FACT: Building A Brand Gives You The Advantage In Your Marketplace
When you think of businesses that are making huge impact, you’re really thinking of the brand. Any business that sells things can do well; but those that create feelings and emotions become imprinted in people’s minds, and opens up more visibility and sales than traditional means of growing your business.
For example, when you think of Starbucks, they sell coffee. They started out as a small, independently owned coffee joint in Seattle. The person that owned it was a solopreneur. He was running a business.
But the minute that Starbucks evolved into creating an experience of connection, community and collaboration – over coffee – not did they help us justify spending $5+ (on a product that costs them pennies to make), it made it a place for people to feel like they belonged, that they could be more creative, that they could meet up with like-minded people.
And even if you’re a small coffee shop owner (or want to start one up), you have the same opportunity, with a different angle. You can become the “anti-establishment”, the “micro-brew”, “the cave for creatives”…the key is to build the business while thinking of the feeling, the emotion – i.e. the brand – in mind.
Those that do this from the get-go carve a following of Brand Ambassadors that are loyal and loud.
You can do that by doing 3 things:
1) Create Experiences. In the case of the coffee shop start-up, if you want to attract an artsy crowd, have pop-up performances and contests geared towards artist-driven desires. People who are part of this feel like they’re co-creating the building of the brand.
2) Create Belonging. People love symbols and tropes to define their belonging to a community, and so when your brand makes that easy for them to do – not just by say, creating a t-shirt that has your brand name on it, but including a quote or unique saying that ties their tribe together, makes people want to show off they are part of something bigger.
3) Hi-touch, Customizable Communication. Learning personal details about your ideal customers allows you to engage them in a dialog using social media and newsletters/emails that are personalized for them.
While this is a process, brands that are consistent and persistent in their marketing create a higher frequency and are seen and heard by warm and cold audiences alike. If you’re interested in growing your Tribe and building your list, be sure to join me live for a FREE workshop to 10x Your Tribe. Let’s focus on getting a highly engaged, highly invested customer base for your brand.
Build your brand and your business, with all of
the fun and none of the fluff.
