Friday, April 10, 2009
Unbranding?
In Mavericks at Work Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craigslist, revels in what he calls the "unbranding" of the site. At first glance, CraigsList.org doesn't have the trappings of a hot brand. No logo, no real web design, no color scheme. But a brand is much more than a logo and pretty design elements.
I completely disagree with Buckmaster's assessment that CL doesn't have a brand. Their brand is huge, and the "unbrandedness" of it is a big part of what makes it so.
In it's more basic essence, a brand is the story your customers hear and the way they feel every time they interact in any way with your company. It includes the obvious visual elements - colors, logos, typography, packaging - as well as some not-so-obvious elements. For instance, the tone and choice of words in a headline is branding. The personality of your wait staff is branding, as well as is everything on your menu. Your product is your brand, and so is the customer service section of your website.
CraigsList has a brand because everyone knows and buys in to what the site is about. Seth Godin would say that they have a tribe.
Even if you haven't gone through a formal branding process for your company, you have a brand. There's a general understanding that your customers and vendors have about you. If you just leave it at that, you won't really capitalize on it's power. Here are 4 steps to making your brand a powerful tool.
- Define your brand. Sit down with customers, vendors and employees and ask "What are we all about". Dig deep to find the common, underlying themes. Do a SWOT (Strength, Opportunities, Weaknesses, Threats) analysis. The key here is complete honesty. There's no room here for Dilbert-esque mission statements.
- Define your audience. Go beyond simple demographics (i.e. males 30 - 50) and seek to truly understand who you want to talk to and who wants to listen.
- Take all the data from the above exercises and find 3-5 (ish) bullet point statements that can become the core of your brand message.
- Include the above brand message points in every interaction with customers, vendors and employees. Every sign, sales letter and website should focus on those points. Write an elevator speech including them. Take one and make it a focal point for advertising.
Keep this tool sharp by focusing on it as a regular part of your business practices.
