What's up brand builders Stephen Houraghan here with BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this video
you're going to learn 15 branding principles for a powerful strategy
so you can avoid the lazy branding trap with a guide of standards for real influence
now if you're new to the channel and you want to build brands that go beyond the visuals using
strategy psychology and creative thinking then you're in the right place hit that subscribe
button and the notification bell if you want to fast track your results make sure you grab the
pro brand strategy blueprint it's a free download and the link is in the description now so many
businesses fall into the easy road branding trap which is get yourself a well-designed logo and a
visual identity get yourself a website up and run traffic to your product and your own business now
this is a trap of course because this isn't branding at all developing a visual brand or
developing visual brand assets can be categorized as branding though it's only a very small slice of
a much bigger pie branding is all about making a business more appealing to the audience it's about
making that business a more appealing choice than the competitors to ultimately influence
the buying decisions of that audience now to do this effectively you need a guiding compass so
in this video I'm going to show you 15 of the most critical branding principles that you can live by
principle number one branding is about people branding is not a game of visual muscle flexing
which brand looks visually better rarely wins the day how many times have you made a buying
decision based on a logo now unless you're a brand identity enthusiast my guess would be few to none
there's just far more to making buying decisions than visuals and behind every decision that's made
there is a person with circumstances objectives challenges and emotions use these along with your
impressive visuals and you'll be branding for the people principle number two be different
not better the most successful and most loved brands in the world are not necessarily the best
but they're almost always unique they do things differently to the rest they speak with a unique
tone of voice they provide a different brand experience or they live by a unique philosophy
most businesses focus too much of their time and effort and attention trying to find different ways
to be better and even if they achieve that even if they do become better
it most often doesn't have the value that their effort warrants in truth better is just more of
the same really but different is unique so ultimately different is better than better
principle number three specificity and relevance wins there are very few markets today that aren't
full of noisy competitors all scrapping for the attention of their shared audiences
some brands attempt to speak the loudest with aggressive and consistent marketing campaigns
which are not cheap and you know that is one strategy but to be honest it's out of reach
for most brands because it is so expensive the gorilla approach is specificity and relevance
the more specific you are about who you're targeting and the more directly you speak to
who they are as a person the more likely you will be to resonate with who they are and influence
their decisions principle number four story over product now the product is what will help
the audience to achieve their end results though it's rarely the product itself that influences the
decision to buy most of our buying decisions as humans are made in our subconscious long before it
ever reaches our consciousness so brands need to be able to communicate on a higher level
and engage the emotional brain story is without a doubt one of the most effective
forms of communication to engage the human mind and light up those neural connections
so align your brand with an emotional narrative and make it stick principle number five their
challenges are your gateway what consumers say and what they do are two distinctly different things
when you're looking for a way to connect try and look at the subtext behind the challenge so
for example if a major challenge of a consumer would be I want to cook more but I just don't have
the time to do so then don't jump to the lazy approach which might look something like this
she's time-poor she values healthy eating let's put a focus on nutritional value how you resonate
lies beyond the obvious in the subtext which could be something along the lines of although she says
she wants to cook more that's not really what she wants she just doesn't want to feel guilty
for ordering takeaway all the time let's make her feel better about her choices principle number six
address the cognitive dissonance so okay before i explain this one let's break down what cognitive
dissonance is it's when the beliefs values or behaviors of a person contradict each other so
for example if you hold the belief that you're a person of your word yet you consistently
fail to follow through on what you say that you're gonna do that's cognitive dissonance right
there inconsistency between beliefs and actions causes friction within the law of consistency
which is basically our desire to be aligned with who we believe we are storytelling is a
great way to let them know that they are who they believe they are they just need help with that
principle number seven define the enemy now every target market shares common traits
objectives desires fears and enemies now an enemy is the most common pain point amongst your target
market now this could be a group of people a philosophy a belief an approach or anything else
that stands in the way of that audience ultimately achieving what they want ultimately achieving
that goal so if you can pinpoint the source of the pain and then position against it you can resonate
through a shared emotion which is a really powerful technique principle number eight identify
their drive now with every solution we buy we're either running towards something or we're running
away from something we run towards our desires because we want to achieve them and we run away
from our fears because we want to avoid them now some consumers they are equally weighted in their
desire and their fears but others are driven more by one or the other so take the time to understand
what drives your audience and leverage that understanding in your position and your messaging
principle number nine positivity wins over negativity now although fear has its place
in almost any brand messaging strategy to highlight the enemy and to agitate the problem
this is a card that does need a filter any message can go either way positive or negative now
negative messaging highlighting fears will most certainly drive some action though you
know we do have this superhuman strength to turn a blind eye to negative pain over time
whereas possible er on the side of positivity the action that you drive with a positive message will
motivate for longer and garner more affection as well principle number 10 speak to their beliefs
now brand messages shouldn't be all about pushing the product when you focus on what
they believe you make impactful connections now they might not provide an immediate roi but
the connections that you make from these kinds of messages influence future roi and
that really is branding at its purest back in 2011 on black friday patagonia ran an ad with
the title don't buy this jacket now it forced consumers to think about the impact of their
consumerism on the planet so patagonia spent part of the marketing budget telling customers to do
the exact opposite of what marketing aims to achieve and in doing so they put off short-term
gains they put off short-term sales but their message landed and it built long-term loyalty so
on the long play on the longer scheme of things messaging like that speaking to what your audience
believes that is true brand building principle number 11 be a step ahead now most businesses put
their entire focus on their product development and their marketing efforts into addressing
today's challenges of their audience now while the challenges of today represent the low hanging
fruit and the short-term gains smart brands consider their customers future challenges as well
when you know what your customer is going to need in two five or ten years time you can educate them
on that impending need nurture them towards that solution and steal a march on your competitors
principle number 12 turn up the tension now tension turns up the heat and produces this
gravitational pull now when it comes to wants and needs there are many possible outcomes
a good outcome a bad outcome no outcome at all and these possibilities open up the door for tension
a strong emotional weapon to pull that attention and isolate the crossroads
seth godin wrote about tension in his article to earn our attention there needs to be tension
so he spoke about the tension of how it might turn out the tension of possibility the tension
of change that you know this might work it might not work the tension of maybe so find the most
relevant possibilities and turn up that tension principle number 13 make your audience the hero
now let's get this one straight once and for all you or your brand you're not the hero it's not
the lead role coming in to save the day for the damsel in distress your audience is that hero
saving the day for themselves or those around them your bit part role as the brand is the
guide to help them on their way now if you're lucky enough for the real hero to involve you
in their quest for success then your role is to help them to overcome an obstacle in their
path so turn down the we're amazing soundtrack and tell a different story of your audience's success
they are the hero of their journey principle number 14 mirror against the opposite strategy
now in his harvard business review article roger l martin highlighted a point of view
that was refreshingly simple but beautifully effective as a tool to test your strategy
he spoke of a strategy that he reviewed for a global wealth management firm which was to
target individuals who wanted and were willing to pay for comprehensive wealth management services
by providing great customer service across the breadth of their wealth management needs
and as with all his reviews he used a simple litmus test which was the following question
can the opposite of this strategy also be a strategy which would look like this
to target poor individuals who don't want and aren't willing to pay for comprehensive wealth
management services by providing crappy customer service and his point of view was this if the
opposite of your core strategy looks stupid then every competitor is going to have more or less
the same strategy as you and principle number 15 always follow through now every successful brand
in the world ever has been built on trust in some way shape or form trusting quality trust
and service trust in experience now the most effective way to develop trust is to plant your
flag firmly in the ground for what you want to be remembered for and then follow through
on that promise consistently and that's it flag in the ground and follow through now
the reality is building a brand goes far beyond the visuals that the visuals become a footnote
in the long term play to build a successful brand means to find a way to get the attention of
to connect with and resonate and ultimately influence a group of people over a long period
and to do that you need to consistently show up time and again and you need guiding principles
to be able to do that consistently and these principles if you adopt them and live by them they
will help you to build a successful brand long term if you want to learn more about the elements
of building a brand strategy and what elements need to be included in your brand strategy then
this video will help you out until next time brand like a master and I'll see you in the next video