We hear a lot about branding and “strength of brand” and a lot of other terms that are meant to mean depth of thought in regards to marketing and branding thought.
Most of them are the exact opposite.
When you consider whether or not your brand has strength, there are likely only 3 things you need to think about to decide whether or not your brand is strong or not:
1. What is your position in people’s minds:
Think about phones and tablets right now.
What is the first thing you think of when you think about them?
Like the iPhone or the iPad.
Am I right?
Or, what about search?
Google, anyone?
How about luxury hotels?
Four Seasons, yes?
Or, maybe the Ritz Carlton?
What these all should illustrate is that your brand is strong if someone talks about the issue you tackle and you are the first person or in the first group of people that are referenced when that conversation is had.
How strong are you?
2. How closely does your brand align with your goals?
You can do a great job of building a brand and have it be a worthless effort because your brand value isn’t in alignment with what your goals are.
As I have talked about a lot over the years, you need to make sure that your brand is in alignment with the work and value that you create and want to create for your clients.
To measure your brand’s strength, look at how closely your brand is aligned with the value you want to be known for.
3. Does your brand stand for something larger than just making money:
Even if we are in business, our business needs to have a larger mission and vision behind it.
Think about how Google wanted to organize all of the world’s information.
Or, how Steve Jobs envisioned the Mac as a tool to give everyone the power to create something and be innovators.
Does your brand stand out for its larger mission?
If not, why?