ERIN MARCUS LIVE: EFFECTIVE MARKET POSITIONING

Transcribed with Ottter.ai

All right, hello, hello. Let’s get started. So I’ve been talking a lot, a whole lot about how to create an in demand brand, not only how to create it, but why it’s so important. Now more than ever, to be able to break through the noise of a crowded marketplace, a noisy marketplace, and create a situation where your ideal client, not only, not only are you immediately recognizable to them, so that they know what you do and how you can help them, but also what they can expect, what they can actually expect from working with you. And there’s a lot more we say, I say this all the time, I’m not the only one saying this, there is a lot more that goes into creating your brand than your logo. Your brand is so so so much more than your logo. But what are these other pieces, some of these other pieces? And what can you do to create a cohesive brand that creates predictability to your ideal client so that their decision to work with you is less risky for them. Because it’s really one of the things that’s going on right now is the buying patterns change. It’s not that people aren’t buying, it’s that they’re being more careful about what they’re buying. They’re not buying as much, or the sales cycle is taking longer than it used to the last few years. So it’s not that they’re not buying, but they’re being more careful. So what can you do in your overall brand that lets people feel more confident that their decision to work with you to purchase from you is the right safe, good decision that they want it to be. What else goes into creating that brand, and creating that predictability? 

So I always start with one place as my litmus test for your brand, how do you want people to feel? How do you want people to feel? And let that be the litmus test for everything you do is what I’m doing helping people feel this way. And I’ll give you some examples of what I mean from a branding standpoint, how this plays into branding. You could have, for example, a luxury brand like the four seasons, right? That represents a luxury brand. Jaguar for cars, it’s a luxury brand, or you could have a brand that’s more outdoorsy. Right? Jeep, if we use our car analogy, it’s the difference between a Jaguar and a jeep. How do those brands make you feel if you look at the commercials, Jaeger isn’t too long the commercials. But if you would imagine a luxury brand, in a TV commercial is going to look different for Jaguar than it does for a jeep. 

So how do you want people to feel and does your everything you do in your business, from your logos and your visuals to your messaging, the way that you speak. The way that you deliver your services is everything in alignment. Let’s use another example for emotions. In the coaching world. Maybe you have retreats as part of your business. Great. If you’re a luxury brand, keeping our analogy here, a luxury brand’s retreat will feel different, it will feel different than a brand that is more focused on natural outdoorsy woodsy. They could actually review the same content at the retreat. They could deliver the same teaching points at the retreat and have a completely different feel to them. So one of the ways to create a consistent, cohesive brand is to be cohesive and consistent with how you want people to feel whether it’s your visuals, your messaging or the way you deliver your services. So that’s one another way. 

Another thing you want to incorporate in your brand is your availability or your access. How available are you? Who to work with, you can create exclusivity by limiting how available you are for your services. That could be seasonality, rate CPAs, bookkeepers, financial, it could be seasonality. It could also be if you’re a coach or a consultant, you could have launches, right? Where there’s only certain times that certain services are available to you. There could be waiting lists, like there’s a different feel to how accessible you are. And often in service based businesses, you have a situation where the founder and CEO is the top of the pyramid, and working directly with that person has a different level of accessibility, than working with other people in the company. That’s all part of your brand. It’s all part of your brand. If you are the person, and you are the only person that any of your clients work with, that has a different brand awareness to it, than if you’re running a company. And there are several people within the company, you talk about your services differently. If it’s I do this versus we do this, that creates a brand. Quality is another thing. Now, don’t get me wrong, I always always always want you to do the best job that you can do for your clients at the level that you are at and at the level that they are at. But perceived quality is part of a brand. If you go to I’m trying to say I was going to use a local grocery store as my example. But then I’m like, wait a minute, some of you guys won’t know this. But if you’re local to Northern Illinois, going to Mariano’s, and going to all these are two different qualities. It doesn’t make one bad and one good. But what’s the expectation when you walk in the door shopping for things at Walmart, the quality at Walmart is different, right? It’s different if you buy clothing at Walmart, than the quality of Bloomingdale’s t-shirt, but they’re going to have different quality. And it doesn’t make you wrong for having accessible level quality. What’s wrong or where you run into problems is if you are portraying yourself as a luxury brand, and your logo and your marketing is a luxury brand. But then your quality is Walmart level. That’s a problem. It’s inconsistent. Conversely, if you are marketing at a Walmart level, and you’re charging at a Walmart level, but then you are trying to deliver luxury brand, you’re gonna run into a cash flow problem, you’re not gonna be able to afford to consistently deliver what you’re trying to deliver if your pricing isn’t in alignment. And this all goes into your brand. Because overall, how do you want people to feel and again with the quality, I’m not saying don’t give, don’t provide a great deliverable, high quality, but do it at the price point that your clients expect, based on everything else in your brand, which also leads to price, right, your pricing is part of your brand. I’ve heard it said before, your pricing, especially in a service based business is your declaration of your worth to the marketplace. And it’s true and it’s not true. You can vary. I have zero problems. I have absolutely zero problems as somebody who chooses intentionally to be a low cost leader in their industry. You can 100,000,000% be a low cost leader in your industry, as long as your business model supports it, and that you’re not doing it because you don’t think you deserve to charge more. There’s a very big difference between low price intentionally and low price, because you’re driven by fear, or a self worth issue. We can have a conversation about that. But your price is part of your brand, right? A lot of times if we are portraying a high level brand, but we’re charging a low price, people will feel like something is off. If your visuals and your messaging and your promise statement

is very high, high, high level. But then when you walk in the door, you’re charging low for your industry. Your prospect is going to think something’s wrong. They’re going to think there’s a lie not like a big bad intentional lie. But they’re gonna know that something’s off. Because people understand what certain things cost, they understand it. Conversely, keeping with our themes here, conversely, if you are charging really, really, really high prices, but everything you deliver has a DIY, you know, last minute thrown together feel to it. People are, even if the information that you provide is really, really good, people are going to feel something is off, something is off. So all of these things go together to create your brand. And your brand is how you make people feel at the end of the day. How do people feel when they work with you when they interact with you? So you need the consistency now more than ever, because business is a little hard right now. But the consistency of all these things, lets somebody have a higher level of trust, when they make a decision to work with you. 

So again, the umbrella is always how you want people to feel? Does that feeling follow through not just in your marketing, but also how you deliver your services, the availability and access to you versus a team in a way that is consistent? Or is it a launch where it’s only seasonal or occasional, that goes into the brand and creates exclusivity or availability? There’s no wrong answer, just be intentional. And in an alignment, the quality you deliver, needs to match everything else. And the price point that you charge needs to match everything else. And I’ve left this last on purpose, because this is where everybody goes first. And we keep telling you your brand is more than your logo. But yes, your visuals also have to be in alignment with all of these other pieces. So I know that’s a lot. It’s a bit of a different way to think about it. But this is what it takes to do business right now. And the great, great, great news is if you get this all in alignment, while business is a little harder or a little tighter, when everything opens up again, because it does right it’s all a pendulum, it will open up again, you will be poised to leap that much further, that much faster. As always, I’m here if you have any questions, just reach out you know where to find me at conquer your business.com and I can’t wait to see what you guys do.