11 Principles to Develop a Focus for Your Brand

How focused is your brand? What about your business?

Focus is a value we all need. But at times it can be quite elusive.

In business, the ability to align all stakeholders around a common focus is a critical element in developing a successful brand. What does that focus looks like?

As a value itself, Focus means concentration of attention or energy; maximum clarity.

Very successful individuals know the value of focus. Consider great athletes who show us their best, because they are focused. They practice and hone their skills, keeping their focus front and center.

But it’s one of the hardest values to embrace and implement across organizations. It’s even harder to maintain for a brand.

Well-known marketing consultant Al Ries wrote a book on this topic, called Focus, The Future of Your Company Depends on it. In it, Ries writes:
“The biggest single barrier to the development of an effective corporate strategy is the strongly held belief that a company has to appeal to the entire market. More money has been wasted reaching out to a company’s ‘noncustomers’ than any other single endeavor.”

Can you imagine the overall marketing waste that litters the business landscape?  All because business leaders and marketers lack the ability to focus.

In his book, Ries provides a number of recommendations to develop an organizational focus. Here are 11 of his principles that resonated with me.

1)    A Focus is Simple. If you begin with the intention that the problem, when solved, will be simple – it will be. It’s about selecting specific words, like magic (for Disney) and safety (for Volvo).

2)    A Focus is Memorable. Your customers need to be able to remember what you stand for. It’s a mind game.

3)    A Focus is Powerful. Establishing a focus creates an environment for it to get repeated over and over again. And repetition creates power.

4)    A Focus is Revolutionary. It will challenge conventional thinking. Be prepared to encounter resistance.

5)    A Focus is the Future. Effective leaders predict and create the future, not the present. What you are moving towards is described by your focus.

6)    A Focus starts Internally. It is reflected in the people hired, rewarded systems established, and products developed. What’s inside shows up on the outside,

7)    A Focus needs an Enemy. Just as a great story has both a hero and a villain, every organization needs to know both what it is moving towards and move away from.

8)    A Focus is not a Product. Competition forces product conflicts. Trade-offs continually exist and marketers must be willing to walk away from specific products to maintain focus.

9)    A Focus is not an Umbrella. It can’t be viewed as containing all of your business. A focus should cover only that aspect of your business that represents the future.

10) A Focus is not Instantly Successful. In the short term, narrowing your focus may cost you business, as fewer people want to buy your products. Perseverance is required to see the fruits of focus.

11) A Focus is not Forever. Sooner or later even the most powerful focus becomes obsolete. For some this might be decades. For others, it might only be in months. Eventually, a company will need to refocus itself.

 What other principles do you follow to develop a focus for your brand?