A discussion on branding on BlogTalk Radio
March 1st, 2007Yesterday I participated in a round table discussion with some great people talking about brands and branding. It took place on BlogTalkRadio; the people involved were:
Wayne Hulbert, from blogbusinessworld who hosted the show, Mike Wagner – ownyourbrand, Valeria Maltoni – conversationagent, Derrick Daye – brandingstrategyinsider, John Moore – brandautopsy, Drew McLellan - drewsmarketingminute and Mike Sansone – converstations
I’ve never personally met any of the contributors, but I know them from their blogs. Here we are, having a round table discussion with people from the US, Canada and Australia, people who have never met (well, some may have) broadcasting a radio show globally. I’m still amazed how we do things now that you wouldn’t have imagined possible ten years ago.
To spice things up, we probably needed a little more controversy, but there was a lot of agreement on some of the key aspects of building brands in todays environment. In particular:
Don’t confuse your brand with the brand image - a logo is not a brand, nor is a name. I think it was Drew who said (loosely) a brand name is an empy vessel; you give it meaning by what you do for your customers. Same goes for a logo.
Be brave and make choices about who it is you develop the brand around - choose a niche and really understand what makes that niche tick; the greatest mistake is to be all things to all people. The world is simply too competitive for “me-too” brands.
Take the time to understand your competition – you can’t differentiate without looking at competitors
Words matter - What you say and how you say it have a great impact on the perception that people have of your brand, so it’s worth taking the time to articulate it carefully.
If you like to listen to it,here it is: BlogTalkRadio