Whether it’s your own personal brand, or the brand of the company you lead/are a contributing team member of -- what truly characterizes its brand essence?

Is it personalized care and customer service? Effective design and marketing that effuses cool - making consumers want to participate in the lifestyle it conveys? Taking the time to define your brand fuel is critical to developing a marketing or advertising plan, as it distinguishes you from the competition - in effect, edges you out above the rest.

I always urge clients to take the time to define the salient characteristics that comprise their brand. Although they’ve dedicated the time to working hard and delivering on customer expectations, companies don’t always take the time to do the important deep dive of assessing and clearly defining their brand. 

Articulating what your brand engine is fueled on is just as important as delivering excellent customer service, and in order to fully develop your brand, you need to think carefully about employing all of the platforms for marketing that convey a specific quality or set of brand qualities.

In today’s digital landscape, a robust social media presence is key -- as are accompanying visuals -- to any online post, digital marketing campaign, or advertisement. Your company’s brand fuel, what makes the engine of your selling proposition run, are those unique qualities that your clients won't find anywhere else. And the brand is defined in conjunction with the service and product you deliver - they are fully integrated, symbiotic parts of what you offer as an individual or company.

At the tactical level, you have to make your brand accessible. If you are a B2B service company, and you want people to see your product(s) in action through case studies or testimonials, then people have to be able to easily access those examples.

And never underestimate the importance of reviews or testimonials from customers. Whether you’re a B2B or B2C service or product, the value of what customers who have purchased your product are saying about you is...invaluable. This ties into both the natural inclination to obtain feedback and/or validation from someone who has already tried and tested your product, but also is part of what we’ve come to expect in the digital and social media age: online affirmation. Whether it’s a car model, a realtor, a hotel, a restaurant or a new pair of tennis shoes -- we’ve been conditioned to “go online, see what people are saying.” The digital age has made defining your brand, integrated into delivering top-notch customer service, essential to any company's success.