Learn about what it takes to build a thriving brand through building an outstanding customer experience.
Inspired by John DiJulius, the king of world class customer experience.

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RISE is an audio podcast series that will lead you through what it takes to move forward towards reaching your goals. Through expert advice, tips, tools, insights and experiences, our focus is to help you continually make small shifts to build momentum and increase your brand equity. The easy-to-use media of audio podcasts offers a simple way to learn, be inspired and empowered, and continuously connect with ideas and proven strategies that will help you raise the bar.

At the start of the New Year, I mentioned that we would be inviting guest bloggers to share their knowledge. Isabelle, Co-founder of Leapzone Strategies is such an expert. A brand expert. Over the next months, hopefully she can answer some of your branding questions and dilemmas.
– Christine

Before answering this question we need to establish what branding is not.
Branding is NOT a logo and it is certainly NOT marketing.

Successful branding is a combination of an authentic promise with a clear, aligned and consistent delivery. Why it is needed is because the promise and delivery are what build trust in your company and increase customer loyalty.

A great brand is earned.
Building a great brand takes time and needs constant attention. What you promise and deliver directly affects your customer’s experience. From the feeling generated by a brochure to a conversation with a customer service rep, each and every encounter a customer has with your brand needs to be considered, evaluated and aligned with who you are as a company and where your company stands in the market.

Key Branding Ingredients:
1. CORE VALUES – Know them and live by them.
Core values are your decision makers – they align your team and bring simplicity and clarity.
ex: LeapZone’s Core Values are: Spark / Guts / Digging Deeper / Keeping it Simple / Freedom to Excel

2. PURPOSE – What gets you up in the morning.
Your purpose is your drive – the heart of your company.
ex: LeapZone’s Purpose is: To inspire and empower people to raise the bar.

3. BRAND PROMISE – Deliver that promise day in and day out. No exceptions.
Your brand promise is your difference – the key factor that sets you apart and should come to you effortlessly.
ex: LeapZone’s Brand Promise is: Clarity / Pivotal Shifts / Momentum

Building a strong brand;

• Increases credibility, recognition, revenue and success.
• Helps attain the higher level of clarity, alignment and consistency required to fully deliver your promise.
• Increases smart productivity, teamwork and working with purpose towards a common goal.

Don’t do it alone!
Hire a branding expert that specializes in helping companies attain a higher level of clarity about who they really are and where they want to stand in the market. Get clear and initiate a common focus first internally with your team, and second externally with your communication tools.

Good design goes a long way but good design does NOT make a great brand. Not all designers or design teams are equipped with the necessary desire or skills to do the upfront research and discovery process to create strong, long lasting brands.

How does your brand measure up?

Unless the video content on your site is somehow great, nobody cares about that video except you and maybe your Mom.

“Great”, on the web, means meeting a need. That need can be to have a laugh, to learn something, to be inspired.

In other words to truly leverage video on the web, you have to create videos that will draw your customers to view them. At it’s best, the video will help new people discover your website.

A fun example of this is The Human Flipbook by the restaurant chain Ebert & Gerbert. This is so creative & wonderful, it was mentioned on a site that I subscribe to. Because the video was embedded in the page at Do Something Pretty I didn’t even realize I was watching a commercial until the end. By then, I was so impressed I didn’t mind.

1. When you want to grow. Your brand is all about differentiation—what makes a customer choose you over someone else. Solid branding helps define what makes you unique. It provides focus, gives staff direction, and simplifies marketing decisions.
2. When you’re competing to attract and retain employees. In a tough labour market, a strong brand can create an emotional connection with your employees as well as your customers. Brand strategy provides focus for decision-making, increases employee engagement and retention, and helps you attract the right kind of new talent.
3. When you’re looking for funding. A strong brand communicates that you are serious about doing business, have a professional approach, and consider your business market-viable. In addition, a brand can be a corporate asset—the better you are known in the marketplace, the higher the value of your business.
4. When your service reputation has slipped. Your customers are your most important promoters. If your reputation has slipped, evaluating your brand promise—the experience customers associate with your brand—offers insight. Once you clearly define it, you can ensure it’s delivered in all customer interactions.

I know that sitting on the beach is quite nice, but while your there take a few minutes to do some brand evaluation.

But Telus isn’t the worse culprit in Canada. No the company that brings all Canadians in agreement is Air Canada. Everyone has a story of having to pay for drinks, no food being served on 5 hour flights, being squished in seats so tight your legs can’t move. They are the worst company to fly with.

When booking our latest trip I had three goals. Avoid Air Canada, avoid Charles the Gaulle airport and lay-overs. We found the perfect flight with KLM. Leaving from Vancouver we would fly to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam Bordeaux. Unfortunately last night after spending an hour or so on the tarmac, we were told that our plane wouldn’t leave and we would have to come back today. After contacting KLM and chatting to them for what seemed like 3 hours, we are now booked on North West Airlines leaving today at 2pm. We’ll be flying from Vancouver to Detroit, Detroit to Paris, then Paris to Bordeaux, which involves 3 lay-overs and the dreaded Charles de Gaulle airport. All of this because Air Canada has a bad reputation!

It will be interesting to see if KLM will follow up on this situation and contact us to apologize. I’ll worry about that later, if I can just get to France…