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Keeping it R.E.A.L. when it comes to branding.

Written by: Ed Delia

Article Overview: What is a brand anyway? In the simplest terms, a brand is the presence of a unique entity. And that entity need not be the size of Coke, Sony, or Toyota.

Keeping it R.E.A.L. when it comes to branding.

The rapid march of technology has opened up the power of branding to all companies, organizations and entities, from the sole proprietor, to the regional service provider, to the North American manufacturer. You can stand apart, have a voice and go for your share of the market, regardless of company size or communications budget.
Big brands have the luxury of being big. As a result, they can get away with a lot when it comes to branding . . . vague messaging, missing the audience, open-ended communications, being risqué, over-extending. But not smaller brands. Not when every move and every dollar counts. Smaller brands have to stay focused, be urgent, and deliver with impact. Here are four key elements of successful branding that we use to help our clients keep it R.E.A.L.

R - Remarkable
E - Easy
A - Actionable
L - Legit

R is for Remarkable. A remarkable brand is one that’s literally worth remarking about. People like to talk about brands, both in the office and at home. They love to talk about bad brand experiences. They sometimes talk about good brand experiences. They NEVER talk about average brand experiences. Deliver a delightful experience with your brand communications – strike an emotional chord – and inspire people to remark.

E is for Easy. A brand message that is easy to understand, is easier to internalize, certainly easier to share, easier to remember, easier to buy . . . you get the picture. There’s nothing worse than a communication from a smaller brand that’s complex, hard to navigate, or hard to get the gist of. Keep it simple. Make it easy.

A is for Actionable. When you get to the size of Nike, you can throw a white swoosh on a black billboard with no explanation or direction, and call it a day. Smaller brands need to TELL their readers, viewers and audiences what to do. If you want people to call in response to a mailer, tell them so. If you want them to sign up for a seminar, ask them. Offer multiple ways for recipients of your message to take immediate action. We live in a do it now society. “I see. I like. I buy. PERIOD.” Don’t make me beg or jump through hoops. Let me take action. Let me be your customer.

L is for Legit. If you can’t prove it, you can’t say it. If you can’t do it, you can’t promote it. If you can almost do it, you can’t promote it. If you’ll have the capability in six months, you can’t promote it today. Be honest with yourself about your brand. Challenge your brand messaging with a simple question . . .”How So?” And make sure you can answer that question with absolute certainty.

Follow these four guidelines for each and every brand communication you make and you will be certain of taking your brand and organization to a higher level in 2008.

And if you hit a wall, give me a call (908-534-9044).

For Samples of Our Latest Work. Go Here

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Article Tags: audience, audiences, billboard, brand communications, brand experiences, brand message, budget, delightful experience, elements, emotional chord, entities, gist, legit, nike, north american manufacturer, rapid march, regional service provider, risqu, sole proprietor, swoosh



Related Forum Posts
Re: The Flaw In Personal Branding...? - I suppose it depends on what type of business you are in. If you are in a business such as MLM or affiliate marketing I would think that branding yourself would be better. That way whatever you decide to sell, people are buying mainly because of you. On the other hand if you have a unique product or service then maybe branding that is better. MichelleJ
Re: The Flaw In Personal Branding...? - The original post in this thread got my mind spinning in so many different directions. Typically when we think of branding we think of large company branding. It's interesting how many large companies have taken seemingly made up words and created a brand around those words. For example, what does the word "kleenex" mean? When you hear or read that word you automatically think of a facial tissue. How about the word "Google"? Google has come to mean an internet search engine. Having used those two examples though it leads me to what I think is most important about branding whether you are an individual, small business, or conglomerate. The purpose of your brand is to create a unique space or position in the marketplace that you and you alone own. In many cases people create a personal brand through there persona. Frank Kern is the good old boy strikes it big in internet marketing persona. Zig Ziglar is the good boy does good motivational speaker persona. When you hear there names you immediately associate that name with there unique space in the market. So coming back to personal branding and whether you should allow your personal flaws to show I would say you absolutely must because that's who you are and you can't fake you. Whether people like you or don't like you they have to know exactly who they are liking or disliking. Bottom line when it comes to branding or personal branding I think the critical question is... Does your brand create a unique place in the world that people are already looking for?
Brand Babble - I recently read another great book called "Brand Babble" The book debunks a bunch of branding 'myths' that have seem to get passed around as conventional branding wisdom. The authors are Don E Schultz & Heidi F Schultz. ISBN 0-538-72714-4
The Flaw In Personal Branding...? - To what extent do you use personal branding to build your business and your business image? To build an effective personal brand, the image you convey needs to be authentic, not phoney ... so to what extent do you, or would you, allow your personal flaws to be part of your personal brand image?? We could be talking about the physical side, including physical condition and fashion, or it could be in the area of personal behaviour and characteristics or habits, or it could be in the area of lifestyle... Don't you think it might be better to have a flaw or two on display, to appear more human, and perhaps therefore more like someone people could do business with? Or is there a flaw in the whole idea of personal branding. Shouldn't we just concentrate on branding our products??
Re: How to Stay Motivated - Thanks for posting this, Matthew. Keeping the motivation strong is something I've really been struggling with. Donna, I think I was just not pushing as hard as I need to and getting maintenance instead of progress.


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