Welcome to another installment of 10-minute branding.

10-Minute Branding Refresher: How do you build your brand 10 minutes at a time? You start small, and you simply begin. An excellent way to convince yourself to get going is to plan your ending. You can even set a timer. Then, be sure to bask in the success of your huge accomplishment of actually beginning and also appreciate the amount of work that got done. Then, repeat the process tomorrow. And the next day. And so on. You will be amazed at your branding progress . . . 10 minutes at a time.

Walking the Walk/Talking the Talk

Large companies generally have Mission and Vision Statements that summarize their product and service philosophy and (either directly or indirectly) establish standards for employee/customer interactions.  Realizing the potential value of such a written manifesto, many small businesses have adopted their own as well . . . though a few with perpetually lean staffing and operations probably never get around to creating a formal document. 

However, that does not mean no written record exists.  In such cases, you often find the small business has a motto or byline that serves a similar purpose.  When you hear a good slogan that has been around for a while, those words have usually succeeded in capturing the philosophy, the goals, and the essence of the brand – and, therefore, becomes another way of figuring out what that company’s mission might be.

So, What Is Today’s 10-Minute Branding Assignment?

We suggest spending this time meeting with your employees to perform a checkup on the way branding values are being implemented on a daily basis while using the opportunity to:

• reiterate your ideal.

OR – perhaps –

• learn a lesson from reality.

To get this training exercise off to a fast start, read your mission statement  or slogan to your employees and ask them whether those words accurately reflect their daily reality.  Depending upon the feedback you receive, you may want to remind your people about your ideal brand values and suggest ways they can integrate those qualities into their daily interactions with customers.   If, however, you did find that your ideals are no longer based in reality, ask your employees to help you modify the statement to better reflect their daily experience.  In the case of the former, you could end up with a better employee and better brand.  In the case of the latter, you just might get a more accurate Mission Statement and/or slogan to live by AND help generate future sales.

Depending upon what you find, several 10-minute sessions may or may not be required to discuss the reality of your brand and retrain staff behavior OR brainstorm a new message.  However, the process will be worthwhile and a good reality check.  If you were one of those businesses that never took the time to develop a Mission Statement, you may find that now is the ideal occasion to do so.

Click this link to learn more about Mission Statements.  And Vision Statements.

Click this link to learn more about creating Company Slogans,

As always, we welcome your comments and questions.