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Genius Simple Branding - FAQ

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Q. What is branding?
A. Well, we have developed a book on it, but for the sake of brevity: “Branding is the intentional short-cut that exists in your customer’s head”. If you own that shortcut…sales are a substantially easier. .

Q. Why “Genius Simple”?
A. We found the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) adage to be completely wrong in our field. Only the genius level leader is able to keep the company brand simple.

Q. People charge significant amounts for a single brand name. You include naming in your branding process. How is that possible?
A. Naming is never easy. However, we have found that when you establish your branding promise, selecting a name is much easier. I like fanciful names because it’s easier to own the URLs. I always warn people that suggestive names (like Superior Tires) can invite a “cease and desist” letter.

Q. You don’t believe in mission statements do you?
A. I do believe that mission statements are a waste of time. Talking to hundreds of businesses of all types, I have found no one remembers or uses them. Branding promises are 7 words or less and good ones capture your essence beautifully. Comparing a branding promise with a mission statement is like comparing lightning to a lightning bug.

Q. OK. But you don’t believe in research either. That’s heresy.
A. In this day and age, research is just too slow and inaccurate for marketing decision making. Research works in other areas obviously. This is where social networking and finger-on-the-pulse transactional experience is crucial. I think it’s great for CEOs and marketing directors to get down in the trenches and find out exactly what’s going on at ground level.

Q. Isn’t branding about raising “awareness”.
A. That approach is pretty nebulous and becomes senselessly expensive very quickly - even for consumer products. If you are selling B to B it makes much more sense to sell pro-actively in niches with what we call full-court-press strategies. I am about “trusted advisor” intentional selling as opposed to “blind squirrel” selling. Life is short. When it comes to branding, we are strictly rubber-to-the-road – we brand to help and support sales people sell – they are our crowd.

Q.How are brand and search engine marketing related?
A. Intimately. We never complete a brand without using Google tools. On the other hand, there is a lot of SEO-envy going on out there – “I am missing out, all my friends are doing it”.. The Branding Map™ process reveals pretty quickly what the balance between your sales process and your find-ability should be.

Q. After the Branding Map process is over, how do you support me?
A. We believe branding is just half of the sales equation. The other half is outreach. If you don’t communicate your brand to the right people you are bound to fail. We have developed the Next Step Online in order to break the outreach process into small, do-able steps. Having your Branding Map and Next Step on the cloud helps in two ways: First, it’s easier to saturate your culture with your brand when your branding center is available 24/7 on the web. Second, the process is more transparent, so there is more accountability. If everyone in the company can see that a task is high priority, due next week, and you are the one responsible – then you are much more likely to complete the task. We find the whole process goes even better when there is an “outside” co-brander acting as an accountability partner. That person can be our project coordinator or your own trusted advisor.