Your Culture and Consumers

Personal branding for professionals and small business owners

Personal branding has become essential for both professionals and small business owners today. It’s not just about providing the right service or selling the right products anymore. Because there’s so much competition out there, you really need to stand out, and one of the best ways to do this is through personal branding.

Developing your brand isn't something that can be done overnight. It takes thinking and planning and conceptualizing and most of all discovering what your personal brand is.  If there’s one thing that’s very important in the making of your brand, it’s your brand culture.

Interaction counts

Even if you’re just a small business brand, the culture within your company is important to your branding. Your company's culture is how you and the people you work with adapt and work together towards a common goal. It’s how you work together, interact with each other, communicate with customers, connect with them, and how you go about doing the daily tasks of your small business brand.

Your personal or small business brand isn’t just a brand anymore. It’s a culture, a lifestyle. The overall feel of your brand affects how consumers view you, and the consumers are affected by the culture of your brand. Even the people you work with are affected, and how they view your brand also affects the way they talk about it with other people.

Times have changed, and you can’t just be the best in your industry anymore. Maybe your coffee shop has the best coffee in town, but if your customers hate the ambiance in your place, then no one’s going to visit anymore. Maybe you’re the best doctor in your area, but if people hate your secretary's poor customer service, then no one’s going to be lining up at your door anymore.

Getting or losing customers is all about the culture in your small business brand and how it aligns with the interests of your consumers. You want your culture to be something that affects both the people you work with and the people who obtain your services or buy from you. It should be based on your values, and the best service that you want to provide to your clients and customers.

How exactly do you create a strong culture in your small business brand?

     1. Understanding yourself

As a personal brand, it’s important that you understand yourself first. What do you stand for? What are your values? How do you envision your brand?

Understanding yourself is the first step to creating a strong brand culture. By knowing what you stand for, as well as the things you can and cannot compromise with, you can really determine how you want to run your small business, and ensure that what you envision it to be can turn into reality.

     2. Understand the people you work with

Another important factor in creating a strong brand culture is understanding what motivates the people you work with. People don’t want to just do their jobs and exhale a sigh of relief when it’s time to go home. People want to love their jobs, love the people they work with, love their boss. Honestly, who would want to work in a place when you always feel as if you’re dragging your feet every morning when it’s time to go?

Communication is very important. Make an effort to know what the people around you think, and take their views into consideration. If you really want a successful brand, then it’s important that the people you work with love the brand as much as you do. So don’t ignore the people under you. Make sure that their voices are heard.

     3. Understand your customers

Who is your target audience? What do they want? What makes them tick? It’s all about getting into their minds and understanding what they truly want from your brand. Yes, you need to provide excellent products and services. But you should also give them excellent customer service as well as an excellent experience of your brand. Give them an experience that’s unique to your small business brand, something that no other brand can give them. This is how a culture is created.

Today, it’s not just about providing a product or service that the customer needs. It’s also about ensuring that you give your employees as well as your customers the best experience of your brand as possible so that they can talk about your brand in a positive light and share their experience with others.

Author:
Maria Elena Duron, is managing editor of the Personal Branding Blog, CEO (chief engagement officer) of buzz2bucks.com – a word of mouth marketing firm.   She helps create conversation, connection, credibility, community and commerce around your brand.   Maria Duron is co-founder  and moderator of #brandchat - a weekly Twitter chat focused on every aspect of branding that is recognized by Mashable as one the 15 Essential Twitter Chats for Social Media Marketers.