Brand success is all about stories that aligned with a niche. If you have ever known what poverty is and you are able to break free from it and you can craft believable, creative, emotional processes of how you move from ground zero up, you will attract a good chunk of audience that is still struggling to survive. What is true of individual is also applicable to brands. Be it corporate, institutional or national. Japan has a verifiable national strategy story that moved her from a third world to a leading nation around the world.

People love stories particularly when it appears it has some semblance with their lifestyles. Every brand story that will sell must be crafted in a conversational way. This story must speak with the audience. When it is a monologue, it will take time for the audience to join you or follow your thought. I must admit there are few exceptions. But a story crafted with conversational note sells. Never forget that great brands have great brand stories which point to their origin, tradition, geographical location, association, influence among many other factors. Having said this, let us examine vital indices that come to my mind now on how to create a brand story that sell.

Tell; show that you are expert in a category first: When a story is crafted to show off only, it may irritate the audience. Stop showing first. Many brandspractice this. This may affect their credibility because it does not tell how. Always and I repeat, always tell first. ‘Tell’ that you are an expert, leading solution provider in the category before you start showing. Showing without verifiable evidences will destroy brand equity. Brand story should build brand equity and not to diminish it.

Show, parades your successful clients in the category with emotional case studies: after crafting a ‘telling ‘ story which the brand audience or its potentials want to see, the story must go ahead to show. You must parade happy and successful clients in the category who have become satisfied through your brand’s involvement in their daily lives. Do not forget another major factor when you are ‘showing’ which  is the fact that the story must use the weapon of emotion to its own advantage.

Itemize proven results of your clients in their categories: since the brand story is expected to be target driven within a niche/market, let it produce proven result of brand’s client in the category you are trying to reach. Do not forget this. It is a major part to credibility building.

Promote your core values and how it has helped sustained business relationships: Each brand must have core values that drive its operation. In fact it is what some potential customers often look out for before considering doing business with the brand. Brand’s value is the foundation that determines the way, how brand operations are run and it will also reflect in corporate and internal audience behaviours. So ensure your brand’s story promotes your core values and how it has sustained your business relationships. Is anyone out there with different opinion or want to add something to this? Use the comment section. I love to hear from you.

Trust is an issue today. Without trust there is no love is a common cliché. Whether in a marriage or just casual relationship. People do not open up their minds to people they do not trust.When it comes to brands, people avoid brands that concentrate on gimicks, advert at the expense of building relationship that leads to long time commitment. To get the best value in any brand, trust, emotional connection and love will go a long way to help the brand. What I have discovered over time is that no matter how daunting a task is, when we approach it with dedicated approach and willingness to achieve tangible result,it is usually achievable. We live in an age and time when people want fast and instantaneous result, but trust is not instantaneous. It is a product of little act of caring, helping and bonding that add up to living together in unity.

Trust entails having a firm believe in the honesty and integrity of others. Since trust will be the greatest differentiator and competitive edge now, I guess it will be great to know what it will take to build trust with your brand’s audience so they can always be there for you.

Invest in the people: your brand is seen and appreciated by what your internal audience say about it.They must truly represent you otherwise many will not trust you. You can not be a luxury brand and your representatives are dressing like a pauper. What they broadcast and how they broadcast issues about the brand will affect the level of trust people can have. I have noticed this among educational institutions here. Some of them charge huge amount as school fees and pay staff peanuts. This has been noticed when many of the employees beg parents to help them secure a new job. Meanwhile the general perception is that if you charge high school fees , internal audience must also benfit from this.

Brand education: It takes faith in any brand to stake personal integrity into it. Many brands’ audience can not become brand advocates because they have little information about brands’ activities. Staking personal integrity costs if the brands disappoint. So constantly speak with your audience. Constantly brief them of what you are doing and where you are going together with them and how you are working hard to bring desired changes to their lives. In  all you are doing, make sure you are doing what you say you will do.

 Endorsements and Testimonials : Realize that people trust others people than they trust any organization’s messages. Marketing messages through advocacy method or third party will build strong trust in your message than what you have to say.

Law of commitment: Be extremely committted to your audience. Go extra mile with them in helping out. All good boughts in good conditions are not returnable will not work today and age. These are my thoughts today. Let me hear from you, use the comment section.

The crunch is affecting many brands. There is no pretense about this. The crunch is already affecting many brands’ positioning as many brands are now running from pillar to post. The effect of this instability will make a lot of brands to lose their positioning. Many are already abandoning their known positions to try out new schemes that can guarantee quick returns. The effect of this is that their brands may become oblivion as the dust settles. Their brands’ names may not command any attention again. Never take your brand positioning today to the slaughterer’s lab because of the crunch. This is the best time to maintain consistency. Consistency pays big dividend at the end I assure you. To ensure the safety of your brand’s positioning, let us examine the followings;

1. Focus: Be focused irrespective of what is and be persistence. Give direction and energy to your brand.

2. Brand audit: what was the initial motive of your brand? Is your brand still pursuing that goal or it has shifted because of the present circumstances? Why the defiance if there is one, is it because of money or survival?

3. Pursue your differentiation: Your brand still need to vehemently pursue its differentiation irrespective of the crunch. Your brand needs not to be Jones today, John tomorrow. That destroys your positioning.

4. Consistency of message: stop sending conflicting messages. It does not aid memorability.

5. Take a stand: There is a lot of distraction now because of the crunch. Several ‘principles’ to handle the time are flying around. Learn to say No even when it is not convenient. Following the path of least resistance makes a river’s path crooked.

Every personal brand has greater potential force of reckoning than we all acknowledged. Each given personal brand has innate capability to impact the thoughts, deeds and actions of those around us. Interestingly, when we do our parts, the law of psychological reciprocity which states “human beings are instinctively impelled to return to others the feelings and emotions they give us” work in our favour. This is where brand’s effectiveness, influence and rewards come from. This begins with being ready to serve.

The statement above calls for deliberate action on the part of the individual personal brand to strengthen the position of its own brand. This ensures the brand garners much gain and influence within the target market. There are three noted avenues that personal brand can use to strengthen the brand and that formed the focus of our discussion today.

1. Listen: listening is an effective tool in communication. Those who keep speaking without listening never learn anything news and as time goes on they lose credibility, followership and attention. They are associated with a notion of always wanting to dominate, lack of concern to others’ feelings. Listening involves seeking to clearly understand what others are saying and how they are feelings. When a brand does this, it solidifies its relationship more with the target and the brand gained more attention in the process.

2. Awareness: This has to do with brand’s ability to empathize, being in tune with itself as well as those around it. A step further is an attempt to always understand who you are becoming and the necessary sacrifice that needed to be made for your future that will add values to the target audience too.

3. Healing: The society is hurting. Your niche is inclusive. Thanks for being a great brand evangelist, but your brand achieve more when it becomes a healer, solving problem by removing hindrances, discovering better way that can make life better for the niche. There are ways to do this; we will discus this in the nearest future. Do you have experience here? Share yours with our community.

In the previous article, we started a discussion on the force of shaping strategy. This will be the concluding part for now until further notice. We need to note that not every brand is cut out to engage in shaping strategy. To engage, brand must consider the following and be convinced that answers given are adequate.

1. Powerful, foresighted CEO and directors: Not every brand is blessed with powerful, foresighted CEOS. If the brand’s CEO is only concerned about present or immediate gain and demands immediate ROI on every investment, it may not be good strategy for the brand to engage shaping strategy.

2.   Risk profile: Brand must also assess risk profile of engaging in shaping strategy. Any brand that is not comfortable with risk taking can not engage in shaping industry focus. It takes a large hearted brand to determine the trend of any market.

3. Management capabilities: Shaping strategy requires strong management capabilities to weather the storm otherwise blames, excuses will become the order of the day along the line. This will be accompanied with mudslinging, apathy, lack of necessary commitment to follow through.

4. Right aspiration: shaping strategy must get the facts rights by identifying the opportunities before the journey begins. The opportunities often give necessary morale when the tide starts blowing.

5. Determine the role to be played: There are several roles each brand can play in shaping strategy. That calls for true assessment of brand’s capacity. None of the role is devoid of any benefits. There are three roles: Influencers, as influencers the brand commit early and prominently to one shaping strategy and it usually gains strong market position. As hedger, the brand develops its products and services to support multiple shaping platforms. As disciple, the brand commits to only one shaping strategy.

The followings are some of the advantages of shaping strategy. It gives brand credibility and projects a long term commitment of the strategy designer. Shaping strategy also helps to define the industry standard.

On the last note, if a brand continually adapts, it shows that there is an absence of innovation and creativity. Adaptation strategy often misses the real opportunity.

Not quite long,I read a recent Harvard Business review which discusses strategy. The article got my whole attention and part of what I learnt is what I shared with you here today. I do think if you have anything to do with idea development or strategy, it will be a good read. In a previous article I have tried to discuss strategy. I did explain that strategy is seen as a plan, pattern, position, ploy and perspective among many other terms. As position, strategy is the stance you take. It is broad and long-ranged. In part it is the preparations made before battle and sometimes it is avoiding the battle at as a whole. But here our discussion is not basically about strategy but a shaping strategy. In a way, every strategy can be viewed as shaping strategy. But shaping strategy focuses on dictating the trend of the market. A shaping strategy is no less than an effort to broadly redefine the terms of competition for a market sector through positive, galvanizing messages that promise benefits to all who adopt the new terms. For instance, Google entrance into telecoms spaces has changed the phase of competitive landscapes from AT&t, Verizon and others.

Shaping strategy is far from just a fantastic coinage of brand’s personality or slogans. It is more of engaging in steps that are built on deep structure. This process is often helped by enabling and powerful infrastructure that enhances brand’s performance and reduces risk exposure.

To benefit from shaping strategy, brand must:

1. Define focus for participating companies: as soon as a brand sets out on the journey of shaping industry focus, it must be ready to define a focus for those who will soon join in the race.

2. Identify opportunities: Before any brand can engage in shaping industry strategy, it must first identify opportunities and ensure that efforts will be compensation through the opportunities that are available.

3. Emphasize big picture: the purpose of any shaping strategy is to emphasis the big picture in the whole process. This has to do with what is the long term value of the strategy and opportunity

4. Change mindset, strong imagination: the question is does your brand feel a strange desire for a positive change in the status quo? Does the brand has a strong imagination for a better way to make the market/industry better? Then there is room to engage in shaping strategy.

Measuring the power, value of a brand is predicated on certain factors. Strength is defined by an online dictionary as ‘the property of being physically and mentally strong’. Strength represents, power, agility, balance, flexibility, muscle. Linley describes strength as, “a pre-existing capacity for a particular way of behaving, thinking, or feeling that is authentic and energizing to the user, and enables optimal functioning, development and performance.” Strength is more than a competency. Strength is what one is good at, to be sure, but a strength, according to Linley, must contain the elements of being pre-existing, energizing, and authentic endurance.

To have accurate measurement of the power of one’s brand-personal or corporate, it will worth the time to look at the following avenues:

1. Market:  are you visible in your niche? What is the level of your offering preference over others?

2. Constancy: The stability of your revenue, ‘premiumship’, loyalty and continuous emotional connection can also supply the strength of your brand’s value.

3. Leadership: are you known as leader or followers? Your visibility in the market must also be acknowledged.

4. Profit margin: Most strong brands are not run at a loss. They have a constant profit margin due to their premium value. Even during economic crunch.

5. Help: Are your stakeholders dedicated to helping the brand succeed? Are words-of-mouth spreading like wild fire? Are they giving necessary feedback that will make the brand grow?

 6. Global Reach: A brand’s global reach and acceptance is a strong indication of its strength over others.

7. Fortification: this has to do with your defense, security of your visuals with regards to whether they are trade mark or open to abuse and use by others. It must be noted that these in all do not determine the power of a brand at large, but they help to know its direction. What is your score here?                        

Good day. How was your weekend? Today affords us new opportunities to become what we have being desiring to be. So we should not waste it thinking on what could have been yesterday that was not. Today, let us asses what brand success means?

Success is a common word everyone desires. Yet we have different interpretations of what it means. Brand is the authentic license that allows a person to operate in his niche market. Brand is successful when the brand users get accurate perception and memory that makes them come to you again and again. Not only that, brand becomes successful when your audience move from a loyal customer to an advocate of your niche. In other words, they have become members of the family and they feel they own you and know you so much than you know yourself.

That was the major reason why Marion Jones audience was so disappointed in her when she was associated with performance enhancing drug. When your brand becomes successful; you need to be careful because you have become a model, icon that the niche market patterns their lives after.

This requires that one seats down to count the cost of success before embarking on the journey. Brand success has a huge responsibility. The followings are some paths that lead to personal brand success:

1. Great, short, memorable name: choose your name wisely. A long and difficult to pronounce name may not work well. But if you are that good, it can be overlooked. Arnold Schwarzenegger broke this jinx. But from indication, he promoted his first name Arnold.

2. Promise of value: Every brand must have a value, a promise that people can look up to. What is your niche and what service do you offer differently?

3. Expectation/experience: sell good experience. Do not just promise great promise, deliver the right experience. Watch your attitude and character. If the experience does not match, your brand equity will drop, diminishing returns will set in and eventually, there will be no more brand relevance

4. A fan friendly spirit: be approachable, learn to smile, be optimistic and spread the rainbow around.

When something is working for certain people, we sometimes conclude that the individual, group is just lucky. While I am not condemning the factor of serendipity working for one, I must say every successful endeavour carries a price tag.

When I see industry leaders today, I do not envy them. By that I am authentic leaders. These are leaders who had paid their dues. Leaders who can tell others how they get there without recourse to metaphysics.

There are four basic things that have been noted with every leading brand. Here are my observations.

1. Innovation: Every leading brand constantly advances the knowledge available. They bring improvement, originality, they match promises with action.

2. Focus on niche/differentiator: Leading brands are not busy bodies. They know that focus and differentiation are cardinal points. They give no room for unnecessary distractions. Their niche is known to everyone. Everyone knows the word they own to become ‘monster’. In Nigeria today, success as a word is known with Sam Adeyemi, self awareness is known with Emmanuel Utomi. With Yinka olaito it is…, you can fill in the gap (lol). What is known with your own brand?

3. Commitment to value acceleration: As we know today, given value is no longer enough, the key word now is value acceleration. What knowledge have you added that can make you enhance the lives of your target audience? I am sure for those who visit this site regularly; there is a change of perception about personal branding. In the next post we shall discuss perception management, do not miss it.

4. Spend more time where it matters: It is not the amount of time that one invested daily that matter but where and how that time is invested. Leading brands spend time where it is matter most. They spend more time with their clients. They know that is the source of their income. How do you treat your clients? That count if your brand will be up there or down, down Personality of leading brands. I have got to run to catch an appointment. See you at the top.

Today, I want to consider what one of my mentors william Arruda called the C-factors in personal Branding and this also includes Branding at large. It is clear we can not talk about branding without these C-factors. To ignore these factors is to pitch the tent of our brands at failure arena.

1. Clear: Brand needs to be clear of what value its intend to offer. A goal to be attained in the future. This helps to measure success in branding journey.

2. Constant: this a vital tool if the brand will matter at all. Brand can not afford the luxury of having different faces. It must be known for something. This is the brand’s differentiator. Always be known and remain constant in your niche.

3. Consistent: There is a difference between constant and consistent. To be constant is to be known for something, to be consistent is to keep holding the gavel. Be in control and stand for the believe everyday.

4. Correct: Be correct in keeping your promise. Do not give excuses. Produce results that are sync with your promise.

5. Clever: The brand that will be successful needs to be clever. Being clever means to be intelligent, knowledgeable, smart, quick and witty.