You have doubtless heard some variation of this expression: Your brand is not what you say it is, your brand is what your customer says it is.” This statement is largely true, for your brand sits at the axis of your positioning and your audience’s perception. While you as the brand originator have the first say, ultimately, the marketplace has the final say about how your brand is received.

In today’s “creator economy” every brand has affordable access to tools that allow it to present an attractive image. However, keeping in mind that people seek out relationships with brands because of how they make them feel and their (positive) perception of the brand, it is more important for brands to connect with their customers on this level. This led me to an important truth about branding: Your brand is not about your mark, it is about the mark you make. It’s about impact, more than image.

For years, we have been taught to focus on the brand as an image, a symbol, a graphic representation. Long gone are the days when your logo could just be slapped on a package or billboard and all that was needed was for it to be seen to be universally recognized and valued. Image makes and impression, experience makes and impact. In order for brands to go from strong impression to strong impact, the visual representation of the brand must coincide with well-crafted messaging and brand experience. Your brand efforts must be about moving customers through your brand touchpoints and beyond with meaningful, memorable, and magical experiences. Modern consumers are experience-driven. Your brand has the opportunity to thoughtfully cultivate and create that every time some engages with your brand.

So, where can your brand begin with doing this?  Here are three high-level approaches:

Align Intentionally

Making a mark requires standing up and standing out for more than just making money. Everybody knows that your business exists to make money. What is your purpose beyond the bottom line? In order to have impact, brands must identify what they believe in and align their values and practices with that. This applies to the internal (team-facing) aspect of your brand as well as the external (customer-facing) aspect of your brand. Staff and stakeholders want to see a commitment to practicing the professed values and customers want to see authenticity and thoughtfulness in how businesses conduct themselves in a competitive, fast-paced marketplace.

Radical commitment to values leaves a positive impression long after the transaction has concluded. If you don’t have something that your brand aligns with, it makes it harder for your ideal customers, your most passionate advocates to find and build a relationship with you. Your “Why” often gives customers the answer to “Why you?” The pandemic gave brands that were in communities an opportunity to engage in the community in new ways. As we move beyond the first years, we expect that to continue.

To make a mark, know what you believe in and build systems, connections and opportunities to connect with that both within the business and outside of it. Then, recruit and retain passionate individuals that believe in that.

Honor Your Customer’s Choices and Ability to Choose

Making a mark means acknowledging that your customers have choices in the marketplace. You do not want to take your customers for granted. You do want serve them from a place of gratitude. It also means that you are focused on giving your customers something meaningful to choose. You acknowledge that they have tough choices to make and that the brand choices they make are important to them. You provide clear, actionable copy that speaks to real problems and solutions because you value their choice and want them to choose you. You will not choose empty, meaningless words, but rather, at every touchpoint, seek to create meaning and purpose, which creates value. Authentic, engaging storytelling is one of the best ways to do this.

To make a mark, elevate the needs of the customer. Realize that your brand is inherently valuable, and that it can increase in value as it serves others, through its products and services. This positions your brand to keep evolving and growing, to be able to better anticipate and respond to the needs of your customer, that is to say, give them increasingly better choices.

Change YourRelationship with Change

Change is inevitable: in the marketplace, in society, even with your organization. It happens whether we want it to or not. As time and society moves along, how are you moving with (or against) change? The story of growth for many companies begins and ends with how they responded to change. To make a mark, you must make a conscious decision to move with or against change as it is happening around your business. You must decide to change proactively, not just reactively. You must decide to be a producer of change, not just a product of it. 

The pandemic presented many businesses with this opportunity. Everyone had to respond, but it also showed them that they needed to be positioned to respond differently for the next pandemic or some other type of crisis. Think of the brands you use and support. How has it changed significantly in some way? The reason is because people, their tastes, cultural awareness and sensitivity, and perspectives have changed. Surely you’ve heard the oft-quoted expression, “be the change you want to see in the world.

To make a mark, decide what type of relationship with change your business and brand will have. Change is inevitable. An internal resolution to produce change, either through innovative methods of service or delivery or some other means, will pay off more than simply passively responding to external changes.

Enthuse Creative can help

Enthuse Creative leads brands of all kinds through a strategic process to analyze and revamp your brand, ensuring that your impact makes as much of an impression as your image. Reach out to us today for a free consultation.