Principle 15

Building Your Brand Identity

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading, or do things worth the writing.

—Benjamin Franklin

With so many businesses in today's market, it's all about branding—standing out and identifying your business in a positively unforgettable way. So with this principle, you will learn how and why to build a unique brand for your business. You will learn about developing a successful web site, successful sales collateral items, and a sound business model. You will learn how to select a logo and color scheme for your company. You will learn what I believe to be the world's greatest marketing tool, and how to create that marketing tool for your business.

Furthermore, you will learn Seth Godin's wisdom on how to make your brand stand out from your competition. You will also learn why Ralph Lauren changed his birth name and built his entire company on remaining true to his brand, which is still going strong nearly 40 years later. Branding your business well will ultimately result in increased revenues and set you up to become an Affluent Entrepreneur.

The challenge we all have in business as entrepreneurs is that there is a good chance you and I are not the only ones in our markets offering our type of products and services. As a result, at times we can all get lost in the crowd of others doing what we do. Because of this overcrowding, if you do not do something to stand out, you may find yourself in a position where you aren't earning what you desire, or worse, find yourself struggling financially.

One of my all-time favorite mentors, thinkers, and marketers on this planet is a guy named Seth Godin who has written numerous books on sales, marketing, and leadership. My all-time favorite book of his is Purple Cow. Godin preaches that the key to success for a small business owner is to find a means to be different in a unique and attractive way so that his product will stand out from the crowd and be noticed. For example, let's say you look across a Midwest pasture and see hundreds of black and white cows. Then all of a sudden, you see a purple and white cow. You are certainly going to take notice and do your due diligence to learn more about this unique cow. The same is true with your business. You need to figure out how you are going to be different, unique, and most important, desirable to your clients.

An example of this purple cow strategy is a pricing model I used on my book Creating Your Own Destiny. After having sold over 100,000 copies, I kept getting e-mails from people advising me that they applied my book to their lives and their businesses and made an extra $1,000 last month or an extra $5,000. One woman even e-mailed me with excitement to tell me that one of the principles learned in Creating Your Own Destiny she applied to her business accounted for an extra $10,000 from a recent client.

These success stories made me start to question why in the world some of the best business, real estate, and entrepreneurship books are priced at only $19.95–$29.95 depending on page count and whether they are hardcover or softcover when the information included in these books, if applied correctly to your life, is worth virtually tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. As a result of this thinking, and these e-mails from my readers, I decided to implement a new bold marketing strategy for my book. I decided I would implement it for a year and then measure the results.

See, the Affluent Entrepreneur is kind of like a scientist. We are constantly testing and measuring marketing campaigns and performing trial and error on sales offers. Some marketing and sales strategies work, some don't; so we adjust, move forward, and invest more time and money into those campaigns that work.

My idea was to be the first to test market the world's most valuable book Creating Your Own Destiny with a $1,000 price tag on the book. On the inside flap my pricing was listed as:

Well, I tested and measured the results. My first thought was that I hadn't sold many books, so I returned my pricing back to $24.95. Sometime later I reevaluated this strategy and realized I had actually sold nearly 250 of these books combined with a publishing coaching package at a price point of $3,000– $4,000. Therefore, maybe I wasn't that far off my target. My point here, as Seth Godin says, is we need to be different in order to get noticed.

Pricing, as in the example above, is one of my favorite aspects in the concept of branding. Why? Because the error that Struggling Entrepreneurs make but Affluent Entrepreneurs laugh at has to do with pricing the actual product or service. See, the Struggling Entrepreneur believes that whoever has the lowest price wins. The Affluent Entrepreneur knows that price is one of the last things to consider when marketing your services.

For example, whenever I travel, I often stop at the burrito shop at Sea-Tac airport and order a chicken quesadilla. I always ask for extra meat and extra cheese because flying anywhere from Seattle is a long flight, and I don't want to be stuck on a plane being hungry. I am always entertained when whoever is behind the counter tells me they can't give me extra chicken and extra cheese because it would cost me an extra dollar. They always assume I don't have an extra dollar in my pocket so I am going to go hungry on my flight. I always respond and say, “I don't care if it costs an extra five dollars; give me extra chicken and cheese.”

See, the scarcity mind-set will not serve you as a business owner. As Affluent Entrepreneurs, we must always assume that our prospects have money in their pockets and bank accounts, and are willing to pay more for the extra value we provide with our brand.

This example reminds me of one of my all-time favorite speakers and mentors in the world. Zig Ziglar says, “There is a difference between price and cost.” What he means is that often, higher-priced items actually cost less than lower priced ones in the long run because lower-priced items always seem to break down and fall apart sooner, requiring us to repurchase before we would have, had we invested in the higher-priced items from the get go.

Another piece of Zig's wisdom I have always found amusing is when he talks about authors selling their books after their speeches. Zig says that authors need to develop the following mind-set, “I have your books; you have my money . . . I am here to make the switch!”

Branding “You”

As the Affluent Entrepreneur, you are the brand your customers want. They want your signature, your imprint, your branding. They want you! That is why people prefer Ralph Lauren's Polo brand jeans compared to Wal-Mart's Faded Glory brand. People always want a Mercedes Benz or BMW over a Hyundai or Chevrolet. It all comes down to branding.

So the question is this: How can you brand yourself, your products, or services? People often ask, “What if I have a job and work for a major Fortune 500 company? Can I brand myself as an employee?” Absolutely you can. Not only can you, but you must if you are to protect yourself from layoffs and downsizing.

As an employee you must show up to work every day, putting forth your best effort, continuing to build your brand yourself as one of the most valuable employees in the organization. You must look at yourself as an entrepreneur, with your number one customer being your employer. Your employer is your top priority. Whatever need, goal, or objective your employer has set out for you to accomplish, not only must you meet that goal, but you also should go the extra mile to outperform the other employees.

In doing so, the results you create will give you the confidence and resume to go out and get another job should you be served with layoff papers. Or better yet, you will gain the confidence to go out and start your own business and become an Affluent Entrepreneur.

So how can you, as an Affluent Entrepreneur, brand yourself? Here is a listing of the best ways in which you can brand yourself:

Let's look at each of these items individually to see how you can incorporate these suggestions into your business:

First, go out and get a world-class photo taken by a professional in your nicest suit and tie. If you don't like the way it looks, have the professional Photoshop it to make you look your very best. My photo was taken when I just returned from a family vacation in Maui so I was super tan. Rarely am I that tan. Also, I had a couple of fever blisters on my lips due to the sunburn, which the experts were able to Photoshop away.

Second, my color scheme for my business includes the following colors: blue, beige, teal, and gold. I use these four colors over and over again in all I do with my books, web site, flyers, and business cards. You can do the same. Find a color scheme that matches your passion, your message, and your business model, and then stay consistent.

Third, create a branding statement on your site to gain your prospects' attention. On my main web site, www.PatrickSnow.com, I have a couple of different branding statements at the top to attract visitors. These include:

“Helping You Get More Out of Life and Work . . . ”

I don't know about you, but I certainly want more out of life and work. Virtually everyone wants more out of life, and I believe that when we create and follow our own destinies, we can get more out of life! The next one is on my publishing site:

“Helping Entrepreneurs Become Best-Selling Authors . . . ”

Again, if you are going to write a book, don't you want to become a best-selling author? Let's face it; there is no reason to play unless you are going to play to win. These are two examples of “branding statements” that I use in my business. Now, get creative and make your own branding statements. In the exercise below, go ahead and create your own “branding statements.” However, be sure that you use the word “you” so you are talking directly to your prospects. A second strategy is to speak to your prospects' niche, which is not as good as saying “you” but better than missing out altogether.

Fourth, create a “branding name” for yourself that will make people remember you. Since we talked about Seth Godin earlier in this chapter, it is important to note that he is called “America's Greatest Marketer.” Who wouldn't want to be called that? I don't know if he gave himself that label, or someone else gave it to him, but it doesn't matter—either way, that branding is genius.

When I first started my speaking business in the early 1990s, another professional in the industry asked me, “Well after all, just who is Patrick Snow, and why should we care?” I realized at the time there was a point to that question. Since I was just starting to think about writing a book about “destiny,” I figured I needed to brand myself using the word “destiny” and the “study” or “teacher of destiny.” Having recently graduated from the University of Montana, academic titles were in my thoughts, so I called up my web master, Tony Wall, and told him to call me, “Patrick Snow, ‘The Dean of Destiny.’” He did just that, and I have included it in all of my speaking introductions ever since. It has stuck and now people regularly refer to me as “The Dean of Destiny.”

You can do the same. Think for a moment, right now, about what your “branding name” can be. Once you have nailed it, use it on your web site, and all of your other marketing materials.

Fifth, create “branding web sites” that speak to your product or service. I have about 50 web sites that all strategically point to different locations, and each has search engine optimization (SEO) to the others. Below is a list of some of my sites. Ask yourself as you read these names, whether you can tell what the purpose, mission, or goal of each site is:

You get the point. Make sure that you capitalize the first letter of each word in your domain names so that you make it easier for your prospects to read and memorize them. Just by reading these links, you can tell, for the most part, exactly what the purpose of each of these sites is. I encourage you to do the same. Purchasing a web site is similar to buying waterfront property to build on at a later time. Web sites, often referred to as URLs, are in limited quantity, so secure a dozen or more for you and your family to build on whenever you feel the time is right. You never know; perhaps if you don't purchase the web site name you want, someone else might purchase it first and not even use it but simply be “squatting,” a term used in the industry for people who purchase domain names just so they can resell them later at a higher price. Someone recently sold www.Pizza.com for $1 million. You get the point. Buy now; build later when you're ready.

Finally, place your “signature” on all of your work. When I published the first edition of Creating Your Own Destiny in 2001, I asked Dan Poynter whether or not I should sign my books. He replied, “Always sign your books. They are more valuable with your signature on them than if not.” I guess that makes sense. Let me ask you: Would you rather have a Babe Ruth rookie baseball card, or that same card with his signature on it? Of course, the signature always makes the item more valuable.

For that reason, I have included my “Patrick Snow” signature on the top portion of each and every page on my web site. You should do the same. Always, sign your letters and include your signature on all of your marketing pieces. Doing so will enhance your brand.

I am always amazed that people will wait in line after I speak to have me sign their books or sign their notes. If they only knew that I am just an ordinary guy aspiring to live an extraordinary life, perhaps they wouldn't wait in line. However, one thing I have learned is that when you write a book, people look at you in a whole new way and treat you as if you were a celebrity, professional athlete, or famous musician.

Now take a look at this list of six items I've provided you, all of which you can do immediately with all of your marketing pieces so they will better brand you and your product or service. You may also want to consider putting your brand on hats, T-shirts, bumper stickers, and so on.

However, none of these strategies above will work as well as my final recommendation for your business. There is one marketing and branding strategy above all others that will help promote, grow, and brand your business better than the rest. This strategy once implemented will become hands down the absolutely greatest way to build your brand better than all the others. What is this secret? It is something that is considered to be one of the most highly respected careers in the world.

The Affluent Entrepreneur's best kept secret: You should publish a book to promote your business. No other marketing strategy will provide such a high level of return or branding on your investments. If this statement has attracted your interest, I encourage you to read my book:

Becoming a Best-Selling Author:

How to Use Your Book as a Lead-Generating Tool to Attract More Speaking, Coaching, and Consulting Opportunities

Let's face it; everyone you and I know is an expert at whatever it is he or she is most passionate about. My two teenage sons buy and sell Nike SB sneakers on the Internet and make quite a bit of extra money doing so. As a result, they are “experts” in the rare Nike SB sneaker business, and the inside term for the customers buying all of these shoes from my sons is “sneakerheads.” It is a huge business, and my two sons have figured it out and are now profiting off this trend. However, since they don't have the term “author” next to their names on their business cards (in fact they don't even have business cards), no one in the media will acknowledge either of them as the “expert.”

Here are the reasons why you need to write a book:

I am convinced that after speaking in this industry since I was 17 years old, I have learned that there is no greater marketing tool, or branding secret than writing a book. I am so passionate about this subject that I have spent the last 10 years of my life when I have not been on the road speaking, at home coaching other entrepreneurs to write and publish their books. If you see the value in this branding strategy to grow your business and are interested in publishing a book, I would be thrilled to offer you a complimentary phone consultation. First, go ahead and read every word and listen to the audio on the following site:

www.BestSellerBookCoaching.com

Then call or e-mail me to schedule your session. Oh, and by the way, I love all of the social networking sites out there; what I don't like is trying to remember all the darn user names and passwords required to use these tools. Therefore, I prefer you just e-mail me directly at [email protected].

Summary

Building a world-class brand is not something you do overnight. It is something that takes a lifetime commitment to quality. It takes “purple cow” thinking—a willingness and the creativity to be different and to stick out from the crowd in order to be noticed.

Creating the brand is something you can do in a very short time, but marketing the brand will take a lifetime. There are numerous things you need to consider, such as your logo, your colors, your signature, and in Ralph Lauren's case, both his name change and his emblem.

Most important, in order to brand yourself, you must stay consistent and not change your brand on a whim; you must stay firm and spend the rest of your life marketing your brand. If you don't have the fashion sense Ralph Lauren has, or the marketing talent displayed by Seth Godin, then I suggest you consider writing a book because no other tool in the marketplace will help you build your credibility, strengthen your credentials, attract new clients, or impact your brand the way a hardcover book will.

Create your brand, and then stay strong, remain firm, and commit to spending a lifetime promoting your brand, and you will become an Affluent Entrepreneur quicker than you may expect.