If you're running a small business, there's no doubt that the last few years have been a rollercoaster of unpredictable changes. And that continues now as we've seen consistent inflation highs and a slowing economy. But your business is not merely pushed along by market forces outside your control, or at least it shouldn't be. Differentiating your business from competitors in a thoughtful way will set your company up for stable growth, even through more challenging times.
Stay Out of the Race to the Bottom
If you're like many people, you're used to receiving mailers from grocery stores listing low prices on their products. What are the grocery stores attempting to do? Differentiate their business. But by emphasizing price, they're locked in a race to the bottom with their competitors. Smart companies differentiate their business on unique value-adding attributes that allow them to charge enough to thrive and grow.
Differentiate Your Business the Right Way
You deserve to earn a reasonable profit for providing excellent goods and services. So, it's essential to pick the right difference-maker on which to build your brand. Answering the question, "Why is your business special?" for your potential customers is the way to ensure you can earn your necessary profit margins.
Zimmer Marketing's Approach to Branding
So, let's look at how we do branding at Zimmer Marketing. We use a single system for our branding campaigns: marketing expert Chuck Mefford's BrandsFormation. BrandsFormation is about finding what makes your business unique and regularly telling your potential customers about it. To achieve these marketing imperatives, BrandsFormation uses four steps. They are:
1. Strategy
During this step of BrandsFormation, you will take stock of your business. You'll need to identify competitors and determine the differentiating idea that truly makes your business unique. This is the foundation for each following step, so it's important to be thorough and get it right.
2. Strategy-Based Messaging
In this step, you will begin crafting your story. You want a message true to your company that will resonate with your audience. To understand this phase, think about bricks and mortar. The bricks are the individual ads in your campaign telling a specific story, and the mortar consists of thematic elements and things that don't change across platforms or ads.
3. Consistency
Consistency is all about using certain branding elements in each type of material you produce. In the case of radio ads, that can be things like music, your motto, or a specific voice you use for the spot. In other words, this is the mortar. It's the through-line connecting all your branding materials, and it's one of the most important parts of brand building. These will be some of the most memorable features of your branding campaign.
4. Dominant Frequency
Your brand's message should be delivered to your target audience with frequency. For a timeframe, you should be thinking six months to a year. BrandsFormation is all about commitment. Commitment creates long-term results and is essential to creating a strong brand that will command mental real estate for years to come.
Get Ready for BrandKamp this Fall!
Chuck Mefford is coming to Joplin on Tuesday, October 4th, to host a free BrandKamp! As a local business owner, you're invited to the Holiday Inn from 11:30 to 1:15 for a free lunch provided by Zimmer Marketing. But more importantly, Chuck will teach you how to effectively brand your small business and make it a household name in the Four States!
Reserve Your Seat Today!
