A Case of Mistaken Identity?

Have you ever seen a competitor’s print ad, brochure, or heard its salesperson pitch and wondered, “How can they say that, that’s my company’s line (image/positioning)”? When conversing with a prospect or someone in your social network, have you been asked “Aren’t you the people who [insert product or tag line]”? You respond “No, that’s our competitor. We……,” only to be the recipient of the follow-up slap “Oh, it’s hard to tell the difference, you seem so much alike.” After you recover your cool, do you just shrug it off and go back to business as usual? If you do, you’re missing a great opportunity to use this nugget to better differentiate your company.

While there have been a few cases of companies purposely using their branding to cause consumer confusion (or at least create uncertainty), cases of branding ‘mistaken identity’ are more often the result of companies operating in a default mode. With the shrinking global marketplace (and shrinking revenue pie), it’s up to you to build a powerful brand that is clear in its messages, intent and recognition by customers and prospects. It’s critical that your company’s brand, which includes its visual representation, messages, actions, needs to simultaneously accomplish two goals: convey what’s different about what your company can do for the customer, and communicate it consistently and clearly.

To protect its share of the market and grow, a company must be diligent about its brand and marketing strategies. It means that companies must actively engage in the systematic collection and analysis of data about its customers and prospects, competitors, and the socio-economic, political, and cultural environments in which it operates so that the brand remains relevant and valued.

What is your vote for companies with the best branding and why?

Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work

Brand Identity and Culture: Who Are You To The World?

If you ask most people what is a brand, they will point to a logo or tagline. But brand identity is far more than a visual or a phrase. A brand is shorthand for what your company represents in terms of its services / products (such as innovation, quality, variety, lower cost), the organization’s values (donates to nonprofits), how it conducts business (strict ethical codes, how it treats its employees), and how it treats its customers (friendly, rapid response, problem resolution). In other words, your brand identity reflects your company’s culture – attitudes, beliefs, behaviors – what people can expect to experience. When customers experience what they expect from your business, that’s what we mean by ‘delivering on the brand promise.”

What do you want your brand to convey about your business? Just as importantly, do you know what prospects, customers, colleagues, industry/trade organizations think about your brand (images, words, beliefs, feelings)? Companies with successful brands ask these questions again and again; then they act consistently to reinforce the brand identity they have created. What are you doing to communicate and reinforce your brand?

Brand identity is about the ‘total experience’. When your brand is evident in every aspect of your business and touch point – service/operations, physical facilities (if you have one), employee behaviors, transactions / purchasing, collateral, presentations and proposals, contract deliverables, telephone (etiquette and on-hold/closing messages), web content and interactivity, electronic communication (e-blasts, e-newsletter, e-mail) – you show that your actions have intent, and good intent at that (and by inference are not accidental). Your goal should be branding that seamlessly extends from within your organization to your prospects, customers, referral sources, and strategic partners. That’s how you build and maintain awareness, credibility and a reputation that others emulate; it’s how you set the foundation for long-term brand value.

Stephanie Leibowitz, Anthropologist At Work