What sets your brand apart from your competitors?

When first beginning to work with a new produce client, that question is one of the most important questions we can ask. Not because we don’t have our own opinions about a company’s value or what they stand for, but because our opinion is inconsequential to what a company knows about their own brand, how they have captured that brand understanding, and how they practice that brand’s value day after day.

I recently attended a webinar by John Morgan, author of Brand Against the Machine, titled How to Become a Trusted Brand and Industry Leader. Morgan provided a fantastic perspective for what sets companies apart from their competition: the only difference between you and your competition is your brand. And your brand is defined by how your customers and potential customers feel about you, their perception about you and their trust and connection with you.

So much of what we do as fresh produce marketers is looking beyond logos and color schemes to try and define and articulate a brand based on the products and services that our clients deliver. But we must not ignore the reality that the perception that we try to create for our clients is not necessarily the perception that their customers will have. Brand building is most definitely not a one way journey.

Here are five key takeaways from Morgan that provide invaluable insight for effective branding building practices:

1. Your brand visibility is more important than your ability.

When it comes to branding, size matters. It is your visibility that first gets you in the door, and your ability that keeps you there. All too often, we come across fresh produce companies that have amazing stories of innovation and generations of success, yet we only learn of those stories after having exploratory conversations with them. They are hidden gems that have yet to be used for greater brand visibility.

2. Attention does not equal trust, and customer trust is the most important thing to your business.

While brand visibility is critical, that does not equate to more and louder sales messages simply focused on selling more products and services. Companies need to focus on selling trust, and the sales will come. Morgan suggests that sales pitches must be in direct proportion to the trust we have established. He believes that customers don’t care how you do “it”, they just care that you do.

3. You should build such a relationship with your customers and consumers that they would feel like they are cheating on you if they choose someone else.

To gain brand authority, the goal is ultimately to position your company as a resource, not a service or product provider. Truth be told, your products and services don’t differ that much from the grower or marketer right down the street. What differentiates you is how you position that product or service as a solution to your customers’ needs. The goal is not to be perceived as a great choice for high quality fresh produce or marketing services (in our case), but to be perceived as the ONLY choice.

4. Build an affinity with your audience.

This relates to the culture/personal side of your business and is about communicating loveable/shareable information about people – primarily through your social communities. Morgan shared this 20/60/20 Rule: 20% of your audience is going to love you, 60% do not know you exist or are indifferent to you, and 20% hate your brand for any number of reasons.

From his perspective, the upside to this seemingly negative imbalance is that if the 20% that hate your brand start talking smack, the 20% that love you will come to your defense and that’s a beautiful thing.

5.The future of business is marketing with people, not at them.

Listen to your customers to help guide you instead of always trying to guide them. The harsh reality for us marketers is that no one looks forward to receiving a sales pitch, so we can’t just push marketing messages about freshness and quality, but rather need to focus on building relationships that make customers more willing to receive our message. At the end of the day, your brand is not a campaign, it’s a commitment.

A-HA: Successful brand building is not about what you can do, it is the value of what you can do for someone else, and it must always be believable, desirable and attainable. Your brand may not be for everyone, and that’s ok. Your goal should be to build trust and affinity with a select group of brand ambassadors that will carry the banner for you and fly it proudly.