Welcome to the second snippet of the quick course marketing, sales and branding. I know you're in a hurry, so let's get going. What we're going to do is focus on branding. It's central to creating power in a startup, particularly the power that makes your first product sale off the shelves so to speak. It's also about building one and that's the most challenging job of marketing. The concept is simple.

But building a great brand is a real big task. Branding is focused on the word strong and will emphasize that in the work that's about to follow, it's a lot more than creating a clever name and designing a cool logo. Let's dive in. Together we'll look at how to put marketing power to work through branding, and how you can start constructing your plan To build a brand it's all part of the four step process. Let's get going right now. What is the brand?

The brand is a noun with a capital letter. That means you are a brand. We all know what Red Bull is. It's a name that stands for something picture in the image that supports it. A brand stands for something. What does your brand stand for?

Branding is similar to branding on the ranch. The objective is to differentiate your cow from the others. It also owns a word social means Facebook, and that never goes away. Regardless of what Google is today, it will always mean Search. Branding is based on the concept of singularity. That means focus.

That's one of the most important words in the startup world. Creating in the mind of the prospect, the perception that there is no product on the market quite like your product. brand management is difficult. What is Yahoo today? Originally it was the first successful portal. However, the desire is to make it larger.

And in broadening and widening the product line, you undermine the power of the brand. It's a major headache, in marketing, how to direct and control those forces is one of the most difficult jobs there is. success or failure of your startup is going to be amazing. impacted heavily by what's compelling. What is it? That's exciting your customers, your ideal customer?

Your product has to have Wow. That's the emotional excitement needed to get them to reach for the credit card. Many times we're trying to put into the mind of that customer. A word begs the question, where should it go into what slot in the mind of that ideal customer. This is what positioning is all about. It's a marketing phrase meaning separate and unique.

You're positioning it in that psychological brain. of this person we're calling your ideal customer. That means you need to determine what slot your offering is intended to fill. No one else can be there. What word or two will the ideal customer be eager about? That's what positioning is all about.

The ideal customer is your starting place. It's the first bowling pin. More pins are going to follow allowing you to build sales momentum. Those are your next market segments and customers. The growth comes in planning carefully. First, second and third in particular bowling pins.

Describing in good detail your first market segment followed by the others. You don't want to say consumer bowling pin one, government and education two and three. They're too large. There's no focus, there's no momentum. done right. The bowling pins will cascade into the other building sales momentum, as well as branding momentum.

To craft your position, I'll give you four questions to work on. First of all, does your product offer a benefit and value that your ideal customer eagerly desires? Not just nice to have, but Wow, I've got to have it. Second, is it a real honest to goodness benefit? Better, quicker, faster, cheaper, don't cut it. Er words or death for new products?

Third, does it truly separate me from my competition? Not incrementally different, but significantly different. And finally, is it unique? No one else can have it. And is it difficult to copy? ideal customer focus is important because you're positioning your product.

That means you're needing to focus your limited startup power, requiring a narrow target in the head of the customer. That's the psychological part. It's the foundation for branding. Focus is critical. Focus on Who? The ideal customer, the first bowling pin.

So now you know what compelling and while are designed to do excite that customer into making the purchase. By focusing and using that word, you'll get the psychological positioning you need to reinforce what your brand stands for. by lining up bowling pin after bowling pin, it will set the stage for the momentum and sales that you need. craft your position by reviewing over and over again. These four questions, talk to real people, on the phone, in person, if necessary over email. I've even had people Skype.

Figure it out from real people. Don't rely on your opinion, crafting your position. When you do that, you'll understand more and more what you can do to build a strong brand. Our next job is with that plan in place. What do we want to tell our customers? That's what Marketing Communications is about.

We want to look at what's going to make it powerful. That's what buzz and PR are going to be. So let's proceed there. Let's continue on the trail. Next, was in PR. Let's get going.

I'll see you there.