[Issue 5] Setting the Right Course
Demystifying “brand” & its role in building a sustainable business
[Photo by orbtal media on Unsplash]
The Odysseus Files, Issue 5
Build a Castle, Not a Village, Part 2
Building Upside Down
[Note: this is Part 2 of a miniseries within the broader Odysseus Files called “Build a Castle, Not a Village.” These miniseries will group broad topics thematically, helping you connect the dots between them more easily.]
If you were building a home, would you begin with the roof or the foundation?
Ridiculous question, right?
Yet that’s what most entrepreneurs and small business owners try to do with their businesses.
It’s not their fault, though: much of the culture of entrepreneurship is based around tactics first (like we discussed in last week’s issue). And this has contributed to a misunderstanding of some foundational business principles.
How do I know this?
First, from working both agency- and client-side and seeing firsthand how most companies operate.
Second, from studying and observing attitudes in the marketing and advertising industries.
This second point is perhaps best captured in some content published by a strategy consultant for consumer brands. For the most part, his content on strategy is solid. But one line in one post made clear the lack of understanding prevalent in the industry: he described a brand as “how a product is packaged.”
To set this straight, we need to define our terms.
Are We Talking About the Same Thing?
Driving in a rainstorm sucks. Your visibility is like 20 feet. You could hydroplane at any minute.
Kind of like how most people approach marketing.
Marketing as a discipline is set off to the side in its own department, tasked with sending leads to sales, as if its entire function is slinging tactics against the wall to see what sticks (I worked for a marketing department that operated this way, once…).
Its offspring, advertising & branding, are given their own jobs to do - one is assigned to go make pretty things, while the other gets the job of tracking spreadsheets. Slap the pretty things on whatever the spreadsheet gods tell us, and we have marketing, right?
(Look, I know Zeus and Poseidon and Athena all got involved in the Trojan War - but can we please keep them out of our marketing?)
Creators aren’t much different. Marketing is the slimy “thing” we have to do when we’re done creating - the “real” work.
What people forget is that marketing serves an overlord - the brand. (And no, the brand is NOT built with the pretty things we slap around and call branding….)
“Marketing” is the accumulation of decisions and actions that support the brand. The brand, on the other hand, IS the business. It's a nuanced, living organism, made up of values and identity and personality and positioning. It stands for something, has enemies, and promises to slay those enemies on behalf of those under its protection - the customers.
Brand building is strategy. It sets the pace for every decision to be made, every product to be built, and every customer segment to be served in the business.
Every business is a brand, whether they are intentional about crafting it or not. A brand is what the people who interact with you think about you. Which means, if you want your brand to be different than what people already think, you need to first shift your entire business behind the new identity you want to live out, so that people can sense the change. Then, you look for new people who are attracted to your new brand - because peoples’ minds rarely change. You most likely won’t be able to persuade your old customers you’re a new you.
Fortunately for you, though, you’re not well on your way and in need of a course correction (like turning one of those huge container ships). You’re starting out - the best time to begin exploring what and who your brand is.
From Struggling to Sustainable
Beginning by creating a vision for your brand - even if it evolves over time - brings everything else into perspective. It sets the rules for the game you decide you’re going to play. It helps you make decisions about what business model you’ll leverage and what tactics you’ll use.
More importantly, it helps you identify what kind of experience you want to deliver to your customers - which, if you think about it, is the single biggest factor that keeps people around and gets them talking about your business to others.
Remember the three challenges facing entrepreneurs we covered last week?
Crafting your brand vision, writing the rules to the game you want to play, and leveraging this to design an impactful customer experience solves for all three. Watch how this plays out:
A “churn & burn” business model based on constantly hustling for views, follows, and clicks: replaced by a core community of customers who are addicted to your brand and will buy anything you make - then tell others about you.
A tactics-first approach to building a business: replaced by a solid, strategic foundation, from which you can build whatever tactics you want - as long as they align with the foundation.
Looking the same as everyone else: replaced by standing out like a sore thumb to your ideal customers, for whom you become the only option to scratch the itch they need scratching. Forget about competition: others in your space move from being a competitive threat to a collaborative opportunity, because you each deliver a unique experience.
This is what it means to build a sustainable brand.
(And to clarify, by “sustainable” I simply mean a system or process that requires less and less external inputs to maintain its momentum.)
By building a brand and an experience that attracts AND keeps the right people, you create a system that continues to fuel itself - freeing you up to continue delivering more value to your customers (which in turn generates more word-of-mouth, and thereby new customers, and the flywheel continues).
Takeaways
A “brand” isn’t what most people seem to think it is. It’s often confused with “branding” - the creative “things” we make to decorate our business, from logo and color choices to product packaging.
Instead, it’s the heart and soul of the company. The foundation upon which every other part of the house is built.
It’s the values, beliefs, competitive advantages, positioning, personality, etcetera that makes the company who it is.
All other things stem from the brand: strategy, messaging, product development, operations, marketing, sales, branding, advertising/promotions (largely in that order).
Intellectual entrepreneurs begin with a brand vision - then build everything else in alignment with that.
When aligned correctly, the result is a sustainable business, with people eager to keep coming back and to talk you up to others.
It’s a castle, not a village (we’ll explore this analogy more in weeks to come).
P.S. - Next week: the online advertising and marketing industries are getting a shakeup. We’ll take a deep dive into what’s wrong (i.e., what’s no longer sustainable) and why these changes are a good thing - if you’re willing to build from the foundation up, like we covered today.
P.P.S. - What’s your favorite consumer brand? Why? Hit “reply” and let me know.