Of course it is important but a nice ‘badge’ rarely establishes a successful business on its own. Then we move onto traditional concepts such as business personality, benefits and differentiators over the competition.
Until recently this is far as it went. Then a few weeks ago a new client asked me “This all looks good but how can I make my target customers believe it?” This struck a chord. He was right. Every new business needs to communicate reasons to believe.
Yet how can a new business achieve this when it is an unknown quantity? After much thought and debate between us we decided there were three techniques that can help.
- Know your competitors inside out by engaging with their service as much as possible. If you are going to open a hairdressers, go and get your hair cut or styled in as many of the competitors as possible (albeit this may take a few months!). This will not only improve the differentiators encompassed in the branding but help to develop reasons to believe.
- Keep in very close dialogue with the first set of customers that are captured. This means more than just gaining testimonials. It is about capturing their descriptions of the experience, ensuring their comments are guided towards the benefits and differentiators of the brand. Categorise these customers in a way that enables the business to check that those who would be expected to return, do so.
- If the business is web based, ensure you capture as many real photographs as possible. Avoid the use of stock images. If your company has created a wonderful landscape garden for a customer, photograph it not just at the end but from the beginning. Create a short video, using your iphone if necessary. Make the content rich and interesting. Visual reasons to believe are amongst the most powerful, and if planned, need not be expensive to capture.
