By the way, if I can get somebody on their soap box, I’ve done my job! ;-)

@Ben – Thanks for the RT love!

By the way, if I can get somebody on their soap box, I’ve done my job! ;-)

@Ben – Thanks for the RT love!

It’s always interesting to me how certain people use their favorite brand to brand themselves.

You see this a lot with college football. You go to some folks houses and they’ve given over the decor to “Michigan blue” or “Roll Tide red”… creepy cult level loyalty.

That’s how powerful it is to recall a comfortable zone, though. Like the 40 yr-old dude who still has the same mini-mullet he sported in high school, some people just cling on to their happiest memories for dear life.

Interesting stuff.

And you’re right on about injecting a blog with some of that. The blogs that become my go-tos are the ones that transport me somewhere I’d rather to be.

Good read.

Kevin

But like it or not, EVERY time you communicate with your customers, they’re developing a set of unique expectations for the benefits you deliver. And over time, when you consistently deliver a set of unique benefits, they tend to merge into a shorthand “image” or “persona” associated with your offerings.

So to me, the only question about branding is not whether it’s “smart or stupid”, but whether you’re going to take active and aggressive control over the brand image you develop in the market place, or whether you’ll leave it to happenstance and consumer whim.

Seems to me the only stupid thing about branding is ignoring it.

Notwithstanding the above, I WILL say many neophytes ignore the critical components of direct response (e.g. a measurable and repeatable call to action) in favor of brand image… and the entrepreneur really doesn’t have the resources to make this work.

It’s fine for Starbucks to advertise brand alone because people pass them every day on the street, and they’ve got enough money to say things LOUD and get their message through even if they waste a good part of their advertising dollar.

However, Joe Entrepreneur on a $5,000 advertising budget this year can’t afford to waste a penny, so he really needs to rely on direct response.

But that doesn’t mean ignoring brand image.

On the contrary, he’d better attend to both branding AND a measurable, repeatable response.

(See, you got me going on my soap box … that’ll teach you!)

My wife has a really cool white paper on common misconceptions of branding and emotional advertising at http://www.PositionYourBrand.com (feel free to delete this paragraph if it’s inappropriate to mention here, … I’ll take no offense)

Keep’m coming,

Dr. G :-)

But like it or not, EVERY time you communicate with your customers, they’re developing a set of unique expectations for the benefits you deliver. And over time, when you consistently deliver a set of unique benefits, they tend to merge into a shorthand “image” or “persona” associated with your offerings.

So to me, the only question about branding is not whether it’s “smart or stupid”, but whether you’re going to take active and aggressive control over the brand image you develop in the market place, or whether you’ll leave it to happenstance and consumer whim.

Seems to me the only stupid thing about branding is ignoring it.

Notwithstanding the above, I WILL say many neophytes ignore the critical components of direct response (e.g. a measurable and repeatable call to action) in favor of brand image… and the entrepreneur really doesn’t have the resources to make this work.

It’s fine for Starbucks to advertise brand alone because people pass them every day on the street, and they’ve got enough money to say things LOUD and get their message through even if they waste a good part of their advertising dollar.

However, Joe Entrepreneur on a $5,000 advertising budget this year can’t afford to waste a penny, so he really needs to rely on direct response.

But that doesn’t mean ignoring brand image.

On the contrary, he’d better attend to both branding AND a measurable, repeatable response.

(See, you got me going on my soap box … that’ll teach you!)

My wife has a really cool white paper on common misconceptions of branding and emotional advertising at http://www.PositionYourBrand.com (feel free to delete this paragraph if it’s inappropriate to mention here, … I’ll take no offense)

Keep’m coming,

Dr. G :-)

@Kevin – Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it. Funny that you mention mullets. I used to have a neighbor I called “mullet-man.” He was still living like it was 1985.

I have a theory about that…

People tend to dress like they did during the happiest period of their life. It’s almost like their happiest years are branded by the clothes they were wearing, music they were listening to, and cars they were driving. :-)

@Kevin – Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it. Funny that you mention mullets. I used to have a neighbor I called “mullet-man.” He was still living like it was 1985.

I have a theory about that…

People tend to dress like they did during the happiest period of their life. It’s almost like their happiest years are branded by the clothes they were wearing, music they were listening to, and cars they were driving. :-)

It’s always interesting to me how certain people use their favorite brand to brand themselves.

You see this a lot with college football. You go to some folks houses and they’ve given over the decor to “Michigan blue” or “Roll Tide red”… creepy cult level loyalty.

That’s how powerful it is to recall a comfortable zone, though. Like the 40 yr-old dude who still has the same mini-mullet he sported in high school, some people just cling on to their happiest memories for dear life.

Interesting stuff.

And you’re right on about injecting a blog with some of that. The blogs that become my go-tos are the ones that transport me somewhere I’d rather to be.

Good read.

Kevin