WHEN
SHOULD WE
BRAND?
Early, Often, and Always
I
I HEAR one question from business owners all the time: “When
should we brand?”
My answer is always the same: “Early, often, and always.”
They owned a local franchise, which allowed them to do business
in a particular geographic area, and that was that. The regional
cable companies had mini-monopolies because their customers
had few options for home entertainment.
Branding is not optional, and the risks of not taking it seriously
are very real. Your customers might lose touch with your brand
and leave you. A competitor with a strong commitment to
branding might overtake you. Or, perhaps worst of all, the
market might define your brand for you. Hence, they often didn’t treat their customers well.
Brand yourself, or someone else will brand you. It’s very
dangerous to let your customers, or the news media, or bloggers,
or social media, or your competitors define your brand for you. I don’t know if you’ve ever personally had the experience of
being a customer of any of the big cable TV companies. If you
have, then you’ve probably experienced the overwhelming sense
of dread that comes whenever you have to call a cable company
about anything. Dealing with cable companies is not a pleasant
experience.
If you don’t intentionally control your brand yourself, it will take
on a life of its own.
BRAND OR BE BRANDED
For decades, cable television companies had no competition.
20 | CARLEPUBLISHING.COM
The cable companies knew their customers weren’t going to leave
and, as a result, poor customer service became an ingrained way
of doing business.
Invariably, you’ll start by waiting on hold for 30 minutes. When
you do get a customer service rep on the line, you have to repeat