The Golden Rule of Branding

Hmm. A bit of irony as I choose “branding” as the topic of my inaugural post. As a former marketing communications guy and designer, there’s a part of me that loves this stuff, but the utterance of the term itself, even as I type this, is kicking up the stomach acid production and the involuntary eye rolling.

Why? What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the term branding spoken above a whisper in a herd of marketing folks? Logos, design, lame excuses for ineffective advertising, 20 lb. stock paper samples ideal for business cards?

That’s what I thought. And that’s a sad state of affairs.

Branding is the culmination of every interaction of your company, Web site or product has with a potential customer. So – what’s the the golden rule of branding? When you get the chance to get in front of a prospect make it count – every time.

Branding is not a logo. It’s not an ad. it is not letterhead, business cards or a bowl game sponsorship. That would be too easy. It may save you millions in your advertising budget, but cost you dearly in other areas of the business you may not expect.

How does this translate to the every day? Exceptional branding is exceeding customer expectation, every time. Consistently. Pick up the phone on the second ring instead of letting it kick into the queue, make sure the site has servers in Singapore, so Web visitors from Japan get the same page load times as Web site visitors from Jersey.

Take the time to work out the details so your prospects see the same “you” every time – down to your accepted faults. There, in lies the brand.

No logos, trade show booths, pens or banner ads. Just you, every time. In most cases it takes years, if you’re lucky, months. But, in every case it takes systematic and deliberate action by real people, again and again to make it stick.