According to an article written by brand catalyst Isabelle Mercier Turcotte of Leapzone Strategies, branding is when you take a good, honest look under the hood of your business and get crystal clear about:
- Who you are and what makes you different.
- What problems you solve. How is your service or product making life better?
- What is your measurable and differentiating promise?
- Who you are best suited to help and most importantly, why should they care?
Uncovering the answers to these key questions… that’s branding.
Understanding what your ideal clients want and need…that’s branding.
Answering their needs with your unique selling proposition…that’s branding.
Do that well and you’ve just put yourself way ahead of your competitors.
Learn more about branding from Isabelle at Leapzone Strategies.
Business Application
I worked on a project for a physiotherapy clinic that has been in business for 25 years. They had been growing their business organically and very slowly, primarily by word of mouth and referrals. They hit a point where their revenue was leveling off and they really wanted to grow the business faster and ‘intentionally’; however, they were missing one of the key components of an effective strategic marketing plan – brand pillars.
They hadn’t articulated what made them unique and because of this, they weren’t able to really stand out from the competition (a Google search renders 126,000+ results for ‘physiotherapy clinic Vancouver’). Their marketing messaging wasn’t effectively communicating their value to prospective customers. They knew what their vision was, but they were challenged by the details of intentionally designing their business in order to realize their vision.
We pulled out the essence of the clinic’s brand by digging into the core of the organization – the people, the service and the value. We came up with three brand pillars to illustrate the essence of who they are as a business, which will be used as a guide to build the future business they envision. This is what we came up with:
