posted by Brenton on June 21st, 2010
Last Friday we talked about creating a clear brand identity, and how brands that try to do it all can actually water down the strength of their brand.
I asked you to think about what you could take away from your brand over the weekend in order to clear the haze and make it stronger and more effective.
Now that you’ve had the weekend to think about it, how do you actually decide what to clear away? You’re probably even afraid that if you start chipping away at your brand you might chip off an essential bit and make things even worse!
As you develop brand clarity, start with the visual elements. Are there any icons or images that don’t really add to the story of your brand? Sure, they might look nice, but do they really add to the power of your brand?
Now think about your brand’s messaging. Is it specific enough? Does it capture the true essence behind why people buy your product or choose your small business service?
As you ponder further, I’ll leave you with a statistic that I read in the book Radically Transparent by Andy Beal and Judy Strauss. It shares the fact that studies show 85% of a company’s brand image is driven by sales interactions—not by marketing campaigns.
If you’re a B2B small business, this makes sense. Remember, as you chip away the non-essentials from your brand that you need to think bigger than just simple marketing communications. A strong brand incorporates the messages that customer-facing employees are communicating in their words and actions to customers.
Is your brand doing this?
Tags: andy beal, brand marketing, brand strategy for non-profit, brand strategy for small business, branding tips, creating a strong brand, judy strauss, radically transparent, strategic web marketing
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posted by admin on June 2nd, 2010
Yesterday I talked about how strong core brand messages can resonate with an audience, and I featured the first of my 3 favorite and most (personally) impactful) brand messages from the Enterprise car rental company. Enterprise’s tagline “We’ll pick you up” is a functional promise to Enterprise customers with a witty double meaning…read my post yesterday (if you haven’t already) to get the scoop on Enterprise’s core brand messaging.
Today, I’m sharing another of my favorite core brand messages. This one is from eHarmony.
2. eHarmony – The one that gets you married (this key message was taken from the eHarmony website)
The eHarmony brand cleverly marries (pun intended 
two key principles:
1. The first principal mirrors our discussion in one of my former posts on Brand Essence from our MFX Partners site, which determines “What business are you REALLY in?”. eHarmony is in the marriage business, but what differentiates them from competition dating sites is that fact that they go as far as to promise customers that they will help them find true love.
2. The second key principle is having credible, convincing brand proof, and eHarmony can definitely back up their promise to get you married with compelling testimonials and their one-of-a-kind ‘Compatibility Matching System’ that includes 29 keys areas of compatibility. It’s this tangible process/system that builds solid trust in their brand.
Is eHarmony’s brand message love at first sight for you to?
Tomorrow I’ll feature my third of 3 favorite brand messages. But in the meantime, please share some brand messages that impact you the most.
~ Brenton Schmidt
Tags: brand essence, brand messages, branding tips, eharmony branding, top online brands, web 2.0, web marketing
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