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Jed Jones, Ph.D. was born and raised in
Southern California.
His professional and academic interests
include marketing, international business, systems thinking, organizational
design, research and the Japanese language.
Jed holds a B.A. in Japanese Studies from
UCLA, an M.B.A in Marketing from The Paul Merage Business School at UC Irvine,
and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center.
He currently lives with his wife and two
children in Austin, Texas.
We
encourage you to visit Jed's website at:
www.jedcjones.com
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Build a Brand Identity: 5 Key Elements
Often small or midsize
companies who create a new product or service tend to go straight to market
while skipping the all-important activity of designing a brand identity. This is
a huge mistake and one that can be easily avoided.
The brand identity of
your product or service is the touchstone of your overall branding campaign.
Your brand identity will ensure high levels of consistency across all aspects of
your brand campaign, including: the messaging you choose for your ad campaigns,
the logo you create, and even how you decorate your office.
Considering the
following 5 key elements will guarantee you an air-tight, winning brand
identity:
Determine Your
Competitive Set: Your competitive set is the specific industry and niche in
which you will be competing. In order to clearly define your brand, you must
take a careful look around at those with whom you will be competing and define
the arena in which they operate.
Create a
Well-Defined Value Proposition: Your value proposition is one or two
sentences that clearly describe why customers should buy from you. In other
words: what value do you offer them? Why should they choose you over your
closest competitor? A good value proposition statement shows you really know
your business and your customer base.
Identity Your Key
Differentiators: Your product or service must stand out from the pack in
some way in order to be successful in the marketplace. How does your offering
set itself apart? How is it unique? Put together 4-5 traits that differentiate
your product or service from those of the competition.
Articulate a Clear
Customer Promise: What is the one thing that customers can expect every time
they interact with your company? Is it a friendly smile? Guaranteed lowest
rates? Do you have someone available to talk with 24/7/365? If so, make sure you
articulate this promise. And, make absolutely sure you deliver on it, every
time.
Outline Your Key
Value Dimension Rankings: Finally, you need to be realistic about where you
will rank relative to your overall market niche on what I call your key value
dimension rankings. Not every hotel has 5-star hotel service quality, but
then again not every hotel charges 5-star hotel prices: service quality and
pricing are classic tradeoffs. Your company will be able to most
precisely define your brand when you can accurately assess where your brand will
rank versus the overall competitive set in your market niche in terms of these
ten dimensions: low price, first-to-market prestige, durability, luxury
appeal, ergonomics/ease-of-use, the cool factor, pre-sales service, quality of
purchase experience, post-sales support, and functionality/features.
Determine 2 or 3 of these key value dimensions in which you intend to rank among
the top 10% in your competitive set.
Defining your brand
identity is an important first step you should complete before launching your
branding campaign. However, even if you are already actively marketing your
products or services, you stand to benefit tremendously from the exercise of
carefully examining and clearly defining your brand identity if you have not
done so already.
Jed C. Jones Ph.D
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Building
a brand? The eBook "The Anatomy of a Winning Brand " takes you by the hand and
shows you step-by-step how to develop your brand. Download your FREE copy at:
http://www.jedcjones.com/brandmybusiness.
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