Know-How Exchange : Branding

Hi Fiona,

Thanks for your clarification: brand is a difficult concept to make relevant in companies that are product- and technology-led, so you need to lead with clarity.

From your starting-point (defined market positioning, target brand perception articulated), you might find it helpful to map out the following hierarchy which moves from Attribute to Consequence to Value (in your clarifying note you mentioned "value" ahead of "benefit").

You need buy-in, so ideally you would do this *with* the top team (MD, FD, Sales, Service, Operations). I've done this several times and although the output looks simple and obvious, it's not a simple exercise - needs careful preparation and the patience of Job when leading the session.

Here's the hierarchy. Start at the bottom and work up ..

Personality Trait (Corresponds with values served)

Values (Key values served of the customer?)

Emotional Benefits (Key psychological needs satisfied for customer ?)

Rational Benefits (Key consequences experienced by customer?)

Key Attributes (of the each/all of the services offered by us?)

Services (offered by us)

(You may well have read Leslie Chernatony's books on brand. They're a pretty useful source. Sorry if the above is difficult to describe - have a graphic that you may like to have. Happy to send it to you if you care to get in touch)

The personality traits that you arrive at are useful in two ways.
1) They give you a profile of the person that would in principle be the face of your company
2) They give you an idea of the profile of your ideal target customer

So, this is all good and pretty. How do you make it relevant and actionable?

One practical way to do this might be to look at the stages of the customer's buying decision and, having defined what it is that your company needs to do in order to persuade the customer to make a decision in your favour (to move forward, still keeping your company and its services in mind) ask what or how the people in your company - whichever function or division they happen to be attached to to - need to say, do or behave in order to be consistent with the values implied or articulated by your brand promise.

Hope this helps as a start. Please feel free to get in touch if you think a direct conversation would be helpful.

Kind regards,
Michael