Devoted to small businesses and those who run them

Very informative post, I really learned a lot from it!

Thank you, Easton! I hope it was of assistance!

Now, I know this is an old post, but I also realize that others may read this for a long time to come.

The idea of the brand is I believe important, however I think that we put to much emphasis on the brand as the key to our business. It is actually only an element in the customer management process not the cure all. The brand serves one purpose and that is to deliver a promise that is associated with a product service or a company as a whole.

The problem is that most perceived promises associated with brands (how your customers see you or your product)are rarely fulfilled and do more to damage a companies influence over its customers purchasing processes in a long term relationship when the brand promise is not totally fulfilled. It is seen as a violation of trust by the customer.

Almost anyone will buy something the first time if the brand promise is good enough, but if the promise is unfulfilled or just plain fails to deliver the customer will switch to a competitor in an instant. That is in where the problem lies.

Such an issue is the determining factor in customer retention and customer loyalty. Current research shows that companies that rely on brand development as the key to sales and customer acquisition have poor customer loyalty with customers showing high resistance future sales multiple sales conversions.

So think hard about what your emphasis is in your company before you start developing brand politics. If you want customers around for a long time and maintain steady growth chassing the branding rainbow isn't such a great idea. Yes, be conscious of your name, logo and such, however remember that branding is only an aspect of customer experience management not the Holy Grail of success. Customer focused iniatives which place the emphasis on the customer first and not the product are fare more successful.