The power of your brand proposition

As inflation spikes and costs rise, customers are going to think twice before spending. So you need to give them a good reason why they should. This is the job of your brand proposition.

Your brand proposition is a statement of the benefit you deliver to your customers. It should give your customers a compelling reason to buy from you - and it should help you to stand out from competitors.

To do this, your brand proposition distills all the benefits you deliver to customers into a single, persuasive message. There is no rigid format for your brand proposition, or fixed formula . It’s not necessarily a set statement (although I find it really useful to have one). Your proposition is just a description of the benefit customers will experience when they buy from you.

Your brand proposition will need to work in lots of different situations and circumstances. It will need to be a single sentence. But you may also need to expand it to create an advert or an entire sales presentation. However you use it, you need a short, clear, simple statement that explains the benefit you deliver to your customers.

To understand what your brand proposition is, it’s useful to understand what it’s not.

Your brand proposition is not a USP (unique selling proposition). There is very little in business that is unique. Even most market leaders - Apple, Nike, Google, Amazon, Coca Cola, Tesco - don’t offer anything unique. There may be some aspect of their products or service that is different or better, but it’s probably not unique. Creating your brand proposition is about finding that thing you do really well, and making sure customers know about it.

Your brand proposition is not a strapline. A strapline can be a really useful tool, but it is not a brand proposition. However, it can be. Sometimes. But it doesn’t have to be the same thing. You can have a brand proposition and a strapline. They have different jobs. Your brand proposition is a description of the benefit you deliver to customers. Your strapline can be, amongst other things, a description of your business (to help potential customers understand what you do).

Your brand proposition is not a slogan, sales message or ad campaign tagline. But it can help to develop each of those things. Your brand proposition is a key element of your marketing and sales activity, but we will explore that in more detail later. Slogans, sales messages and taglines are (often) transient communication tools, created to meet a specific, short-term need. Your brand proposition, by contrast, should be built to last.

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How to increase your income

There are three ways your brand can make a positive impact on your income: by helping you to sell at a high volume, at a high value, or at a high margin. Which you choose, will be influenced by where you want to position your business in the market.

Read the full article here >

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Branding tip: If you’re finding it hard to stand out from competitors, look at the opportunities that exist for you to do that.

When it comes to differentiating your products or services from your competitors, there are five factors for you to consider: price, quality, availability, accessibility and choice. (In some businesses / sectors there may be others, but these five apply to all businesses.) In order to stand out, you need to consider which of these factors you can use to give you an advantage over your competitors.

When you know what factors differentiate you, you can develop a strategy for how to use them.

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Brand In The Boardroom

If you would like to know more about how your brand can drive your business success, you might be interested in Brand In The Boardroom. It explains how your brand connects the core functions of your business - operations, human resources, marketing, sales and finance - and why that's important.

You can find it on Amazon >

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