First steps in building a strong brand

How to begin a business that ensures the success ? Managers with lots of experience say there is no guarantee and just trying and experimenting led them to the success pathway they know walk on.

Any potential consumer needs to have a minimmum trust just to consider viewing or buying your products. Your sense of identity and trust providing is fully expressed by what you choose to express through your brand.

This is what Peter Fisk talks about in Genius Marketing when it comes to defining your brand (Fisk, 2008, p. 161). The marketing expert is all about asking the right experts. Find your answers and you will have a clear image on how to develop your business.

  1. What is your great idea?
  2. What do you do for others?
  3. Who are those people?
  4. How do you do it?
  5. What makes your product better/ and what makes a difference compared to other brands?
  6. How can you find your place among other brands to best express the idea you built your brand upon?
  7. How can you express the main idea of your brand in a clear, practical, convincing way?

The specialist goes further and shares some guidelines for defining your brand.

What I personally earned from “Genius Marketing” is a perspective on various case studies. The author brings his own experience as a consultant to help readers better understand what lies behind his methods.

In the “Virgin Atlantic Airways” case study P. Fisk shows how this company has a solid mission statement.  The company states that its role is to sustain the client and it is based on six principles defined by its founder Sir Richard Branson.

These were applied to craft the Customer Service Plan :

“1. Offering the lowest fare available

2. Notifying customers of known delays, cancellations and diversions:

3. Delivering baggage on time

4. Allowing reservations to be held or cancelled without penalty for 24 hours

5. Provide promt refunds where due

6. Assisting and enabling customers with special needs

7. Meeting customers essential needs during lenghty tarmac delays

8.  Handling Flight oversales

9. Disclosing cancellation policies and other information

10.  Notifying customers in a timely manner of changes to travel itineraries

11. Ensuring responsiveness to customer complaints

12. Minimising inconvenience resulting from flight cancellations/ misconnections

13.  The small print.”