Hi. I thought I’d add my penny’s worth on what I think makes a good brand. This is a little formula that I’ve developed myself – and would appreciate your thoughts on it. It’s not intended to be the last word as much as starting a conversation…

OK, quick caveat: this is by necessity for a broad audience, and a bit of a one-size-fits-all approach, and you will find that you want to tweak or emphasise some elements of it more than others. That’s fine – whatever works for you.

Before we get going I start with two assumptions:

First, that your product or service works well. That people like it because it solves a problem for them. If not, end this podcast here because you’ll waste your time and money building a brand if what you do doesn’t help people properly.

And second, that you have a clear understanding of who is the central core of people who will benefit most from your offering, and absolutely love what you do – your target market. Sure, your customer base will vary a lot, but there will always be core that makes up your biggest segment. The more you understand about who they are, and what they like and dislike, the easier it will be to build a really strong brand around them. If you don’t your brand will be in no-man’s brand – trying to appeal to everyone and ending up appealing to no-one.

So with those two assumptions laid down, I believe a good brand should be MR BRUCE. MR BRUCE stands for…
•memorable
•recognisable
•believable
•relevant
•unique
•clear
•emotionally appealing

So in a bit more detail:

Your brand must be memorable – for obvious reasons.

It should also recognisable – again obvious.

It must also be believable. Your claims must make sense to your core target. If you’re the leader in your field, you should be able to unequivocally justify this – in what way do you lead. And who follows you? If people agree that what you say sounds believable, they’ll be much more likely to agree when you ask them to buy!
Your claims must be also relevant. Being the most progressive is great, but only if your customers are motivated by progressiveness.

U stands for unique. Your look and offering must be unique – or if not at least distinctive as it’s pretty hard being completely unique these days.

Obviously your message must be clear – people rarely take the trouble to understand your message if it’s not immediately clear to them.

And finally it must be emotionally appealing. This is really important because (more or less depending on the type of product) we buy with our hearts, as much as with our heads. How a product makes us feel as much as how well it works.

Maybe the food is better quality, maybe it isn’t – but a lot of the appeal of shopping in Waitrose is how it makes you feel inside. Confident, well-off, comforted, special, warm, treated.

So that’s it – my straw man for what makes a good brand: MR BRUCE:
•memorable
•recognisable
•believable
•relevant
•unique or distinctive
•clear
•and emotionally appealing

 I’d love your views on this – whatever you think. Why not add them to the comments box above?

And of course I’d love to talk to you about your particular marketing challenges. Again go to www.the-marketing-business.co.uk

This podcast has been done in association with Wireworldmedia, www.wireworldmedia.com
Thanks for listening, I hope you’ve found it interesting.