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Brand Values
How many of you have clearly identified your brand values?
For example....my company has the following brand values. Recruitment & Training Excellence …at the next level… Innovation Excellence Results We make sure that everything we do is a reflection of these values, when we do that, our actions are in line with our brand values. |
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"Top Sales Expert"
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I just consulted with a company this week to define and refine their brand identity in their marketplace. Often, companies pick nebulous values because they sound good, but when you really examine these values, they are just words, with no real "meat" behind them. For instance, many companies would say that one of their brand values is "excellent customer service", yet few companies really do anything different or amazing to differentiate themselves from their competitors in the realm of customer service excellence. If this is one of your brand values, then you'd better make sure that it shows up over and over again throughout your organization in many different ways. Other overstated brand identities are "innovation" (a grossly overused term because few companies are truly innovative) or "we offer high value". Chipotle Mexican Grill is one company that has been very successful in part because they seem to have such clear brand values. One of these values, I believe, is "simplicity." Chipotle restaurants have simple decor. They also have only FIVE menu items (plus chips, guacamole, and beverages). It's simple to order at Chipotle because it's such a SIMPLE menu. Customers get it. This methodology has worked for them. You can view Chipotle's menu at http://www.chipotle.com/assets/menu.pdf. Most other Mexican restaurant in the U.S. have traditionally chosen to take the "more is more" approach to their menus.To compare, you can check out another Mexican restaurant in my neighborhood (with probably hundreds of menu items) at http://www.elloromexicanrestaurant.com/menus.nxg , but Chipotle chose to go against the Mexican restaurant tradition to differentiate themselves from their competitors, and it has worked. To truly be a real brand value, it must meet the following criteria: 1. It must resonate with the market 2. It must be either TRUE or BELIEVED by the market, and 3. It must make you different from your competitors If your brand values don't meet these three criteria, they're not really brand values, they're just words on a page in some computer file, or words in your mind. So my advice is to get real and define your REAL brand values (but don't be surprised if you find that you really don't have any brand values yet, because a lot of companies haven't been "walking the talk" of their brand identities, and in the process have rendered their brand values invalid.) Skip Anderson
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Skip Anderson Selling To Consumers | Sales Training to Sell More™ Free sales training newsletter. Subscribe! |
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Skip,
I fully agree with you that misguided companies often "pick" nebulous values for their brands because they sounded good. I have seen too many of that here in Malaysia because some executive read about the value of having brand values somewhere. But, then again, the brand values concept is still very new in emerging markets. Most of these nebulous values are actually targets set by management, with action plans on how to get there. Shah |
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