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In this episode we wrap up our discussion with branding expert Peter Wilken.
Wilken shares the five components of what he calls the “brand blueprint.” We also examine three reasons why brands fail.
Hopefully this episode can also help you tweak your personal or company brand.
Please go to UpSkillCommunity.com to review show notes and join a community of leaders devoted to UpSkilling.
We are excited to share this final episode on your brand, branding and brand strategy. In this post, we continue our conversation with Peter Wilken, sharing the five components of your brand blueprint. The difference between a tagline and brand positioning. Three reasons brands fail, and how to own a territory in your customer’s mind. We also discuss how to determine your promise and your benefit to others. That could be personal, or business, or both.
Michel Shah:
I am speaking with Peter Wilken, brand guru, the dolphin man. Peter, let’s begin where we ended the last episode. In the last episode you started this conversation about our brand DNA. You used the metaphor of a lighthouse. Our listeners found it very interesting and started asking questions about it. Can you share a bit more about the idea of the lighthouse and its relationship to branding before we jump in.
Peter Wilken:
The principles that I’m going to be sharing will hopefully be practical and valuable whether you are building a personal or business brand. Often with small- to medium-sized businesses the two are interlinked.
Peter Wilken:
: I use the metaphor of the lighthouse because it’s such a great metaphor for strong brands, and for strong brand DNAs. Lighthouses are purposeful structures that are built to last centuries in many instances. They’re built on foundations of solid rock and can withstand storms. They command a significant territory but they also cast a communicative, forward-reaching beacon out into the dark. They say “this is what we stand for, this is what we believe in. This is our message. If you believe in what we believe in come to us.” So it attracts the right type of what I call brightly-coloured moths to your table. It pierces through the mist and allows you to locate positions. Like brands, lighthouses are completely unique. Every beam or beacon is different for every lighthouse. They have a unique rotating pattern, flash or colour.
Michel
: That was crystal clear Peter. Thank you very much. I hope all of you got the clarity you were looking for after listening to the previous episode. Another question I was asked Peter, is what makes greats brand great? How would you answer that?
Peter Wilken:
: So great brands have relevant, compelling promises that they keep. They differentiate on emotional platforms, they own territories in the mind and they have ideas that really resonate with their core group. That makes them distinctive, they tend to be singular. They’re consistent. They define or redefine a category and then they own a category. They own a word, they own a key time or occasion. They have evocative attributes and icons. Strong personalities. But this is the key point I really want to make everyone realize: Own a territory in the mind. If you are an incredibly large, powerful brand, your territory you can own can be larger than if you’re a small, weak startup. And the rule applies even for the greatest brands with the biggest budgets in the world. Define the territory in the mind you want to own, then own it.
Michel
Peter, thank you for sharing that. Very well said. I need to ask our listeners: Can you share with us at UpSkill Community what territory in the mind we actually own. What do we own in your mind and as Peter has suggested, I hope you will go and ask your customers, your clients. Ask around, what territory in their mind do you own? Is it a word, is it an image. Is it a feeling? What is it that you own in their mind? So Peter, one of the things that came out of our discussions at UpSkill Community’s Thursday night sessions was a bit of confusion around the difference between a tagline and positioning. Can you help us understand the difference between a tagline and positioning?
Peter
Michel
Peter
Or they make irrelevant promises, or their promises become irrelevant over time. Or they’re inconsistent in their promises. So they deliver well at sometimes or in some places, but not across the board. And therefore, you know, they’re not, reinforcing their consistent values, and benefits to their stakeholders. You always have to be mindful of not overstating something or creating a promise that you under deliver against.
But again, my point on this is the difference between a tagline, which is passing, and ephemeral. And a positioning or a territory in the mind that you genuinely own. What about your brand? What name or what word do you own?
And it’s not to embarrass you because I would say a good 75% plus of the clients I would work with would struggle to say, “That’s the word we own.” Not what they’d like to own or what they think they own, but actually what their customers or stakeholders say you own. That’s the difference. And even going through the exercise of finding out what it is that you really do stand for. And being singular in that is learning in itself. But again, that’s not really for me to say, it’s for you to determine whether or not what you are saying is a tagline or a positioning in the mind. It is difficult to kind of grasp and there is sometimes overlap, but it’s unmistakable.
When you know unequivocally what people tell you, you stand for to them and it’s consistent and it’s compelling and it’s relevant, then you’ve got a really, really strong brand. So some brands are enormously important and significant to a group of people and completely irrelevant to others, and that is OK. Absolutely OK. One of the biggest mistakes brands make, especially startup brands and smaller brands, is trying to please everybody, and also, sometimes consciously trying not to alienate others. Well, you don’t have to aggressively, insult people. I’m not suggesting that in any way, but you can aggressively distance them because that can sometimes absolutely strengthen your affiliation with your desired group.
Michel Shah:8:22
So Peter, you have shared a lot of really great information about brands, branding and brand strategy with us over the last three episodes. So what I want to ask you now is for those of us who want to move forward and create something. You’ve suggested we can start with our brand blueprint. Can you tell us more about this brand blueprint.
Peter Wilken: 8:48
There are five key components to your blueprint, the heart of which is your promise, which is the overarching commitment you make to stakeholders that creates an expectation that you will fulfill.
The benefit forces you to get into your customers’ or stakeholders’ shoes and say, “What benefit do they derive from you successfully delivering against your promise.
The spirit is the way in which you deliver it, your culture. And more often than not, that’s what differentiates you from everybody else, particularly in a category where you are delivering things that other people do. Clothing and apparel will be differentiated by attitude. It’s not necessarily the quality of the cotton that you’re printing on. It’s the attitude of your slogans and your statement, and then look and feel, that make you stand apart.
Attributes and assets are things or icons that create an image of the whole that become intrinsic to your brand. They’re valuable and they’re recognizable.
The role, ultimately is the biggest thing and the hardest thing to articulate, which is actually why you exist, and the role that you play in stakeholders’ lives. If you’re a personal brand, it’s the role that you play to serve others. And if you’re a corporate brand, it’s exactly the same. It’s why you exist; ultimately to serve others or provide a service for others. It really, this is like building a house of brick. If you’re gonna build a house a brick, you need to do your homework. You really do need to understand what the current perceptions of your brand are with your stakeholders and with your desired prospects. Where your key challenges and opportunities are. What value you represent to them, how you might express that in different ways. How your cultural personality comes across. Does it resonate and compliment your overarching promise? What is your promise? Is it relevant? Is it credible? Is it compelling? Interesting people? And is it differentiating you from your competitors?
Michel Shah:
We hope that over the last three episodes we have given you enough information to understand what a brand is, what branding is and how to develop your own brand strategy. This information should get you started or move you further along with your own understanding of who you are as a brand or where your business stands. As a brand. Peter. To wrap it up, could you share with me your favourite quote that will help everyone understand what a brand is.
Peter:
There’s so many good quotes on brands, but this is probably the best one: “Ultimately a brand is the things others say about you when you’re not there.”
Michel Shah:
Thank you for listening to this episode of UpSkill Talks brought to you by McGraw Hill. We bring you new episodes every Monday. Please take a moment to subscribe, leave a five star rating and a written review wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Don’t forget to share UpSkill talks with other leaders like yourself. So they too may gain the skills and insights to produce amazing results. Please go to UpSkillCommunity.com to review show notes and learn how you can join a community of leaders from across the globe collaborating to lead in a more meaningful and impactful way. I’m your host, Michel Shah. And again, thank you for joining me on this episode of UpSkill Talks.
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