How do you build your brand? (Part Three)

This message will conclude my three-part summer series regarding branding.  I have enjoyed conversations with clients regarding this topic to not only help with the content of my messages, but also to learn valuable perspective on what is happening in the broader market.  While it is critical to create your own identity and brand presence, knowing what your competition is doing is of equal or greater importance to creating sustainable practices.  As a refresher, here are the three questions I have explored for the past several months:

1)  What do your current employees say?

2)  What does the market say?

3)  What does your competition say?

Today we will be focusing on the last one – what does your competition say about your brand?  I was intentional in leaving this topic for last as it is probably the last thing you worry about when creating your unique company branding strategy.  But I will argue it is something you should be possibly paying the MOST attention to going forward.  I believe there are three main reasons for this:

1)  Your competition in the market exploits not only your weaknesses, but also your strengths when talking to your clients and prospects.  The weaknesses are obvious as they would be trying to gain a natural competitive advantage if they feel they do something better than you do.  Or that you have historically done badly.  But think about this for a second – they are also talking about what you do well.  If they know part of your sales and marketing process or a service you provide is solid, they are going to try and do something similar.  What is the old saying – imitation is the greatest form of flattery?  If you can get your competition talking about YOU and not their OWN products and services, I would argue that you have already won.

2)   In the interview process it is critical to have a good reputation in the market.  If your competition has a healthy respect for what you do, that will translate into a positive vibe in the general market.  I recently had a candidate interview with two agencies.  The first one asked during an initial interview who else she was speaking with in the coming days.  When she mentioned the name of the second client, nothing but good was said about the agency and its reputation.  Keep in mind this is someone talking about their direct competition!  It left a very powerful impression on my candidate.

3)  Your competition is not only speaking to your clients and prospects (and trying to take them away from you), but they are also speaking with vendors, networking contacts, spouses, charitable organizations, and basically anyone within their spheres of influence.  I recognize that you won’t always be able to get your competition to say fair and enviable comments about your organization, but at least don’t provide them an opportunity to say something bad.

I hope this series has been thought-provoking for you as you continue to consider a formal branding strategy.  We have seen many clients in the past 8-12 months focus more and more on marketing strategy, advertising, social media, and general branding.  Many are even hiring outside firms or internal employees to focus on the message.  When used correctly, it can be a very powerful marketing tool to attract new clients, retain existing clients, recruit talented new employees, and keep the ones that you have very happy.