Painting With Light

“Yellow Trees” © R.L. Herron

If it seems I’ve spent a lot of time talking about things very personal to me, there’s a reason.

I have.

But I began to think it was time I took a closer look at the brand called me. After all, regardless of what business we happen to be in, if we are in business, all of us need to understand the importance of branding.

Simply put, branding is what makes us believe one glass of water is better than the identical one next to it. We see it all the time, whether we realize it or not. “Choosy mothers choose Jif,” and “Things go better with Coke” are two excellent examples.

These days, everything is branded.

The distinctive swoosh on the side of your running shoes, or the name on the side of your disposable coffee cup, tells everyone who it is that has you branded, because the big companies understand this fundamental principle.

One of the truths of modern business is there is almost nothing your competitors can’t duplicate in short order. So the quintessential question becomes, what competitive edge do I have that cannot be easily copied?

This is where positioning comes in. It is the art of creating a brand image for your product or service that persuades customers it really is the best glass of water!

Such positioning can be influenced, but it is not created by the marketer. It is created by how others perceive it.

The characteristics that can work in creating such a perception:

• Relevance to the customer. Do you have the ability to produce or supply something they need?
• Promises backed by support. Does your product or expertise support your claims?
• Clear and focused messages. Are you consistent in what you say, and how you say it?
• Appropriate messages. Are your messages in line with the image you want to convey?

My messages, while clearly written (at least I hope they are), may sometimes be ambiguous in their intent…at least as far as business relationships are concerned.

However, one of the things I do claim to do well is write and edit, and those skills should be evident, even in personal essays.

So, just like the nondescript photo above, transformed to be something eye-catching and, hopefully, better than an ordinary photo of several trees (branding), my personal brand may need a better focus in order to have a competitive edge.

Now all I have to do is fine tune that focus and create the buzz.

Or forget about it, and just continue to have fun.

This entry was posted on February 1, 2010 at 11:13 pm and is filed under Branding, Lifestyle, Market Your Book. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.