What’s the first thing that every Freelancer, business leader, or marketing director would do well to realize about branding? That the purpose of branding is not about constantly sprinkling stardust and aiming to get the company, service and product names in lights. The purpose of branding is to create and reinforce trust in the company and its services and products. When branding strategies are designed with creating and reinforcing trust in mind, then products and services will be positioned to stand out in the marketplace in ways that matter to the target audience. The perception of trust and reliability associated with your brand will enhance your ability to both persuade prospects to become customers and persuade customers to remain customers and also make referrals.

Unfortunately, too many marketing “experts” don’t quite understand the true role of branding. As evidence, I refer you to the avalanche of marketing-themed articles that routinely appear in business publications and also marketing-themed webinars, podcasts and conferences hosted by business associations that feature a local or national marketing “expert” who advises readers, listeners, or audience members to “tell their brand story” and “be authentic.”

Readers and audience members who pay attention may have noticed that the nuts and bolts of developing the “brand story,” examples of key elements of a company origin story that might resonate with prospects and customers and therefore ought to be included in the brand story, are unlikely to be shared. On the other hand, recommendations on how to communicate “authenticity” usually involve making broad statements about the founder’s support of social or environmental issues. In the end, marketers looking to raise the level of their game and help their business thrive are left to stumble in the dark as they attempt to find an inspiring theme to explain why their company was launched.

In the real world, Freelancers and other marketers are interested in strategies that help grow customer lists and market share, in order to generate greater sales revenue and profit. Branding, when properly understood and executed, is used to further those objectives and goals. To understand how you can develop an effective brand strategy and marketing messages aligned with that strategy, you may find the insights suggested by Scott Baradell, CEO of Trust Signals Marketing of Dallas, TX and author of Trust Signals: Brand Building in a Post-Truth World (2022) to be instructive:

• Credibility over visibility: Being seen means nothing if people don’t believe in you.
• Customer needs over corporate storytelling: Your “why” is only useful if it serves their “why.”
• Alignment over “authenticity”: Be real in a way that reinforces, and does not confuse, your brand.
• Meaningful differentiation: Be different where it matters, not just for the sake of being different.
• Substance over style: A good reputation beats a good logo every time.
• Listening over dictating: Your brand is what customers say it is.
• Trust over everything: Because, in the end, nothing else matters.

1. Your brand is what customers think it is

The first and greatest commandment in marketing is that you do not, in fact, cannot, control customer opinion of your brand. That power belongs to the customers themselves—your brand is what they perceive it to be.

Let’s tear off the band-aid and examine the real meaning of brand identity, that is, the sum total of how customers experience and perceive a business and its services and products, from product packaging to tag line, price structure to social media presence. A brand consists of all the touch points that shape how customers feel about the brand. The interpretation of those touch points belongs to the customer.

Marketers can attempt to influence customer and prospect opinions and perceptions by developing a brand story, emphasizing authenticity and making any number of promotional marketing decisions; still, your brand is what customers think it is and no amount of marketing can undo their overall experience with your company. Unfortunately, many branding experts routinely sidestep this essential truth.

2. “Why” is always about the customer

Customers and prospects are forever tuned in to their favorite station— WIIFM–What’s In It For Me; but the marketing gurus do not always acknowledge this reality. Many marketing thought leaders have migrated to “why” as proposed by Simon Sinek’s 2009 blockbuster book Start with Why. Sinek is surely on to something—learning to understand and articulate the purpose of the business as you examine its why; confirming how the business addresses and can be positioned to achieve its purpose for existence; and clarifying what the company’s products and/ or services can deliver to customers—are foundational to launching and sustaining a successful enterprise. Defining the purpose of your company and understanding how your products and services fulfill the company’s purpose is unquestionably a worthwhile exercise.

Just keep in mind that customers are focused on their own needs and goals and that is what motivates them to seek out a solution and buy it. That is why customers become customers. What’s In It For Me motivates the sale. The service or product must fulfill the customer need and also live up to expectations—perform well (or taste good), be easy to obtain, priced right, user-friendly, look good.

3. Brand awareness or empty chatter?

Brand awareness can be less than the chattering metaverse says it is. Having your company name on the lips of prospects and business colleagues is flattering, but that might be all it is. As a business leader, you’ll be better served by working to position your brand to not so much create brand awareness, but to create trust that encourages that brand awareness—and loyal customers.

In other words, worthwhile brand awareness is not necessarily determined by the number of your social media followers or how many mentions the influencers devote to your company. While a recognizable business or product name and media visibility are highly desirable outcomes of marketing campaigns, brand awareness without substance is not guaranteed to produce the results you want. Prospects may recognize your company name, but you’ll gain very little if brand awareness does not also include the trust that motivates prospects to become customers.

You may recall a few well-known brands that lost the trust of the marketplace. Brand awareness was no protection for the former energy and utility company Enron, coworking phenomenon WeWork, or global giant Texaco Oil . Each of those companies had considerable brand awareness in their marketplaces and beyond, but each one collapsed, spectacularly. Remember, talk is cheap.

4. Authentic means keeping your brand promise

Customers and prospects have made it known that authenticity is a characteristic that they value and marketing experts have been squawking about the importance of demonstrating the aura of authenticity for several years, but what represents “authentic” to customers and prospects? What do they want to see and hear?

One thing is certain and it’s that authenticity does not mean making a show of your personal political or social statements about national or global affairs, even if many of your customers agree. Authenticity is the result of an impression created when customers and prospects believe that your company is fulfilling its brand promise. Do what customers expect from your company and they’ll know your brand is reliable, trustworthy and authentic.

5. Differentiation may not matter

Branding experts regularly extol the necessity of a brand to “stand out” and grab the attention of prospects in their target market. Identifying tangible or intangible features or benefits of your product or service that are unique in your marketplace are described as having the power to generate more sales, word of mouth and revenue.

That premise may be only partly true. The ability to include a different feature or benefit in your services or products can make prospects take notice, but that doesn’t automatically result in obtaining more customers and increased sales revenue. Differentiated characteristics are valuable only if your market segment thinks they are valuable.

So, if your ice cream shop is the only place in town to sell avocado ice cream your store will be unique—but your exotic product might not give many people a reason to come in for a double scoop on a hot day. However, if you differentiate by solving a real pain point or gap in an acknowledged need that competitors cannot match, you may win more customers. Cappuccino ice cream could be the real crowd-pleaser. Be different where it counts. Everything else is a distraction.

6. A cool logo and tagline are not enough

To those not in the marketing business, the meaning of a brand is often largely defined by a company’s visual identity and/or tag line—like the Mercedes Benz hood ornament or Nike’s Just do it tag line.

Yet marketers must see beyond visuals and slogans and communicate with actual customers who, whether they realize it or not, are typically motivated by practical considerations, such as product performance. Customers are also motivated by an emotional appeal, most notably, a company’s association with the attributes of reliability and trust.

Great brands are built on those emotional attributes and not on visuals. Your company logo and tag line cannot make prospective customers trust your company and its products and services, but how you deliver on your brand promise does exactly that.

A strong visual identity is powerful and it matters, but if you emphasize the surface attributes of your brand and give comparatively scant attention to the fulfillment of your brand promise and how your company delivers on what it claims to do, you won’t win the trust and loyalty of prospects and customers and your business will not fulfill its potential.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © United Airlines. A United Air Lines flight attendant/registered nurse in 1935. The company was founded in 1931.