"Hi Simon, this is Sandra from Toulouse. I struggle establishing my brand. What can I do to create a strong brand identity?"

This is always the number one question: What does your brand stand for?

This is always defined by the market.

Who would miss your services or products if they were gone?

Pick out 10. List them!

And now that you have this list, think of their experience with you:

• What do they tell their spouse?
• What do they tell their boss?

In every step of the value chain, you have the chance to make the user experience unique in what you stand for:

We think of the value flow as 5 elements

1. Attract
2. Nurture
3. Close
4. Deliver
5. Retain

While I walk you through the 5 elements, think of what can you do less? Do differently?

1 Attract

How do people see you? How do you become visible?

We live in an attention-seeking world; it is the number one currency. 

Where is the attention and how do you become visible?

Where do people see you for the first time? Produce experience? Ad? Text? Voice? How is the experience in that very moment? How do you interrupt their flow? What is the uniqueness of your product?

Think of one thing you can do less or differently and write it down, now. 

2 Nurture

Which experiences do you curate during the first 7 weeks of getting to know you?

Think of it as dating. Read the signals, make it playful, take many steps in the approach, let the process take time.

3 Close

What is the experience of getting a quote from you?

Long and boring? Technical, cold? Do I feel SEEN as a user?

To me, the art of writing a quote is to use words that let the other be SEEN.

There are texts that feel like reading, and there are texts that feel like you are deeply LISTENING!

What most quotes do: describe features, methods, tools, processes. But who cares!

What the right quote does: describes how it feels to be the other right now, what the longing is, and how it feels to move forward with intention and reliable progress. 

4 Deliver

If a product is remarkable, it becomes its own marketing. The user become the marketeers. 

Case study: Tesla has zero marketing budget, yet the brand strength, visibility and uniqueness are high.

Case study: Crossfitters become addicted, tell all their friends about it, over and over and over and over….

Case study: The iPhone in a disco, the white iPods, they both create a perception of elegance.

5 Retain

How to cross-sell and up-sell

It is much easier to solve a second problem for a happy user than to find a new user out there.

What is your retainment system? What’s the invitation to join again?

A great way to refine your brand is to write your manifesto.

Artists and movements do. Businesses can massively improve their brand strength by doing it.

We did one for us at Strategy Sprints and it was a game changer. 

More on this in the next episode of the Strategy Show.