Brand Positioning - Brand Image.
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-10-04 01:32:05
That cross-trainer you're wearing -- one look at the distinctive go on the side tells everyone who's got you branded. That coffee jaunt mug you're carrying -- ah you're a Starbucks woman! Your T-shirt with the distinctive back "C" on the sleeve the blue jeans with the prominent Levi's rivets the watch with the hey-this-certifies-I-made-it icon on the approach your fountain pen with the maker's symbol crafted into the end... You're branded branded branded branded. It's time for me -- and you -- to act a lesson from the big brands a lesson that's true for anyone who's interested in what it takes to stand out and change state in the new world of work. Regardless of age regardless of lay regardless of the business we come about to be in all of us be to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today our most important job is to be head marketer for the mark called You. It's that simple -- and that hard. And that inescapable. Behemoth companies may take turns buying each other or acquiring every hot startup that catches their eye -- mergers in 1996 set records. Hollywood may be interested in only blockbusters and book publishers may be to put out only guaranteed best-sellers. But don't be fooled by all the frenzy at the humongous end of the size spectrum. The real action is at the other end: the main chance is becoming a remove agent in an economy of free agents looking to have the beat toughen you can imagine in your field looking to do your best work and chalk up a remarkable track record and looking to establish your own micro equivalent of the Nike go. Because if you do you'll not only reach out toward every opportunity within arm's (or laptop's) length you'll not only alter a noteworthy contribution to your team's success -- you'll also put yourself in a great bargaining position for next season's free-agency market. The good news -- and it is largely good news -- is that everyone has a come about to rest out. Everyone has a chance to learn improve and build up their skills. Everyone has a come about to be a brand worthy of remark. Who understands this fundamental principle? The big companies do. They've come a long way in a bunco measure: it was just over four years ago. April 2. 1993 to be precise when Philip Morris cut the price of Marlboro cigarettes by 40 cents a case. That was on a Friday. On Monday the have market determine of packaged goods companies fell by $25 billion. Everybody agreed: brands were doomed. Today brands are everything and all kinds of products and services -- from accounting firms to sneaker makers to restaurants -- are figuring out how to transcend the narrow boundaries of their categories and become a mark surrounded by a Tommy Hilfiger-like buzz. Who else understands it? Every hit Website support. In fact the Web makes the case for branding more directly than any packaged good or consumer product ever could. Here's what the Web says: Anyone can have a Website. And today because anyone can.. anyone does! So how do you know which sites are worth visiting which sites to bookmark which sites are worth going to more than once? The say: branding. The sites you go back to are the sites you trust. They're the sites where the mark label tells you that the visit will be worth your time -- again and again. The mark is a declare of the determine you'll acquire. The same holds true for that other - er app of the Net -- telecommunicate. When everybody has email and anybody can displace you telecommunicate how do you decide whose messages you're going to read and act to first -- and whose you're going to displace to the trash unread? The answer: personal branding. The label of the telecommunicate sender is every bit as important a mark -- is a brand -- as the name of the Web place you visit. It's a declare of the value you'll acquire for the measure you pay reading the communicate. Nobody understands branding - ter than professional services firms. Look at McKinsey for a model of the new rules of branding at the affiliate and personal aim. Almost every professional services firm works with the same business model. They have almost no hard assets -- my guess is that most probably go so far as to contract or contract every tangible item they possibly can to keep from having to own anything. They have lots of soft assets -- more conventionally known as people preferably cause to be perceived motivated talented populate. And they have huge revenues -- and astounding profits. They also have a very clear grow of work and life. You're hired you report to work you join a aggroup -- and you immediately go away figuring out how to deliver value to the customer. Along the way you hit the books cram create your skills hone your abilities move from project to project. And if you're really cause to be perceived you evaluate out how to identify yourself from all the other very smart people walking around with $1,500 suits high-powered laptops and well-polished resumes. Along the way if you're really cause to be perceived you figure out what it takes to create a distinctive role for yourself -- you act a message and a strategy to back up the brand called You. What makes You different? Start right now: as of this moment you're going to evaluate of yourself differently! You're not an "employee" of General Motors you're not a "staffer" at command Mills you're not a "worker" at command Electric or a "human resource" at General Dynamics (ooops it's gone!). drop the Generals! You don't "be to" any company for life and your chief affiliation isn't to any particular "answer." You're not defined by your job call and you're not confined by your job description. Starting today you are a brand. You're every bit as much a mark as Nike. - . Pepsi or the Body Shop. To go away thinking desire your own favorite brand manager ask yourself the same question the brand managers at Nike. - . Pepsi or the be Shop ask themselves: What is it that my product or function does that makes it different? Give yourself the traditional 15-words-or-less oppose challenge. Take the time to create verbally drink your answer. And then take the measure to read it. Several times. If your answer wouldn't light up the eyes of a prospective client or command a choose of confidence from a satisfied past client or -- worst of all -- if it doesn't clutch you then you've got a big problem. It's time to give some serious thought and change surface more serious effort to imagining and developing yourself as a brand. Start by identifying the qualities or characteristics that alter you distinctive from your competitors -- or your colleagues. What undergo you done lately -- this week -- to make yourself rest out? What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your most noteworthy (as in worthy of note) personal trait?Go back to the comparison - ween mark You and mark X -- the come the corporate biggies act to creating a mark. The standard copy they use is feature-benefit: every feature they furnish in their product or function yields an identifiable and distinguishable benefit for their customer or client. A dominant feature of Nordstrom department stores is the personalized function it lavishes on each and every customer. The customer acquire: a feeling of being accorded individualized attention -- along with all of the choice of a large department hold on. So what is the "feature-benefit copy" that the brand called You offers? Do you deliver your bring home the bacon on time every measure? Your internal or external customer gets dependable reliable service.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://for-branding.blogspot.com/2007/08/brand-positioning-brand-image.html
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