A Winning

Experience

Creating Wow at Every Touchpoint, Every

Time

Branson on Branding

Brand

Audiences

How do you feel?

“The idea that business is strictly a numbers

affair has always struck me as preposterous.

For one thing, I’ve never been particularly

good at numbers, but I think I’ve done a

reasonable job with feelings. And I’m

convinced that it is feelings — and feelings

alone — that account for the success of the

Virgin brand in all of its myriad forms.”

A

B

CD

E

1. Are You Afraid?

2. Are You Energized?

3. Is List Building Easy?

4. Are You Getting Attention?

5. Are You Charging More?

6. Do You Set or Impact the Buying Process?

7. Do You Incur a Cost of Sale, or Does Your Client Incur the Cost to Buy?

8. Are You Getting Smarter Quickly?

Testing Your Positioning

USP

UBP

Vision & Mission Statements

Positioning or brand statements

Communications & marketing plans

Current communications materials & vehicles

Traditional & Non-traditional

What else?

Touchpoints

Much more than an ad campaign, web

site or tagline could ever be, the brand

story is the core truth of who you are,

agreed to by all inside, and used to

open conversations with those outside

who need your services.

What’s your story?

Your brand is a story.

Live it inside.

Tell it well outside.

And people will pull up their chairs for a listen.

Who are you?

Why are you here?

How are you unique?

Who cares?

Why do I care?

What’ll keep me engaged?

Fire up the custodian as well as the superstar.

Telling Your Story

Develop the story…tell the impact you want to achieve.

“This is what we want to change…the difference I want to make…and here’s how we’re going to

do it.”

Tell it to real people.

Personal relationships, engaging…two versions.

Make sure you can live it.

Strengths, USPs, UBPs, Position.

Telling Your Story

Who are we? (2-page short story with a scintillating plot line)

Then, boil it down…25 words…10…5…or just a verb).

THREE WAYS in which we are unique to our “clients.”

DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE.

State the ONE great & dramatic thing that distinguishes us from the others. 25 words or less.

Who are “They?” Explain competitors (25 words). List 3 distinct “us vs. them” differences.

Try it on the team. Fight it out.

Try it on a target. Friendly & skeptical

Try it on everyone else. (A starter cross section).

Telling Your Story – Exercise

Fluid Brand

Brand

Audiences

How do you feel?

It’s outside the old traditional thinking of

consistency in building a brand.

Instead…

It drives for consistency of response

with a wide variety of audiences.

A

B

CD

E

Design the Experience

Involve all departments

Chart the touchpoints

Avoid Kmart

Pursue Disney, Starbucks, SuperBowl

Think like John Deere

It’s All in the Packaging

Sight

Hearing

Touching

Smelling

Tasting

Start asking a few questions around

your organization.

And then listen.

You’ll identify potential trouble spots…

and opportunities.

Are you aligned?

Getting buy-in

1.] What’s the challenge? (The assignment)

2.] Whose perceptions matter? (Target audience)

3.] What’s going on? (Research)

4.] What do people think? (Current perceptions)

5.] What are you really? (Facts)

6.] What should people think?(Desired perceptions)

7.] What will you tell them? (Value propositions)

8.] How will you speak? (Tone, brand, delivery)

9.] What’s the rally cry? (The one thing)

10.] How does it look to the world? (Creative direction)

11.] How’d it do?

(Measurement of success)

The 11 Questions

You can find more here:

Leader of the Brand: http://blog.imaginasium.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/pathop (@PatHop)

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