Delivering on your brand promise

Advisor: A few months ago, you wrote about the importance of developing a unique “story” to differentiate one’s advisory practice from others essentially offering the same products and services. You concluded by saying that a good story would help “bring your brand promise to life.” What exactly is a brand promise, and how do I develop one?

Coach says: This is an important question. Many marketing people, in addition to financial advisors, confuse their brand promise with the actual execution of what we typically call branding.

Before you can jump into the act of branding, you need to have a clear idea of what you are trying to promote — that is, the image you want to project to your target market. What do you want them to think when they are exposed to your branding message? How do you want them to feel about you? What are you offering that would make them want to seek more information about you or, in an ideal world, immediately want to do business with you?

The first step in the process of creating your brand promise is to identify something that establishes you, your products and services, your processes or your practice as different. Potential clients are likely to have been exposed to a wide range of marketing messages or have had previous experiences with other advisors that have created preconceived notions about what to expect from someone new, such as you.

Most important, the different approach you offer must be meaningful and relevant to prospective clients. It is not sufficient, therefore, to say you are professional, have integrity and offer a full range of financial products, advice and top-notch service. What financial advisor couldn’t make similar claims?

You want your brand idea to create the perception that there is no other advisor quite like you. It is not necessary (or believable) for you to try to convince people that you are the “best in the world”; you just want them to think of you as the best in their world.

The most successful brand concepts I have seen are simple to understand because they focus on a narrow range of capabilities. Instead of trying to portray yourself as being all things to all people, consider tightening your value proposition and incorporating that focus into your brand promise. For example, promote yourself as a retirement income specialist rather than a broad-based financial planner.

Your brand promise can also be about taking a position relative to what you do. For example, what is your philosophy around investing — buy and hold, core and explore, technical analysis, etc.? Once you take a position, the essential idea you want to convey will become clearer. And the words, images and the emotions you want people to associate with your business will come much easier.

If you are like most financial advisors, you have a wide range of capabilities that you could bring to bear on your relationships with clients. But how do you decide which one (or ones) is going to be the foundation of your brand promise?

I haven’t come across a structured approach or system that works every time. But one thing I have observed is that the best brand ideas stir emotions ahead of rational thinking. This is not to say that emotional appeal alone is sufficient — people will ultimately judge your offer on your capacity to help them as well. But emotion almost always captures their attention first. Here are some additional suggestions for coming up with your brand promise:

> Research what’s working so far. Ask current clients why they do business with you. What do they value most in the relationship or work you have done together?

> Involve others. Gather as many different views as you can from your support team, suppliers, mentors, advisory board, etc. Having your own notions challenged is invaluable.

> Look at the competition. Read their advertisements, look at their websites and brochures. Are they all singing the same song? What is missing from the market that you can provide?

> Listen and observe. What are people talking about? The economic meltdown and prevailing market uncertainty has, in my view, caused a systemic shift in the way inves-tors perceive risk and what they expect from their financial advisors. How can you position yourself as a valued resource today to accommodate this change?
@page_break@> Get out of the office. Great ideas often come when we’re not focusing on trying to come up with them. So that delivery truck passing by from Kitchen Concepts Ltd. could be the springboard to the Retirement Concepts Group, and so on.

As suggested above, one obvious place to highlight your brand promise is in the name of your business. If regulations and your firm permit, what better way to describe your brand than to come up with a name that represents the position you want to occupy in the minds of your clients?

The name for my own company, Market Logics Inc., for example, came about as the result of a comment by a potential client who was seeking someone who could “bring some logical thinking to how we can expand our market share.”

If you have ever named a child or a pet, you probably read books of suggestions, asked lots of people for their ideas, wrote down myriad possibilities and then narrowed it to a short list of names you found most appealing. This seemingly simple exercise can be very fruitful.

In my view, it’s almost impossible to name your business without a clear understanding of the core message you want potential clients to hear.

Remember, too, that your brand is the face of everything you do in your practice. As noted, if you keep your brand promise simple and focused, you can execute it with greater creativity, clarity and consistency at all points at which your potential (and current) clients connect with your business.

I suggest you map out your clients’ experience by identifying each area in which your brand touches them, then determine which areas have the greatest potential to influence perceptions. Some of these touchpoints will be more powerful than others, and you should focus your efforts on those.

These points of contact can be the behaviour of your people, the service you provide, your office location and layout, signage, advertising, your colours, tag line — just about anything that could connect potential clients emotionally to your brand promise. If you have that simple brand idea in place, you should be able to choreograph everything to align the experience with your brand promise.

Creating a strong brand promise requires creativity as well as both strategic and tactical thinking. If you don’t feel this is a strength you have, consider outsourcing to a marketing communications specialist who can help you create your brand promise.

Most important, however, don’t forget that your brand has to be delivered to clients. Otherwise, the entire effort will be for nought.

> the savings game

Advisor: The “conference season” is fast approaching and I am deluged with information and requests to register for events everywhere. I stopped attending anything, even my own company’s conference, a number of years ago because it was the same stuff over and over again. Is there anything new out there that you would recommend?

Coach says: I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to suggest that one conference or event might be better than another. What I am more than willing to say, however, is that I believe every advisor has an obligation to participate in some sort of continuing education on a regular basis. If that education is best gained through conferences, then, by all means, sign up for one or more.

I used the word “obligation” intentionally to emphasize that I do feel every advisor has a responsibility to ensure that he or she is as up to date as possible in all aspects of managing his or her practice.

That means being technically competent with respect to your craft as an advisor, as well as being CEO of your business. You owe it to your clients, staff, yourself and your family. There are a lot of people depending on you to be in top form in whatever capacity you interact with them.

I attend numerous conferences and workshops each year because I feel it is important to stay well informed about my business. I have accepted the fact that not all events are great ones. What I have discovered, however, is that I always learn something that justifies the time and expense. The insight may come in a blast but, more often, it is a trickle of five to ten minutes here and there or in a brief conversation at a coffee break.

It’s a matter of fulfilling your professional obligations to your clients.
IE

George Hartman is president and CEO of Market Logics Inc. and a senior coach and facilitator with the Covenant Group. His latest book, Blunder, Wonder, Thunder: Powering Your Practice to New Heights, was published in January. Send questions, comments and opinions on any aspect of practice management to george@marketlogics.ca.