Radiant Branding

We took our kids to Ashville, NC to see Biltmore for Christmas and while we were there, we took a 45 minute jaunt to Brevard to meet Phil and his wife, Michelle. Phil and I met online 3 years ago, but this is the first time we’d met in person. What fun! I thought those of you taking the classes might enjoy seeing a picture.

Phil Davis and Marnie Pehrson in Brevard NC

Phil gave us the tour of downtown Brevard — including the White Squirrel Shop, the White Squirrel Radio Station (which Phil is a part-owner in), and Opie Taylor’s Toy Shop. He topped off the evening by giving us each a white squirrel t-shirt!

This week’s class is on 1000 Watt Branding. Please post your questions, comments or “aha moments” here. We’ll be monitoring this section closely for the first hour right after the call, so you can post and get very interactive feedback from both of us and other participants. Of course, feel free to post here anytime… even long after the call is over.

This week’s message is on clarifying your message and conveying your identity throughout your business communications. Please post your questions, comments or “aha moments” here. We’ll be monitoring this section closely for the first hour right after the call, so you can post and get very interactive feedback from both of us and other participants. Of course, feel free to post here anytime… even long after the call is over.

by Phillip Davis of www.PureTungsten.com

Why is it that Coke can market all kinds of mutated varieties such as Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, Diet Vanilla Cherry Coke, etc., and consumers literally drink it up? But when Mercedes came out with a low-end version of their car, the “real” Mercedes owners were horrified? To discover the answer requires identifying a company’s “pivot point.” The pivot point of your brand is that inherent promise you have made (wittingly or unwittingly) with your customers. And while you can move your brand in any number of directions, that one pivot point, that key element of trust, must remain steadfastly in place. Want proof? Ask yourself, hypothetically, which of the following would be more accepted in the marketplace…

• Rolex announcing that it was coming out with a very high-end clothing line?
• Rolex announcing that is was going to sell a $10 version of its watches at Wal-Mart?

Rationally it would make more sense that Rolex would extend itself further in the watch category. But Rolex really isn’t in the watch business; it’s in the prestige business. That’s the pivot point, or position, it owns in the customer’s mind. To create a cheap, widely available watch would seem more like a betrayal than a brand extension. It’s obvious once you really think about it, but how many times do companies believe they are in the business of the product they make?

Since I’ve positioned Tungsten Marketing as a source for brilliant branding, it would be more acceptable if I next offered brilliant public relations vs. a bottom-of-the- pile discount-naming warehouse. If I were to do that, I would need to create a whole new brand or identity so as not to cloud my current positioning…one of providing clarity and brilliance.

A client of mine was at a loss on how to grow his tuxedo business. It was post 9-11 and the mood was anything but festive. When I asked him what business he was in, he was flabbergasted, “Tuxedos of course!” In fact he was the second generation of tuxedo sellers. But then I prodded him again. “Do men really want to wear heavy, tight-fitting, expensive tuxedos?” He thought for a moment and finally replied no. As he sat confused, I asked him again, “What business are you really in? What do you do that makes customers love you?” His eyes widened and he replied, “We make men look good!”

He had discovered his “pivot point.”

Making men look good brought with it all kinds of new possibilities. He could gather his customers’ email addresses while they shopped for tuxedos, and then send them thoughtful reminders before loved ones’ birthdays and anniversaries, with recommendations on the perfect jewelry, flowers or chocolates. He could make a commission on these products all while making his male customers “look good.” He could extend his product line to include business suits, since he would no longer be just a “tuxedo” shop but a place where men could come to look good in the eyes of others. See how important that subtle distinction can be? Instead of being stuck in a dead-end industry, the world was suddenly full of possibilities. That’s powerful stuff.

So in looking at your business, what is your pivot point? What is it about your business that makes your core customers love it, use it, and spread the word about it? It’s probably not the goods themselves but the way in which you deliver them. And that’s what customers are truly buying. That’s your pivot point. Find it and you can move your business in entirely new, and profitable, directions!

We’ve set up this section for you to discuss your experience with Lesson 2: Gaining Clarity and Vision in Your Business. Please post your questions, comments or “aha moments” here. We’ll be monitoring this section closely for the first hour right after the call, so you can post and get very interactive feedback from both of us and other participants. Of course, feel free to post here anytime… even long after the call is over.

- Phil & Marnie

We’ve set up this section for you to discuss your experience with Lesson 1: Branding from the Inside Out (aka Letting Your Light Shine). Please post your questions, comments or “aha moments” here. We’ll be monitoring this section closely for the first hour right after the call, so you can post and get very interactive feedback from both of us and other participants. Of course, feel free to post here anytime… even long after the call is over.

- Phil & Marnie

by Phillip Davis

Many business owners sincerely believe they understand their company brand. They can describe it, quantify it and explain its place in the market. They can recount corporate history and accomplishments and detail future plans and goals. These are all necessary items for communicating a company’s brand message, but they are also the most superficial ones. These descriptive attributes tell us about what the business does, but not who the company is. The true power of a brand does not come from the what, where, when and how. It comes from the “who” and “why.”

Think about it for a minute. Almost every organization can cite what they do, where their offices are located, when they started and how they do what they do. It’s the same in science and many other fields. Experts explain how things work, but not why they work. The real effort, the real sweat and tears, comes from digging deeper beneath the surface and asking the tough questions . . . “Who are we as a company and why do we do what we do?”

This exercise requires some honesty, reflection and soul searching on the part of those in leadership. Perhaps that’s why Henry Ford said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.” This exercise may seem like splitting hairs, but the results can be profound. The early owners of the railroad industry deemed themselves invincible because they owned the railways. They could describe their business in very specific terms, including the miles of track, the number of boxcars, the annual revenues. But these wealthy business owners eventually faltered because they never realized who they were… providers of mobility. In this broader, more expansive view, they would have naturally evolved their business into cars and then planes. They would have known they provided freedom of movement to people and products, and in that role they would have constantly searched for more efficient ways to provide that service. Instead they said they owned railroads – a shallow well.

If you can discover who you are as a company, and why you do what you do, then you can transcend the ups and downs of the marketplace. You can survive a drought. You will remain relevant and avoid riding a trend into the ground. Apple has remained relevant precisely because it did not cling to its initial identity as a computer company. Apple saw that it could enhance people’s lifestyles digitally. That opened the door to music, movies, editing, podcasting and a slew of new opportunities. Compare that to Gateway Computers. What if Gateway had seen itself as truly a “gateway”? Then perhaps they would have made similar shifts in their business. Instead they are largely viewed as a computer company. And when you become tied to a product vs. a concept, you become a commodity. Can you say railroads?

Take a look at your company. Who are you? Why do you do what you do? What is your real benefit to your customer? It’s not in the actual service or product you provide — that is subject to constant change. The truth of who you are and why you do what you do is much deeper than that. When traced fully back, it will lead to an intangible concept that can transcend concrete products and services. Take out your mental shovel and spend a few days digging deeper. You may just discover a fresh new source of ideas, inspiration and revenue.

As you probably know, Phillip Davis and I are cohosting a teleseries called Radiant Branding starting November 25th. What you may not know is that Phil has been using me as his guinea pig!  Tuesday he called me and reviewed lesson one with me. He wanted me to go through the exercise at the end of the lesson and get back with him with my results.

That evening I sat down with the series of questions and answered them. The result was probably one of the most significant self-discoveries of my life. There was astonishment, tears, laughter, even a touch of embarrassment; but in the end an intense sense of relief and enlightenment. The discovery was so pivotal and so central to everything I do. I realized that I’d been trying to obtain my heart’s desire in all the wrong ways!

I’ve been:

• working long hours until I’m worn out and exhausted,
• not taking time for my kids like I should,
• delegating, but constantly filling up the redeemed time with more work,
• feeling like no matter what I do, it’s never enough,
• significantly undercharging for the value I deliver in my services and still feeling like I’m not doing enough,
• experiencing burnout — so much so that things I used to enjoy became drudgery.

All of this was because

1. I was trying to obtain the core desire of my heart in ways that didn’t make sense and weren’t even necessary. I was jumping through these manufactured hoops that no one — not my customers and not even God — expected me to jump through.
2. I didn’t realize that I already have my core desire. I’ve just been so busy “doing” that I rarely stopped to simply be in the moment and take hold of what I ALREADY HAVE!

Now that I realize this, I can live my life and run my business by CHOICE. It’s not a “have to” or a “need to” and the feeling of “it’s never going to be enough” is gone. I feel like someone took a huge weight off my shoulders!

My next step is to come up with clear ways I can fully accept this core gift into my life on a daily basis. It’s there all around me. I just need to put myself in positions where I can acknowledge, feel and accept it into my life. As I allow myself to freely receive, it will naturally flow through me like a conduit and radiate out to everyone I touch.  And there you have it… Radiant Branding.

I can’t wait for everyone in the class to try this exercise. It’s going to be exciting to witness the results!

Three simple words. But they changed a life.

Tonight during my fitness class I noticed a newer member in the back row, diligently working to keep pace with the frantic routine of jumps and kicks. He had been there a time or two before and I remarked to him afterward that he seemed to catch on quickly. Had he studied karate or martial arts? No, came his calm reply. He simply had been working to get himself in shape. It was a personal mission that began two years before, at a weight of 315 lbs. He was now a slim 175.

Intrigued, I asked him if there was some event, some singular moment, that had triggered this quest of his. He paused for a moment and thought, and then slowly nodded yes, there had been something. It was something shared with him he had never heard before. Something spoken two years earlier that required repeating three times before he could really hear it. And it was simply this…

You are amazing!

This had never occurred to him. And yet is was suddenly so obvious. He wasn’t a big body, he wasn’t a depressed person — these were just self inflicted labels. He was far beyond any of that. And it could only be summed up by what he had just heard…

You are amazing!

Two years and 135 lbs later he tells me that people don’t recognize him any longer. Not just physically, but in his personality. The person he had been before had somehow faded away, a work of fiction. Everything had changed from that day on. A shift had occurred. A recognition of three words.

You are amazing!

How does that feel when you hear it? Does it ring true? Can you sense it? You really are amazing. And it has nothing to do with your labels. Be thinking this week about how you define yourself. What concepts do you keep in your head about yourself, your business, your life? Do these definitions help you or limit you?

I look forward to speaking with you next week.

Phil

We want to make the Radiant Branding course experience as valuable to you as we can. Please take a moment to tell us about yourself, your struggles, and where you are with solidifying your message into a brand that draws people to you naturally and effortlessly.