Do You Know What You’re Selling?

And, does your brand align with this?

Whilst these questions may sound facetious, the answer is easy to lose sight of in a world of busy-ness. Knowing your business offering in a detailed way is vital to achieving greatness. There are a few steps involved in this process, including the method required to deliver your offering, what need you are addressing in the market, and how the market currently sees your offering.

Perhaps an alternative solution to identifying what it is you’re selling, is to consider the question ‘how does my offering help the world?’ Or, ‘how can I be useful?’

As you progress through the years of operating a business your brand identity can morph and change – and worst case stagnate. Ideally your brand image should be reviewed every 3-5 years. Going through a process of breaking your brand and reassembling can be key to ensuring market clarity, purpose and alignment for your team whilst avoiding the alternative – obsolescence.

Consider for example that you run an athletic clothing manufacturer. It is easy to address the core requirements for athletes around muscle support, impact durability and breathability. Is useful clothing the reason why runners buy your clothes? Nike saw this problem and recognised the core desire their customers were looking for. After declining business through the 1970s, Nike embarked on a brand refresh to firstly address their positioning within the market, and secondly who they were as a brand. From here the famous slogan of ‘Just Do It’ was born.

Nike now defines customer value as the difference between what a customer gets from a product and what they need to give up in order to get it. This has also turned Nike into a marketing machine focused both at the top of end of town working with elite athletes, but also spending substantial time and effort at the grass roots level understanding their core ‘everyday’ market and being perceptive to their desires and drivers. According to Nike the principle is simple. You have to come up with what the consumer wants, and you need a vehicle to understand it.

So how do you know it’s time to review your brand? Well, if you find yourself asking questions like: ‘What are we trying to achieve?’ ‘Why am I not achieving profits whilst growing revenue?’ ‘Why is cash never in my account?’ Or, ‘Why am I struggling to break my revenue barrier?’, then a review of your brand strategy is required. A commencement of such a review could include:

1. Bringing your entire team together – before anything great can be achieved ensuring buy-in from your team is absolutely key. Like the cliches go, “team work makes the dream work”, “if you want to go fast go along but if you want to go far go together”. Having a group voice and buy in from the beginning starts to build culture of performance, expectations, and delivery.
   
   
2. Break down the brand identity and your core offering. This needs to be done in a few ways and key points to include are:
   

   1. What’s Your Why?: Think about why you started your business in the first place. What’s the Big Hairy Audacious Goal? This isn’t just about profits – it’s your mission and where you’re headed. Keep this front and centre.

   2. Your Brand’s Personality: If your brand was a person, how would they talk? Are they serious, quirky, professional? This vibe should be consistent in all your communications, from emails to ads

   3. What are your key offerings?: Break these down into the elements of trainability, value by $, and repeatability by a rating of 1-10.

3. Once you have your messaging and clarity around offering, step back and consider the wider market. How is the market shifting and what are the trends?
   1. Check Out the Playground: What’s happening in your industry? Who are your main competitors, and what are they up to? Understanding your playing field helps you find your sweet spot in the market.
   2. What Makes Your Brand Special?: Figure out what’s unique about what you offer and why customers should pick you over the business down the street. Lock this down and make it the heart of your message.
   3. What Are You Saying?: Work out your key messages. This isn’t just about what you sell; it’s about the value you bring to your customers’ lives. Keep it consistent everywhere you show up.
      
      
4. Now for the hidden elements – consider your customer base and what they are looking for. If we go back to Nike, one key element they focused on was Freedom leading to the tag line of ‘Just Do It. What are the elements your customers are chasing that differentiates your brand from others in the market?
   1. Who Are Your Key People?: External from your team, who are you selling to? Get into their shoes. What do they like, what ticks them off? The better you know your audience, the better you can connect with them.
   2. Get the Word Out: Where are your customers hanging out? Facebook, LinkedIn, local newspapers? Plan how you’ll use these channels to connect with your audience. Think wider than socials too, these could be sporting clubs,  networking events, charity events or professional development days.
5. Now that your team is together, your offerings are clear and you have clarity on your customer base, it’s time to delve into hidden persuasions. The drivers behind success. Go beyond revenue and profit. These are all results of a successful operation. You’re looking for drivers that will identify whether you will be achieving profit next month/quarter/year. These drivers may be customer enquiries, brand engagement, trials, store visitation or website views.
    
6. Build your reporting deck. Once you have identified key drivers they should be front and centre for the entire team – if not daily then weekly. Live and breathe these metrics. This will start a consistent culture of delivery, language and expectation across your key team, all whilst ensuring consistency and avoiding surprises once month-end comes around.
   
   

In conclusion, revitalising your brand is not just a task—it’s a transformative journey that aligns your business’ core values with the evolving needs of your market and customers. It’s about diving deep into what makes your brand unique, how it resonates with your audience, and how it stands out in a competitive landscape. By bringing your team together on the journey, breaking down your brand identity, understanding your market & customer base, and focusing on the drivers of success beyond mere financial metrics, you’re setting the stage for a brand that not only survives but thrives with a lasting audience connection. As you embark on this journey of brand transformation, keep these steps in mind to build a stronger, more resilient, and more beloved brand.