To misquote Bill Shankly, “Marketing is a simple business, made complicated by fools”. There’s no shortage of information about it – go into any bookshop and you’ll see shelves groaning with books on marketing theory. Mostly written by men whose experience is in packaged goods, looking back over their successes in a different era, in a different market to yours, with differing objectives, challenges and budgets. And, of course, they’ll largely be ignoring their failures and applying their theories only to the cases where they worked. Much of the time, they’ll have met with modest or no success – but that doesn’t sell books.
It’s no wonder Lord Leverhulme famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don’t know which half”.
So how do you cut through the noise and focus your efforts and resources on what will work for you?
Well, read on, because that’s what Step 8 of Xeinadin’s Rise Programme is all about.
First, don’t get put off by the jargon. When we talk about building your brand, it’s not as complex and airy-fairy as it sounds. Your brand is not your logo, or your slogan, or a character or a jingle (although it can encompass elements of all of those.)
Quite simply, ‘Brand’ is just marketing-speak for ‘reputation’. And you’ve spent your entire business life building your reputation. So, you’ve got this! You’re already on your way to being an expert.
We’ll swerve the confusing plethora of books on marketing theory, and instead tell you a charming bedtime story at Rise, giving you the perfect illustration of how your reputation = your brand.
But what’s the point of building a strong brand? Is it worth it? You bet your business it is.
A strong brand makes marketing simple.
It means you don’t have to do all that hard selling work every time you appear in front of a customer (even if they gave you the time to do it and were even listening). It’s a mental shortcut – because with so many messages coming at them, no-one ever has time to literally think about a purchase decision. No matter how many product features you list, they’re still going to act on impulse, on loyalty, on a feeling.
A strong brand means as soon as someone hears the name, they instantly think positive things about it. So, your job is to influence what those messages are, and what they feel and do about them. And we’re going to show you how to do it. How to build your brand around values that people can believe in, and trust you to deliver on.
We’ll show you how to create the most effective messaging, identify the people most likely to respond to it, and get it in front of them.
But most important of all, we’ll show you how to build a brand that’s integral to your business. Because a brand isn’t a bolt-on, or just ‘something created in the Marketing Department’. It’s built on a solid set of values that underpins your business. It has to be, or it will fail. So, your brand values must be the principles that your staff live and breathe – the reason they get out of bed in the morning.
If that seems like a big ask, it’s not. We’ll show you…
Take action!
- Book your free Rise session for ‘Growth through marketing’. Visit our Rise webpage to see our upcoming events and learn more about our Rise business growth programme.
- Request signposting to support for developing your marketing. Contact us to learn more.
