{Branding} It’s an Experience
A brand is not a logo. It’s not a website. It’s not a brochure or ad or packaging.
A brand is an experience – it’s about bringing all the ways you reach out and “touch” your target audience collectively into one climactic stage! And each touch point – your business cards, Facebook fan page, your blog or website, packaging, voicemail greeting, signage, trade show booths, everything – should be a CONSISTENT EXPRESSION of that brand!!!
And to help illustrate my point, I want to share with you an oldie but a goodie – it’s an article that was written a year and a half ago – but it’s something that is a MUST READ! It’s titled, Take A Stand for Your Brand and it features a lovely friend of mine, Kim Duke, the Sales Diva, as well as Stuart Gray, the Blue Collar Sales Guy.
I’ve known Kim for a few years now and I absolutely love her! She’s an entrepreneur, she’s a Diva, she ‘tells it like it is’, she doesn’t mince words, and she has done a FABULOUS job of branding herself/her biz.
If you want to stand out (which I know you do), take some cues from these two creative, well branded, sales trainers.
From their brand names alone, you probably have already formed a picture of who these people are.
Here’s just a few of the ‘branding’ highlights you’ll read in the article:
Kim Duke: The Sales Diva – target: women who sell
-purple is her main branding color.
-her books are designed to fit into a woman’s purse.
-her biz card holder is a purple box with a tassel
-her voice-mail message is, “I’d love to take your call, but I’m out making money right now.”
Stuart Gray: The Blue Collar Sales Guy – target: men who sell
-drives around in an RV that says “Sales: Up Yours!”
-he wears Dockers or jeans, denim shirts or bowling shirts.
-at the beginning of a presentation, he passes out toilet paper.
-stage backdrops are supported by PVC pipe.
-his biz cards are beer coasters.
Whether you’re a business owner or a speaker, you’ve got to figure out where your passion is, own it and then stay in that space!
Read the full article “Take a Stand for Your Brand” on pages 12-15 of Speaker Magazine, April 2010 here…and get ready to be inspired.
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Take a Stand for Your Brand Article written by Stephanie Conner for SPEAKER magazine, April 2010.
Photo via of SPEAKER magazine, April 2010.
