I have to be honest. I have been waiting quite a while to write this blog. This, without a doubt, is one of my hot buttons in this business. On a daily basis, I see it done EXTREMELY well by some brands and EXTREMELY poorly by others. I have seen it done EXTREMELY well by us here at BeautiControl and EXTREMELY poorly by us here at BeautiControl. With that being said, I see it both ways with our sales force as well.
In this series we have touched on each of these topics, but I haven’t combined them into one place like I am with this 3-part series. I’m going to break this series up into 3 parts, because I want you to be able to digest the content, absorb the importance and really take a hard and honest look at your business:
- Part 1: Building Your Brand
- Part 2: Protecting Your Brand Integrity
- Part 3: Building Brand Value
DISCLAIMER: This is one of those blog series that I am going to have to put a disclaimer on. I am likely to ruffle a few feathers. I can’t apologize for that because that’s my job. My job is to grow BeautiControl’s brand, protect our brand integrity and build brand value and to help you do the same. You don’t have to tell me how difficult it is, because I live that every day I go to work. I know what it is like to market and sell to people who only want a discount (you and I both have shared responsibility for that one). I know what it is like to try to get someone to sell who only wants a discount (you and I have shared responsibilities for that one as well). I know what it is like to have a hodge-podge brand identity that doesn’t clearly define who we are and what we do (and we, “BeautiControl”, will take full responsibility for that one)
The objective of this series will be to help you question everything you are doing today and encourage you to develop strategies to enhance and grow your business.
Building Your Brand:
Building BeautiControl’s brand is my job. Building your brand as a Consultant of BeautiControl is your job. I have to give you the products and tools to successfully go out and establish your business and build your brand in your community. If you are not sure of how to do this, check out last Monday’s blog, “BeautiControl 105: Being Seen as a Business Owner”.
As much as we would like for them to, customers are not going to walk up to our door, ring the bell and ask to have a Spa. To build yourself as a brand, you have to actively market yourself as a brand. Your image, your tools (business cards, BeautiPage, your set sheets, etc. must be consistent with what you want your brand to look like.
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Looking at the first chart, if you were to compare your brand to a retail store, which of these stores best represent how you see yourself as a brand today?
- Which of these stores would you say your current clients would compare to you as a brand today?
- Which of these stores would you most like for your clients to compare you to as your own brand?
- Which of these brands best represent the way that you would like to represent yourself as your own brand?
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Looking at the brands represented in the second chart, which ones most represent the brands that your current client base would use?
- Looking at the same chart, which ones of these brands best represent the way that you perceive yourself today?
- Which ones of these brands would your clients say best represent your brand today?
- Which of these brands would you most like to compete with and why?
- Looking at both charts, which company or brand do you MOST want to look like and compete with and which ones do you LEAST want to look like and compete with?
Here is your exercise, you can do this alone, or this would also be a great exercise to work on with other Consultants on your teams at a Unit Rally. By the way, there is no right or wrong/good or bad here. This is an exercise that I do frequently with my teams to make sure we are on the right course as a brand or if we need to make course corrections and get back on track.
After you have identified which ones of these brands you most want to emulate and the ones that you least want to emulate, I want you to take the brand that you most admire and the brand that you least admire and create 2 boards (or if you are a computer person, create 2 documents or power point slides or whatever floats you boat.
At the top of the first chart put the logo of the store that you MOST want to create for your own brand image and the logo of the brand that MOST you want other’s to compare you to.
At the top of the 2nd chart, put the logo of the store that you LEAST want to create for your own brand image and the logo of the brand that you LEAST want other’s to compare you to.
Knowing who you want to be and who you don’t want to be is one of the most powerful things you can ever do for your business. Now that you have clearly identified this, I want you to really study these brands, look them up online…go into the store itself…and include images on your charts that represent your findings:
- Who is their customer?
- How old are they?
- What are they buying?
- How do they dress?
- How much do they spend?
- Are they more of a professional consumer or a stay-at-home consumer?
- What does the store look like?
- Does the store have a mass image? A prestige image? A “trendy” image?
- Evaluate their sales associates?
- How to they dress to come to work?
- How much do they know about the products that they sell?
- Do they actively find you to assist you or do you have to hunt them down and ask for assistance?
- Do people come to that store or purchase that brand because they are looking for a deal or because they are looking for quality?
- Do their products look like they belong in that store or is the product brand image inconsistent with the image of the store?
- Are their mailings, catalogs, website, emails, fliers, etc. consistent with their brand image?
- Do you value and trust the brand? Why and why not?
After you have both of your charts completed, you should have a very clear idea of:
- Who you are today
- Who you want to be
- Who you don’t want to be
Only after you determine these 3 things can you successfully go about building YOUR brand. By next Monday, I hope many of you have had an opportunity to put together your two charts (In fact, I would love, love, love to see some of them) and we can move into the next step of branding which is protecting your brand integrity and building a “brand promise” for each of your clients.
I hope you all have a great week. Be sure to check back on Friday where we talk about the fabulous new products for April.
Ciao.
