Daring to Build a Strong Brand

One thing that defines a strong brand is the presence of raving fans. They help build the brand.

The other way to tell a brand is strong is the presence of people who “hate” it.

Think of Microsoft and Facebook. Millions of people use their products and services AND complain about them everyday.

While the term “hate” might sound a bit strong, just listen to the passionate complaints. There’s some strong language being used there. And yet, millions of people continue to use their products.

It’s like a mathematical model or balancing an equation. If one group of people loves a particular brand, there must be a different group who hates it. In other words, unless you have some group of people who hates your brand, your brand is not yet a strong brand.

Therein lies a problem.

Daring to be Strategic

As human beings, we generally don’t like it when someone hates us. This is also true in business. We’ll do anything to make customers happy – especially paying customers. And in the end we risk trying to please everyone, and thereby pleasing no one.

However, effective brand builders think differently. They choose to be daring.

As a differentiating value, Daring means bold; radically new or original; disposed to venture or take risks. Note that there is no reference here to being reckless or foolhardy. In the hands of a strong leader, daring is strategic.

Such daring brand builders are very comfortable with the idea that some people won’t like their brand. In fact, they celebrate it. Instead, these marketers strategically build a strong brand by focusing on a select group of customers who LOVE their brand.

This is when such marketers take daring all the way to being radical.

Radical Marketing

In the book Radical Marketing, author Sam Hill profiled 10 companies that he considered to be some of the world’s best marketers – using non-traditional means. His eclectic list included Harley Davidson, the NBA, Virgin Atlantic, EMC Corp, and the Grateful Dead.

Interestingly, each organization applied different means to grow their business and their brand. But Hill highlights three things as the common ingredients of all 10 radical marketers:

1. They relate differently to their customers. There is a warmth and respect that builds a connection with their customers. Surprisingly, there is no patronizing cynicism often found in traditional marketers.
2. They are in it for the long haul. There is a caring tone in customer communications. And because they expect to face the same customer the next day, there’s a fierce commitment to quality.
3. They are resource constrained, often severely. There’s a willingness to make the best with what’s at hand. And this results in breakthrough innovations on behalf of their customers.

In other words, world-class marketers are daring enough to ignore the few people who hate them and instead focus on the needs of a specific group of customers who actually love their brand. They apply all their energy to providing the best quality and experience, and do so in spite of serious resource limitations. Now that’s a radical idea….

 

Are you daring enough to risk having your brand hated by a few people?

 

Today’s value was selected from the “Confidence-Courage” category, based on the e-book Developing Your Differentiating Values.