THE #1 RULE FOR BRANDING YOUR BIZ
Watch Me Explain How You Can Crush Bigger Competitors that Seem to Sell Everything
Let's Brand Your Biz for Maximum Competitiveness
Companies that find the most success are the ones who sacrifice the seemingly endless products and services they can provide and instead focus on one thing, and do that one thing very well.
> McDonald's became the #1 burger chain because they sold only burgers when all of their competition sold fish, steak, pizza and chicken. Lately their brand has been suffering because they've begun selling every type of fast food under the sun.
> H&R Block became the #1 accounting service in the world by abandoning all of their business services and only offering tax return accounting.
> Subway became the #1 sandwich shop in the world by only offering subs.
And let's not forget the companies that tried extending their core offerings, and failed.
> Starbucks opened delicatessens at one point called "Starbucks Cafe." It failed horribly, and they went back to their core product, premium coffee.
> When Little Caesar's began, they offered pizza, chips, chicken and seafood. After this model failed, they sold predominantly pizza and moved to #2 behind Pizza Hut... until they abandoned their #1 slogan.
> Toys R' Us became the #1 toy retailer in the world due to the singularity of their focus.
Did they hold that position and dominate the toy industry by opening play centers in their stores, special events for kids in their parking lots, or be the first toy chain to effectively sell online?
No!
Instead they got greedy (and foolish) and got into baby supplies and kids clothing (Babies "R" Us and Kids "R" Us respectively).
Kids "R" Us failed, leaving Toys "R" Us with the position of having to take on more debt, and do foolish things such as allow Amazon to sell their toys online. This led to Amazon making key relationships with their manufacturers, and squeezing Toys "R" Us out. Now, they're gone.
Toys "R" Us should have worked to become the sweetest sound on a child's lips. Instead...
Toys "R" Us got greedy, lazy and abandoned their target market.
How H&R Block Went From Rags to Riches
Today, you know H&R Block as the leading provider of accounting services.
However, a long time ago the founder, Henry and his brother Richard Bloch (notice the spelling), were on the verge of total business failure.
Although Henry and Richard were a one-stop-shop for all business needs such as accounting, marketing, contracts, etc., they couldn't drive a steady stream of new customers, and were stuck with only a handful of clients.
One day their landlord asked them to make a sign for the lobby of their building that would show they did tax returns. He figured the service might drive more foot traffic into the building.
They had already been advertising all of their services, and were a little hesitant because they didn't want people to think they only did tax return services.
Take a look at the sign below. It was H&R Block's first ad for primarily tax return services.
In the video, I mistakenly said "5 cents" instead of $5 for a tax return. Whoops!
From then on, they advertised only their tax return services, and today, they are the leading tax return service in the world.
What would have happened if their landlord never made them post that sign?
Who Would You Choose?
or...
So if you wanted a chicken sandwich, where would you go?
Burger ads dominate McDonald's marketing arsenal because that's their flagship product.
Chick-fil-A serves chicken sandwiches so their product ads are a no-brainer.
McDonald's may generate more sales because they're larger (for now), but their average franchise profit margin is lower than chains such as In-N-Out burger, who specializes in burgers, and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts who specializes in donuts.
Branding is about the Perception You Create
So if you're promoting that you do siding, roofing, gutters, doors, windows, skylights, etc., your potential customers will come away thinking "that company does a bunch of stuff."
But what if you only did one thing, and only promoted one thing, and owned it every single day.
You could call yourself: "Siding, Siding Siding!"
You could do videos about siding, ads about a love story between two homes with siding, sell games about siding, offer education to people learning about siding, etc.
The point is, imagine when people looked for a siding company in their area, and came across YOU.
Do you think any jack of all trades would stand a chance?
So here is what I want you to do:
Select one product line or service you want to focus on selling exclusively.
But first, consider these questions:
> What do you enjoy selling most?
-What is most profitable?
-What makes you most competitive?
-What is easier to scale?
-What are the vulnerabilities in the future (lower/higher labor costs, disruptive innovation, etc.)
> If you can't sacrifice your other offerings, you must brand and market them separately (I'll show you how next week).
> Narrow your focus on this new offering as much as possible.
For example, if you're going to do drum lessons, is it more profitable to focus only on kids? We did this for a client, and nearly took all of the child-aged students from a local music lesson chain.
Think about yourself for a minute.
With other things being equal, would you want a surgeon who did 20 different types of surgery each week, or a surgeon that did what you needed, all day every day?
It's 2018, people choose their products and services the way snipers choose targets: meticulously.
Be everything to everyone looking for one thing, and you'll not only win that category, you'll DOMINATE it.
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Let's Brand Your Biz for Maximum Competitiveness
Companies that find the most success are the ones who sacrifice the seemingly endless products and services they can provide and instead focus on one thing, and do that one thing very well.
> McDonald's became the #1 burger chain because they sold only burgers when all of their competition sold fish, steak, pizza and chicken. Lately their brand has been suffering because they've begun selling every type of fast food under the sun.
> H&R Block became the #1 accounting service in the world by abandoning all of their business services and only offering tax return accounting.
> Subway became the #1 sandwich shop in the world by only offering subs.
And let's not forget the companies that tried extending their core offerings, and failed.
> Starbucks opened delicatessens at one point called "Starbucks Cafe." It failed horribly, and they went back to their core product, premium coffee.
> When Little Caesar's began, they offered pizza, chips, chicken and seafood. After this model failed, they sold predominantly pizza and moved to #2 behind Pizza Hut... until they abandoned their #1 slogan.
> Toys R' Us became the #1 toy retailer in the world due to the singularity of their focus.
Did they hold that position and dominate the toy industry by opening play centers in their stores, special events for kids in their parking lots, or be the first toy chain to effectively sell online?
No!
Instead they got greedy (and foolish) and got into baby supplies and kids clothing (Babies "R" Us and Kids "R" Us respectively).
Kids "R" Us failed, leaving Toys "R" Us with the position of having to take on more debt, and do foolish things such as allow Amazon to sell their toys online. This led to Amazon making key relationships with their manufacturers, and squeezing Toys "R" Us out. Now, they're gone.
Toys "R" Us should have worked to become the sweetest sound on a child's lips. Instead...
Toys "R" Us got greedy, lazy and abandoned their target market.
How H&R Block Went From Rags to Riches
Today, you know H&R Block as the leading provider of accounting services.
However, a long time ago the founder, Henry and his brother Richard Bloch (notice the spelling), were on the verge of total business failure.
Although Henry and Richard were a one-stop-shop for all business needs such as accounting, marketing, contracts, etc., they couldn't drive a steady stream of new customers, and were stuck with only a handful of clients.
One day their landlord asked them to make a sign for the lobby of their building that would show they did tax returns. He figured the service might drive more foot traffic into the building.
They had already been advertising all of their services, and were a little hesitant because they didn't want people to think they only did tax return services.
Take a look at the sign below. It was H&R Block's first ad for primarily tax return services.
In the video, I mistakenly said "5 cents" instead of $5 for a tax return. Whoops!
From then on, they advertised only their tax return services, and today, they are the leading tax return service in the world.
What would have happened if their landlord never made them post that sign?
Who Would You Choose?
or...
So if you wanted a chicken sandwich, where would you go?
Burger ads dominate McDonald's marketing arsenal because that's their flagship product.
Chick-fil-A serves chicken sandwiches so their product ads are a no-brainer.
McDonald's may generate more sales because they're larger (for now), but their average franchise profit margin is lower than chains such as In-N-Out burger, who specializes in burgers, and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts who specializes in donuts.
Branding is about the Perception You Create
So if you're promoting that you do siding, roofing, gutters, doors, windows, skylights, etc., your potential customers will come away thinking "that company does a bunch of stuff."
But what if you only did one thing, and only promoted one thing, and owned it every single day.
You could call yourself: "Siding, Siding Siding!"
You could do videos about siding, ads about a love story between two homes with siding, sell games about siding, offer education to people learning about siding, etc.
The point is, imagine when people looked for a siding company in their area, and came across YOU.
Do you think any jack of all trades would stand a chance?
So here is what I want you to do:
Select one product line or service you want to focus on selling exclusively.
But first, consider these questions:
> What do you enjoy selling most?
-What is most profitable?
-What makes you most competitive?
-What is easier to scale?
-What are the vulnerabilities in the future (lower/higher labor costs, disruptive innovation, etc.)
> If you can't sacrifice your other offerings, you must brand and market them separately (I'll show you how next week).
> Narrow your focus on this new offering as much as possible.
For example, if you're going to do drum lessons, is it more profitable to focus only on kids? We did this for a client, and nearly took all of the child-aged students from a local music lesson chain.
Think about yourself for a minute.
With other things being equal, would you want a surgeon who did 20 different types of surgery each week, or a surgeon that did what you needed, all day every day?
It's 2018, people choose their products and services the way snipers choose targets: meticulously.