When you are first building your brand it seems obvious to make it all about yourself, your business and its products and services. Don’t do it! Rather make it about your audience and care about what they care about! The better you communicate the impact you make on your audience and the benefits you are offering them, the more memorable your brand will become. Your confidence in your brand will be in giving it the right focus.
The biggest mistake brands make is focussing on the nuances of their craft and forgetting that it’s all about communication. The true craft of building a brand is not about how it looks but how well it communicates. How do you give your clients confidence to buy from you?
The more time you take to engage people and make an impact by answering people’s questions, the more you’ll gain traction. The greatest brands know their audience so well that they already know the types of questions their audience would ask ahead of time. Too often, brands focus on their method and not their message. They don’t realise that the right message creates momentum.
If a brand focuses on making an impact first then income will follow as trust has been built and demonstrated. Brands that focus on income first often deal in fear and scarcity. They create a fear of missing out and scarcity in that ‘there are only so many spaces/opportunities left’ to get you to act. The truth of the matter is that nobody should be motivated by fear. I prefer faith and creating something of impact. Instead of selling through scarcity, it is possible to double down on making a significant impact on customers that leaves them richer for having met you.
Fear and scarcity marketing is rife but it won’t result in a long term relationship with the customer, especially if it isn’t strictly true that ‘spaces are limited’. The honest truth of the matter is that there are plenty of ‘spaces’. Lying doesn’t make for great relationships. The fear and scarcity model encourages withholding, whereas everyone benefits when you choose to make an impact. Winning brands know that if one person steps out with a compassionate motive for action there will be a chain reaction.
Forget fear and scarcity, major on impact and legacy. Rather than being so concerned about cutting deals, think about how you make people feel. Making your clients feel good is better than scaring them into action. That’s why effective brand building tells a story of hope. It relates how once you were heading towards a detrimental situation and were then woken up to a better way.
This blog is a wake up call to the fact that brands out there that you could be competing with are leading with fear. Why not be the breath of fresh air, leading with the story of how you overcame and the impact that you make, overcoming challenges and hardships. The more your brand talks this way, the more impact you will have. You will create favour, coming from the empathy that you show and the value you add. Your values will make your audience feel valuable.
Retro style brands are a case in point. The reason why there is power in a retro brand approach is that it takes us back to our childhood when life was easier- those hours of play had an impact on us. Seeing retro imagery and hearing related messages conjures up all those good feelings. The brands we interact with should too. ‘Gen X’ TV shows like The Last Dance saw record numbers of Air Force One trainers sold. Cobra Kai brought the Karate Kid to a new generation as parents told their children about the Karate Kid with enthusiasm. Cobra Kai T shirts flooded the market.
So, how does your brand stay long in the memory of the people you serve? You create impact by making them feel good. Brands that make an impact create legacy by making people feel good and then they live longer in the memory. These brands become something that you trust and buy into. If you want to know more about the secrets of building a brand with impact then get into conversation with our team at Cre8ion.