Your Top Priority - Creating Brand Champions by Susan Gunelius
Does your business have any brand champions? You know, the people both within and outside of your company who truly live the brand’s image, message and promise? Those people infuse the brand into all parts of their lives. They talk about the brand and make sure other people know about it and understand its benefits, too. So I ask again, does your business have any people like this? Does your business have any brand champions?
If you answered, “No,” to the questions above, then you need to reprioritize your business strategy and begin nurturing brand champions immediately.
The importance of developing brand champions both internally and externally has always been essential, but today, that importance has grown exponentially. The power of the social web and the online buzz about brands has grown to have such a broad reach and strong voice, that the role of brand champions has taken on a new significance. In simplest terms, you need to have people talking about your brand in a positive manner in order to stay competitive. Never has the effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing been more powerful then it is today in the world of Web 2.0.
How do you develop brand champions?
1. Start from within.
The place to start is with your own staff. If your employees don’t believe in your brand’s message and promise, why should consumers? Read these two articles for tips and information about developing both your brand and your brand champions from within:
- Evaluate Your Brand with the Corporate Branding Success Quiz
- 10 Questions to Ask to Develop Your Brand Internally
2. Understand the importance of customer loyalty.
Customers can be the most powerful brand champions, but where does customer loyalty come from? Most often, customers who feel an emotional involvement with a brand will become loyal to it, and loyalty leads consumers to want to talk about those brands that they feel emotionally attached to. Read this article to learn more about developing customer loyalty:
3. Embrace the power of word-of-mouth marketing and the social web.
Once consumers become loyal to your brand and they begin talking about your brand, that conversation is likely to trickle onto the social web where millions of people spend time sharing information everyday. Leveraging those online influencers and allowing them to generate a positive online buzz about your product can lead to great things for your company in terms of publicity, new customer acquisition, repeat purchases, advertising, an increase in sales, and more. The trick is nudging the online conversation in a positive direction that benefits your brand, and then letting it thrive. Read the following articles to learn more about fostering word-of-mouth marketing and the social web:
- 7 Steps of Advertising Success Drives Word-of-Mouth Marketing
- The Social Web Becomes Mainstream - Is Your Brand There?
The potential that exists once you recognize the role of brand champions in growing your business is enormous, but the path needs to start from within your own ranks. Your brand messages must be consistent and customer expectations for your brand must always be met or exceeded. In time, customer loyalty will come. Brand champions will step forward and lead the charge to take your brand to the next level. Give them the reins and let them!
About Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a full-service marketing communiations provider and marketing and branding consultancy. Susan’s marketing-related articles have appeared in numerous business publications, including Entrepreneur.com, MSNBC.com, WashingtonPost.com, FoxBusiness.com, TheStreet.com, SmartMoney.com, and more. She is also an active blogger, writing both KeySplash Creative Conversations about advertising, marketing and branding and Women On Business, which provides information from today’s thought leaders for women working in the field of business. You can learn more about Susan on her website, www.KeySplashCreative.com.
Susan is always spot-on, very rarely if ever is Branding an accident. They take passion, and a plan like the one put forth here! Many new business owners are a little lazy these days.
Thanks, Bob Lewis
Posted by: Bob Lewis | January 19, 2009 at 05:16 PM