One of the critical drivers of business success is having a unique competitive advantage. Most managers understand that to attract a larger share of the market, or find enough customers prepared to pay a premium price, they must provide something of greater value than their competition. For most managers, competitive advantage boils down to providing superior quality and service. Think about it. Is this what you are aiming for?

Now, striving for quality and service sounds to me like what Americans call “motherhood and apple pie.” The purity of these things has an appeal that you can’t argue with. But I have a problem with the concept. You see, whenever I ask my clients what their competitive advantage is, realizing that there can be only one “cheapest” competitor, they almost invariably tell me that it is quality and service. The trouble I have with that is, if everyone provides quality and service, where is the competitive advantage?

The problem with just saying quality and service is that the concepts are too vague. Think about it. Can you give me a definition of the word “quality”? It’s not that easy is it. There is something intangible about “quality” because it is a relative term. When I ask my clients what they mean by “quality” or “service,” they have the same difficulty. The danger is that their idea of quality is something less than their customer’s. Unless you can define exactly what “quality” and “service” means to your customers, you don’t have a tangible competitive advantage.

What does “quality” mean for your product or service? How is that different from any of your competitors? You need to get very specific. Merely generalising about quality and service doesn’t give customer’s anything to go on. Can you prove your product is better, stronger, faster, more reliable? Just presenting quality and service in general terms isn’t enough to demonstrate a clear competitive advantage. Customers don’t believe vague claims and they don’t believe you, unless you can back up your statement with irrefutable facts. The same goes for service. What does better service mean?

Is it faster, more personal, more user friendly? How can you support your claims?

Whether you use these statements in your advertising or selling situations, statements that are specific and verifiable will always be more believable and therefore more effective, than vague generalizations. So if you promote your product or service on the basis of superior quality, start working on defining exactly why it is superior and provide measurable proof of its superiority. This will achieve one of two things. First, you may find out that your product or service isn’t really that much different or better than your competitor. That’s OK. At least you now know and can get to work on finding out how to make it superior. Secondly, if you can define your superiority and provide measurable proof, now you really have a competitive advantage which gives you a unique selling proposition to advertise.

Look at the following claims. “Our product is the best on the market.” Or. “Our product was shown in scientific trials to be 37% more effective in ….. than competing products.” Which do you think would be more effective in advertising?

If you can’t test your product or service to measure its superiority, you can provide independent verification of your claims in other ways. For example, using client testimonials is a very effective way of overcoming customer skepticism. When independent people talk about your product or service in a positive way, describing the benefits they have received, it is much more believable than when you say the same things yourself. It is even better if your customer is specific .

So, what is your competitive advantage? Don’t say quality and service. That just doesn’t mean anything to your market. Get specific, get the facts and be believable. Then use that unique selling proposition in all your promotions and selling activities to drive home your competitive advantage. You’ll see a difference in your results that makes it worth the effort.

(c) 2004 Greg Roworth, Progressive Business Solutions Limited

Greg Roworth is the Managing Director of Progressive Business Solutions Limited, a business development consultancy firm with branches in Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand. Greg has created a unique business development program that assists business owners transform their business from a state of total dependency on them to a state where the business works so well they don’t have to.

Greg is also the author of “The 7 Keys to Unlock Your Business Profit Potential,” which descibes the fundamental keys a business needs to achieve this transformation. Find out more,
get 2 free chapters, or buy the book online at http://www.small-business-success.ws

Many CEOs and marketing directors find their time wasted evaluating marketing opportunities instead of acting on them. When every possibility is followed, a meandering trail of hit and miss effectiveness is the result. Despite significant expenditure of time and money, marketing tactics may not produce the desired gains.

What is their problem? They are missing a crucial step in the marketing arsenal — branding. The power of branding is that it is not just for your customers. When done correctly, it also creates a roadmap for you to follow internally, streamlining your planning and decision-making processes for years to come.

Outward Brand

This is what many people relate to when thinking of a “brand:” a logo, tagline, style of advertising, product packaging, etc. These are not the brand, but rather the brand elements. To be truly branded however, all of these elements are developed based on the core value of the company. The core value will stay the same, through product changes, service changes, and staff changes.

The value of this is in attraction. If you have spent the time identifying your ideal prospect [read: most profitable] and created an emotional reason to buy [read: comes back and brings their friends with them], then all your time and money is now focused on creating interesting tactics to engage a prospect you know will be profitable, rather than baiting the hook with whatever you have and hoping you’re fishing in the right pond.

The investment in developing a set message to a clear audience is rewarded by recognition, recall and referral of your brand. You can change ad campaigns, update packaging, and replace staff and if all reflect your underlying message, the brand impact will be carried over to your audience no matter how or who delivers it.

Inward Brand

Developing brand clearly improves external communication. Impressively, it can increase your internal efficiency as well.

What often bogs down the marketing process is planning, and deciding on a case by case basis what actions should be taken. We have seen marketing efforts derailed and budgets drained by everything from an aggressive ad sales person to a company executive driving past a billboard and insisting the marketing department book it.

It is so easy to latch onto what sounds like a great idea or a sure thing or to give up on a plan when no immediate results are seen. However brand marketing is not direct response, it is viral, increasing in scope and intensity the more it is replicated.

With a brand built on focus features, key benefits and a core value, it is easy to plan strategy and tactics to capitalize on your goals. And the next time someone asks you to place and ad, sponsor an event, or recommends a billboard rental, you will know if that is on your brand path or an expensive joy ride to who knows where, what we call an “off-road vehicle.”

The Reward

The effort of building and maintaining a brand must be constant. Your brand provides a roadmap but the destination is ultimately having customers so loyal they always choose your company and so zealous they bring their friends along. The value is in the opinion and the action customers are willing to take because of how they feel, and in the speed and accuracy of the decisions you can make to achieve your goals.

About The Author

Beth Brodovsky is the president and principal of Iris Creative Group, LLC. Brodovsky earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design from Pratt Institute, New York. Before launching her own firm in 1996, she spent eight years as a corporate Art Director and Graphic Designer, providing a sound foundation in management and organizational standards and structure. Iris Creative specializes in providing marketing and strategic communication services to clients in service industries and small businesses. For more information contact Beth at bsb@iriscreative.com or 610-567-2799.

Do you have the architecture in place to make sure each and every brand contact sends the right message?

Thinking in terms of architecture, a building that looks great and catches your attention is probably designed so that each component looks perfect and enhances the overall effect of the building.

In the audiobook, “Sound Advice on Brand Marketing,” author Tom Miller says, “Great architecture works because of attention to detail, and great brands depend on the same level of attention.” Each component of a brand that touches the customer must support and enhance the overall message.

A brand architecture also builds a connection between corporate brands, master brands, product brands, and branded features, which, according to Miller, “makes decisions easier when it comes to messaging and graphic design.”

Miller suggests everyone take a fresh look at their own brand architecture, beginning with a review of all current marketing materials. “Is the message consistent? Does the look and feel convey the value of the brand? Is there room for improvement?” Once a brand is viewed as architecture, it may never look the same. Says Miller, “It may be the beginning of building your own best brand.”

Tom Miller offers branding advice each week in the free audio newsletter from What’s Working in Biz, http://www.whatsworking.biz/full_story.asp?ArtID=92

About The Author

Richard Cunningham is a principal of What’s Working in Biz, http://www.whatsworking.biz, a publisher of business audiobooks and online audio programs on marketing, sales, and small business strategies.

There are 10 basic P’s we can all incorporate into our business personas. Remember minding your P’s and Q’s your mother always told you.
Well, now we can all achieve that goal. Keep in mind this is a continuingly evolving process. No one can be perfect on every point. However, it is important to recognize that these attributes are a part of the well prepared competent professional and with a little practice it could be you.

10 P’s of Packaging Yourself

• Perceptive - You really listen to what people are saying and what message they are intending to convey.

• Performer - You get the job done. Not just occasionally but on time and with credible results.

• Persistent - You never give up. Did you know that very rarely is a sale made on the first contact. Research shows it may take as many as 12 contact before closure is made.

• Poised - No matter what happens you keep your cool. If a disaster strikes interject little humor into the situation.

• Prepare - The more you can anticipate and be prepared the better the outcome. You know what you plan to accomplish when you walk out that door or pick up a phone.

• Proactive - Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you. Seek, them out. Take time weekly to find ways to be proactive about your own persona.

• Productive - We are all time crunched so be productive in the time you assign to any task. Minimize interruptions and keep on track with your assignments. Results count more than the “show” about getting the job done.

• Purposeful - You have a game plan in mind not blindly running around from task to task. You have short and long ranges plans though out and actively work to pursue those goals and objectives.

• Professional - Look and act the part. Be well groomed and well dressed for any situation. You have the necessary business skills and tools to keep ahead of the curve.

• Punctual - Be on time for most anything. If you are going to be late be sure that someone is apprised of the fact you will be tardy.

So if you have your P’s in order get busy “Packaging Yourself” for success.

Discover the easy way to make yourself stand out from others. How to become an expert in your field; How to write a better resume; How to write a personal press release; How to accomplish things no one else is doing and to get people to think about you in ways they have not thought before and much more including critical checklists for those important business meetings.

This indispensable workbook will show you specific ways to accomplish your personal branding goals and launch your career into the stratosphere. We have done all the work for you with guidelines, cheat sheets and easy-to-use templates to customize for your own use.

So don’t put off building your brand any longer. Don’t wait till your associates get your promotion or raise or even a better job.

Order Packaging Yourself now @ http://www.packaginguniversity.com/pkgustorefront.htm

If you find that the strategies and tactics in these materials don’t work for you or in your business, we don’t feel like we should keep your money. We want you to try them for 30 days with zero risk.

Branding is an application of appropriate marketing techniques in the right proportion to a product. Brand management is to manage the forces in a market suitably to win favors for the product.

Branding essentially has to work on both mind and heart of consumers so that the product’s perceived value to the customer increases and thereby increase brand equity.

Marketers see a brand as an implied promise that the level of quality, people have come to expect from a brand will continue with present and future purchases of the same product. There are a lot of products available but limited brands. Its comparatively easier to judge the needs of people and develop a product accordingly, but it is tough to tell the world that there exists an answer with you to their needs. Its not hard to sell some one what he wants, but its hard to make him aware about the availability.

Brand your products in a way to generate sales and also a good will in the market. Use the mixes in a way that at one end the consumer feels that he needs your product and at the other he feels that’s its in his betterment that he is associated with your product.

Author: Devanshu Bhatia
http://entrepreneurparadise.blogspot.com/

Did you know that on Coca-Cola’s balance sheet more than 90% of their value is represented by their “brand equity”? If building a unique brand is good enough for them, don’t you think it could do some good for you?

How do you differentiate yourself? With the explosion of service businesses it should be your top concern - to set yourself apart from the pack. The trick is to be one in a million, not one of the million.

In marketing jargon it’s called a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). I call it a HUB - Hot Undeniable Benefit of doing business with you. Your HUB sets you apart from the crowd. It tells your clients why you are special. And it answers their biggest question: “Why should I do business with you instead of anyone else?”

Try this little exercise. Take a look at your promotional materials. Do they say things like:

- best service,
- in business since 1291 B.C.
- newest technology,
- best trained,
- fastest delivery,
- friendly smiles,
- we do it right the first time,
- professional service
- and so on.

You get the point, right? These are useless platitudes that don’t communicate your uniqueness. Even worse - all of your competitors say it too!

So how do you go about discovering your HUB? If you work in a competitive industry it may be virtually impossible to set yourself apart based on what you do. But you can always find something unique about how you do it. Do you cater to a specific group of people? Are you expert in addressing a specific issue? Do you guarantee your work?

Finally, there is one thing in your business that no one else can duplicate - YOU! So don’t be afraid to give your business or practice a little personality.

Here is a winning tip: look for unresolved problems in your industry and become an expert in providing a solution. That is exactly what a small parcel delivery company called FEDEX did. Do you know their HUB? It is: “When you absolutely, positively need it overnight - guaranteed.” Funny thing is they are no longer the only company doing it, but they offered it first.

Discover your HUB, state it in all your marketing messages, and see your business turn into a client magnet!

“© 2006 Marketing Mentors. All Rights Reserved.

The author, Adam Urbanski, teaches service professionals and business owners how to develop marketing strategies that increase sales and profits. His website offers more how-to articles and free tips to create a winning marketing action plan at http://www.themarketingmentors.com.“

Brand decisions are an integral part of product policy in health care. When a marketer opts for branding a health care product, he is intending to create an asset out of his brand. His promotional programs get centered on the distinctive features of his brand. If his basic brand decisions are wrong his entire marketing program will suffer serious setback.

In the development of a health care brand, the first task is to give the product an identity through a name. The second task is to enhance its recognition by the provision of a symbol of identity, and the third task is to develop a unique image for the brand and to build its personality over the long term. Building a brand’s personality is a very difficult task. In any given product category only a handful of brands emerge successful. Years of uninterrupted nursing with the support of a good marketing program is required to get a brand established in the market.

Successful brands are major assets for companies. It is a valuable, renewable and lasting asset capable of producing a sustainable competitive advantage for the company. This advantage enables companies to earn profits for years, just like any other durable asset would do. The very job of selecting a brand name in health care is a difficult task for the marketer. A good brand name will be distinctive; it will be easy to pronounce, recognize and remember; it will denote something about the nature or function of the product; and it will be aesthetically appealing.

Along with the brand name, health care companies also use logos for visual identification. A logo is a pictorial symbol intended to communicate with the consumers. Flags, mascots, crests, symbols, graphic designs or plain alphabet letters are all used as logos to convey the ownership of products. Companies make their logo visually attractive and strive to make the logo symbolically speak for the company and its products.

Branding provides detailed information on Branding, Health Care Branding, Corporate Branding, Internet Branding and more. Branding is affiliated with Trade Show Promotional Items.

Credibility: I admit it is a term I use quite often. In fact you’ll see it all
my company’s marketing materials. Credibility is often ignored by my businesses,
but if you have it, your business has a tremendous chance of continued growth,
if you don’t have it - buckle up, it might be a bit of a bumpy ride.

You need to establish three things before people will even consider
doing business with you:

Interest
Credibility
Trust

To get into your customer’s heads, think about whom you buy from: do you buy from
anyone you really aren’t interested in? Do you buy from anyone who doesn’t
appear credible or anyone who you don’t trust? Odds are, you don’t. Your
customers think the same way so it’s imperative that you establish all three features
to give your business the best chance for success.

So What is Credibility?
To make sure we’re clear, Dictionary.com defines it as: The quality, capability, or power to elicit belief, or, a capacity for belief.

I see this as prospects and clients having the belief that you will be able to help them solve his/her problem (whatever that is). I’ll cover this point in another article, but understand that prospects call on you to solve their problems, that problem might be: hunger, balancing their books, or improving confidence in their business image.

So what exactly does that mean to you?

Think about it for a second, “the power to elicit belief”. If someone doesn’t
believe you or believe in you, what’s the likelihood they will do business with
you? It’s pretty simple, if people trust you and you can elicit belief
from people (credibility), there’s a solid chance they will do business with you.

How Marketing and Design Influence Your Credibility?
I know you’ve heard, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression“,
but I’ll bet you never have considered that most people make up their
minds about your credibility in a matter of minutes based on a first impression.
Yep, all it takes is a look at your logo, web site or brochure and customers have
already sized up your business and your credibility. Shocking isn’t it?

Take that a step further, once customers make those snap judgments about your
business, they tend to cling on to them like a barnacle on a sailboat, so creating
a credible first impression is not ideal - it’s essential.

Again, your customer’s first impression might be your business card, logo, web site, advertisement or signage, so you’ll want to ensure that ALL of your marketing and design efforts exhibit credibility to your prospects. Since you don’t know which impression will be first, you want to be consistent and professional.

You may not realize it but you choose to establish credibility or lose it based on the quality of your marketing and design projects. If you view your business marketing and design as an asset and work with business savvy designers, you are setting you

Consider this quick example:
Say you’re considering a vacation to Florida and browsing the web to find some local attractions.

You visit 3 theme park web sites:

* One of them is not working
* The next one has a couple of pages but the pictures of the park are small and
fuzzy, and the information about the park is vague, confusing and has spelling
errors.
* The last web site you visit has a consistent, professional look and feel, and
provides helpful information and pictures.

Based on this example, you can assume the last theme park knew that their image and credibility was a huge influence on whether customers bought from them. So at this point (not considering other variables), who are you more likely to visit? Exactly…theme park number 3.

Now the key is to translate this example into your own business situation, put yourself in the shoes of the people you want to do business with, do you have credibility with them? If you don’t, do you think they will still buy from you?

Do you know what’s really scary; your prospects (the people you are targeting)
will never tell you that you don’t have credibility; they just won’t buy from
you. If this is a concern of yours, I’ve got good news. I’ve developed
a special report for small business owners like you called the “Can-Do Credibility
Checklist“.

If you want to see how you stack up against the competition, contact me today
at 480.391.0704, or comments@candgraphics.com, and I will be happy to send this
insider’s bulletin to you. Make sure you indicate that you want your free “Can-Do
Credibility Checklist” .pdf document - and find out how much credibility
your business has, through your prospect’s eyes.

Jeremy runs the only business savvy graphic design firm who helps companies build more confidence and credibility into their business identities. “I help you take your business’ vision and shape it into a company identity that will make you look better, feel better and have more confidence about your business.”

Like the article?

Email Jeremy today at comments@candographics.com for your choice of a free insider’s bulletin: the “Can-Do Credibility Checklist”. You’ll also want to check out the “Can-Do Confidence Builder”. Emailed weekly, the Confidence Builder provides you with essential marketing and design insights that help you get the most out of your marketing/design investments and help you to stay one step ahead of the competition.

Remember to include in your email your name, that you want the “Credibility Checklist” and any additional feedback.

Learn more about Jeremy and how you can gain a competitive advantage with a better brand by visiting http://www.candographics.com