Last week a workshop participant at a seminar I was presenting in Melbourne asked the question “What’s the best and cheapest way for small business to promote their brand”? Such a great question and yet such a complex issue. A brand is so much more than a slogan, point of difference or consistent image, it is the whole personality of your business. It requires more than external promotion. A brand is like a person. For customers to experience and understand your brand they look for three things.
- SAY: What your business says about your brand e.g. value propositions, slogans, positioning statements
- DO: The actions that your business takes
- BE: Whether or not the business seems to believe or live what they say.
If businesses are authentic and “are” their brand then at every contact the customer has with the business the branding will be reinforced. If a brand was a person then the clothes, actions and beliefs of that person help tell the story. If they don’t match up, who that person is and what they stand for, can be difficult to work out. In business terms if a business says that it is friendly and yet the staff don’t smile and say hello or don’t believe in helping people, then no amount of promotion is going to communicate this brand as it doesn’t ring true.
So think about what is authentic for you as a business and make sure your statements, actions and beliefs line up and everyday as part of the way you do business you will be communicating your brand. Make sure you SAY, DO, BE.
So there you have it. Ailsa’s Romper Room Branding Theory. What are your experiences?
