Design Your Brand For Long-Term Impact

Too often, in building a brand, businesses will spend far more time on the colors and look of the brand, than they do on the impact of the brand. When I taught branding to businesses, I tried to help them understand that the colors or logo of a brand will remind people of the experiences they’ve had or heard about, so what is truly important is to make those experiences positive, powerful, and memorable. The brand is not how a business looks; brand is how a business acts.

The 5th branding principle is “Design for Long-Term Impact”…that is, the actions of the business (the brand) should be crafted so that they care for customers in a way that ensures they become repeat customers who send you referrals! Another part of the principle is to craft the brand around how your products or services create a long-term impact. The most common example of that idea is to “sell the clean floor, not the mop.”

When these two ideas are woven together, the business will find itself with a standard for itself to achieve and follow as it successfully grows. One business owner who has done this beautifully is Alan Wilde. He consistently talks about how his business, TransAmerica, is for middle-income families, because everyone at every income level needs financial guidance. His “clean floor” is peace of mind in retirement and he works to make sure that his long term impact protects and cares for families.

Those of us in business need to consider the long-term impact of our brand on those we serve.

• What is the long-term benefit of your products and services?

• How does our customer service ensure that we are creating satisfied, repeat, referral-generating customers?

Those two questions can start a conversation about the long-term health of your business and lay the foundation for a successful business.