20 Steps To A Powerhouse Brand Part 1

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March 6, 2017

Weve been asked, with increasing

frequency, to provide a step-by-step guide to building a brand. Thats really an impossible task
because every business, every product, every service, is different. But for small businesses and
solopreneurs, what follows may afford some benefit. It may even be useful to those working on
their personal brands. We provide it with the caveat that, as my old professor used to say, The
map is not the territory. The reader will need to customize the process to more aptly fit his or
her own business realities. So start now. And when you finish the first task, begin immediately
on the next one. When you complete all twenty, youll have maximized your brand power, your
brand effectiveness and your brand value.

STEP ONE Identify your Market. Your market is made up of constituencies. A constituency is
any group whose perception of your brand is important to its future. Customers/clients are
obviously number one on the list. But employees are always a close second and, in some
instances, where happy employees create happy customer experiences, they even come first. But
there are many more constituencies specific to each brand: colleagues, mentors, financiers,
vendors, regulatory agencies, the press, etc. Ask others to help you identify all of them. Once
youve got them listed, thats your market.
STEP TWO Identify 2-3 representatives of each of your markets constituencies. Go and
interview them. Find out what they think about working with you. Find out how they feel after
you finish a project for them or complete a delivery. Youll have to take some measures to
ensure you get clean, objective answers. Make a note of any themes, common threads or similar
phrases, especially the ones that come from multiple constituencies. Any commonalities that
arise can be presumed to be truths about your business. Write down these insights and use them
to inform all your future deliberations.

STEP THREE Every viable business exists to satisfy a market need. What is your market
missing that you can provide? What pain points can you alleviate? Try to write this from your
clients point of view, as in: I need to feel: safe, secure, smart, free whatever. How would
your clients feel if this need was met? Would the rest of your market agree that this is the need?

STEP FOUR The purpose of your business is to meet the above market need. For now, stay in
your clients mind. How would they define the role you play in their lives? Why do they think
your brand should even exist? Write it down. The XYZ Company exists to: make me feel: safe,
secure, aware, sexy, in charge, connected, intelligent, etc. Note: This is not a mission statement.
Concentrate on how your clients want to feel after working with you and write it from their point
of view. Play with this until you get it just right. Would the rest of the market agree that this is
your purpose? But dont fall in love with your purpose statement just yet. It may change very
soon.

STEP FIVE Make a list of your top 3-5 direct competitors. Study them. How are their websites
set up? How is the information organized and presented? Can you figure out what keywords
theyre promoting? Research everything you can about their marketing efforts. Collect their
business cards, stationery, brochures, etc. How are they positioning themselves? What territory
is unoccupied? If there are giant, international players in your field, by all means, study their
communications to see if there is anything there that you can emulate. But the real targets here
are your direct competitors, the ones in your local market, whom you compete with every day.
Those are the ones from whom youll want to differentiate yourself. Document what your find.

STEP SIX Revisit your purpose statement. There are many categories of purpose statements
but only five have been associated with rapid growth*. They are:
 Eliciting Happiness
Enabling Connection
Encouraging Exploration
Evoking Pride
Improving Society
These are very general categories so, hopefully, your purpose can be reimagined to fit into one of
them. Try your best to make that happen. Is your business all about eliciting happiness? If not,
can it be seen as eliciting happiness? Tweak or re-write your purpose statement if you have to
but be sure stay authentic. Dont change who you are just to fit into one of these categories. You
can achieve plenty of success without having to match up with them. Continue writing from your
clients point of view. And make sure your whole market agrees that this is your true purpose.

STEP SEVEN You are now ready to write your mission statement. You can stop living in your clients
head and start writing with your own voice. The mission statement is your declaration of how you intend
to fulfill your purpose, which you identified in Step Six. If the purpose statement says you exist to make
your customers feel empowered, then the mission statement describes how you intend to make your
clients feel empowered. Dont fall in love with your first draft. Try it on for size and rewrite as necessary.

STEP EIGHT How do your values match up with those of your market? This is a delicate matter but all
organizations have values. In small businesses, the companys values tend to be a direct reflection of
owners personal values. But the success of the business is dictated by the values of its market. Sea World
eliminated their live orca performances because their market gradually came to disapprove of these
shows. As their markets values changed, Sea World had to change with them. Look at your markets
values and determine whether you are in alignment and can evolve with them over time. People, markets,
want to support businesses that match up with their own values.

STEP NINE Theres a famous story told of a piano manufacturer that couldnt describe the difference
between his piano and any other brand of piano. They all had the same parts, the same manufacturing
processes, the same level of craftsmanship, etc. Any differences in sound were purely subjective. After a
long and arduous, comparative study they found the only differentiator they could really point to was the
fact they used a heavier Capo dAstro bar. Thats an internal part that prevents warping over the life of the
piano. Because of this, they could show their piano was a superior, long-term investment. They changed
their messaging to emphasize the financial aspects of piano-buying and soon there was a six-year waiting
list to get one of their pianos. So what is your Capo dAstro bar? What is your one, unique differentiator?
It can be difficult to identify but it is key to your brand positioning. Its your true competitive advantage.
When you sleuth it out, write it down.

STEP BACK Lets take a moment to review where youre at. With the benefit of your constituent
interviews, your market survey and your internal deliberations, you have accumulated quite a knowledge
base:
1 You know your market and can define its constituencies.
2 You understand your markets need(s).
3 You know what you mean to your market, that is, you know your purpose. And, with luck, your
purpose is one that fits into one of the five, rapid-growth purpose categories.
4 You know what you have to do you know your mission.
5 Youre comfortable that your values match up with those of your market and that you can evolve with
your market over time.
6 Youve identified your Capo dAstro bar your true competitive advantage.

Think of your brand as the platform from which all your future marketing efforts are launched. The above
six points are planks in your brand platform. You need only one more plank one more step to complete
your brand strategy. You need to write your positioning statement.