Uncovering The Real Power of Brand

As I’ve written before, “Brand” and “Branding” are words tossed around in a variety of ways.  For small and mid-market companies, the vast majority of what’s thrown around about branding is crap.

I’d like to highlight the portion that isn’t.  To begin that journey, I ask:  Do you really understand what your brand is, and the power behind it?

I’m always looking for new ways to help owners and executives of growing SME’s understand that, and recently I came across a branding study designed to guage the power of a brand.  I’m a big fan of Marty Neumeier, and since his firm was behind the study, I looked at it closely.

The Brand Impact Study highlights four important attributes to determine a brands power.  These four attributes are valuable for any executive looking to expand sales, margins or both.  They are:

Awareness

• Do the right people know who you are?

• Do they have a positive, meaningful impression of your business?

• Do they consider your business relevant?

• Do your prospects position you as a problem solver, or merely a solutions provider?

• Do they view you as someone to engage with while they’re figuring things out, or after they’re ready to issue an RFP?

• Does your target audience understand your value proposition?

• Do they acknowledge, understand and value the difference your bring to the market?

• Do your prospects understand your impact ?

• Do they understand, and can they articulate the consequence/cost of not doing business with you?

Strength in these four areas – with the right prospects/customers – is the definition of a powerful brand (even if most people don’t know who you are).  Keeping these four components at the top of your mind when developing your marketing and brand strategy will go a long way to accelerating your growth and protecting your margins.