product or service to the point that it’s on the top of the consumer’s mind when they are ready to make a purchase or transaction. TOMA sometimes doesn’t come into effect for some time. There is the factor of when do you go shopping for a refrigerator? When you need one. When it does break down and you are ready to shop for one, what appliance stores come to mind, who has your TOMA? Do you have the Top of Mind Awareness of your customers?

TOMA is built through consistency over time. It’s about defining a marketing strategy and budget and consistently implementing that strategy over time. The good news is, even the big companies at one time were a small idea in one person’s mind, but over time with consistency they’ve built that brand recognition.

A brand is more than a logo or something burned into cowhide it is a complete package of tangible and intangible elements. Here are some of the key elements of the Brand;

• Logo
• Typeface
• Colors
• Characters
• Positioning statements / Slogans
• Intangible Assets (quality, service, performance)
• Tangible Assets (products, Services)

All of these elements factor into the overall brand presence of your company. Its the combination of these elements that create a brand, its more than image, or a feeling.

Here is a great exercise to help you “know yourself” better. Create a one page resume for your company as if it was an individual applying for a job, includes experience, education, accomplishments and references. This exercise gets the picture you have in your mind on paper and helps cement the ideas and objectives. You can take this same process for developing a short overview of what you want your customers to feel, think and perceive about your company.

(answers to marketing quiz )

Here is what I predicted you would answer

1. Levi’s
2. Tide
3. Coke