17 Jun Why Your Brand Is Not Actually About You
Have you ever found yourself struggling to explain exactly what it is that you do in a convincing and succinct way? If you’re currently facing that struggle, take comfort – you’re not alone. In our experience, we’ve found that many company founders are so focused on the details, that it becomes a struggle to zoom out and see the bigger picture. So the point of this article is to help you to avoid some common pitfalls and to provide some actionable tips to help you to solve this problem.
Albert Einstein famously said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” And we wouldn’t have the audacity to disagree with Albert.
But there’s a problem with this statement that we need to address. You obviously do understand what you do very well, so could it be that there’s a piece missing from the puzzle?
To understand it “well enough” – you need to understand every aspect. You need to understand what you do. But as your business exists to serve your customers and to solve their problem, you need to understand them too. And this is the important role branding plays. Because the role of branding is to understand the relationship between what you do and who you do it for and to explain it simply.
Why is this important? Because if you can’t succinctly communicate to your customers how you are going to make their life better, they will be far more likely to engage with someone who can.
If this is a problem you’re struggling with, all is not lost. Even without the help of an agency there are some simple steps you can take to immediately improve your customer relationships. Let’s start by identifying some pitfalls many businesses fall into.
Pitfall 1 – Enter The Jargon (pun fully intended)
Most industries have their own acronyms and terminology. To those on the inside it’s your own exciting language, but to those on the outside it sounds at best like Jargon and at worst, it’s total gibberish.
It’s important to remember that your customers are those “people on the outside.” They don’t understand your industry inside out, they just have a problem that needs solving and they want someone who gets where they’re coming from.
However skilled or experienced you are, if you can’t speak their language, your expertise will feel irrelevant to them.
Pitfall 1 – Enter The Jargon (pun fully intended)
Most industries have their own acronyms and terminology. To those on the inside it’s your own exciting language, but to those on the outside it sounds at best like Jargon and at worst, it’s total gibberish.
It’s important to remember that your customers are those “people on the outside.” They don’t understand your industry inside out, they just have a problem that needs solving and they want someone who gets where they’re coming from.
However skilled or experienced you are, if you can’t speak their language, your expertise will feel irrelevant to them.
Pitfall 2 – Focusing On The What Not The Why
To win customers you need to do more than just explain what you do – you need to convey why it matters.
I’m not suggesting that everything needs to be an emotional play or that it’s about manipulating people. But to motivate any human being to do anything – you need to convince the mind and reach the heart. To reach the heart, you need to help people to understand why it’s relevant to them. Otherwise, to put it bluntly, they’ll find it boring and won’t care enough to listen to the facts.
Learn From The Masters of Motivation: Cheesy Sports Films
Think about those cheesy sports films we all (secretly) love. It’s the final quarter, the team’s back is against the wall, the situation seems hopeless. (even though when you’re English, you don’t understand the scoring and have no clue why things are hopeless, but somehow you still feel hopeless anyway) Suddenly the coach comes up with a speech that rallies the team and against all odds the game is won. If he came in and went over the match statistics, he wouldn’t have moved his team to action. Facts have a place, but facts alone don’t motivate and they tend not to lead to air punching endings.
Pitfall 2 – Focusing On The What Not The Why
To win customers you need to do more than just explain what you do – you need to convey why it matters.
I’m not suggesting that everything needs to be an emotional play or that it’s about manipulating people. But to motivate any human being to do anything – you need to convince the mind and reach the heart. To reach the heart, you need to help people to understand why it’s relevant to them. Otherwise, to put it bluntly, they’ll find it boring and won’t care enough to listen to the facts.
Learn From The Masters of Motivation: Cheesy Sports Films
Think about those cheesy sports films we all (secretly) love. It’s the final quarter, the team’s back is against the wall, the situation seems hopeless. (even though when you’re English, you don’t understand the scoring and have no clue why, but somehow you still feel hopeless anyway) Suddenly the coach comes up with a speech that rallies the team and against all odds the game is won. If he came in and went over the match statistics, he wouldn’t have moved his team to action. Facts have a place, but facts alone don’t motivate and they tend not to lead to air punching endings.
Pitfall 3 – Thinking That Branding Doesn’t Apply
When we talk about branding, we’re not talking about your logo. We’re talking about the entire way your customers perceive your business. For most businesses the competition grows year on year. Google is great, but with a quick search, people can find 100 companies who do something very similar to you. So it’s a mistake to think that even without a strong brand, your customers will continue to buy from you anyway.
However it’s likely most of those competitors are not really communicating their value, which leaves an opportunity for those who focus on their customers. Sometimes people selling business to business think branding is irrelevant, but interestingly 18% of corporate decision makers cite brand as the most important factor when making significant purchases. The point is that even with business to business, you’re still selling to a person.
If you can articulate what you do, what makes you different and most importantly why that actually matters – then you go from just another jargon talking competitor to being a standout voice who connects with customers.
If customers feel that you “get it” then they will be motivated to buy from you.
Pitfall 3 – Thinking That Branding Doesn’t Apply
When we talk about branding, we’re not talking about your logo. We’re talking about the entire way your customers perceive your business. For most businesses the competition grows year on year. Google is great, but with a quick search, people can find 100 companies who do something very similar to you. So it’s a mistake to think that even without a strong brand, your customers will continue to buy from you anyway.
However it’s likely most of those competitors are not really communicating their value, which leaves an opportunity for those who focus on their customers. Sometimes people selling business to business think branding is irrelevant, but interestingly 18% of corporate decision makers cite brand as the most important factor when making significant purchases. The point is that even with business to business, you’re still selling to a person.
If you can articulate what you do, what makes you different and most importantly why that actually matters – then you go from just another jargon talking competitor to being a standout voice who connects with customers.
If customers feel that you “get it” then they will be motivated to buy from you.
So What Can You Do?
Here’s a little 3 step exercise you can try to clarify your communication.
- Remember every business exists to serve others. So start by identifying the mindset of your customers. It’s not just about identifying your “target audience” e.g. Women aged 25 – 50. Think about the best customers you’ve ever had, the ones who told all their friends about you – why did they love you so much? What kind of people were they? What was important to them? The goal is to have a pilots eye view from inside your customers heads, then you can see the world as they see it. (thanks Guy Raz for that analogy) Another incredibly effective exercise to help you to do this is to read through all your customer reviews and identify common expressions. You’ll start to find patterns and this will help you to identify your customer’s pain points (the reasons they hired/bought from you in the first place) and what it is that makes you different.
- Make a list of the key problems your business solves for your customers. For each one ask “Why does that matter?”. Identify the need behind the need for your customers. For example, if you make toothbrushes – yes your product cleans teeth, but why does that matter to your customers?
- Take those insights and create a unified brand idea. This becomes a clear singular statement about what the brand stands for at its core. It’s the story of how your business improves people’s lives.
So What Can You Do?
Here’s a little 3 step exercise you can try to clarify your communication.
- Remember every business exists to serve others. So start by identifying the mindset of your customers. It’s not just about identifying your “target audience” e.g. Women aged 25 – 50. Think about the best customers you’ve ever had, the ones who told all their friends about you – why did they love you so much? What kind of people were they? What was important to them? The goal is to have a pilots eye view from inside your customers heads, then you can see the world as they see it. (thanks Guy Raz for that analogy) Another incredibly effective exercise to help you to do this is to read through all your customer reviews and identify common expressions. You’ll start to find patterns and this will help you to identify your customer’s pain points (the reasons they hired/bought from you in the first place) and what it is that makes you different.
- Make a list of the key problems your business solves for your customers. For each one ask “Why does that matter?”. Identify the need behind the need for your customers. For example, if you make toothbrushes – yes your product cleans teeth, but why does that matter to your customers?
- Take those insights and create a unified brand idea. This becomes a clear singular statement about what the brand stands for at its core. It’s the story of how your business improves people’s lives.
What’s The Key Takeaway?
Your brand is not about what you do. It’s about what you do for your customers. When you fully understand your customers and why what you do really matters to them, then you can craft a compelling story that motivates action.
So give the three step exercise above a try.
If you’re still finding that your “Turboencabulator’s ability to measure inverse reactive current in unilateral phase detractors with display of percent realization” isn’t floating anyone’s boat – then it might be time to drop us a message.