Synkd Blog
The Brand Entrepreneur

Brand: its reflected in your communication tools.

Every business – large or small – has a brand whether they deny it or not. You might not have a strong or established brand but that doesn’t mean you don’t have one. Your customers still have an idea or think ‘something’ of your business. If your business has no strong associations or identity then that is your brand. Elevating and expressing your brand through your communication tools is one way to distinguish and attract customers to your business for business growth.

A brand presents businesses with a unique opportunity to build value and speak to customers on multiple levels with multiple tools as your disposal – all designed to shape how your business is perceived and communicate a perception of ‘value’. Because, among other factors, ‘value’ is what customers buy.

Be careful though, because your brand can reveal itself in unexpected ways. Its evident in subtle ways across the full range of communication tools that you choose and make available to your customer. In the digital world, your brand is the first visual impression I get as a visitor to your website or your social media profile. It’s shown in the overall posts and content you distribute in your Instagram account or the choice of photos you choose to post in your Pinterest site. Are you posting randomly or are your posting with purpose?

In the physical world, it’s the design and choice of paper stock weight for your business card (this tells me if you value quality and that you understand the importance of making a good first impression) or its in the way you interact on a personal level. It’s also your personal style of clothes, your distinct ‘look and feel’ or the way you present yourself and your employees. Critically it’s they way you speak to me, your staff and suppliers – when other people are looking and when they’re not. Your brand is the way you train your customers to behave and treat me when I return an unwanted item or how you react when I complain about about the meal that was below expectations.

Brand is the state of your office reception area and yes, how often your bathroom toilets are cleaned.
It’s how informative and intuitive your signage and way finding is. It’s the quality, state and cleanliness of your fleet of vehicles, not just the quality and design of the vehicle vinyl wrap. It’s how you behave and what you do after a job is completed and how you follow up afterwards. It’s the sign on your door that reads, ‘Back in 5 minutes’ as I walk by your store in my lunch break, or the presentation of your high street window sales in winter as I drive home during peak traffic.

Your brand reveals itself whether you use a generic voicemail system with canned muzak-on-hold, or if you create your own custom voicemail message. One tells me you’re professional and reliable (just like most other businesses); while the other tells me you’re unique, original and ‘stand out’; that you understand the power of giving your customer that little bit more of an experience that can make all the difference.

Your brand is your ‘sale banner’ that adheres to all the right visual standards, but sags in the middle because its hung up using duct tape or blu tack. What you’re really saying is you don’t pay attention to the details. What can customers therefore expect from your offering?

In the digital age, your user interface is your brand. Does your website functionality frustrate people? If not, it says you don’t care about them. Brand extends to your office forms, the contracts you send out, your tender presentations, invoices and estimates, HR manuals and even your envelopes.

Do you rethink and reassess traditional business tools or do you simply default to convention?
You might be missing an opportunity. The choice you make says a lot about how innovative your brand is.

Be vigilant. The devil is often in the detail with effective branding.

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I hope you learned something new, insightful or useful from this blog.

As The Brand Entrepreneur, I believe in helping businesses build a ‘brand blueprint’ for business growth. I do this through a series of brand workshops designed to educate businesses to identify their identity, visualise their vision and manifest their brand mission. ’Successful brands in the future care about customers, not branding. I believe that future is now’.
I’m passionate about helping businesses create unique brand stories & design assets that help brands get ‘in sync’ and connected to customers for business growth.

Jamie Thomas – The Brand Entrepreneur

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