12 Questions You Need to Ask to Define Your Brand Marketing

Key Questions to Ask About Your BRAND

Your entire organization is built around your brand. Having a clear definition of your brand is essential for communicating what you have to offer to your target market. Start by answering these 12 questions.

1. Who are we? Define what your organization is in one to two sentences (approximately 140 characters or less.) A brief description without any meaningless jargon is essential to define because it is the best way to start your elevator speech.
2. What are the three greatest strengths/weaknesses of our brand? Strengths are internal characteristics that are performed well whereas weaknesses are aspects that the organization lacks. After identifying your internal strengths and weaknesses of your brand, you are able to assess what actions need to take place, if any, to strengthen your overall brand through an importance/performance analysis. If you identify a weakness that does not make a difference to your brand or customers, then why spend resources attempting to improve that weakness?
3. What are our greatest opportunities for growth?  These are opportunities not already implemented.  Look at competitors and the external environment to assess what might be a strong opportunity. Then perform an attractiveness/success probability analysis to determine which opportunities have the greatest potential for growth.
4. What keywords would people search to find our organization/products/services?  Knowing these keywords, you are able to create content that is keyword rich. Since search engines are one of the primary ways people find your web-page, your company is more likely to be found having keyword rich content.
5. Who are our buyer personas?  Identifying your buyer personas enables you to get closer to thinking like your customer. This is essential in fulfilling the needs of your customer. You will be able to unlock how to effectively communicate with them and are more likely to have them listen.
6. What makes us different?  We live in a society that bombards us with offers and information.  Knowing what makes you unique you will be one step closer to creating a brand that is remarkable.
7. How do we express that differentiation in words, images and actions? Show how remarkable your organization is in all aspects and have this visible through all content, images and actions. Your brand should be consistent in the messages it creates through these three aspects.  The website, for example, should have content including your tagline, blogs and descriptions that all fit with the look and feel of the images (including the logo).  Once you are done going through building and identifying your brand, your company should have feel like a person with only one personality.
8. What value can we bring to the community? Providing valuable guidance, resources or tools to your target market makes you an expert in their minds.  By integrating yourself within the community and positioning yourself as a thought leader in your field, you will develop a strong following.  Maybe your organization is a non-profit and you provide social services to locals or you are philanthropic and donate services?  This counts as well in bringing value to the community.
9. What are we doing to innovate and move our industry forward? It is easier for you to lead customers to you if you know what makes you valuable.  In what ways do you lead the industry providing value to customers?
10. What is our sustainable competitive advantage? Determine your top strengths through a performance/importance analysis.  Knowing your top strengths, you will be able to see which provide a lasting advantage over competitors.
11. What makes customers buy from us the first time (acquisition)?  Now that you have attracted the attention from potential customers, you need to close the deal.  Knowing what makes your target customer convert into a paying customer is essential.  Will this potential customer convert into a buyer based on a promotion or package?
12. What keeps them coming back (retention)?  Once you have spent the resources and finally gotten to the point where you have found a paying customer, you want to keep them. Does your exceptional customer service, quality product or competitive prices keep them coming back? You want to retain active customers by continuing to offer the same qualities that keep them supporting your company.

Next, integrate this knowledge into your Web, search marketing, advertising, marketing collateral, social media, content marketing and public relations strategies to provide a clear and consistent brand image.

Learn more about Brand Strategy and Brand Consulting.