Marketing and communications are key to building your brand and your business. This workshop explored your expression of who you are and what you represent, why communication is important and what simple, practical tools you can apply.
Branding and communication play a big role in your business – and this can start from within.
How your staff perceive your business is key – as they can be your biggest marketing tools.
Top Tips
- Your brand is more than your logo
- Understand what your brand stands for
- Consider how you express those values
- What does your brand say to your customers and employees?
General terms of communication
- Customer care: monitored phone conversations, coaching staff on how to represent your business, policies on getting back to people
- External brand guidelines that resonate the brand values
- Website to reflect the branding and purpose of your business
- Social media to share who you are across multi-channels in bite sized content
- Community management – responding to people online
- Education: providing talks to industry professionals and support FOC as well as working with schools to reinforce the purpose
- Printed materials to send out to clients as a reminder
- Trade shows and industry events to promote the brand
- Advertising
- Customer feedback publicised and encouraged
- Applying for local and national award shows
What lies at the foundations of your communication is your brand. But your brand is more than a logo.
- What lies behind your brand are your values
- So where is the differentiation if they all say the same thing?
Most brand values are meaningless so don’t spend lots of money creating values unless you are going to use them in a meaningful way that drives your business.
British Airways
There are big brands today that have invested multi-millions in becoming an icon – so why are they not doing so well?
Very successful brands with beautiful logos can still get it wrong. So it isn’t just what it looks like. It is the essence of the brand.
UBER
Uber is a company that has suffered from bad press and bad reputations to the point where drivers will openly tell customers that they don’t like how they have been treated. At the end of the day, the customer experience is with the drivers. So what does that tell you about the brand?
BHS
Started off as an iconic British Brand where you could get a lamp shade. After struggling on the high-street suddenly Sir Philip Rose (CEO) sold it to someone for £1. As a result, they had a pension crisis for employees who had worked there for years.
Eventually, BHS closed down.
What was the purpose behind the brand?
Internal Vs External
Understand what your brand stands for then establish:
- What are the principals of your brand?
- What are the values of your brand?
- Who expresses those values?
What does your brand say to your customers?
What does your brand say about your employees?
So when it comes to internal branding, then Cathy Hackett (cathy.hackett@gmail.com) is a well-versed expert in the field. She is local to Frome but has worked in London for international companies, helping them with their communications.
And if it is the external brand you want to focus on, then Alan Morden (alanmorden66@gmail.com) is another Frome local, who has worked all over the world to grow the brands of companies such as British Airways, major banks, and even re-branding countries.