95%. Perception. Unconscious.

Branding is how you shape people's perception about your organization. Perception is our interpretation of the world; humans need to rely on perception to be efficient. This is because we haven't evolved much from the 'fight or flight' lifestyle of our ancient ancestors.  

Here is a story of how powerful perceptions can be. In her book, Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage, Laura Huang mentions her own research on how doctors' implicit perception of patients' pain thresholds mattered so much that women (who are assumed to have higher pain thresholds) are less likely to survive emergency heart attacks when treated by male doctors. We are talking about a life or death outcome resulted by perceptions. This example underscores the real impact and importance of perceptions.

The good news for marketers is that we can use the power of perceptions to our advantage. Having a strong brand means your target audience perceives your brand the way you want them to. This leads to lower customer acquisition cost and increased customer lifetime value. These are the tangible benefits that a strong brand brings to the table that business stakeholders care about.

First 4 Steps to Strengthen Your Brand 

Here are the first four steps to take to create and strengthen your brand. These are relevant to all organizations, even those with a strong brand, as branding is not a 'one-and-done' exercise, but rather, an ongoing activity and investment.

Have a read the 4 steps below and download this Branding 4Q Template to get started. It has more details including the questions to ask and key things to consider.

#1 - Self awareness: know your core competencies. 

First thing's first. We need to know ourselves and our business. What do we do? What are our core strengths? When we aren't clear on who we are, we confuse people. Confused minds don't make decisions. Clear minds do.

#2 - Define your target audience and understand their problems.

What problems do our core competencies solve? And for whom? Knowledge of who we are (the first step mentioned above) is important, but without knowing how that interacts with the outer world (i.e. the market), you can go only so far. Understanding the intersection creates your super power. 

#3 - Identify the emotions your brand should evoke in your target audience.

Let's go back to how humans make decisions. We make decisions based on perceptions. According to David Eagleman, a neuroscientist and best-selling author, our unconscious mind is responsible for 95% of the decisions we make. By the time we think our conscious mind has made a decision, our unconscious mind made the decision 7 seconds prior. Apparently, that is a lifetime for our brain activity. Features and benefits help back up the decision that our subconscious has already made. The initial decision is heavily, mostly influenced by how your brand makes your target audience feel. So, what emotions do we want to evoke in our target audience? 

#4 - Create your brand purpose statement.

These three steps above will help you identify your organization's "why", the true reasons for its existence. Write that down. That is your brand purpose statement. In his New York Times best selling book, Start with Why, Simon Sinek emphasizes the importance of knowing your why. Why? Because people buy from your "why". Knowing your why also helps you build a sticky, emotional connection with your customers. According to HBR, customers who are fully connected to your brand are 52% more valuable on average than those who are just highly satisfied with your brand.

The 6PM (6-Pillar Marketing) Framework

Branding is one aspect of marketers' roles and responsibilities. How does it fit in with the rest? I'm an advocate of frameworks. The bigger your business and marketing objectives get, the more necessary it becomes to have a framework to make sense of all those priorities and responsibilities. I've created the 6PM (6-Pillar Marketing) Framework to do just that. Here is a 5-minute summary. Branding is the foundation of the 6PM Framework. Just like your house needs a solid foundation, your marketing needs its solid foundation - i.e. branding. Watch the summary video. You will see what I mean. 

If you'd like to explore more and start building your own 6PM Framework, join me at a 30-minute workshop where more suggestions and templates will be shared. The next workshop takes place on May 12th, 2021 at 11:30am EST.