Driving Your Club’s Brand into Your Marketing Efforts

The single most important objective of the marketing process, according to Al and Laura Reis, is the process of branding.  The Reis’ are co-authors of the book, “The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding.”  They define marketing as the process of building a brand in the mind of a prospect and surmise that if you can build a powerful brand it follows that you can create a powerful marketing program.  That certainly sounds promising but to many small business owners the nuts and bolts of creating a brand is foreign.  Oh, sure, the term “branding” is something that is thrown around in business books and seminars, and we all recognize that Kleenex, Coca-Cola and Mercedes are brands, but how does an independently owned club operator make his or her club/s into a recognized brand?

Perhaps the first step in creating a brand is to move beyond the ability to simply recognize a brand and to actually understand what a “brand” is.  The best definition I have come across was in a new book called “Brand Driven.”  There, the authors noted that, “a brand is the sum total of every experience a customer has with a company or product—a sum total that customers begin to think of as the promise of the brand.”  What they meant by this very broad definition is that every single aspect of a companies business, from operations to customer service, to product or program development, to management, to sales and marketing, helps to either define or dilute a brand.  Therefore, if all aspects of a business are not working towards the same objective, a true brand can never be created.

For example, if your club advertises a beginner friendly environment for new exercisers but then doesn’t offer appropriate equipment, programs or services that deliver on that promise, the “brand” you were trying to create in the consumers mind would be diluted.  Unfortunately, these type of diluting experiences happen too often in all businesses—and it’s not that a business intentionally wants to give the customer an incongruent message that potentially dilutes or damages their image or brand; it is simply that they don’t necessarily see the problem.

One of the primary reasons that most small businesses don’t identify brand inconsistencies, which also happens to be the very same reason companies are rarely successful in creating a true brand, is because they never precisely define that for which they wish to be known.  With no clear vision, it becomes difficult to follow a consistent direction because the business will have a tendency to react to market changes, not think through and respond to them in light of their clear vision.  I say this not as a criticism but as a fact of personal reality.  I have been to many industry and general business seminars that touted the importance of defining a vision and a mission, but never really took the lessons to heart.

Recently, however, I was persuaded to take a serious look at evaluating our company’s brand and was brought to realize that some key directions were missing.  For one, our vision and mission statements weren’t as clear and concise as they needed to be.  Second, we didn’t have a clear enough definition of who is our primary target market.  Although we certainly wanted to encourage “any woman who wants to lose weight” to join, as it relates to an effective branding strategy, that definition is a bit too broad—especially when making marketing decisions.  Finally, we had yet to identify our company’s core values, which broadly define what we stand for.  Because of these unclear or missing pieces, we were increasing the chances of diluting or damaging the brand we were trying to build.  As a result, we spent time getting clear 5 brand identity questions.

1. Our vision statement (where we wanted to be in 5 years).
2. Our mission statement (how we would behave to get to our vision in 5 years).
3. Our target market (exactly who is our “target” customer, which included a precise age range, education level, demographic and psychographic profile.  This doesn’t exclude you from selling to other people, just defines who your primary target is.)
4. The one word we, as a company, want to own in the customer’s mind.
5. Our core values (5 words that describe what is most important to us as a company).

There is no doubt that forcing our management team to answer these 5 questions has positioned our company in a way that not only clarifies the brand we want to become, but gives every department of our company a roadmap for making decisions that keep us “on brand” during our growth.

Taking Branding Down to the Marketing Level

As someone who spends most of their time in the marketing and sales arena, one of the areas of the entire branding process that I find most interesting is what comes AFTER you get clear on what your brand is going to look like.  Of course, I’m referring to one’s marketing materials, which are the fruits of the brand process that are most visible to potential customers.  And notice that I said the marketing materials are created AFTER the brand has been identified.  This sequence is in contrast to what typically happens with most small businesses.  That is, the marketing materials create the brand rather than the marketing materials reflecting and supporting the brand.  (This is a subtle but important difference.)

Because marketing materials are such an important part of a club operators business, let’s look at some key areas of marketing that you should be evaluating to determine whether or not your brand is being helped or hurt.  This evaluation assumes, however, that you have taken the time to clearly answer the 5 brand identity questions that were discussed earlier.

Logo

One of the first things that needs to be assessed in relation to one’s brand is the company logo, referred to in the graphics world as an ID (identifier).  An ID is the visual image used in all marketing materials to identify a company.  An ID might consist of simply a word or words, initials or an abbreviation or it may combine some sort of text with an image, icon or graphical design.  Some of the main elements that need to be evaluated with an ID are color, font type and overall design.  The question one needs to ask is, do the colors, the font type and the overall design of your ID appeal to the target market you are trying to reach and the brand you are trying to build?

Print advertising

The next area of marketing you will want to assess is your print advertising.  Here, I’m referring to newspaper ads, brochures, flyers, note cards and even business cards.  One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make is failing to have a consistent design with all of their print advertising as it relates to things like border design, photo choices, font type, headline usage and overall layout.  You don’t want to use a straight line border in your newspaper ad one week and the next decide to go with a floral border because it is Mother’s day.  Further, you want consistency across different types of print media, ensuring that you use the same design in your ads as you do in your flyers, brochures, note cards and other printed materials.  May sound silly but it makes sense because you want the consumer to identify with your marketing every time regardless of the medium.  Therefore, if you constantly use different designs simply because you’re bored, you are diluting your brand.  Certainly, designs slowly evolve over time and need to be updated and refreshed, but you should stick with a basic print media design for years to help the customer recognize you.

One area in print advertising that does change more frequently is a theme or headline campaign.  For example, last year our company used a theme entitled “What Inspires You,” which is a play off our company name HEALTHY INSPIRATIONS.  For months this was the headline to all our print ads.  As the campaign continued, we began playing off that main theme, with pieces that said things like, “Jane Smith is Inspired,” and “Get Inspired to Better Health.”  And, although the headlines evolved, we used the exact same design throughout the entire campaign.  This allowed consumers to identify us quickly, even with a simple glance.

Electronic advertising

A third area of marketing to assess is your electronic advertising, which refers to television, radio and website. (It can be argued that website advertising is more like print media but I place it here.)  Like print advertising, it is important to be consistent with your electronic messages.  For radio and television, this is especially true as it relates to any music or jingle in the ad.  Of course, the design of any text in a TV ad or website should have the same look as your print media but any movie clips or viral e-marketing should use the same music or jingle.

Certainly, with a full blown branding project, every detail of marketing would be scrutinized to ensure that both the text and the image was “on brand,” but this brief list certainly gives you a place to begin a cursory evaluation.  If your marketing isn’t conveying the brand you want, or if you aren’t even sure about what brand you want to convey, maybe it is the perfect time to go back to the 5 brand identity questions and re-think your club’s direction.  Once done, you can better evaluate your marketing materials, bring them in alignment with your brand, and ultimately have a powerful, more effective marketing plan that will drive more customers through your doors AND give them the exact experience they expected.