Business
Often times in the manufacturing industry, companies end up “settling” for a weak brand.A weak brand is one that fails to adequately distinguish or differentiate itself from competing brands. If you can’t explain to customers and channel partners what’s so special about your brand, there isn’t anything special about your brand. Hence, you’re losing sales opportunities. And I think you would agree that’s a problem. The purpose of this blog is to be the bulldozer by getting six common roadblocks out of your way so that you have an easier time defining a brand that does distinguish and differentiate you from your competitors.Some of these roadblocks may surprise you.Let’s go through them, one by one:1. Confusion over what a brand is. I’ll break this down into two parts. A brand is what people think about when they hear your name or see your logo. Brand development, which is what you want to focus on, is identifying the distinctions your company owns that make a positive and noteworthy difference in the lives of your customers and channel partners. 2. Not knowing where to start. Begin by placing yourself in the shoes of your customers and ask yourself why specifically they should buy from you instead of your competition. This second part of the question is important because you do have competitors and you are losing business to them. You can’t improve your brand unless you ask yourself and your team this burning, painful question. 3. Ego. Let me tell you what I mean. Before embarking on any brand initiative, it’s crucial to gains insights into how your brand is perceived by employees, customers, and channel partners through a brand assessment. After all, you need to know where your brand stands in their hearts and minds so that you know how it could be better and stronger. But, some CEOs don’t want to do an assessment because they’re afraid of what people might say about them, personally or their company. Those who have this fear claim they already know what their employees and customers think and doing any sort of assessment would be a waste of time and money. 4. The presence of a dysfunctional culture at the top. If you have a crappy culture of petty politics, conflicts of values, and poor leadership, what kind of culture do you think the rest of the organization has? Think of it this way – culture is defined as the social construct of an organization, and if that social construct is dysfunctional, your brand’s going to be in trouble. Typically, the only remedy is a new president or CEO who will come in and clean house. 5. Internal resistance. Remember the last time you pushed an idea on a group of people, and they all agreed to it with a big smile? Exactly. Part of the reason an internal culture and brand assessment is so necessary to the success of the brand is because you are inviting your employees to provide their insights, views, and opinions about the brand. Even if some don’t completely agree with the brand you create, they will have appreciated the opportunity to contribute to the purpose and cause for creating a new brand. 6. Fear of change. The process of identifying your competitive distinctions is much easier than making the necessary internal changes to bring the new brand to life. Whether it is abandoning a part of your business, restructuring your company, re-writing your business plan, making new investments, or requiring people to change their habits and ways of thinking, large-scale change will be necessary. So there you have it! If you can overcome these mindsets and challenges, you’ll be much more successful at building a brand that will help you grow your business.