A Brand

Wise words from Drew:

How do you evaluate your brand?

Posted: 16 Feb 2010 04:38 AM PST

At McLellan Marketing Group, we live and breathe branding. We believe that branding is the cornerstone to a small business' success or lack thereof. You either brand yourself or you become a commodity. And a commodity has to compete on price.

If you want my views on why branding matters...check out these posts:

• Are you brave enough to walk away from business?
• Be bold or go home!
• Best practice: branding
• Mark Twain...the branding expert

But let's assume you agree with me -- branding matters. If you think your company has a brand...how do you evaluate whether or not it's a good one?

Here are some criteria we use with clients when helping them either discover their brand or critique the one they have in place.

• It's evergreen (this is not something you'll need to change on a regular basis. It will always be true about you.)
• It's not a duh (if consumers already assume this about everyone in your category -- it can't be your brand.)
• Memorable (If it doesn't stick, it won't work.)
• The flag to rally around for your employees (Will they be excited and proud to help you achieve this brand?)
• True - inside and out (You can't be one company to your customers and another to your employees)
• A why or a how - not the what (how you create widgets differently or why you do it builds a brand..not that you make widgets. Everyone in your category makes widgets.)
• Makes you a little nervous (A brand needs to be a bold promise to get noticed and to matter.)
• Emotion based (We buy everything based on emotions. If your brand doesn't trigger an emotion, it will also not trigger a sale.)
• Differentiate you (Isn't that what a brand is all about. It sets you apart from everyone else.)
• Should dovetail with your mission/vision (Your internal goals and your public brand should be aligned or else one of them is off base.)
• From the consumer's point of view (it's about them after all!)
• I can tell -- it matters to me (the consumer has to be able to recognize and evaluate your brand promise. If you make the promise but I can't figure out if you kept it or not, we have trouble.)
• Big enough to trigger a buying decision (your point of difference has to be significant enough that I'd open my wallet)

If you can say "yes, that's my brand" to most of these criteria -- you have a brand that will endure and that your employees, customers and community will embrace and support. But if you can't get a 10 out of 12 on this little test (it requires quite a bit of candor) then you know it's back to the drawing board.

Want a PDF of our brand criteria to keep handy? Click on the words brand criteria to download.

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