Chapter 6

Putting Your Brand into Words

In This Chapter

Knowing your business mission and vision

Defining your brand

Building a brand and building a home have two things in common: Both need a site to occupy — an available lot in the case of a home and an open marketplace position in the case of a brand — and both require a plan that you can follow in order to achieve the desired outcome.

The process of finding an unoccupied place in your competitive landscape is called positioning; it’s the first important step in branding and the topic of Chapter 5. Planning the brand you intend to create is what this chapter is all about.

The pages in this chapter help you lay the foundation for a brand that accurately reflects the essence of what you stand for and how you operate. You start by pulling out your mission and vision statements. (If you don’t already have them, don’t panic but do count on the next section to help you get your statements into words.) Next, you define the promise you make to all who deal with you and your organization. After that, you decide on the brand character that will influence all expressions of your brand — your name, logo, tagline, advertising, website, the products and services you offer, the staff you assemble, the customer experience you deliver, and the reputation you develop as a result. Finally, the chapter ends with steps to follow as you craft the brand statement or brand definition that will steer all your brand-building decisions and efforts.

Building Your Brand on the Strong Back of Your Business Mission and Vision

Your brand is a reflection of what you stand for, so it has to align perfectly with the values and purpose of your business or organization.

If you’re unclear about what you want your brand to stand for, the customers it serves, and what it promises, this section is especially for you. It’s also a must-read if you have a good sense of your vision and mission but haven’t yet committed anything to writing. This is the time to put ideas into words.

Branding starts with two essential statements:

• Your vision statement defines your long-term aspirations. It explains why you’re doing what you’re doing and the ultimate good you want to achieve through your success. Think of your vision as the picture of where you ultimately want your work to lead you.
• Your mission statement defines the purpose of your work and the effect you intend to have on the world around you. It states what you do for others and the approach you follow as you aim to achieve the aspirations you’ve set for yourself, your organization, or your business. Think of your mission as the route you’ll follow to achieve your vision.

A good historic example of clearly defined vision and mission statements comes from the 19th-century trek across America called the Oregon Trail. The Oregon Trail vision was to find a better life; the mission was to travel by wagon from Missouri to Oregon.

For a far, far more recent example of how a vision and mission relate — and how they translate into a motto or tagline — consider these statements from the business-oriented social-media network LinkedIn:

• Vision: To create economic opportunity for every professional in the world.
• Mission: To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.
• Motto or tagline: Relationships matter.

Use the information in the following sections to write statements that guide the development of your brand.

Focusing your vision

You probably have a vision of the good that you aim to achieve in your world. Likewise, you probably have a set of principles and values that guide how you operate and what you are and aren’t willing to do to achieve success.

If you haven’t already done so, commit your vision and values to words. They’re fundamental to what you stand for and they guide development of your brand image.

The values you value

Start by clarifying your values — your beliefs about your responsibility to others. The worksheet in Figure 6-1 can guide your thinking.

Your statement of values can take the form of a simple list that declares the principles that steer your strategies and decisions. For example, the Whole Foods website dedicates a page to a list of the company’s core values, including the following:

• Sell the highest quality natural and organic products available.
• Satisfy, delight, and nourish our customers.
• Support team member excellence and happiness.
• Create wealth through profits and growth.
• Serve and support our local and global communities.

Your highest hopes and aspirations

Your vision statement puts into a single sentence the reason your business exists. Regardless of whether you relocate, make operational changes, update your logo, revise your marketing message, or undertake other strategic or tactical changes, the vision of what you’re aiming to achieve — the good you intend to do in your world — should remain stable.

Many organizations post their vision statements on their corporate websites. Following are a few examples:

• TED Global Community: To make great ideas accessible and to spark conversation.
• Habitat For Humanity: A world where everyone has a decent place to live.

As you develop your own vision statement, consider these questions:

• What makes you and those in your organization want to go to work every day? You could earn a living at any number of places, so what is it about the vision and purpose of what you do that keeps you loyal and motivated?
• What change are you aiming to affect in your world? What lasting difference do you want to make?
• What ultimate benefits do your products and services deliver?

Use your answers to compile a vision statement that summarizes what you feel is the highest purpose you (for personal brands) or your business aim for.

Defining your mission

Your vision is your ultimate dream; your mission is how you’ll achieve your aspirations. There’s no one format to follow in writing your business mission, but it’s important to address the following points:

• Who you serve
• How you are unique
• What value, benefits, or greater good you promise

Your statement doesn’t have to look just like anyone else’s. For instance, the Instagram mission statement is one sentence long:

To capture and share the world’s moments.

The Peace Corps mission lists three goals:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their needs for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans.

Figure 6-2 includes questions to help focus your thinking, along with a framework for assembling your mission statement.

Describing Your Brand and Its Style

Before you try to put your brand into words, called a brand statement (which is the topic of one of the final sections in this chapter), stop to think about what your brand is really all about. If you’re working on a personal brand, start by working on your own. If you’re developing a brand for a business or product, pull together key team members to do some brainstorming and recon work. Discuss answers to each of these questions:

• What simple idea captures the essence of what your brand stands for? For example, as we’re writing this chapter a hot new service category is emerging around laundry and dry-cleaning services. One major player, Washio, describes itself as the “Uber of laundry,” serving “whimsy-embracing millennials” with service ordered via smartphone app, transacted by a “delivery ninja,” and concluded with the high-touch gesture of a chocolate chip cookie. Another player, Flycleaners, describes its idea as an app-driven, on-demand premium service without premium prices. A third contender, MintLocker, captures its idea in its brand name: It provides 24/7 lockers for laundry drop-off and pickup, returning clothes with a cupcake to communicate fresh service and a human approach.
• How would you quickly describe your brand as the elevator doors are closing? We pose this question in Chapter 3 as you self-assess your brand’s image in preparation for launching the branding process. We’re asking it again because it’s such an important question to answer. The minute-long elevator pitch is a relic from the 1990s. We’re living in the age of the social-media pitch, which on Twitter takes the form of a 160-character Twitter user bio. That equates to about 20 words to convey your message, cause heads to spin around, and win the chance to tell a fuller story. By asking yourself and your team members to come up with spur-of-the-moment one-sentence description, you collect words that people use conversationally to describe your brand. As a result, you uncover aspects of your brand personality that people relate to — and love. Those words will be invaluable as you define your brand character later in this chapter.
• What one thing, above all others, makes you different from competitors and valuable to customers? Chapter 5 helps you find your position in your competitive landscape based upon your point of difference and the distinct and meaningful value that you provide to all who come in contact with you or your business. Use your findings to list your competitors and which attributes set each one apart from the others. Then describe how your offerings are different and why that difference matters to people in your target audience. You can’t build a strong brand without knowing the answer to this question. It becomes the basis for both the character and promise of your brand.

Polishing Your Business Promise

Your brand promise is the pledge upon which you build and stake your reputation. It’s what those who come into contact with you or your business can count on you to consistently deliver. It’s the expectation that you live up to every time people experience your brand, whether online or in person, or through advertising, promotions, buying experiences, service encounters, or any other form of contact.

Your promise is the essence of your brand. Don’t make the common mistake of thinking that your logo is the sum total of your brand identity. When people think of your brand, they may visualize your logo, but your promise is what motivates them in your direction.

When Nordstrom posts that it’s “committed to providing our customers with the best possible service — and to improving it every day,” it’s making a promise. Geico’s “15 minutes or less can save you 15 percent” is a promise. Zappo’s “The best customer service possible” is a promise. Each one puts a company’s reputation on the line by pledging to live up to high expectations, or else. The promise becomes an internal rallying call for excellence and a magnet for new business.

If you’re not sure of your brand promise, consider these questions:

• Why do customers choose your business? What do they seek from you that they can’t get elsewhere?
• What attributes do customers count on that they would find the hardest to replace if your business weren’t available to them?

Answer these questions on your own, ask managers and others in your business to answer them, and then go to a few key customers and ask for their input. Explain what you’re up to. Tell them that, as part of your branding strategy, you’re clarifying the way your business promise is interpreted in the market, and you’d appreciate their responses to the preceding questions.

When you’re done with your analysis, take these steps:

1. List all the reasons customers choose your business and the attributes they count on only your company to deliver.
2. Circle all the attributes you’re confident that you can deliver consistently and upon which you’re willing to stake your reputation.
3. Put a check mark next to those attributes that are compelling to customers and to your internal team — the ones you can proudly rally around.
4. Take the checked items and make a short list of business attributes that are most assured, most compelling, most believable, and most consistent with the character of your company.

Your final list of attributes provides the basis upon which to build your business promise. Following are a few more examples of brand promises to get you started:

• Samsung: Taking the world in imaginative new directions.
• BMW: Genuine driving pleasure.
• Walmart: Saving people money so they can live better.
• Disney: Only Disney can deliver a fantasy experience for families to share.

You can see from the examples, brand promises often boil down into mottos or declarative statements around which businesses coalesce. They start, however, with internal commitments. Use the following template to write the commitment you’ll incorporate into your promise and branding strategy.

[Name of your business, product, or service] is the [your distinction and the generic term for your type of offering] to provide [your unique features or benefits] to [your customer profile] who choose our offering in order to feel [your customers’ emotional outcome].

We consistently deliver the unique attributes and benefits our customers count on, and we promise our customers [the promise customers can absolutely count on from your company].

Broken promises break brands. As you put your promise into words, make sure it’s one you can deliver upon consistently. Staying true to your word and upholding your promise is essential to building brand trust and loyalty.

Considering the Character of Your Brand

Your brand character is like the personality of your brand. Some brands are serious or even somber, and some are whimsical, fun, or playful. Some brands are youthful, and some are like silver-haired sages.

As a first step toward defining your brand character, ask yourself these questions:

• What adjectives do those near and dear to your brand use to describe it? When asked to give a spur-of-the-moment one-sentence description, what do they say?
• How would your brand be described if it were a person who walked into the room? Sophisticated? Fashionable? Flamboyant? Reserved? Important? Playful? Or one of countless other descriptions? Keep your answer in mind as you go through the rest of this section.
• What words do customers use when they pay compliments, post reviews, or fill out satisfaction surveys? What words do you think they’d use to describe how they feel when they deal with you or your business? Would they use words like fun, creative, cool, serious, innovative, sophisticated, or others? See the following list for words Bill Chiaravalle presents to help brand-builders think about how customers might describe their character of their brands.
  •  Choose Five Words You Feel Best Describe Your Brand:

    Cool	Innovative
    Gourmet	Irreverent
    Hip	Masculine
    Fun	Serious
    Friendly	Elegant
    Fast	Quality
    Unique	Youthful
    Sophisticated

  The answers are important because the brand character reflected through the look and voice of your brand expressions must be consistent with what your brand actually is and stands for. If not, you’ll face two problems:

• Your brand expressions will roam all over the map, serious at one time and playful at another depending on the mood and whim of whomever is producing them, and you’ll wind up with a schizophrenic brand identity.
• The brand identity you project into the marketplace will be inconsistent with the brand experience people actually encounter, leading to a lack of credibility and a poor reputation.

Use the following format to write an accurate brand character statement that guides the development of all expressions of your brand:

Our brand is [insert a description of the character of your brand], a trait we reflect through brand expressions that are [insert a description of the mood and voice that all your marketing will project].

Mission Possible: Defining Your Brand

Your brand statement, also called your brand definition, shrinks all your thoughts about your business mission, values, promise, and character into a concise statement that defines what you do, how you differ from all other similar solutions, and what you pledge to consistently deliver.

The brand statement you develop serves as the steering wheel for your branding strategy. It influences every turn you make in presenting your brand — from giving it a name and logo to producing ads and marketing materials to creating the experience that customers will encounter when they come into contact with your brand from any direction.

What to incorporate

As you write your brand statement, be sure that it reflects the following information:

• The three things you want people to know about your business: What you offer, the audience you serve, and how you’re best at what you do.
• Your point of difference (how you serve your target market differently and better than all other options).
• Your business promise that will be upheld through all brand experiences.
• Your brand character or personality that will be communicated through the mood and voice projected in all brand expressions.

The anatomy of a brand statement

Your brand identity is the face of your brand. It includes your name, logo, tagline or motto, advertising, marketing materials, signage, and every other way that you express your brand in your business and in your marketplace.

Your brand statement guides your brand identity. It describes the people your brand must relate to, the attributes it must highlight, and the promise and character it must convey. To write a brand statement that guides your branding strategy, use this format:

[Your name] promises [your target market] that they can count on us for [your unique attribute or benefit] delivered with [information about the character, voice, and mood you convey].

Grading your statement

Before accepting your brand statement as the one that will guide your branding strategy, see if you can answer “yes” to these three questions:

• Does the statement illuminate your difference? Does it make it clear how you differ from other solutions in your business arena?
• Is the statement customer-centric? Does it clarify what valuable benefit or value you provide and promise to others rather than what you aspire for yourself?
• Can you project the statement with a unified voice across all markets and media? And can you fulfill its promise through every contact with your business and as part of the overall customer experience with your brand?

Putting your brand statement to the test

After you commit to your brand statement, test it internally within your business and with key customer or prospective customer groups.

In personal meetings and focus-group sessions, confirm that the brand statement you’ve crafted resonates with your target market audience by learning the answers to these questions:

• Is the promise you make consistent with the beliefs people currently hold about you? Or if you’re branding a new business or product, is the promise one in which you realistically believe you can develop trust?
  • Is the promise one you can live up to through every form of marketplace encounter?
  • Is the promise easy to understand? If one customer were to explain it to another, do you believe they would be able to express it clearly?
• Are the unique attributes or benefits highlighted in your brand statement truly meaningful to customers?
• Is the character that you’ve summarized in your brand statement consistent with the character that others believe you exude?
• If you uncover slight differences between the promise, benefits, and character defined in your brand identity statement and the attributes others believe to be true about your business, are you clear about what adjustments would align the two mind-sets?

If your brand will serve a concise, easy-to-reach, and relatively small market, you can test your brand statement on your own, using the research advice presented in Chapter 4. For brands that serve larger markets or face major competition from established and recognized brands, invest in professional assistance to test your statement before putting it to work as you name your brand, design its logo and tagline, and create the marketing materials and brand experience that will present it day in and day out in your market.