Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1194291
B M & T ••• September/October 2019 ••• www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 32 MISTAKE #5: You don't choose a focus. Brand strategy includes choosing what you are NOT going to focus on (even though it is scary). By choosing what falls inside your brand purpose, you are also choosing what falls out of it. Focus is how you win. Pedersen says you must muster the courage and effort to undertake this heavy-lifting strategic work. "Choose to stand for something—one thing," she says. In choosing your "yes," you necessarily choose many "noes." Shining the light on one thing darkens what lies outside that beam. MISTAKE #6: You fail to get the customer's attention. A customer can engage with your business only when she knows it exists. That means you must make it easy for them to notice you. The solution isn't to shout loudly (and most lack the marketing budget to shout loudly enough). The solution instead is to speak with bracing clar- ity, which most businesses fail to do. Be crystal clear about what your business is and why that matters to customers. "A storefront near my office failed to get my attention," says Pedersen. "Its windows featured women clad in fleece tunics, and the signage was vague and New Age-y with an obscure tagline. I assumed that this busi- ness sold crystals and incense, so I was surprised to learn it was a Pilates studio. I practice Pilates and am in the middle of this business's target customer profile. But this Pilates studio failed to make their business easy for me to see, so I did not see it. I did not become a customer because they did not make it easy for me to do so." MISTAKE #7: You forget to consider the customer's frame of reference. A frame of reference is that thing your customer would be using if your product or service didn't exist. It's what they would buy instead of your offering. Businesses tend to think about their frame of reference from the business's perspective, instead of from the customer's perspec- tive. This is a huge missed opportunity. "It's easy to know your most persistent direct competitors," says Pedersen. "But remember that your target is evaluating your offering in the context of other competitive options—both direct competitors and more elusive 'substitutes.' Therefore it's important to consider your brand positioning with respect to all other options your customer might choose, including direct competitors, indirect competitors, and options completely outside of your space." When it came out in 1975, Atari sold zero units at a toy industry trade show because it was priced at $79, an astronomical price point for the frame of reference of "toys." It wasn't until they contacted Sears, which sold a very successful home pinball machine for $200, that they sold 175,000 units by the end of the year. By distributing their console as a home sporting good, they were in a useful context for the customer— and they had a compelling price point. MISTAKE #8: Your brand doesn't have "teeth." Your brand strategy must be demonstrably true. It must have the power to make people believe it, trust it, and follow it because it offers compelling proof that it will live up to its promise—in other words, it has teeth. Those teeth can be an attribute, a feature, a fact, a guarantee, an ingredient—any special thing the brand offers and follows through with that provides its promise. The less debatable, the better. Look at Zappos, a brand that represents best-in-class customer serv- ice. That is no squishy promise, because specifics back it up. For example, Zappos displays its phone number on every page of its website. And when you call it, a live person answers and seems genuinely glad you called. The Zappos promise of customer service has teeth. MISTAKE #9: You fail to narrow down y our target customer. Your target customers are the people you want to attract more of. They are the people you are most able to delight because of your distinc- tive strengths. Most businesses characterize them in a superficial way and end up describing little of their inner world. Instead, characterize your target customer as a subtle and empathetic picture of how they view themselves. Remember that identifying your target customer does not eliminate your larger addressable market! "Picture your customers as sprinkled across a dartboard," says Pedersen. "The full dartboard is your addressable market. You sell to the whole dartboard. The bull's-eye is your target, the customers you must aim to please the most. The target customers in the middle will ideally