How to create a monster brand

 

Hands up all of you who want to dominate your chosen field of business, to be leaders, gurus, even household names.

Okay, now hands up those of you who are happy to be an also-ran, just making up the numbers.

Interesting. You all want to be leaders. On these pages I’ll tell you what I know about building a monster brand – and these rules apply and the tips work whether you’re building a company brand, a product brand or a personal brand.

 

 

Brand Soul

 

Get to the soul of your brand

There was a rug store near where I live. Every time I passed it, I cringed. Why? Because it had a name that was wrong, wrong, wrong. It was called Rug Rage. My guess is that the owner thought it a clever variation of road rage. Maybe the owner’s intent was for people to interpret the word Rage as in fad, mode, vogue, currency. Even so, it wasn’t a great name, because Rug Rage would naturally remind people of road rage, with its association with angry gestures, shouted obscenities, smashed windows and even death.

The owner reinforced the anger aspect when he had a logo designed. It featured a short fat man stomping his feet and tearing out his hair.

You’ll note I write about Rug Rage in the past tense. The store is no longer there.

Here was a business owner who thought he had hit on a clever business name and had designed a logo that would resonate with his target market. What it said to me was that he had no idea about his audience, his products or his brand.

He isn’t alone.

 

It’s remarkable how little most business owners know about their brands

When you enter network marketing, you are effectively setting up your own business (with the MLM company providing research, products and some training). In setting up your business, you need to know the critical things overlooked by most people starting a business –

 

1. Is there a genuine need for your product or service?

Just because you’re a great cook of Russian food doesn’t mean you should open a Russian restaurant in South Beach, Miami. Is Russian food popular outside your home? Are there enough people in the South Beach area who long for the taste of Russian food on a regular basis? This is rarely a problem in the MLM sector, BUT you do need to know if your local area has reached saturation point, for example.

 

2. What business are you really in?

McDonalds aren’t in the hamburger business. They are in the business of delivering a reliable, repeatable, enjoyable experience. Polaroid missed the digital photography revolution because they thought they were in the instant photo business. If they’d realised they delivered instant memories, they’d have recognised digital developing as just a new way to deliver those memories and they’d have opened the first digital processing booths. In network marketing, you are primarily in the business of introducing others to a business opportunity. The specific products you sell are almost inconsequential.

 

3. What are your weaknesses and threats?

Most owners go into business with boundless optimism. They see their strengths and opportunities. They refuse to think of anything negative. As a consequence, they fail to recognise their own shortcomings, they are under capitalised for periods of lean business and they don’t see the competition until it’s too late. Be honest and brutal in evaluating yourself.

 

4. Who is your audience?

Too many network marketers define their target market by proximity. To survive and to differentiate yourself from current or future competition, you need to understand your audience and prove that you understand them (and can help them) better than others in the MLM space. Start by writing down what you know about them – what are their fears, ambitions, gripes, dreams and hot buttons? How do you meet these emotions and needs?

 

5. What are your brand’s values?

What is your brand’s soul? Can its essence be conveyed in a few words? Toyota’s Hilux utes can be summed up in one word – unbreakable. Every piece of Hilux communication reinforces the ruggedness of the vehicle. Other brands can be summed up as caring (Vick’s, Bandaid, World Vision), wholesome (Kellogg’s), innovative (Apple), challenging (Virgin). How can your brand be described in a few words? You need to understand this if you are to explain your opportunity to a prospect.

If you don’t know what your brand stands for, your audience won’t either.

Only when you know your own brand’s soul can you ensure that everything you do and say is consistent – and ensure it you must. In Australia, the Woolworths supermarket chain calls itself ‘the fresh food people’ and promotes healthy eating. However, most times I visit a store, I see obese teens at the checkout.

Like most businesses, MLM distributors start small and by their very nature, exude the beliefs and personality of their owners. As your network marketing business grows, try to recruit people who not only possess the passion you need, but share the same beliefs and values.

If your audience has a fuzzy image of your business, they won’t connect. Because they cannot engage with you emotionally, they’ll connect rationally. That means that you’re always at risk of having them defect to another MLM business down the track.

Where to start?

I have helped a lot of brands – both iconic multinationals and niche regional names – find and leverage their soul. I will often work with other specialists in helping businesses refine their brands and build a communications blueprint. Defining your brand is a critical first step to building a successful, durable business.

Taking that first step will save you time, anxiety, money – and ultimately, your business. Seriously, I’m happy to talk and help you find your MLM business’s brand soul.

 

Brand You

 

Turn yourself into a valuable brand

The traditional face-to-face and word-of-mouth methods of building network marketing teams is a slow way to reach people and build your brand and your business. It also limits you to recruiting in your local area. Some spend hours hosting parties and doing product demos in the hope of attracting others to their networks. MLM companies tell their distributors to recruit, recruit, recruit because the more you recruit, the greater your chance of finding one or two or a dozen who will prove to be really passionate and successful.

It is inefficient, labour-intensive and soul-destroying.

Far better to attract a handful of people who share your passion and enthusiasm, than convince hundreds to join in the hope that one or two will have genuine passion.

That’s not as hard as it sounds.

The smartest home business operators (like the smartest shopkeepers and multinational corporations) are using 21st century tools to reach a wider audience and attract the right people to their team. They blog, they create Facebook pages, they Tweet, they post videos on You Tube – all designed to establish their expertise, passion, friendliness and desire to help others. Their goal? To build their personal brand and to attract passionate people who think “I want to join HER team!”, because they like what they see.

Some people think traditional marketing rules don’t apply to network marketing. Untrue. MLM is simply marketing without a shopfront. You join someone’s team, but at the same time, you are starting your own team – your own company, if you like. Now you need to make that company a place that the most talented people want to join.

To do that, you need to create yourself as a brand. You have to be clear about your brand essence, the soul of brand You. What do you stand for? How can you be summed up in one or two words? What is your vision? What business are you in? Who are your competitors? Who is your target market? What are your strengths and your weaknesses? What opportunities exist for you? What threats might derail you?

To become a successful brand, you have to know how to market yourself. You have to have a clear and desirable image. You have to add value to people’s lives. You have to become a people magnet. In that sense, Brand You is no different from brand Nike or Apple.

In network marketing opportunities, you are the brand. You are more important to prospects than the products you sell. Prospects are attracted because they like what you stand for, they see your expertise and they believe you can help them succeed.

If you don’t have the confidence to turn yourself into an attractive brand, I will work with you. A little time spent getting your brand right will repay itself a thousand fold in the future.

 

Pimp My Persona

 

Professional image development

Cliché one: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Cliché two: “It’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it.”

Cliché three: “Clichés are nothing but truths oft repeated.”

One of these clichés is a ring-in – but it happens to be true. Clichés become clichés because enough people believe them to repeat them. As far as your image goes, the first two clichés are truths that you cannot ignore.

Strangers make judgements about you in a couple of seconds, based purely on the relationship of your mouth to nose to eyes, on your facial expression, on your clothes, on the way you walk, the way you hold a coffee cup, the way you eat, the car you drive, the music you listen to and the way you speak. Worse, judgements are often made without actually meeting face to face.

What does this mean for network marketers?

Does it sound overly dramatic if I write that it means the difference between success and failure?

Let me explain.

Many network marketers make opportunity presentations on a regular basis. Many of these start with a phone call. Many network marketers spend many hours making new business calls and then more time driving to and from presentations. Well, guess what? Most of those opportunity presentations have been won or lost long before you meet the prospect. The first impression was formed with that first phone call. If the prospect wasn’t impressed after that first call, then throughout the presentation she will look for signs to reinforce her negative impression.

So important has professional image become that some highly successful people in the corporate world hire public relations and image consultants to manage their public persona.

Personal image development is something that a serious network marketer ought to consider.

So what exactly can you do as far as your professional image goes?

Pretty much every aspect of how we present ourselves to the world can be tamed, polished, corrected, beautified and otherwise pimped.

A quick list of possibilities:

Few of us will need all of these fixes, but every improvement will repay itself with business success.