WHY NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR BRAND

There’s nothing more annoying to me than when a marketing “guru” quotes someone like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates on their definition of a “brand”.

Something like “A brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room”.

I’ve got news for you, no one is talking about your brand. It doesn’t matter how big you are, how big your boardroom is or how much money you make. People aren’t talking about your brand.

So, the simple reality is you’re not as famous as you think you are.

Many big businesses (anyone with over 250 employees) seem to have a massively inflated ego when it comes to their brand. First, they think that everyone knows who they are.

These larger companies also believe that people are sitting at home talking about their business and products in their spare time. People who use their microwave every day, don’t talk about that microwave brand right? So, you’re not as famous as you think you are.

The arrogance to believe that a family or a group of people are sitting around talking about your brand is absurd. Everyone is unconcerned about you and your brand unless you can help them with a very specific problem or pain point.

Do people have favorite brands? Of course, and yes in some situations they’ll talk about them non-stop. The point isn’t about if you have found an army of enthusiastic fans who raves about you. The point here is even the people who use large brands like Samsung, Apple, Coca-Cola and Google aren’t talking about how great they are or how bad they are to their family and friends. They are talking about important things that matter to them.

The reason it’s annoying to me that large businesses don’t understand the concept of a brand is because 99% of smaller businesses are (for whatever reason) inspired by them and try to follow their lead.

As small businesses, we believe that big businesses know what they’re doing. We think that we can’t compete with bigger companies, because indisputably, they must have teams of people that know what they’re doing?

What I’m saying, is that if you want to compete with the big guys, you know how to do that already. You don’t need to spend millions on advertising, and you certainly don’t need huge press conferences and global events.

What you need is to deliver on your customers’ expectations again and again. It’s that simple. Just do good work, be a reliable supplier and deliver on their expectations again and again.

The saying “You have to OVER DELIVER on expectations” is your typical corporate marketing “BS” to me. Over-delivering on expectations is an exaggerated proposal. I can assure you after 20 years in business that the strongest relationships you can build with any current customer, or any new potential customer will be one built on loyalty and consistency and trust.

The reality is that most businesses can’t over-deliver time after time. To be more specific 99% can’t. Most businesses love to talk about “exceeding customer expectations”. If you ask these same 99% who are “exceeding customer expectations” a couple business 101 questions such as what their Customer Avatar looks like, or what their niche market is, they simply can’t tell you………. So how in the hell can you sell your product or service to anyone without even knowing that fundamental knowledge. The simple answer is you can’t and that is why you are failing.

This approach is like your very first date when you are 13 years old. It’s very easy to be romantic with flowers and charm when you start dating someone, but a committed relationship is being dependable when someone needs you after 10 years.

Don’t try to build a brand using some “follow the follower” so called marketing expert whose team (if they have one in the basement) of wonky branding specialists comes up with. It takes years of experience to understand the key elements that must be implemented.

Stop wasting your time on trivial things like your logo, your font, your image and more importantly all the get quick rich garbage that consumes us daily. None of that matters if you want results.

A brand isn’t built on what others say about me or you. It’s about what you want to be known for.

If you want to be known for anything, it better be for your loyalty, consistency, and trust because this is what a brand is built on and Brand matters and that’s it.