When branding comes full circle, your brand becomes an icon. An icon in your community, an icon with your team, and an icon of trust and prominence in your service area.
Branding is so much deeper than a truck wrap or fancy logo. It runs deep in your body's veins and must be your heartbeat. Every beat needs to be towards building a company that your community will respond to, especially within your target market.
There is power in creating a fully immersive experience with your brand. And the customer journey could make or break you.
So, how do you make your brand come full circle and drive more business for you?
The answer is complex yet simple. It requires intentionality and attention to detail, but most importantly, it requires a complete buy-in from you and your leadership team. Without buy-in, you’re just pitching another idea for your team to grasp onto without having any connection with it. This is not the way to build. You must build your company with a “brand-forward” approach.
The method of the acronym “BRAND” is how you bring your brand to life and full circle, with intentionality and authenticity.
B Stands for Be Bold
Branding is not the time to play it safe. We must be bold in our choices. Be bold in choosing how you brand. It’s more than just a logo. Use your colors, your wraps, your uniforms, etc. Anything that causes an eyebrow to raise or gives you a second glance is how you become unique and stand out in your market.
Being bold with your look doesn’t mean being over the top, but rather more intentional about being brave enough to do something different.
R Stands for Reputation
Building a strong reputation isn’t built overnight—it’s the result of constant awesome experiences. Your community notices when people are raving about your services, your friendliness, your quality, and other attributes. As time goes on and on, you build up a lot of authority within your market.
When you have a great reputation, you have great trust. Good is no longer a unique selling point; your customer experience has to be great, and you need them to talk about it publicly to gain some traction. This is an ongoing detail to doing business that has to be a measured commitment.
A Stands for Authenticity
Your brand is your story. Not some predesigned logo sitting on a shelf, or a logo created to be something a designer likes. This is who you are as a company, how you authentically make people feel.
Are you an old cowboy at heart? Then why are we doing things that are themed around outer space? Are you a person who loves traditional looks and good feelings? Then why do you have a brand that is loud and rock ‘n’ roll?
Your brand has to feel right to you, be like your company, and reflect how you are going to actually be as a partner for comfort in their home. Be real because everyone else is already taken.
N Stands for Nurturing Your Brand
Like a pet, your brand needs to be fed, walked, and nurtured. Because you care about your pets, you work hard to make sure they receive everything they need to stay healthy and happy. Your brand also needs this type of attention. It can’t thrive unless you and your team consistently maintain your branding momentum with your customers.
Many companies start off like rock stars, but slowly but surely fade away as time goes on. You must be diligent to keep things going.
D Stands for Direct Impact
When you have your brand implemented across all areas that customers engage with, you are winning. People need to interact with your brand in all aspects of their lives. They may see your branded yard sign or billboard as they are driving throughout the community. They may see the funny clip of your team eating donuts for National Donut Day as they're scrolling through social media. They may see your banner at their children's soccer game, or they may sit next to your branded work van.
If the customer has interacted with your brand (even when they didn’t know it), you will win a better cost per lead. You must be zealous for branding impact in your markets. You must make people feel like they know you, so that you become their comfort advocates.
Being full circle in your brand means that you have created a chain that your customers just constantly move up and down on. That could be intentional interaction or unintentional touchpoints that leave them surprised. When clients see and feel your brand, you don’t just gain momentum, you gain trust.