Branding Your Uniqueness
National Speakers Association of Northern California – September Meeting
Brand-meister Dick Bruso came to town on Saturday and worked his magic with the 60 members and guests at the NSA/NC September meeting. He aims to help professional speakers develop their distinctive brand and focus on their uniqueness to successfully reach their target markets.
Bruso uses aspects of his own life – such as being the eldest of a family of nine – to develop his brand as someone who is “heard above the noise” in the marketplace. He demonstrated how independent speakers and entrepreneurs of all kinds can profit from a deep dive into our lives to develop a unique brand.
Effective communications often uses the rule of three (as in Father, Son and Holy Ghost; Beginning, Middle and End; Left, Right and Center. Just so, Bruso recommended a number of tripartites:
Three great books on branding
- David Scott’s The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly
- Harry Beckwith’s Selling the Invisible
- Milo Frank’s How To Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less
The tripod of success for developing your unique brand
- Follow your passion – speak from the heart
- Create your distinctive brand to appeal to your target market
- Use your talents, gifts and abilities serve others
Three brand workshop volunteers
Dick took these willing participants through a powerful half-hour workshop process where he gently delved into their unique bio’s to find clues about their authentic selves which could be used to re-cast their brand. In the same way that speaking out a dinner table with six sisters and two brothers to contend with led Dick to choose the moniker Heard Above the Noise, he revealed how an honest appraisal of our own lives can be a touchpoint for a valid brand.
It’s no different for large corporations. Hewlett-Packard honor their origins in Bill & Dave’s garage and, true to their past, use the word ‘Invent’ in their logo. And don’t even think Coca-Cola would change from their red and white cans or do something as silly as try and introduce a New Coke…
- Jeannine Kay – Giving Voice
- Linda Lenor – Green Chi Designs
- Connie Clark – JoyWorks
…considered how to tune her current tagline Communicate confidently and creatively with aspects of her life story which point to the importance of encouraging women to move beyond the role of silent cheerleader who lip-sync their way through life.
…acknowledged that her company name might be confused with Green Tea or even Green Cheese. Her current tagline Individuals improving space for vitality and prosperity was considerably more diffused than alternatives the workshop session surfaced. These included Lifelong designs for extraordinary living and Master designs for life.
…found echo’s of her early love of Mexican culture in Si, Yourself and celebration of the fulfillment and success of Women in Uncork your champagne bath.
These sessions were a small taste of his genius at work. Dick conducts full-blown branding sessions for anyone who would like to re-focus the message they take to the marketplace.
Blogging for Fun and Profit
In a reprise of the workshop we held in San Diego, Rebecca Morgan and I discussed the business benefits of blogging in a lunch-time panel hosted by Michael Soon Lee. Here’s the article I wrote on blogging in SPEAKER magazine which I forgot to bring as a hand-out.
Most of the audience seemed to see blogging in their future.
Anyone who is interested really should check out the NSA Blogger Yahoo Group:
Click to join nsa_bloggers
2 Comments so far
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The problem with many companies trying to brand/re-brand is that they don’t know how to talk with their own customers to determine how their products or service are perceived. Branding is very nebulous to many (and they won’t acknowledge that!).
By Red Jello on 09.16.07 5:22 am
I agree, to many branding is nebulous and customer feedback is not always that productive. This is why I believe that better understanding Touchpoints (individual customer interactions) helps organizations in both the areas of brand and customer feedback.
To customers, an organization is its Touchpoints. Understanding which Touchpoints most effectively drive decisions and perceptions positions an organization to actually improve key customer decisions, such as whether to buy, and customer perceptions around brand. To me, the key to talking to customers is to better understand the Touchpoints they encountered – how did the organization perform and what impact did it have on decisions and perceptions? This brings relevant and actionable customer “talk” into the brand/rebrand arena.
By Hank Brigman on 09.17.07 3:50 am
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