Think Brand First, Business Second

So many companies build their brand around their business. They establish the tangible assets and processes and look to extrapolate the intangible value of that as brands for their buyers. They transit in other words from the physical to the emotive.

What would happen I wonder if, like Richard Branson does so often, you reversed the order; if the question being asked was “What would we need to co-ordinate (how, when and where) in order for customers to feel this way?” Start with your terms of brand in other words – and use those to define your terms of business. It sounds radical. But really it stems from the questions that everyone asks now, just in reverse order.

Ask first what most ask second:

• Who do you want to be your customers?
• How will you change the industry for them?
• How will you behave to make that happen?
• How will you help them feel that they will love?
• What will they see by way of proof that you are committed to this?

Then, based on the answers above:

• What will you offer them in terms of products/services (that they don’t get now)?
• Where will you be for them? (on the ground, in the cloud, online, domestic, international)
• Who will you work with to make that happen?
• How will you look after them that they’ll enjoy?
• How, where and when will you grow in order to be that company?
• What will you return by way of fair compensation for your efforts?
• What and how will you charge for what you offer that makes that happen and feels fair?

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