A brief overview of brand development including 8 key principles - including consistency, differentiation, outstanding products and service and growing your customer community

1. Brand Development Online

2. Be Distinctive
• Why is your business different from others ?
– Better customer service?
– Better / unique Products ?
• What ever it is – lay it on thickly in everything you publish
• Make your name and clearly recognisable logo synonymous
with what makes your business distinctive

3. Deliver Great Products or
Service
• Mediocre / Adequate / Good enough isn’t worth talking
about
• So create buzz and enthusiasm (and the all important
testimonials) by being legendary, brilliant or otherwise
outstanding
• Don’t forget the emotional benefits of your product / service

4. Keep your Promises
• Not your contractual promises but your Brand Promises
• Brand Promises aren’t legally binding, but they are no less
important, because they:
– inspire customer loyalty
– reinforce your brand

5. Be Consistent
• Brands must be consistent in everything they do
– Send the same messages
– On all channels
– Walk the talk
• Skype branding is great!
– Everything feels informal, new, young and exciting
– Brightly coloured speech bubbles emphasise the important things, but
it never feels legalistic and heavy handed
– The software works well and is incredibly easy to use by all ages

6. Grow your Community
• Popular brands have a community around them. Apple is the best
example, surrounded by groups who never miss an opportunity to
do Apple’s advertising for them:
– Mac bores
– iPhone bores
– App developers
• The App has created a market for the skills of developers who have
become huge brand advocates
• On a SME scale, you can create a community
– Tuesday club for restaurants – try new recipes on loyal customers, mix
them up
– Briefings for favoured clients of financial advisors
– Can you create a mechanism for channel partners to benefit from
promoting your business ? (eg Apps)

7. Stand for /Against Something
• If a brand takes a stance, then publicity can run away with
itself:
– Body Shop seemed to be against everything at one point
• Body Shop products offered solutions to the campaign issues
– Firefox browser set itself up as the “not Microsoft” browser
– The “Dollar Shave Club” is against Gillette’s expense and branding
– Zipcar’s car sharing scheme is against car ownership
• Sympathisers will promote your business and social media
provides a very low effort to do this

8. Find your Voice
• Not just “what you say”, but “how you say it”
• Skype uses speech bubbles and informal , non technical
language
• GE likes lots of photographs of cool kit and talks “dirty” (in
technical terms) about their products and projects – great for
their audience

9. Empower your Customers
• Customers own your brand – the brand is their shared beliefs
about your business that counts
• And especially, their testimonials, which will have far greater
impact than anything you say or do

10. Summary
• Be Distinctive
• Deliver Great Products or Services
• Keep your Brand Promises
• Be Consistent
• Grow your Community
• Stand for / against something
• Find your Voice
• Empower your Customers
Remember, even if you haven’t started work on your brand, your
customers have…..

11. For more information, contact SMEsOnline
James Gunn
james.gunn@smesonline.co
+44 7855 406652