Successful branding is accomplished when the business is able to effectively demonstrate the solution it desires to bring to their customer. Notice I said “demonstrate” and not “communicate”. The common business owner spends so much time trying to communicate their brand image through logos, color schemes, slogans or taglines, that they overlook the simple fact that their brand image is a desire within that needs to be demonstrated and not just shown on a piece of marketing collateral.
To illustrate what I mean, let’s look at the McDonald’s brand. I chose this company because most, if not all of you, are at least familiar with this brand.
McDonald’s is the top franchise fast food business in the world with over 18,000 locations worldwide. The reason they got there is because they have been able to successfully demonstrate to their customers consistent quality, speed of delivery and low cost through the creation of systems that have allowed them to replicate this worldwide. They may not have invented fast food but they certainly perfected it.
A Good Brand Must Have Trust
The systems they created to consistently make a Big Mac taste the same, day in and day out anywhere in the world, has created a trusted brand. So, whether you are traveling domestically or internationally, you can trust that when you enter the golden arches, you will get a taste of home.
This trust has built customer loyalty for decades.
So, how did they get there? It starts with the founding owners, Dick and Mac McDonald. No, it wasn’t Ronald McDonald.
Struggling through the Great Depression, the brothers acquired a $5,000 loan to purchase a hot dog stand in 1937. A few years after a moving from Arcadia, California to San Bernardino, California in 1940, they made a bold and strategic move to cut down the menu offerings and create an assembly line type process to prepare the food.
This enabled them to maintain quality consistency, speed up the orders and improve efficiency. As a result, they could cut costs and charge less for their burgers. That combination of speed, quality consistency and low cost created a distinct competitive advantage that allowed them to sell 21 franchises over the following six years.
Brand Built By Inner Desire
As you can see, the McDonald’s brand was not manufactured by some marketing creatives in a board room, but was built based on Dick and Mac’s desire to bring a consistently good product, faster, and at a lower cost to the customer. In other words, they wanted to do fast food better than anyone else.
So, what do you desire to bring to your customer that stands out above everyone else? Is it a product that makes life easier for people? A restaurant with the freshest ingredients? A retail store that provides superior customer service?
You Are The Brand
Branding your business starts with who you are and bringing out those inner desires to solve a problem for your customer…and demonstrating it better than anyone else.
If you maintain that inner drive to demonstrate the best product and service for your customer based on the problem you are trying to solve, your customers will love it, trust will be built and a successful brand will be built.
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