For those of you that didn’t see the Guy Kawasaki’s post yet titled The art of branding, here is a summary of main rules of branding:
1. Seize the high ground. Establish your brand on positive attributes
2. Create one message. It’s hard enough to create and communicate one branding message. You can pick one message, see if it works, and then try another. But you can’t try several at once.
3. Speak English. Not necessarily, English, but speak in non-jargonese.
4. Apply the opposite test. See if your competition uses the antonyms of the adjectives that you use to describe your product. If it doesn’t, your description is useless.
5. Cascade the message. The marketing department of many companies assume that once they’re put out the press release or run the ad, the entire world understands the message. It’s unlikely that even the entire company does. Start with your board of directors and work down to Trixie and Biff at the front desk and make sure every employee understands the branding.
6. Focus on PR, not advertising. Brands are built on what people are saying about you, not what you’re saying about yourself. People say good things about you when (a) you have a great product and (b) you get people to spread the word about it.
7. Strive for humanness. Great brands achieve a high level of humaness. They speak to you as an individual, not as part of a market.
8. Flow with the go. As much as a I love marketing, at the end of the day, customers ultimately determine what your brand means. Ultimately, you flow with what’s going, and you be thankful that it’s flowing at all.
Guy Kawasaky is author of book The Art of the Start : The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything and video How to Drive Your Competition Crazy.
Read the full post: The Art of Branding