The Brand Factory's Branding Blog

What’s Your story (morning glory)?

Justin Cooper Added about 1 year ago

Most businesses don't have a unique story or 'USP' for their business.

They talk in generic terms about being 'professional,' 'passionate,' 'specialist' 'innovative,' 'driven,' and 'value for money'- like these were new terms.

The trouble is they're not - they are the basic requirements for any business before they can be taken seriously by a prospect. They give you a ticket into the banquet, but not a seat at the table. And to add insult to injury, they're already being used by their competitors.

The truth about marketing is that the single most important thing to get right for your business to be successful is your 'brand story,' 'USP' or 'brand positioning.'

Why? Because without it, you don't have a voice - an anchor point for prospective customers to think about you, talk about you and to compare you.

Everything should hang off this. Your name, your logo, your web design, even the way you answer the phone. It's the single most important factor that makes the difference between success and failure. You can have an ordinary name supported by an extraordinary positioning and still succeed. But it simply doesn't work the other way round.

Google? What a ridiculous name. But what a brilliant proposition and positioning.

The trouble is that it's much more fun to play around with a name or a logo or a web design, than it is to sit down and really nut out what you do that's really different, really important - the thing you do that adds real value to your clients' business.

So how do you go about defining your own Brand Story?

Ask yourself 3 questions to kick things off:

1. What's the one thing you'd change about your market - the one thing that most other companies do, which you refuse to do, or the one thing you do (or are prepared to do), that no one else will?

2. How would this add real value to your clients?

- What problem does it solve? What opportunity does it create that wasn't there before?

3. How do you, or would you deliver on this?

- What system do you have to make this work? How is it different from the way your competitors work?

Good Luck - and strive to be different!

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Posted by Justin Cooper at 12:02 pm 0 Comments