Branding and Bikinis

Written on May 27, 2010 – 1:30 am | by Michael Harris

This post, will help you understand the importance of defining your company’s brand.

Several years back I spent some time on the beaches near St. Petersburg, Florida. In my mind, the Florida beaches should be what the opening credits of Bay Watch or MTV Spring Break are like. It should have been a continual party with and endless stream of beautiful people walking by in tiny swimsuits. The reality of the situation was that a sporadic trickle of old, fat people dressed in tiny swimsuits waddled by my lounge chair.

I am aware that not everyone in the world is as beautiful as the people they show on MTV. In fact, I own a mirror, so I am intimately familiar with that fact. However, when a man between the ages of 65 and 70 wearing black socks and sandals hobbles down the beach without a shirt on so the scar from his quadruple bypass surgery is on display, stuffing him into a Speedo leaves me looking for a hot poker to burn my eyes out. Yet, this is what happens every day on the beaches of Florida.

I really don’t have any issues with being old, overweight and having an enormous scar on your chest. I have a problem when something is presented to me one way and then follow is something completely contradictory.

Think of your business’ brand like a body on the beach. Think of your business’ marketing like the swimsuit on that body. The thought of an approaching bikini or a Speedo leaves you with the notion that something hot and sexy should be walking by soon, so when something other than an individual with the body of a Greek god wears it, you too are left looking for the hot poker to burn your eyes out.

Branding is the message you present to the public. It is your company’s collective personality, style and strengths. It’s the body on the beach. Marketing is what presents that message to the public. It’s your advertisements, logos, corporate dress and business cards. It’s what convinces people to listen to what you have to say.

I’ve painted this image of a fat man in a Speedo for two reasons. First, because I know you’ve all seen him before. Second, because I want to create a strong sense of the importance it is to keep your advertising consistent with your message. If you create a message that doesn’t line up with the vehicle you present it in, you will quickly find yourself in as much trouble as a sand castle in a rising tide.

Three of the problems that come from mismatching your “body” with your “swimsuit” are:

1. It confuses potential customers. If I see an advertisement for a really fun looking place for kids where all of the images they show me are full of bright colors and people with lots of energy playing games while eating pizza, I would be inclined to take my kids there for a special night out with Dad. But, if I show up and the restaurant is a buffet playing Lawrence Welk music over the speakers, and their daily special is brussels sprouts and prune juice, I’m completely confused. What they’ve told me and what they delivered are two completely different things. If what you present to your customer doesn’t line up with what you deliver, your customer will be confused and may not return because they don’t understand what you are.

2. It disappoints customers. Customers build expectations on advertisements. We should all work to ensure our business is friendly and our customers expect a certain level of these things as well. But, if our business’ friendliness ranks a five out of ten, then you probably shouldn’t advertise “the friendliest staff you’ll ever meet”. Spreading the wrong message will set an expectation by clients that your company is a ten out of ten and when they experience a five, they will be sadly disappointed. The kicker to this is, they may have actually been somewhat pleased with a five out of ten, but convincing them you are a ten set the expectation too high because you communicated a message your brand couldn’t back up.

It’s just like telling your spouse you’ll be home for dinner early tonight and then showing up 10 minutes later than normal. Normally, showing up 10 minutes late wouldn’t cause a problem, but because you’ve set the expectation that you’ll be early, 10 minutes late is trouble.

3. You miss out on the opportunity to serve who you are best suited to serve. Developing your brand is a highly revealing process; one where you learn as much about yourself as you do your business. Neglecting the chance to learn who your business is, what strengths it has and how they are different from your competition is critical if you want to have a chance at success.

If you define success as accomplishing what you set out to do, but you set out to serve the wrong demographic or psychographic group of customers, you will never be able to effectively reach your goal. If your strength lies within serving old fat men who wear Speedos, then put down the hot pokers and stop trying to attract the 22 year-old-hot bodies.

Matt Barrett is the director of the UCCS Small Business Development Center. Send small business questions to him at matthew.barrett@uccs.edu.

Perfect Business!