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Recently, I was invited by the Lake Barkley Chamber of Commerce
(Eddyville, Kentucky) to deliver one of my firm’s (Mission Vision Partner) small
business development presentations named “Brand Development 101.”
For your convenience and learning pleasure, I have attached a hotlink to the
training workshop uploaded to youtube.com.
It is a training module that I developed especially for the
“smalls:” small business startups, existing small business owners, corporations
with offices in small communities, local governments and organizations.
Brand Development 101’s goal was to effectively provide practical and usable knowledge and information
about brand development and its process to assist participants to better brand
their business and themselves. Like many of my trainings, I attempted to get to
know my audience by asking a few intuitive questions and completing an exercise.
One questions to the room of Lake Barkley Chamber members was for them to
identify their favorite business establishment.
In response, one participant identified a fixture in the
small, rural community of Eddyville that was locally owned named Akridge Farm Supply. Later, I
researched this business online and began to understand the basis to their
success as their website states, “Where
customer service counts since 1933.” That is a statement or even better,
principle. The reason that the participant identified Akridge Farm Supply was
because of the way the business owner and staff made her “feel” each time she
frequents the business. I immediately stated that her “favorite” was a great
way to explain and better understand brand development 101.
Branding is about feeling, not imagery, slogans or catchy
advertisement. Branding is the result of the way customers feel and think about
establishment’s product(s) or service(s). Branding is a part of your company’s
strategy…its much bigger than your company’s marketing plan. It is in the
culture…the company’s way of life. For example, there are principles inherent
to each company. Your company’s principles, whether a solopreneur (sole
proprietor) or Fortune 500, spills over into the deliver of your products and
services and experienced by your company’s potential and existing customers.
Customers remember and often recite exceptionally good and
bad business experiences. A company develops a good brand over time, after it
has delivered good, reliable and consistent quality products or services time
and time again. This is the best customer retention strategy.
Next, branding is about “Awareness;” are your customers thinking
about you and what do their thoughts say? Your consistent deliver of products
and services, good or bad will produce “differentiation.” This relates to why or
what make your customers think about you the way that they do. Another way to
say this is, “the proof is in the pudding,” demonstrated from your company’s
past history, customer feedback, referrals and complaints. Price
is important, but not to be confused with cheapness. Customers are willing to
pay for the “brands” they know, favor (feel better about) and trust (feel like
they can rely upon).
Last but certainly not least, your brand is your evidence of distinction.
Without distinction, you run the risk of being considered generic, or worse, a
commodity. The difference between Branding
and Brand Development is that development is the discovery
process a company goes through to unearth (identify) its “Evidence of
Distinction” and formulation of communications and strategies for differentiation.
Branding is then, the tactical application of that distinction in all your
communications, materials, implementation of strategies, etc. Branding and brand
development is a corporate initiative.
In
closing, I would like to think Vanessa Sticker, Lake Barkely Chamber’s
Executive Director, Chamber attendees and Jim Stott, Chamber Chair, for the
invitation and tour of the beautiful Eddyville/Lyon County community.
Henry Snorton, III is a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD)
with advance education, proven success record assisting startups and existing
businesses to create and retain jobs and obtain capitals. He is recognized and
award recipient at the local, state and national level in the area of business
and economic development. He is also an entrepreneur and founder of Mission
Vision Partner (MVP). Mission Vision Partner is MVP is a full service economic development
agency. MVP’s niche is assisting the
"smalls" to make big impacts and to be successful producing outcomes
& results. The outcomes and results that MVP assists its clients to
produce are in the areas of 1) economic development, 2) small business
development 3) entrepreneurial development and 4) application development.
MVP believes that “two are better than one” and every team wants to play with a
"MVP." MVP’s goal and value is to partner with our clients, the
"smalls" to deliver their desired results.
