INTRODUCTION
Click here to download a PDF of the Introduction.
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Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex … it takes a touch of genius —and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.
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ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879–1955)
If you’re reading this book, it’s highly likely you have ambitions to grow your company beyond the status quo of competitors or the marketplace.
Perhaps marketing, more than most aspects of business, suffers from over complication.
This may help explain why so many growing business owners remain cynical of marketing and, even though they believe they should be utilising it, avoid it due to its apparent confusion and complexity.
Without question, marketing can be a key driver to the business growth you seek. Consider the following as an example of the power of marketing:
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By about 4.25pm the streets resembled the home stretch of a marathon as scores of Apple employees poured out of the store, ran a lap of the block, high-fiving members of the cheering crowds as thanks for their devotion. With fans penned in by metal barricades and flashbulbs illuminating York Street, passers-by could have been forgiven for thinking an international movie star had just arrived on a red carpet for a movie premiere.
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Opening of Apple ’s first Apple Store in Australia
—Sydney Morning Herald 19/06/08
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Consider further that this business was started in just 1978 in the garage of a house, with one concept, three partners, no working capital, and a big, bold dream.
Who would have believed that from such humble beginnings, a highly successful global brand could be created. And who would have thought that a seemingly innocuous and non descriptive name such as ‘Apple’ would become one of the globe’s power brands within ten years of its birth in a suburban backyard?
In addition to creating one of the world’s most successful businesses they have also created one of the worlds most admired and respected brands. The Apple brand is identified and communicated through consistent, innovative marketing that is driven by a highly disciplined strategy.
So how might the reader learn from this and similar marketing examples and how might you use the lessons and similar thinking to create and build your own brand?
At this stage it’s important to realise that every recognised big brand started small. Unless due to a merger or acquisition, every famous, well-positioned brand you instantly recognise was once a small or mid-sized business. These large, highly recognised and successful brands have grown to their current status by applying tried and tested marketing methods. These are the very same or similar methods that you will discover simply explained and demonstrated in this book.
The list of successful companies that have managed to brand their product or service for market success goes on and on.
So, what can you learn from these large, successful, multinational and global brands? Plenty. Think Apple. Think Qantas. Think Nike. Think Westfield. Think Mercedes Benz, and so on.
Whether local or international, most big brands started as a small business driven by a big idea—and a passionate commitment to exceed and excel the competition.
The same or similar methods these companies used so successfully to establish their marketing disciplines—consistency of marketing messages and their commitment to a marketing strategy—are contained within this book for every aspiring small or midsized business manager to learn.
This book aims to remove any confusion and complexity by introducing the BrandQuest Process. The process is a distillation of highly sophisticated and proven marketing theories and practices, into just four basic BrandQuestions that, when answered, provide the process for how you can implement and enjoy similar marketing success to the big brands in order to achieve your own business vision and goals.
In their own way, these big successful brands all discovered the answers to the four fundamental BrandQuestions and in the same way, this book will provide you with the background, the process and the understanding required to unlock and realise the full potential for marketing your business.
THE FOUR BRANDQUESTIONS
YOU NEED TO ANSWER
In order to simplify marketing and create a robust platform on which to build all marketing communications for the future here are the BrandQuestions you must answer—and share within and throughout your organisation or business:
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What do you need to say? |
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How should you say it? |
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How do you do what you say? |
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When do you say it? |
The answers to these questions unlock the potential for your company or business to achieve your desired objectives through the application of a considered marketing strategy.
These answers also provide the linear process to ensure that your marketing strategy is built from a sound base and that all resultant marketing tactics have a strong foundation. Or as we explain throughout the book, your BrandThinking drives your BrandDoing.
Importantly, unlocking the answers to the four BrandQuestions need not be a lengthy or time-consuming process and can be completed and then implemented ‘in market’ within weeks.
THE STRUCTURE OF THIS BOOK
Section 1: Brand Foundations provides a landscape for, and understanding of, the marketing journey ahead.
In this section we define branding, the benefits of investing in your brand, what we can all learn from the origins of branding, the difference between strategy and branding and how you will know when your business has evolved into a brand. You’ll also read a brief overview of the four BrandQuestions.
These are the fundamentals to developing your marketing strategy, along with the important and critical role that your business vision plays in establishing and driving your marketing strategy.
Section 2: BrandThinking addresses how you can unlock the answers to the first two fundamental BrandQuestions: What do you need to say? and How should you say it?
You will read actual case studies that provide real examples of how to deploy the marketing strategies of the big successful brands but at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time.
You’ll learn of the critical role that consistency and repetition play in a successful marketing strategy and how to create your Brand Positioning Statement that helps define your market, segment your customer audience through motivational segmentation and reveals your go-to-market points of difference.
In this section you’ll also learn how to find the answer to BrandQuestion 2: How should you say it? This question involves the building of your unique brand pyramid and defines your individual brand essence—what it is that defines your culture and brand personality.
Section 3: BrandDoing reveals how to discover the answers to the final two BrandQuestions: How do you do what you say? and, for maximum effect, When do you need to say it? In this section you will gain the necessary insights and understanding of how you can implement your marketing strategy in the marketplace with tactics that are strategically sound, how they can be measured for their effectiveness and how you might better plan all your future marketing activities.
In Chapter 10 you’ll be issued with five challenges and five quests for you to implement within your business immediately.
The principles and processes you are about to learn have been proven across many sectors and categories of commerce and across all size of companies and organisations. Your company or organisation may be driven by profit or it may be a not-for-profit (NFP), an existing business or a start-up, operating in a mature market or a developing category. However, and irrespective of whether your company is a B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer) with ten employees or hundreds of employees, unlocking the answers to the four fundamental BrandQuestions and formalising a marketing strategy as an outcome of your answers will lead you to marketing better, smarter, more consistently and more effectively to achieve your growth objectives.
As an added bonus your marketing will be more accountable and you will have a growing respect and regard for the sales return ratio of your marketing investment.