Weak Brand, Weak Sales

One of our favorite services that we provide as a marketing firm is branding. It’s not just creating a logo and establishing a company color palette. It’s also defining the company story. It’s why they make their products and who they’re for. It’s why you should do business with them and not someone else.

Getting to the bottom of all this takes effort. We do research on them, of course. But we also give them homework: questions about who they think their customers are, what their logo makes people feel when they see it, what makes them unique in the marketplace, who their direct and indirect competitors are, and many more. Armed with all of this input, we schedule a meeting—a very long meeting—to hash it all out. A meeting that challenges them to talk and brainstorm.

Sometimes these sessions can be difficult, such as when the company logo, beloved by some, is found to be unpopular with others. Part of our job is to facilitate these issues to resolution. You might be surprised at the degree of unity, among company personnel and consultants alike, by the time we’re done. The process often leaves everyone very excited and with a new clarity of purpose. I mean we’re not singing Kumbaya around the campfire or anything, but it’s close.

We leave these sessions with a lot of notes. We use those notes to write a brand report. It’s more or less a summary of what the team achieved during the long session together. The idea of the report is simple. It tells the story of the company. Everything from what motivates them to do what they do, ideas for strategic marketing campaigns, suggested verbiage, things they would like to change, to what messages will resonate with their target market. Armed with this report, they can go forth and create/redesign a logo, a web site, brochures, sales slide decks, entire marketing and social media campaigns, launch a new product and more. With a solid brand at the core, all of these subsequent efforts will be working in concert, singing the same song in the same key.

Occasionally there are some harsh truths in the report. These are usually just calling out something everyone already knows: your existing marketing collateral isn’t conveying the right message.

How’s your brand looking? You grab some firewood and we’ll bring the guitar.