Brand Flakes

What did you have for breakfast today? Trix? No … couldn’t have been. They’re for kids. Frosted Flakes? They’re Great! Maybe you had an egg. Incredible and Edible. Possibly you suffered the Le’-go end of an Eggo.

One thing is for sure. You had many brands from which to choose.

Then you got ready for work. Which of drugstore.com’s 226 choices of toothbrushes did you use? And which of its 197 options of bar soaps? Unless folicly challenged (wherein bar soap would do), you lathered your mane with one of 485 shampoo selections. After you dried, you stayed dry with a scented or unscented choice of 422 deodorants. Which did you apply and why?

Consumers today have more than 22,000 choices when they go to the local supermarket. If that’s not enough, and apparently it isn’t, last year an additional 21,000 new supermarket products were introduced. But with cutthroat competition, just 1,500 made it to the shelf.

With the numbing number of choices already available to consumers, it seems nearly pointless that home care companies would jump into the fray to establish consumer brand recognition for their companies and/or products. But indeed, consumer-based branding is a high priority for many in home care, particularly the larger manufacturers. It’s a goal that should be on your to-do list as well.

As product choices continue to multiply, consumers also have expanding choice for where they can acquire new products. Just as cereal companies battle one another to fill your spoon, so, too, you as a provider feel the crunch of fierce competition from a variety of local retailers, national pharmacies and the World Wide Web.

As competition grows, the need for staking out one’s brand expands. But how do you brand? Is it the same as advertising?

You’ve seen the commercials. Manufacturers, or their channel partners, are broadening their marketing efforts to include television advertising to consumers. People see the ads, and some become intrigued. They wonder if they or their loved ones can be better served. The consumer or significant other responds to the call-to-action, and suddenly you (hopefully) are asked to fulfill their newfound preference. You’re either party to a new sale — or you’re toast, and the need is served by your competitor.

Again, is advertising synonymous with branding? Do you need to do it, too? The answer is a definite no … with a dash of yes.

Branding and advertising are not the same. Think of it this way. You know respiratory care, right? Advertising is like breathing. It’s an action. Branding on the other hand is bigger. Think of it as living. To live you must breathe. But you must do more than breathe. You must also eat, sleep and pay taxes. Likewise to brand, you must advertise in some form to get your message out. But advertising is only one part of brand-building, and by far not the most important.

Branding 823

In the branding class I teach in the University of Kansas graduate program, we dissect the many facets of brand-building. These include brand essence, brand positioning, brand equity and brand personality. If that’s not enough (and it isn’t), brand image, brand identity and brand management are also key components of high-performance brands.

Confusion about brand is caused by the assumption that when one does branding (most often associated with the actions of advertising), the outcome must be a brand. In truth, your brand is formed only in part — a very small part — by your marketing communications.

Branding is the substance between big “M” Marketing and small “m” marketing. Big “M” Marketing is the broad process of outdoing one’s competition — to sell more stuff. Big “M” Marketing involves your business plan, your strategies, your staffing, your beliefs and priorities. Small “m” marketing defines your tactics, including delivery of messaging through advertising, direct mail, product literature, etc.

So small “m” marketing is what you say, where you say it and how you promote your business. Those activities are most often associated with the verb tense: branding. Your brand (noun) is a capital “M” thing, and get this: At the end of the day, it’s not really yours. Your brand is what those people you target think of you. It’s what resides in their heads.

At KU, I have my students visualize a customer. We affectionately call him BRAnD. In this case, Brad is your patient. Brad is your referral source. Brad is your employee. Whatever your many Brads think of you, that is your brand.

With that basic premise understood, all of the other components of brand become clearer. What are all the ways you interact with your Brads? Each touch can be a brand-building or brand-eroding instance. For example, whether you arrive for an appointment on time, how you greet each Brad and how you serve each Brad will send far stronger messages than any form of advertising.

Brand Vs. Recognition

Let’s get back to our television-advertising manufacturers. Are they branding? Well technically, in the verb sense, yes. They are communicating a message to a targeted audience. But are they building a brand? Not directly. Instead, they are building positive recognition. Here’s the difference.

Several Christmases ago, my wife and I decided to buy a cell phone for my in-laws. Snowbirds, they traveled from Iowa to Florida each year. I’d seen all the cell ads and decided to go with one of the large carriers. I’ll call them RunFast.

Though I wasn’t a prior customer, I liked their clever advertising. I, “Brad,” recognized the company and felt positive about selecting them. Runfast’s advertising worked. And then the real branding began.

It turns out that my in-laws were not able to take the phone to their local retailer and transfer the account to their name, as I had been promised by the sales agent. To shorten a long story, after trying earnestly to get the phone transferred for several months, I told RunFast that I was stopping payment and instructed them to discontinue service. They did not.

It took several more months until the issue was resolved (in my favor), but now RunFast has a brand. It’s what exists in my head. I’ll never do business with them again … although I still like their ads.

The point of this little story is to show a major misunderstanding about branding. Small “m” marketing is a piece of branding. But branding (the verb) ultimately rests with the non-advertising actions of your business: those directly aimed at customers and those behind the scenes. Who trained the RunFast service reps? That trainer was as much a brand manager as RunFast’s VP of marketing.

The good news for HME providers is that you don’t need a master’s degree, a creative gene or special training to build a strong brand. Okay, I take that back. You do need special training; it just doesn’t have to be in marketing.

Your special training is the years you’ve spent understanding patient and referral source needs. Whatever you do, how you look, how you interact, how you follow up — those are the elements of your brand. You serve your market’s needs like no one else. You have a brand. It’s what people think of you, your company and your collective attitude. All those things have formed your customers’ attitudes about you.

Welcome to Your Brand

To make your brand even better, follow these B.R.A.N.D. principles:

Boil your offerings down to their essence. What is it that you do that’s better than all others? Focus on that strength, then focus again on all the little things that make it so. You’ll make your company’s difference even stronger, and people will notice.

Remember that you cannot be all things to all people. Stay focused with your branding — of all types. Remember that your aim is to make yourself stand out not through volume but rather by uniqueness.

Remember also that being unique is not about being overly “creative” with your ads. Be concrete, consistent and constant. (Consider how long people have been “In Good Hands with Allstate.”)

Always make sure that everyone in your company understands what your desired brand is and how he or she is an integral part of building your brand in Brad’s mind.

Never underestimate your company, or your competition. Sears was on top of the world until Sam Walton built a better brand. (Brad switched to Wal-Mart.) Some kid named Michael Dell made Big Blue (IBM) really blue. Let your passion fuel your brand.

Dedicate yourself to understanding your company’s 80:20 rule. What are the metrics of your business? Where does most of your profit come from? What is the greatest source of your losses?

To have a strong brand, you must have a strong business foundation.

Out Reach the Big Guys

People in the advertising business will talk about two important elements: reach and frequency. Reach is the number of people you intend to touch, and frequency is how often.

Big companies advertise and do all sorts of things you don’t have to do. It’s because you have what they don’t: a handshake distance of reach. Kellogg’s executives can’t get to your house personally, so they send Tony The Tiger by way of the tube. Same for home care manufacturers. If they can’t physically meet with tens of thousands of referral sources, or talk old times with millions of elderly patients, why not send a well-liked celebrity over the airwaves?

The larger the business, the harder it is to tap proximity. Because as an HME provider you are close to your market, you have the ability — and the advantage — of marketing in more magnificent ways. Of course that’s not to say you couldn’t be successful with local TV or radio spots. Some providers have found that kind of advertising extremely effective, particularly when manufacturers chip in! But what you need to do most is what you are uniquely positioned to do: have meaningful, handshake-distance connectivity to those you serve.

Some home care manufacturers are beginning to manufacture brand recognition among otherwise uninformed consumers. For you to do well in kind, take advantage of their branding (verb) offerings, such as consumer materials and co-op programs. Positively acknowledge their contribution. They’ll likely do more if they know it works.

Understand that what you do and how you deliver your root offering is far more important in building a brand (noun) than how much you spend on radio spots or the size of your logo in the yellow pages.

Look for ways to do the little things even better. Then tell people about it — yes, advertise. Better yet, ask those who know you best, your patients, to tell others about you. Word-of-mouth advertising is the most effective of all. So have a bowl of Wheaties, and prepare to lift your brand.

Terry Pageler is president of Pageler & Companies Inc., a data-driven business development company in Lenexa, Kan., focused on health care product and service providers. Pageler holds a master’s degree in marketing from the University of Kansas, where he also teaches graduate-level courses in strategic management and brand strategy. He can be reached at 913/829-8020 or by e-mail at [email protected].