Many people describe a brand as something that they can feel, but find difficult to describe. In essence a brand is an assurance from the seller to the buyer that he/she will enjoy the same wonderful experience every time.  The brand, the result the customer can expect, consists of two elements – the BRAND PROMISE and BRAND DELIVERY.

BRAND PROMISE

The brand promise is the result the customer can expect from doing business with you. An effective brand allows you to compete without relying on low prices.  The most effective way to communicate your brand is through an effective tagline.  What makes a tagline effective?

1. It must beg the question “How do you do that?”
2. It lays the foundation for your benefit statements in a sales call.

Here’s the tagline I created for an ergonomic equipment distributor: Leveraging the power of man.

When asked “How do you do that? “  They responded:

“By customizing the equipment to the customer’s specific material-handling application.”

Then they offered examples of applications similar to those of the prospect.

In the sales call they said “We leverage the power of man physically and fiscally.  Not only will your employees be able to handle more material, quickly and more safely, you’ll experience:

• Fewer injuries
• Less lost time on the job
• The mistakes replacement workers make
• Lower productivity from replacement workers
  
• Lower modification rates on your WCinsurance
• Greater employee loyalty”

How quickly can a brand be established?

I had been doing pricing/branding work for over 21 years as part my consulting services, but had not branded myself that way.  A little over 8 months after rebranding my services, I met someone at a Business Marketing Association meeting.  We had exchanged only our names when he said “You’re the pricing guy!”  After only 15 months I was ranked 7th and 8th on the first page of a Google search on ‘pricing strategies.’

These results were achieved by a clear brand promise, communicated effectively through my tagline and marketing messages.  If you’re brand isn’t getting this kind of recognition, give Dale a call at 314-707-3771 and he’ll help you develop a brand promise that will help you get premium prices for your offerings.

How quickly you can communicate your brand promise?  Here’s a confidential self-assessment to help you make that determination.  Hints are provided, so don’t feel intimidated.

What Others Are Saying

“We highly recommend Dale Furtwengler at Furtwengler & Associates P.C.  Dale was more than helpful from our initial conversations, and all the way through the process.  At our first meeting he provided the ideas and directions that we needed to get a sound pricing structure in place.    We followed his recommendations and have had excellent results.

By understanding the value of our services to our clients, we have been able to raise our price and provide even better service.
Dale has made a positive difference in how we do business, and the real winners are our clients.  John Hartwig, Sales Consultant/Trainer

BRAND DELIVERY

Of course it isn’t enough to have a brand promise, you have to deliver on that promise consistently.  The pitfalls are astounding.  Here are just a few of the ways in which you can destroy that brand promise:

• Confusing the market with incongruent marketing and pricing strategies
• Establishing policies that diminish the customer experience
• Focusing your sales force on volume instead of the customer experience
• Poor production/delivery processes
• Discounting to get market share, devaluing the brand in the process
• Creating compensation programs that reward results that don’t enhance the customer experience

Operational effectiveness isn’t just some fancy buzz word, it’s an essential element of brand delivery.  Unfortunately that phrase, operational effectiveness, conjures up thoughts of operating efficiency.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Operational effectiveness must be measured in light of the customer experience.  For it’s the customer experience that drives premium pricing and allows companies to gain all of the advantages cited on the Pricing page.

Here are a few of tools to help you improve both your operational effectiveness and operating efficiencies.

Available at Amazon.com

If you’re not consistently delivering on your brand promise, give Dale a call at 314-707-3771.