What is your commercial identity challenge?
It’s a new business – you simply don’t know what it can become.
The Brand Whisperer will help you to develop your USP, key offerings, and aspirations as a business into an identity suitable for your position in the market and who your ideal customer is.
The business has evolved away from the original founding idea and there are disconnects in how the team see the business, the customers and the original owner.
Finding the simple truth and threads of unity in this evolving business will define a new identity taking into consideration the legacy and future aspirations of the business in a way that makes sense to all stakeholders.
The business has grown into a strong living entity and needs a separate identity from its owners.
A growing business is the epitome of excitement and fear – converting the strong founding ideas into an identity that takes it’s cues from the founders and establishes a distinct identity that enables them to take on different roles within the company instead of leading with their personalities.
Customers aren’t clear and don’t connect with who, what and why your exist, and that is threatening your ongoing survival. Staff and even senior people in the business have trouble clearly explaining what you do, or have wildly different viewpoints. Marketing is challenging to say the least.
In a world where customers have never ending choice, you don’t want to present a confusing offer to them. Making it easy for a customer to understand what you can do for them is the key to surviving and thriving. Clearing away mixed messages, and finding what makes you unique, strong, relevant and distinct from competitors is the key to this challenge.
High competition means everyone is making the same claims, doing the same thing and there is no room for standing out and beating the competition.
Being authentically different can take many forms. Every business has the potential to identify itself in a unique way, regardless of the closeness of the competitive environment. Finding an approach that makes you stand out can relates to how you present yourself, the experience the customer has, or the specifics of what you can do for them. It can be in the smallest detail, or a great big loud difference – it all comes down to the unique business and the market it operates in. This can be particularly challenging for products or services that are very ‘samey’ – like exhibitions, conferences, and various services. Finding the compelling difference to choose you is the challenge.
The business has grown through acquisition of ideas, teams and businesses, and simply doesn’t have a single proposition and customer view and is trying to exist by giving voice to these multiple identities.
Finding a new single minded identity that takes the best of all these different aspects, leaves what is no longer helpful and creates a new meaningful identity for employees, customers, suppliers and owners can be quite a journey, but vital for the ongoing growth potential for the business against competitors who are better at maintaining a single view – the customer view.
Lack of consistency in marketing, sales and communication messages have created a lack of single-minded approach or ability to act as one business.
Having a strong simple core identity that is managed centrally avoids the creation of messages and offers in different connection points the business has. Typically this manifests as sales, finance, exec, marketing, customer service, all having something different to tell the customer and often being unaware of the disparity. The net effect is a confused and distrustful customer, and a meaningless and unhelpful commercial identity.
The business has succeeded because of offering what the market needs and simply hasn’t worried about marketing itself beyond word of mouth – it was enough to exist. Now times have changed.
What you had simply sold and now your customers are choosing alternatives thanks to the power of information available to give them unparalleled choice. Re-establishing yourself within the new way the world works can be painful, but successful if you have the history of supplying and changing to meet the needs of your customers. This kind of approach is about being clear about what you offer to the right customer in the right way, with sufficient frequency to get noticed again.
You are experimenting with a new product concept or project that simply isn’t hitting the right notes – a clear brand or identity isn’t emerging – it’s too samey and can’t command price, attention without a stronger proposition and identity to base marketing activity around.
Developing a wow factor and a compelling reason why for your ideal customer is critical to give your product the best possible chance.
What you say you deliver (in marketing/ sales) and actually do for customers are miles apart and customers and staff know it.
The business needs or wants to change and needs the right notes of its legacy as well as a fresh new approach and identity to give the right platform to grow and succeed.
This kind of approach is all about clearing away what isn’t working and finding the right identity that everyone can believe in and develop on an ongoing basis everyday. This will aim to win back the customers and be more authentic in a sustainable way.