The Heavy Chef’s 5 Point Guide to Branding: Point 3
by Fred Roed on 11/09/09 at 4:46 pm
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This is a follow on from Heavy Chef Guide to Branding Point 1 and Point 2 in a series on branding that stemmed from the Heavy Chef Digital Marketing Course. The points are not directed at online branding, but at brand building as a whole.
Point 3: Understand the two most important rules in branding
Ok, so now we know what branding actually means, and we’ve defined the message, it’s time to start executing the strategy. There are two golden rules to doing this right. It’s pretty simple to remember, although often hard to implement:
1. Be consistent
2. Be pervasive
Be Consistent
Imagine your brand as a person. Are you going to hang around someone who’s inconsistent? Would you be friends with someone who tells you one story one day and another the next? Consistency breeds trust, which is what’s required at the point of purchase. Without brand consistency, you will not generate sales. Your message needs to be the same on all levels, from above the line advertising, promotions, public relations, networking, all the way through to your internal workings, such as the way your receptionist answers the phone.
- Is your message being conveyed consistently?
- Think about your logo – does it appear the same on all media, across all channels?
- Is your strapline the same on every piece of communication?
- Are your products being delivered to your customers by tatty looking delivery people? Does your shopfront present a different proposition to your newspaper adverts?
- Are your newsletters carrying the same look n’ feel to your website?
- Do your sales people understand your brand message, and convey it consistently to your technicians?
These are all important questions. Bear in mind that trust is broken with one broken link in the chain; and it can be pretty pricey to rectify.
Be Pervasive
By pervasive, we mean “be where your customers are”. It’s a common trap to throw out your brand message in scattergun fashion, without really thinking about whether you’re connecting with your customers.
Think hard about where you will find the people who will buy your product, and be there.
- Is your website sitting in cyberspace without relevant visitors, or are you optimising it for relevant search queries?
- Are you targeting your keywords in your online advertising?
- Are you attending the right networking events each month?
- Are you advertising in mass circulation publications and not receiving value in return?
- Is your newsletter database bought off-the-shelf, or accumulated from targeted customers?
- Are you generating publicity in magazines and newspapers that are not relevant to your brand, or are you getting coverage from journalists who are conduits to your customers?
The above questions are intended to get you thinking about this process, but don’t be fooled. Although these two rules appear simple, they can take years to implement correctly and require buy-in from every level of your organisation.
Watch out for Point 4 coming soon.
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. Fred is the CEO of web marketing company World Wide Creative and the co-founder of online learning portal Heavy Chef. Fred loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. Follow Fred on Twitter here. View more articles by Fred Roed.
Tags: advertising, Brand, Business/Finance, Communication design, Graphic design, Heavy Chef, Marketing, online advertising, online branding, public relations, Technology/Internet
