Building a Successful Brand Tina Soika President American Hearing Aid Associates Branding Exercise 1 What do you want your customers and prospective customers to know about you? Write that list on a piece of paper. What Do We Mean by the Term Brand? A name, sign or symbol used to identify items or services of the seller(s) and to differentiate them from goods of competitors." A brand is a promise. By identifying and authenticating a product or service it delivers a pledge of satisfaction and quality. "A set of assets (or liabilities) linked to a brand's name and symbol that adds to (or subtracts from) the value provided by a product or service "A brand is the most valuable real-estate in the world, a corner of the consumer's mind." A brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer." 1
How Are You Currently Branding Your Practice? A brand is a promise What is the promise that you are making? "A set of assets (or liabilities) linked to a brand's name and symbol that adds to (or subtracts from) the value provided by a product or service What are your assets? Any liabilities? "A brand is the most valuable real-estate in the world, a corner of the consumer's mind." A brand is a collection of perceptions in the mind of the consumer. What corner of the consumer s mind do you occupy and what are his/her perceptions of you? How do you Brand your practice? Branding is not some mysterious Black box. It s not rocket science. It s not a bunch of theories. Branding should be an intuitive and relatively easy process. Let s Look At Some Ads 2
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How Do We Brand? It s not a bunch of words. It s not a bunch ideas. It s not even a couple of ideas. It s definitely not a clever marketing gimmick. i How Do We Brand? Branding is about distilling what you are (what your practice is) down to its essence, and making a commitment to that essence both in your advertising and in action. It s about abandoning a long safe list of features.. And relentlessly focusing on one clear compelling message. How Do We Get From Here To Here 6
Why Brand? People are tuning out. The average consumer is exposed to a barrage of marketing messages every day. People don t rely on traditional marketing and advertising for information and direction any more. 70% of consumers believe that businesses are untrustworthy. Why Brand? Poll Conducted by market researchers in 2004. Five top things people feel need to have more government regulation: Air Pollution ouo Water Pollution Toxic Waste Nuclear Material Advertising Why Brand? We can t be all things to all people. Features don t sell. Branding differentiates you from your competitors. People remember what they feel, not a list of features. 7
Why Brand? The consumer has gone from being a passive consumer to becoming an active resister to those 5,000 marketing messages. Do Not Call Lists Spam Blockers Caller ID Pop-Up Blockers TIVO Some Other Thoughts Questions Who is your target audience? Is it the 70 year old male? Is it that active senior? Is it the baby b boomer? Our Market is Splintering That 70 year old white male living with his wife making $75,000 annually that was our traditional marketing target is now more likely to be: Single Female Living in a non-traditional family Hispanic, Asian or African-American 8
Let s Go Beyond Talking About The Market Maslow s Hierarchy has been met. Reliability, comfort, convenience and performance are passé. People don t need more stuff, they re looking for purpose and meaning. Simply Put, People Want You To Make Them Better Happier Healthier Smarter Richer Safer More Secure More Successful How Do You Brand Your Practice? Four Elements To A Good Brand: Your name A tag line A compelling verbal message: Word(s) A compelling visual message: Picture(s) 9
Let s Just Do It What s in a name? Ideally it should be: Easy to pronounce Easy to remember Appealing to the ear Linked to that compelling message Your Tag Line Do Has To Do Only Three Things Evoke an emotion Be memorable Be about the customer Tag Lines Driven to Succeed A Passion for Excellence Doing What We Do Best We Mean Business 10
Memorable Tag Lines You re in good hands When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight Fly the friendly skies Gets the red out We bring good things to life Weekends were made for How Is Your Tag Line? Would you change it? If so, how? The Compelling Verbal Message Must be: Compelling Memorable Important to your customer Tangible Tangible Credible 11
Compelling Message Exercise Now, what do you want your customers and prospective customers to know about you? Pull out that original list. Let s go to work on it. Compelling Memorable Important to your customer Tangible Credible Compelling Message Exercise 3 Now, what do you want your customers and prospective customers to know about you? Pull out that original list. Let s work on it some more. Distill it down even further. Can you get it down to one compelling message??? Test Your Compelling Message(s) Ask your employees Ask your customers Ask some people e who didn t d buy 12
Some Questions to Ask Your Employees What do our customers want most? What is our specialty? What are we best at? What words do our customers use to describe us? Why do we win head-to-head against the competition? When we lose, why do we lose? Questions for Your Customers What is most important to you in choosing a hearing health care provider? How would you rate our organization against our competitor? Why? Which of your needs have we most successfully met? Which ones have we not completely met? Conclusions There are no guarantees. No one really knows what will work until they try it. Don t be afraid to step away from the pack. 13