Brand Development Step 1 - Select The Right Feeling

From your communications to your pricing to your logo, your brand needs to be integrated into and reflected in all facets of your business.

This is important for two reasons…

·         First, good brand penetration is important to brand-building and recognition. In other words, if your branding isn’t reflected in everything you do, then you’re missing out on an opportunity to build brand recognition and strengthen your brand.

·         Secondly, good brand coverage means that your prospects and customers will consistently “feel” whatever your brand is conveying every time they come into contact with your business. And that’s a good thing. Because when your prospects and customers feel the emotion conveyed by your brand, then you’re making them feel good about doing business with you.

Point is, the “Branding Boiling Point” is reached when your brand permeates every facet of your business.

Of course, this is only true if you develop a good brand. A strong brand.  A brand that appeals directly to your target market.

Fortunately, that’s exactly what you’ll discover how to do in this module. You’ll learn about choosing a brand image that conveys the right feeling. You’ll learn about building your brand around a factor that’s important to your prospects and customers. And you’ll find out how to test your brand to see if you’re on the right track.

Now, you know where a lot of people make a mistake? 

It’s this… They spend weeks or months carefully planning every facet of their business. They research their target market. They examine product distribution channels. They determine the best ways to reach their market.

And despite all of this careful preparation, they completely forget about branding. So, they slap a pre-made logo they found on a stock photo site and call it good enough.

But it’s not good enough.

That’s like a guy spending an entire week planning a romantic first date with a woman… and then not showering or changing into clean clothes before picking her up.  You can bet he’s going to make the wrong impression, and she’ll probably slam the door in his face.

Same with your business. If you make the wrong first impression, your prospects might slam the door in your face and never come back. So, make the right impression by using the following formula to create a little branding alchemy.

Let me give you a quick overview of the steps…

·         Step 1: Select the Right Feeling

·         Step 2: Research the Competition

·         Step 3: Develop Multiple Concepts

·         Step 4: Ask the Market for Input and Split Test Concepts

In this report we are going to focus on Step 1: Selecting the Right Feeling.

Determine What Feeling You’d Like to Evoke

Your brand is all about evoking a feeling. And that means that when you sit down to develop your brand, you need to think about what type of feeling you’d like to convey.

Your first step is to ask yourself these two questions:

·         Question 1: What feeling do my customers have while they use and enjoy the product?

·         Question 2: What feeling would I LIKE my customers to have while they use and enjoy the product?

The first question really applies if you already have products out on the market, but you haven’t yet put in the time and resources to properly brand them. Basically, you want to at least be away of how your products make your customers feel.

The second question is relevant whether you’ve began branding your products or not.  This is important, because how you brand your products can influence how your customers feel when they use your products.

Let’s go back to the example of some of the luxury brands like Mercedes or Rolex.  People who purchase these luxury brands aren’t doing so because they need a good way to get from home to work, or because they need a reliable time piece to make sure they’re not late.

Instead, people buy these brands because using the products make them feel good. Driving a Mercedes makes the consumer feel successful and sophisticated.  And wearing a Rolex watch makes the wearer feel prestigious and powerful.

Point is these products aren’t purchased for pragmatic or utilitarian reasons. They’re purchased for the emotion and experience that the brand promises. And since the companies have done a wonderful job of protecting and building their brands, the consumers do indeed experience the feelings that the brands convey.

So, what you need to do is start with a list of feelings that you’d like associated with your products and company. For example:

·         Love

·         Security

·         Power

·         Sophistication

·         Prestige

·         Trust

·         Anticipation

·         Curiosity

·         Kindness

·         Happiness

·         Relaxation

·         Hope

·         Adoration

·         Pleased

·         Acceptance

·         Playful

·         Pride

·         Appreciation

·         Ecstasy

·         Arousal

·         Satisfaction

·         Joy

·         Enchantment

·         Jubilant

·         Attractive

·         Content

·         Sexy

·         Sensual

·         Excited

·         Loyal

·         Calm

·         Strong

·         Cocky

·         Fulfilled

·         Centered

·         Comfortable

·         Sweet

·         Nostalgic

·         Safe

·         Compassionate

·         Sympathetic

·         Brave

·         Craft

·         Sneaky

·         Smart

·         Patriotic

·         Healthy

·         Pacified

·         Warm

·         Delighted

·         Freedom

Obviously, there are other emotions and feelings that your brand could convey, as this isn’t an exhaustive list. And of course, I didn’t even mention the negative emotions like fear, hate, sadness or anger, because in most cases you won’t want your product associated with those emotions.

There are exceptions, of course. If you’re selling something like horror novels, then you do want to create a brand image that conveys fear or horror.

Also, let me take a moment and clarify that there is a difference between the emotions you evoke in your short-term sales process, versus those that you seek to evoke with your brand.

Your brand is associated with the emotion you want your consumers to feel when they use your product. Thus, in most cases your brand will be associated with a positive feeling.

However, your sales system may induce the so-called negative emotions on a temporary basis, just to move your prospects towards the order button.

For example, offering a limited-time discount evokes fear. Those who’re afraid of missing out will buy your product now before the sale is over.

Invoking anger is another often-used tool in the marketer’s toolbox. For example, you might receive a fundraising letter from a politician or even a charitable organization, either of which may incite your anger against a cause, a person or a situation in order to solicit donations.

However, evoking negative emotions is something that you usually only do in a direct-response sales situation. And what’s more, these emotions are usually temporary. In other words, the marketer or business owner doesn’t want these emotions to become associated with the business or product itself.

Instead, the emotions are aroused just as a means of getting the prospect to take action.

So, in other words, you can use and evoke all kinds of emotions to sell something to someone. Generally, however, you’ll want your brand to be associated with positive emotions, such as those that I listed a few minutes ago.