This post is written by Guest Blogger Suzanne Tulien.
How simple perceptions create business differentiation.
We were enjoying happy hour cocktails and snacks at our neighbor’s house the other day and their inquisitive six year old daughter began telling us about her day at a friend’s birthday party. She hyper-focused on the detail of the decorations as the speed of her description got faster and faster and the pitch of her voice got higher and higher. She cited the colors, balloons, festive cupcakes with icing and sprinkles, the presents, games, and the music, not to mention listing all the other nine boys and girls names who attended. I’m always fascinated with our conversations as she has such a whimsical perspective on how the world works in her life.
As she was helping herself to the snacks at the table the adults were sitting around, she picked up the toothpick container and identified four toothpicks, very carefully. Each toothpick was a different color. She lined them up on her party plate and strategically chose which color toothpick would go with which snack selection. As she populated her selected toothpicks with snacks, she very nonchalantly says “Snacks always taste better on a toothpick,” and continued what she was doing. The ongoing adult conversation didn’t skip a beat. I think I was the only one who truly caught the profoundness of this statement!
So, I began thinking, what is it about a snack-on-a-toothpick that fosters that perception? In her mind it means ‘special, distinctive, festive.’ And that’s all that matters, isn’t it? That is her reality.
Her simple, innocent, yet very sincere comment is a great example of how powerful perception can be, especially in business. When it comes to building your business brand, perception is everything! In fact, the first step in successful brand development is in defining what you want that perception to be from your customers and yes, your employees. When you, the business entrepreneur, take the time to flush out exactly what you want others to perceive, you will be able to action it and make it real.
From your behaviors, to your employee culture, to your leadership, to your customer relationships, you have opportunities to influence perception. But if you don’t have a clear definition of what YOU want that perception to be, you cannot take the necessary action to influence and affirm that result. In that case, guess what happens? You are no longer ‘managing’ your brand, your customers are. And it can get out of control very quickly these days with the advent of social media and on-the-fly customer ratings and reviews.
Unfortunately, defining brand perception is one of the most often overlooked growth strategies in small businesses. The prevailing thought is that the customer defines the brand and that the business just needs to adjust to their ever-changing collective fickleness. That’s like a dog chasing its own tail! Why not incorporate a different approach and take charge of your own brand by clearly defining it from the inside out; include identifying your core values, your brand style, and setting your standards of performance. Then, get your employees involved and design processes that affirm it through every customer touch-point. And finally, declare a promise that speaks to the heart of what you commit to deliver.
Similar to putting snacks on a party toothpick to enhance the perception, your brand can do small things right now to raise the ‘wow’ factor. Here are a few ideas:
- Collect more data from your customers – birthdays, anniversaries, etc. and send them an unexpected, but sincere note ‘wishing you the best…”
- Take your packaging to the next level. For example: a fondue restaurant wraps up your left-overs in shiny silver paper, sealed with a gold, logo-embossed sticker and placed in a beautiful bag tied with a bow…wow.
- Enhance your customer’s experience by incorporating more multi-sensory elements such as smell, taste, and powerful brand-affirming visuals. Martin Lindstrom, author of Brand Sense reports in one of his studies, “the more sensory memories activated, the greater the bond the customer has with the brand.”
Conscious, strategic and deliberate brand definition facilitated by you, the business owner and your employee team, is transformational. And once you take a serious look at defining your own business brand from the inside out, raising your current ‘wow’ factor becomes fun, inspiring and easy while you become committed to be consistently ‘on-brand.’ Remember, small gestures can create huge emotional impacts and highly memorable customer experiences.
Have you thought about serving your product on a party toothpick?
Suzanne Tulien is Principal and co-Founder of The Brand Ascension Group, a multi-faceted consulting and training firm specializing brand perception. She is author of The 6 Myths of Small Business Branding, and co-author of Brand DNA. She is also on the Expert Panel of YoungEntrepreneur.com. View her full profile here.
