The Expectations Game: Aligning Brand with Reality and Values
The Situation
“Brand” can feel like an afterthought. Identifying and communicating your brand can be particularly challenging for small businesses. Between fulfillment and finances, something so seemingly fluffy can fall by the wayside. You offer a great product and solve for a pain point. So slap a logo and a tagline on it and call it good, right? Not so fast.
The Plays
Brand is less about slogans and more about expectations. Ignore it, get it wrong, or misrepresent who you are and what you do and you’re setting the table for disconnect, resentment, and disengagement between your business and your customers (not to mention your suppliers, employees, and the community). Done right, though, brand allows you to build relationships and understanding with the people you want to attract.
Consider:
What problem are you solving for and who needs that solution?
What does your company do and value?
What do you want to tell the world about your company?
What do you want others to say about your company?
Where are there disconnects between what you say, what you do, and what you say you do? How do you close the gap?
Run the Plays
Interview: What Retailers Want from SMBs with Brittany Crosby
“What is always most important is how the product is different from what is currently out there. What problem are you solving and does the consumer know they need that solution?... You don’t need flashing lights and gimmicks to have a great product pitch. You need to be able to tell someone about the consumer insight you have found and how your product will solve it.”
Two from Permanent Podcast
Pod & Post: What’s Your Brand?
Brent Beshore talks about the importance of how people experience your brand, your service, and your product in the final installment of 5 Minute Management. (The content will keep rolling – we’re just not good at keeping it to 5 minutes.)
“Every time somebody comes in contact with your brand, they're testing what they think they know about your company (their predictions and expectations) against the experience they're having on the ground.”
Pod & Post: Building a World One Hug at a Time with John Fio
John Fio (Gravity Blanket, Moon Pals) joins Brent Beshore & David Cover to talk about what it was like to work with Justin Bieber, the importance of finding truth in what you create, why worldbuilding is more important storytelling, and why so many products won’t stand the test of time.
“[Storytelling] is one of those words that doesn't mean anything... So I would say I actually don't really think about product marketing as storytelling. I think about product marketing as a part of the design process of the product. So that sentence actually crafts the literal design and the experience of the product.”
Listen & subscribe on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast
Throwback: How to Sell Anything
“A sale happens when someone with the ability to purchase values the thing purchased more than the money spent. Let that sink in. To get a sale, you need an able buyer with both the authority and resources required who is also convinced that the value of the thing being sold exceeds the value of the cash.”
Throwback: The Greatest Competitive Advantage
“The more people know you’re reliable, the more they trust and like you. You the person and you the business.”
Go Deep
What Does Your Corporate Brand Stand For? (HBR)
+ A matrix for understanding how internal and external components come together to form the brand core – and how to use the relationships to build a stronger brand. “Examining and refining your corporate brand is a true leadership task that requires far-reaching input and commitment, passion, and grit. The outcome—a sharpened brand, stronger relationships, and a unified organization—can provide a clear competitive edge.”
Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits (Debbie Millman)
+ Meditations on brand from the people who live and breathe the psychology of selling, buying, motivation, and relevance, including Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, and Dori Tunstall. “The word ‘brand’ is derived from the Old Norse word brandr, which means ‘to burn by fire.’ … We are [now] living in a world with over one hundred brands of bottled water.”
Unreasonable Hospitality (Will Guidara)
+ We have, technically, already recommended this book. But it’s a master class on building a world and a brand on exceeding expectations. “Intention means every decision, from the most obviously significant to the seemingly mundane, matters.”
The Dirty Work of Cleaning Online Reputations (The Walrus)
+ On reputation and the regaining thereof. “Many Reputation.ca clients are businesses worried about the effect of scathing customer reviews or social media rants from disgruntled ex-employees. (One 2020 survey found that negative feedback on public forums like Yelp or Facebook can drive away 92 percent of consumers.)... The internet has a long memory.”