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Embracing Continual Change: How a Brand Strategy Remains Consistent

The somewhat predictable pace of what used to be called “business as usual” has all but disappeared and in its place is a new order that is characterized more by constant change than by the tried-and-true ‘products we offer and how we do business’.

The paradigm has shifted from ‘what we sell’ to ‘what the customer wants’.

The trouble is that the customer often doesn’t know what he wants—until he sees it somewhere else, and by then, it is too late. You’ve lost the customer.

Marketing to a ‘need’ is fairly easy. The customer has a defined item or service to buy and can explore options, check prices, even search on-line to locate a supplier. This kind of purchase quickly becomes a commodity where value is equalized. Your company simply has to be the lowest cost provider. Profits are made up in volume sales and you need to be on guard for a lower-cost upstart.

Staying One Step Ahead of the Paradigm Shift

Our brand strategies are constructed on a platform that continually presents value to stakeholders. With a combination of insight, marketing foresight and agility, the brand is well positioned to enable a business to anticipate stakeholders' unmet 'needs' and unexpressed 'wants'. In fact, the brand, as a point of reference, "slips into each stakeholder's loafers", to see the world from their unique perspective. You don't have to be the largest company to do this. And you don't have to be the best funded company either. But it does take organization and discipline to internalize the stakeholder psyche and to communicate brand value throughout your organization. Each point of contact—from switchboard operator, to sales engineer, to shipping clerk and distributor—interact with your stakeholders to make an impression as a de facto 'brand ambassadors'. It is essential therefore not only to develop a brand strategy but to understand, manage and apply your brand in a way that is consistent and credible. It helps to keep in mind that your brand is more than a logo design; it is the perception that each stakeholder forms relative to the value that is presented to each individual over time.

Your brand has the ability to sell against low-cost suppliers at a premium price—if—it successfully presents value. Car manufacturers have long understood how a product that takes you from here to there and is essentially the same in basic construction features can nevertheless be differentiated by a brand. Leather, extra cushioning and a more durable paint job aside; performance, design, style, comfort and emotional relationships present value platforms to support each brand and its unique pricing structure.

The point is that your brand needs to start with the customer…and not with the product your company makes. A brand strategy understands the various stakeholders and "sees" what isn't there… sometimes even before the customer becomes aware of a 'want'.

When the brand is able to identify the 'want' –and present a solution—the customer will gladly buy—and become loyal—until a new 'want' can be identified and presented by someone else. That's where a strategy constructed on agility and flexibility embraces continual change as a showcase for innovative, brand-building value solutions.

At Business Strategies & Beyond we develop brand strategies that build on finding opportunities in change. We embrace l change to develop stakeholder, market and value connections.