Branding:
What It Is and
How To Do It
Coca Cola is a recognized brand. Around the world, and perhaps beyond, people recognize the red can, the stylized Coca Cola type face and even the layout of text on each can (note the ingredients are in tiny type, but that’s another story). Coke is, perhaps, the best example of a branded product.
However, Coke’s branding has taken years to develop and refine. And when the company tried to change the brand to “New Coke,” the whole soda-guzzling-cola-drinking world went into a tailspin. Why? People are more confident with well-known brands.
Branding is a typical, even routine, marketing strategy. Its primary function is to generate an acquired, programmed, hard-wired response from the viewer. It’s not (necessarily) to make an immediate sale. Think of the Goodyear blimp. No Goodyear marketing nerd expects people to run out during the middle of the Super Bowl to pick up four snows for the upcoming winter. The point of branding is name recognition based on numerous impressions (how many times the viewer has seen the item or name in all forms of advertising media) and on-going reinforcement of the “goodness” or “betterness” of the brand.
People As Brands
What do you think of when you hear Donald Trump’s name? Trump is a brand and anything with the Trump name on it has the cachet of upscale living, even if Trump himself is a rude, obnoxious oaf. It just plain doesn’t matter when you’re a brand name like Mr. Trump.
Martha Stewart is a master at branding – herself. She’s not only branded herself as the kitchen diva (though Rachael Ray is giving Martha a run for her money), she’s expanded branding to all sorts of products sold at K-Mart and other retail outlets. Goodness, she even has her own magazine.
Other “branded” names? Bill Clinton ($100,000 per speaking engagement), Bill Cosby, James Dean, Marlon Brando, Jimi Hendrix, John Madden, Barbara Walters – you get the idea. Each of these men and women generate an almost visceral reaction. Viewers react to these “name brands” almost at a subconscious level. That’s one important reason Tiger Woods gets paid beaucoup bucks to put his name on anything from a Buick to Nike caps. Tiger’s brand name adds recognition to an already branded product, reinforcing the brand name.
So, whether you’re Dan Kennedy (salesperson extraordinaire), Skip McGrath (eBay guru) or Tony Robbins (“success” coach), once you’ve created a recognizable brand, marketing becomes so much easier. It’s almost like shorthand.
Branding and the Small Site Owner
You don’t need a lot of money to brand yourself but it does take some time, unless you write a bestseller and end up on Oprah. Then, you’re instantly branded because Oprah is branded. But there are lots of things the individual business coach, the personal growth coach, the interior decorator, consultant and other knowledge providers can do to create brand recognition just like Martha Stewart.
Find Your Niche Brand
If you think you’re going to create a brand based on yet another get-rich-quick scheme, forget it. Carleton Sheets® (yes, his name is a registered trademark) was one of the first real estate flippers to make money in the get-rich-quick field with his infomercials crammed with numerous testimonials from happy, wealthier clients. (“I made $72,000 on my first sale.”)
Get rich quick schemes don’t work unless you can hook a real sucker. (You won’t.) Try personal health, improved work performance, money management and other popular topics that have a bit more room to create a brand – your brand.
Publish Something
Ideally, a book. Books and their authors impress people, even if the book is just plain awful. If you can’t write a lick, hire a ghostwriter to do the work for you.
You can also start branding yourself by submitting articles to different web sites associated with your expertise. Site owners want green copy so give it to them and start building a brand name for yourself.
Register Your Name As a Domain
www.johnqpublic.com makes a statement in and of itself. And make sure to include your URL on all hard copy – stationery, business cards, annual calendar and so on.
Sponsor a Webinbar
If you’ve had some good luck buying and selling foreign currency (FOREX trading), people will pay to hear what your secrets for success are. Webinars are easy to create. All you really need is a mini-cam and a decent microphone. It would also help if you had your speaking points written out, or better yet, on cue cards.
If you schedule enough webinars – weekly, let’s say – slowly but surely your audience will grow (assuming the information is useful), and over time you and your ever-so-happy client-base become branded entities.
“Toot Your Own Horn. No one else will.” ~ The Donald
Notify local media of your website launch and upcoming speaking events. And don’t be shy. You’re not some schlub who rented the dining room at the local Motel 6 to speak to five people for three hours. You’re a brand name so act the part.
Toot your own horn. Tell prospective attendees about your extensive background in the area you’ll be speaking. List credentials, degrees, certifications and other “credibility- building” factors.
And be sure to repeatedly point out the personal benefits of attending one of your seminars, buying your ghostwritten book or listening to one of your CDs. A big part of branding is staking a claim to new idea. For example, 7-Up is the uncola. The antithesis of cola – a whole new approach to building (or in the case of 7-Up, rebuilding)
a brand.
Give Them Something For Nothing
People love free stuff, so whether you’re working the seminar or webinar circuit, or you’re simply using your website as an online billboard, give attendees or site visitors a freebie: 10 Great Ways to Get a Great Job (2 pages), Lose Five Pounds In Less Than Two Weeks (4 pages), the 10 Best Mutual Funds (6 pages) – you figure it out based on the area of expertise you’re branding.
Public Speaking
If the thought of public speaking doesn’t worry you, sign up with a speakers’ bureau. These businesses match authorities in a field with speaking gigs. So, if there’s a nutritionists’ convention coming to town in a couple of months, try to work your way up to the dais as an honored speaker. That really builds creds.
Keep Pounding That Brand
There’s an old rule of thumb in traditional, Madison Avenue advertising: A product must make six impressions on a buyer before the buyer even notices the product. That’s a lot of impressions to get a little notice but, with your own web site, a weekly newsletter, a daily work tip in visitors’ in-boxes – all of these will get the notice and make the impression required to create you, or your clients, as name brands, or better yet, household names.
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