Social media has delivered a wonderful wake-up call for companies stuck in the past. You can’t hide your deficiencies or bad behavior behind a slick ad campaign. You may get a boost in brand awareness, but you won’t build brand equity or value until you deliver on the expectations for your brand. Why? Because millions of people are getting in on the brand conversation through Twitter, Facebook, and a myriad of online forums. Advertisers and mass media no longer control brand communication in a one-way stream.

Brand is a marriage between the rational (your competitive positioning in the market) and the irrational (the emotional response to you). Building a unique position forms the foundation for a sustainable brand. You need to target a key customer segment that has a problem that your product can solve better than any other. This is your positioning strategy.

Then you need to develop an emotional connection with your target customers. This is best done by consistently delivering a great brand experience—for instance, your product works, your service is friendly and responsive, your website is fun to navigate and maybe you have a personable and helpful social media presence. The stuff that most people think branding is about generally falls into the category of building the emotional connection. You know, like a logo, brand messages, brand symbols and images.

In the Branding Pyramid graphic above, the hierarchy in building a sustainable brand starts at the bottom of the pyramid. Here are the key steps:

1) Positioning and Brand Strategy. You’ve got to know where you are headed to achieve your goals. Without a good strategy, your ship will be rudderless and it will take you a lot longer to achieve success, if ever.

2) Whole Product. Well before you think about advertising, make sure you have developed a differentiated product that 1) works and that 2) customers want. Then, make sure you take responsibility for the “Whole Product”—that is, all the elements and partner added-value that the customer needs to receive full value from your offering.
3) Positioning Leadership. For a brand to be sustainable, you need to establish credibility in the market—though sales momentum and through the third-party endorsement of people who’s opinions carry weight (the market influencers).
4) Brand Experience. The brand experience that you deliver is your opportunity to wow customers and to have them keep coming back. How consistent are you in terms of brand behavior, visuals, and the tone and voice of your communications?
5) Brand Value. If you have done all these things, then you have probably won the loyalty and good will of your customers. You have a sustainable brand. With proper care and feeding your brand should live a long and rewarding life.

How close are you to achieving a sustainable brand? Find out by taking the interactive Brand Pyramid quiz on my website home page. I developed it somewhat tongue in cheek, but I think you’ll find it a valuable diagnostic tool. Let me know how you fare!

We are in a global recession of huge magnitude.  Businesses need to adapt their businesses in order to compete.  I am no exception.  Few companies have endless time and money to spend on positioning and brand strategies.  For smaller companies that need help but don’t have the budget, I’ve developed a new service offering for start-ups called The MINI.  It delivers rapid positioning and messages in a fast, bite-sized module. 

With high unemployment and job worries growing, there’s been a tremendous interest in personal branding to boost one’s career.  To answer that demand, I’ve developed a series of personal branding seminars that have gotten rave reviews from the likes of the National Retail Federation, Sun, Asian Business League and SD Forum.  Large companies are now asking me to do seminars for their managers and employees to help them position themselves inside and outside their companies.  It’s a win-win since personal branding helps employees get ahead in their careers, and companies enjoy the benefits of their employees gaining a stronger industry reputation.

As you can see, with tectonic shifts in the business environment, there is huge opportunity.  This example of how I’m leveraging change in my business is something every business can and must do.

Let me know how your business has taken advantage of the down economy to innovate and adapt.