BRANDING
Every Organization exudes an image ... that image is your Branding, your image and how you want to portray yourself to the outside world. So it just makes sense to invest in what you want to be to the world. The following article i found to be an excellent descriptor and it contains some real pearls of wisdom to consider.
Reprinted article written by Sam Klaidman for Thomas Insights December 12, 2022
Your Post-sale (Aftermarket) Service Has Become an OEM’s Greatest Differentiator
Your customers buy products like the ones you manufacture because they have a limited number of outcomes they must achieve. Furthermore, you and most of your competitors’ products are capable of delivering these outcomes at approximately the same cost. The big question then is “why do they choose one of the products over all others?”
To find out the answer, keep reading.
What Is a Brand?
In spite of what we think, a brand is not something we can see, hear, or touch. A brand only exists in the mind of people who have expectations or experiences with a business and its products.
A brand is 1) emotional and 2) unique to each person. Brand equity is a concept that people use as a substitute for customer loyalty.
This definition raises two questions:
Where do expectations come from?
How do experiences influence our purchase decision?
Where Do Expectations Come from?
Here is a partial list of sources of expectations. You will note that you cannot influence all of these sources. However, you can preempt some of these influences through your website, in your advertisements, and while training your customer-facing employees and distributor partners.
There are six sources of customer expectations:
Organizational promises – Web, advertisements, and data sheets.
Competitor's promises and performance – If they can do it, you should be able to do it too.
Personnel promises – “Lead-time is 30 days, and we will start installing it the next business day.”
Business-to-Consumer (B2C) experiences – Amazon can do it, so why can’t you?