Branding – more than just a logo!! Part 1

Branding – what is a brand and why you MUST develop one for your martial art school

Which Supermarket Brand best matches your Martial Arts School?  Are you a Waitrose or Lidl?

Leafing as I occasionally do through my past copies of Marketing Weekly, a magazine I have subscribed to since I I first started working in Marketing some 25 years ago, I came across an article about the challenges that Sainsbury, Morrisons and Asda were having in positioning themselves in the UK market place.  This was a few months ago when Sainsbury and Asda were merging and their marketing teams were trying to decide how to retain their two distinctive brand propositions: -

• Sainsbury’s has a focus on values and is perceived as being better quality but more expensive.
• Asda, on the other hand, has built its brand on price and a value positioning.

Very few Martial Art School Owners take the time to really think about how their brand is perceived, but in doing so can be the difference between exponential growth or stagnation.

A successful brand lives in the hearts and minds of your customers. It is all of the things they think of when they imagine you, your company or your services.

Are you clear in your mind what branding is and what makes a brand successful?

What is a brand?

Well, the first thing you need to know is that a brand is NOT just a logo! A brand is so much more than that.

A brand is all about promise. Your brand promise is that special mixture of benefits you offer that are why your customers come to your brand for a particular service versus your competitors.

But, as with any promise, there comes responsibility. Responsibility to deliver what you say you will in terms of benefits to your customers consistently, every time. Consumers are very discerning these days and have high expectations; so you need to deliver.

A brand also allows you to give your product or service a personality. This is vital to differentiate yourself from the competition so that there is no doubt that it is YOUR products or services that are on offer. And that can apply whether your brand is, to all intents and purposes, yourself or whether you are an enormous multinational… or anywhere in between!

And there’s nothing to stop your brand being as important to your specific target audience as any of the giant brands are to theirs. In fact, the more specific and ‘niche’ you are, the more you can gain a competitive advantage over the big guys.

Whatever happens, your brand needs to say all there is to say about you. Because, in the consumer’s mind, your brand will become a living thing, with a character and personality of its own. And consumers will want to interact with it in the same way as they would a person, engaging in a dialogue and having an emotional attachment. After all, the brands people choose say a lot about themselves too.

What makes a successful brand?

OK, you understand why you need a brand, so how do you make sure you get a good one that will work well for you?

There are five key elements to a successful brand:

1. Clarity: consistently delivers a clear, unambiguous message
2. Credibility: it needs to be believable & trustworthy
3. Connection: makes an emotional connection with your audience
4. Motivation: affirms their choice and elicits a call to action
5. Loyalty: establishes, encourages and maintains a long term relationship

Stay tuned for our next article where I will discuss how to build a successful brand.

Kickfit Consulting is a premier martial art and fitness consulting firm built on over 50+ years of hands-on experience.  For more information about us please see our website www.kickfitconsult.com