Hey Square Readers,
As we’re getting into reading Worth Every Penny by Sarah Petty and Erin Verbeck, let’s get deeper into the material. Last week we talked about the basics, the authors’ framework and definition of a Boutique business.
Now, let’s dive into the first main section of the book: Branding.
Benefits of Branding
“Your identity is how you look, and your brand is how people feel about you.”
“Here’s the bottom line: you can’t build a strong brand on a weak identity.”
First, let’s talk about what branding actually is. Your branding is the total perception your customers have about you. Your logo and color scheme are part of your Visual Identity, which is only one part of your branding. Your brand is essentially your reputation.
Overall, having a well defined brand is incredibly important to any business, but especially a Boutique one. The authors write, “Without a remarkable brand, a boutique business is nothing… If people don’t know what you’re about, [or] if your business looks different every time they see you … they can’t rely on you for a spectacular, one-of-a-kind experience every time… To charge what you’re worth, it’s essential to carefully craft and manage your reputation for being the best at what you do… Your brand lays the foundation for attracting the right clients and increasing the results of your marketing efforts. Your fantastic, reliable brand will put you ahead of the competition… and justify the premium prices that make yours a healthy boutique business.”
Branding Yourself
So how do you actually go about defining, establishing, and maintaining your brand?
Customer Perception
The authors suggest stepping into the mind of one of your best customers who loves and is devoted to your business. They suggest writing down what those customers think and feel about your business, what it means to them, the reasons they keep coming back, and more. Feel free to ask some of them to get the real answer! You can also add in your own ideas of what you would want your customers to feel.
Create Consistent Standards
The foundation of your brand is setting and keeping up certain standards, and consistency is key. Every bit of your brand and visual identity should be the same everywhere, including logo, fonts, color choices, website, even down to the cleanliness and orderliness of your shop or physical space if you have one. It all needs to stay the same everywhere they show up, every single time. Failing to meet expectations even once can lose a customer.
They write, “A strong brand creates consistency and a feeling of trust among your customers. It creates immediate recognition of your business… Even the slightest change to a logo creates inconsistencies in identity and brand. It creates a disconnect with customers and prospects… Customers won’t recognize you and all the goodness you offer—the experience, the service, the customization, and the relationship—if your identity is marginalized, scattered, or conflicted. Your identity is the glue that holds your brand together.”
Make Rules
Make sure that you’re setting standards for yourself, your employees, and your brand, and maintaining them no matter what. The authors recommend writing down your identity standards into a style guide for easy reference and training. They even offer a guide through their website.
Beyond just your identity, make rules about what your business does and does not do. These can be around where you advertise, what you won’t sell, how often to clean, and more. Having rules like this can make it virtually automatic to maintain your reputation, stay within your niche, and not do anything that could compromise any of that. Then do what you can to monitor and enforce these brand standards.
In our next discussion thread, we’ll talk about Section 2: Products, Services, and Customer Experience.
We’d love to hear your answer in the comments:
- How do you define your brand and what makes your business unique?
- What are your brand standards and what rules can you have to maintain them?
- Take a hard look at all of your branding elements. What can you fix to be more consistent?
Feel free to share any other thoughts you have about this book. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Don’t forget to:
Happy reading,
Pesso
