Page 106 - Duct Tape Marketing

90 Part II: Sharpening Your Marketing Focus

Brands Live in the Minds of Customers

When people hear your name, they conjure up a set of impressions that influ-
ence how they think and buy. Those thoughts define your brand.

Your brand resides in your customer’s mind as a result of all the impressions
made by encounters with your name, your logo, your marketing messages,
and everything else that people see and hear about your business.

Something as basic as your business address contributes to how your brand
is perceived. For that matter, every time someone walks into your business
and looks around, visits your Web site, meets an employee, or glances at
your ad, that person forms an impression that leads to a mind-set about your
business.

If a person knows your business’s name, you have a brand in that person’s
mind. It may not be the brand you want, and it may not be as well known as
you wish it were, but you have a brand.

You can have a powerful brand
without having a power brand

Levi’s is a power brand. It’s more powerful than Wrangler, Lee, or Guess. All
are brands. All convey an identity and a promise. But one is known interna-
tionally and by all age and demographic groups, whereas the others have a
more narrow influence and, therefore, less marketing power. The power of
your brand comes from the degree to which it is known.

Your small business probably will never have a globally recognized “power
brand” simply because you don’t have (and for that matter don’t need) the
marketing horsepower that would fuel that level of awareness.

But you can be the most powerful brand in your target market. All it takes is

ߜ Knowing the brand image that you want to project
ߜ Having commitment and discipline to project your brand well
ߜ Spending what’s necessary to get your message to your target market
ߜ Managing your marketing so that it makes a consistent impression that

etches your desired brand image into the mind of your target prospect