Five pitfalls to avoid in creating a brand

To be most effective in your new-business efforts, your brand should project a firm that is experienced, confident, polished and secure.

Building an advisory brand from the ground up isn’t easy. But a strong brand is important. To be most effective in your new-business efforts, your brand should project a firm that is experienced, confident, polished and secure. What’s more, prospects and clients should experience your brand at all times, from their first encounter as a prospect to their most recent client meeting.

If you have been an adviser for many years and are now revisiting the state of your brand because you realize that it doesn’t adequately reflect who you are and what sets you apart from other firms, don’t despair. Brands can be relaunched if the job is done right.

Preparation is everything. To grease the wheels a bit, I’ve identified five common pitfalls in building or rebuilding your brand and how to avoid them.

The fast follow. Too often, advisers believe that if they do everything their biggest competitors do, they’ll be successful. To be sure, following successful operational practices makes sense, but following another firm’s branding or marketing strategies doesn’t. Branding is one area where you should stand out.

Consider the branding of Apple Inc. The company’s success came not from doing what other computer companies did but from forging its own idiosyncratic path. It took risks, innovated, shocked and surprised the public. Sure, ideas it tries aren’t always a success, but many of those ideas have made huge waves.

While the financial advisory business may not provide the same kind of breeding ground for new products as the computer industry, branding yourself a little bit differently will set you apart from the competition.

Designing for yourself. Your brand should reflect who your firm is — and yes, you as an individual are a part of its identity. But when you rely on your personal preferences rather than considering what’s most important to your current clients and prospects, you wind up designing a brand for yourself, not one for your firm.

To avoid this trap, you’ve got to approach things from the perspective of the customers. In fact, you must find out what they think. Use a third-party resource to conduct interviews with your clients or, if you’re willing to be quiet and listen, ask them yourself. What do they consider your firm’s strongest attributes or characteristics? What, in their minds, sets you apart from other advisory firms? Design a message around these elements, and you will construct a brand that accurately represents what your firm stands for.

The speed demon. When approaching many tasks, including marketing and branding, many advisers just want to “get it done.” These speed demon advisers try to move too fast at the beginning of any brand-related program. Without the experience or foresight to understand how crucial foundational decisions will affect every subsequent effort down the line, the speed demon is setting himself or herself up for failure. A branding initiative that is rushed and treated carelessly will produce only substandard results.

To avoid rushing and making a mistake, treat this process with the respect it deserves; it’s an easygoing, long-distance run, not a sprint. You will be more efficient and effective later if you spend the time upfront to create clear direction, alignment and consistency.

The art director. Since everyone believes they have good taste, it’s only natural that advisers feel they can design their print and online materials better than anyone else. Usually, this isn’t the case. Hire professionals and then let them do their work.

Your job in all of this is to provide the artistic and creative people with all the information about your business they need to know to get the job done. Make sure they understand what you do, how you do it and what differentiates you from others.

The passive observer. Once your creative teams produce designs, copy and materials, provide clear, specific responses. “It’s just not right” is not helpful, and sending the team back to do more work without clear direction is inefficient, and a waste of time and money.

To ensure a better result, be direct and decisive about what you want. The process should be collaborative, but it’s your brand, and you want the end product to be an accurate, powerful representation of your firm.

Building a solid brand takes time and attention. Expect a few bumps along the way, but do it well, and your prospects and clients will think they’ve just arrived at The Four Seasons.

Douglas Heikkenen is president of Riley Weiss, a branding firm.

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