Absent a narrative people invent one.
Translation: if you don’t paint the picture of what it’s like to do business with your brand other people will. This boils down to controlling your brand experience at every touchpoint. It’s your brand and invariably your future so you should want go bridezilla on what your brand is putting out there. There are four areas you want to pay attention to in your brand that affects how people view and interact with it.
Preframe of mind
Think of the preframe of mind like a reputation. When your name comes up how do people feel, what do they say?
Some may say that you can’t control everything. This is true when it comes to personal reputations. Branding is something you can totally control. I was reading DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson and he talks about how the preframe of mind affected the outcome of his speaking engagements.
The better the host’s introduction the better the audience’s reaction and subsequent sales of his products. Thus, he realized that a poor introduction affected what people thought about him and how they reacted to his speech. Therefore, he took control by providing an intro video.
Control what people think about your brand through your reviews as well as addressing concerns they may have in your marketing. You want to do this before you sell anything especially if you need to educate someone on the right way to do something before they buy or preview a product.
Preframe of mind in practice
Before I present a new logo I’ve designed for a client I go through a brief education on what makes a good logo. This is because a good logo is very reductive and super simplistic. As a result the client doesn’t have to continually update the logo as time goes on or as the brand grows. This then increases the value of the logo and brand recognition because it’s in the marketplace longer without changing.
Why do I do this? Because people’s opinions are subjective. Design is not because it’s communication. It’s not about personal preference but what’s appropriate for the brand. Since this is a barrier I have to overcome as the hired expert I have to breakdown this preframe of mind before viewing a logo so it can be judged on the merits of how well it works for the brand rather than opinion.
Preframe of mind side benefits
The other benefit of addressing the preframe of mind is differentiation. People appreciate being educated on things especially if it saves them time, frustration or money.
They will start to doubt and question others in your sphere wondering why aren’t they sharing this if they’re the expert and I need to know this? Then they’ll eliminate your competitors on their own and buy from you without you having to do hard sells.
You might just get notifications on your phone that you just made a sale and you didn’t do anything. Well, you did. You took control of your brand and made sure the client saw what they needed to see in order to do business with you.
Next time I’ll address the next point in controlling the picture of your brand, your process. Until then I wish you much success transforming your business into an amazing brand.
Images courtesy of Pixabay.com
