Something that’s been coming up with my retail clients is, “How do I make my brand stand out? How do I compete and make my business unique?” So many times I hear, “In order to compete with people I need more coupons, or maybe I need to drop prices, or maybe I need to put more flyers out.”
What it comes down to is, if you’re trying to be like somebody else, all of those efforts end up devaluing your brand. It ends up watering it down. And that’s not what we want. Each one of us was made unique, with our own set of experiences, our own set of unique strengths and gifts that we can share with the world.
Theresa and her business partner Vanessa run a special event in the Armario retail store they opened in 2009.
So guess what’s going to make your brand unique? It’s you! And you connecting to your story, connecting to what’s important to you and why you decided to do what you’re doing in your business. Taking all of that, putting all of that together to figure out how you can use your unique strengths to make a difference in the world, to bring value to your customers, that’s where the magic lies.
There’s a great book called Blue Ocean Strategy, and it’s exactly what we’re talking about. It focuses on how to figure out what is unique in your business, what you care about, and how you can use both of them to bring value. They talk about normal business as “Red Ocean” business– cutthroat competition, slashing prices, just to be competitive. That’s not what we want. I want to swim in a blue ocean, where you make competition irrelevant.
Who cares what the other person is doing?
You focus on what’s important to you… and how you can bring that uniqueness about you, coupled with what you stand for, and then create value for your customers. The value that you want to bring to people, that’s what’s going to make you stand out. Not a coupon, not a flyer, not a Facebook post, it’s really about you and the value that you can bring or a problem you can solve based on the unique gifts and experiences that you’ve had.
Yes, visual branding is important. Colors, words that you use, fonts and styles, those are all important and go with your branding package. When I was picking out colors for my brand, it went along with my personality and how I want to show up in this world. I like the feminine side of things, but I’m not too girly. I also like to be fun and quirky and inspirational. My colors are a vibrant pink, a soft mellowy peach color, and a soft green. So that goes into it as well, the visual branding piece, but the bigger part to it and what’s going to make your brand unique is you, and everything you’ve been through, and also how you can communicate that to your customers and help them solve a problem. So the key to that is getting clear on your why, why you’re doing what you’re doing.
If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, that’s what I’m here for. If you are interested in working “one to one” with me I have several different “one to one” packages to fit different needs. Here’s a peak at what it’s like to Partner with Me
If you think this would help someone else, if they’re struggling with branding, forward it to them. I hope this helped you!
