WHAT CUSTOMERS SAY SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT YOUR BRAND MESSAGE.
How much of what you say about you business or organization’s offering reflects what your customer believes? This is a critical question because it can represent what you stand for in the marketplace and ultimately your brand’s appeal. Too often when we establish the quality and strength of what our company’s brand message represents we overlook how the customer perceives it.
Sure we do research on our company’s product for customer reaction and viability to sell but how much of that is accounted for when we state our company’s brand message? Today more than ever with the advent of social media having a brand message that speaks from the mindset of customers is how you get buy-in and evangelists.
These brand evangelists are your best and loyal customers who get the word out about you in various new ways from Facebook, Twitter to Instagram and Yelp. It’s even better when these customers recognize the vision of your brand’s offering and shares the benefits of its appeal.Â
The following are steps to take to insure your company gets the brand message right from its potential customers:
1)   Test your company’s offering- When you do research for the viability of your company’s offering and its vision, test it with a sampling of your target audience to get reactions and comments from potential target customers. Here you would look to get quantitative and qualitative consensus on the quality and strength of your offering from the target audience’s “experience†with it, which can be input for your brand message
2)   Develop the brand message- This will utilize the input from testing your company’s offering with your target audience of potential customers and will support what your brand stands for. It is here you incorporate what matters most to customers and recognize your unique difference in a message that positions your brand to be appreciated in the marketplace.
3)   Test your company’s brand message After developing a sampling of different brand messages, test them with the target audience of potential customers to see if they reinforce the “experience†they have with your company’s offering and its vision.  From the sampling you should be able to get a unanimous decision on a brand message that will not only support your company’s vision for your offering but your potential customer’s appreciation of it as well.
So remember how important your brand message is for your company’s offering but even more important how your potential customers can impact it.
Steve Climons is Chief Brand Developer of Crossover Creative, a results-driven, award-winning marketing and advertising consultancy, and can be reached at [email protected]