5 Ways to Stop Wasting Money (by Putting Your Brand to Work)

Why do businesses waste so much money on branding?

It’s not a lack of effort.

Many find themselves:

• Investing in ambitious initiatives.

• Pouring resources into campaigns.

• Sitting in endless meetings trying to crack the customer code.

And just getting tepid results: Not bad. But not worth the effort and resources.

Struggling to keep up while it feels like the competition tightens its grip on the market. One misstep and you fear you’ll get left behind.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

When your brand works for you, you stop the waste, avoid the guesswork, reduce inefficiencies, and see every dollar work harder.

A brand that works for you creates:

• Momentum instead of stagnation

• Clarity in decision-making

• Alignment between teams

• Results that stick.

Here are 5 ways to make your brand work for you instead of being a money pit.

1. Be Clear, Not Clever

Clever might win awards.

But clarity wins customers.

Being clever makes your audience think too much. When they think too much, they zone out. And when they zone out, their attention goes to someone else.

Many businesses try to be clever because they think it makes them stand out. They think clever is new and exciting.

Being clever may grab attention. But it doesn’t keep it.

It’s not memorable. It’s confusing.

And confusion doesn’t build brands.

Consistency is the backbone of branding. And to register as consistent, it has to be clear: customers have to know if it’s relevant to them instantly.

Clarity removes hesitation, simplifies decisions, and makes you the obvious choice.

So ask yourself: Is your message clear? Or are you making your customers guess?

Five Action Steps

1. Pull out your last piece of messaging.

2. Ask: Is what you’re offering immediately apparent?

3. Pull out another piece of messaging.

4. Ask: If I didn’t work for the company and removed the logo, would I believe both came from the same brand?

5. If the answer isn’t yes to both questions, plan how you’ll improve clarity in your next customer message.

2. Resonate, Don’t Reverberate

Resonating messages absorb.

They sync with your audience. They meet your audience where they are. Not where you want them to be.

Reverberating messages bounce off.

They’re loud. Flashy. Attention-grabbing. They hit a lot of people. But they don’t stick. They’re not relevant to where your audience is.

Ads that address real customer needs that exist right now resonate. They drive people to action.

But so many companies get this wrong.

They think they can be relevant through who they target.

But targeting doesn’t select the audience.

Your message does.

Your message reaches out from the screen:

• Captures your audience’s attention.

• Makes them see a different future.

• And changes their behavior.

Even with flawless targeting, if your audience doesn’t see your message as relevant, they’ll ignore it.

You might even resonate with the wrong audience. And let them down before or after they purchase.

Make sure your message resonates with the right audience.

Five Action Steps

1. List your top three customer outcomes.

2. Write down three ways customers see themselves in the context of your brand

3. Pull out the next message you will send your audience.

4. Ask: Does the message talk to people like that (step 1) who want to achieve those outcomes (step 2)?

5. If it doesn’t, change the message to incorporate at least one way customers see themselves and one outcome they want.

3. Be Different, Not Better

Better makes you easy to compare.

Different makes you stand out.

But most businesses play the “better” game against their competitors.

They lead with:

• A few more features.

• Slightly better service.

• Minor improvements on industry standards.

It’s hard to tell them apart.

(and it’s usually hard to know what better even means)

To your customers, it feels like a coin toss. There isn’t a clear winner.

And when nothing stands out, price takes over as the deciding factor.

That game is a quick race to the bottom, where even the winner is a loser.

One of the main reasons this happens is that companies confuse drivers of choice with differentiators.

Drivers of choice are the basics you need to compete in your category.

For t-shirts, these might be things like quality and comfort. For apartment rentals, this might be things like privacy and nearby shopping.

When you lead with drivers of choice, people immediately compare you with your customers before you have a chance to win them over—because other companies compete on the same things.

Differentiation happens when you go beyond product features. It’s about solving a deeper, often overlooked problem that matters to your customers.

Emphasize your difference and why it matters. Win customers over. Then, justify the purchase with drivers of choice.

Five Action Steps

1. Review your five top competitors.

2. Write down what they offer and what they claim makes them “better.”

3. Think about what they’re missing. What deeper problems aren’t being addressed?

4. Explore the opposite of what they’re doing. Does it appeal to an overlooked group?

5. Identify one way to position your brand around that difference—and test it.

4. Collect Insights, Not Data

Data alone doesn’t give you answers.

But many companies expect it to.

They:

• Collect a lot of data

• Ask all the industry-standard questions

• Put together big reports summarizing the “learnings.”

But they just end up with a lot of data they don’t do much with.

There’s no insight.

The insights you draw are only as good as the questions you ask.

Here’s the thing: You should only ask questions that have the potential to change your strategy.

Anything else is just noise. It wastes time and resources.

Great insights come from understanding not just your customers but also the category you operate in and the broader macro environment.

• What larger market forces are influencing behavior?

• What changes are happening in your industry?

• What motivates your customers?

• What frustrates them?

When I consulted Kohl’s, we had a customer insights team focused on answering these questions (and many more). By understanding our customers better than our competitors, we leapfrogged our two closest competitors (Macy’s and JCPenney) and added billions to the bottom line.

True insights guide your strategy and give you the power to anticipate market changes.

Customer insights aren’t a luxury.

They’re a necessity if you want to stay relevant.

Five Action Steps

1. Ask: What’s one thing I wish I knew more about my customers?

2. Ask: Would it change my strategy if I knew the answer? If not, pick something that would.

3. Draft three questions that would provide you answers about it.

4. Find the answers. If you have the resources, survey your customers. If not, scan forums, social media, and reviews for yourself and your competitors to see if you can find the answers.

5. Use the answers to refine your strategy and take action.

5. Build Trust, Not Loyalty

Loyalty is an illusion.

Most people aren’t loyal to brands the way we think they are.

Behaviorally, they look loyal: they purchase a lot.

But disappoint them, and they’ll turn from a fan to a hater.

Because you broke their trust.

They keep coming back because you earn their trust with every interaction. Not because they’re attached to only you.

Some customers will have a high attitudinal loyalty. But there’s not enough of them to bet your business on.

When I’ve run surveys, only 5% of customers (at most) show high attitudinal loyalty.

And many times, people who appear to be loyal are just heavy buyers of the category.

Take Jay Leno:

He owns six Corvettes. Sounds like he’s a loyal Corvette fan, right?

But he also owns:

• 5 Bentleys

• 8 Fords

• 162 other cars.

Jay Leno isn’t loyal to one Corvette—he’s a heavy user of the car category.

This behavior isn’t something that’s limited to rich celebrities:

• Harley owners buy other bikes twice as often.

• 80% of Rolls-Royce owners also own a Mercedes.

And it gets even more messy when you realize that not all heavy users during one buying period carry over to the next.

So, how do you foster what looks like loyalty?

You earn trust at every interaction.

When customers trust you today, they’re more likely to keep buying from you. They’re more likely to behave as loyal tomorrow.

But make no mistake: break that trust and they’ll find someone else to appear loyal to.

Trust builds incrementally but breaks in an instant.

So, don’t rest on the laurels of loyalty.

Earn the customer’s trust every time.

Five Action Steps

1. Ask: What should we be trusted for?

2. Pick five customer touchpoints.

3. Ask: How well does that touchpoint consistently reflect what we want to be trusted for?

4. Rank your touchpoints in order of how well they reflect what you want to be trusted for.

5. Come up with a plan to make them all rank number one.

Put Your Brand to Work for You

You invest a lot in your brand.

So, it should work hard. It should multiply what you invest in it. And amplify what you invest in everything else.

In this issue, I’ve covered five of the best ways I know to do that:

1. Be Clear, Not Clever: Make your messages clear and consistent.

2. Resonate, Don’t Reverberate: Speak to your audience’s real needs.

3. Be Different, Not Better: Stand out instead of being compared.

4. Collect Insights, Not Data: Focus on insights that guide strategy.

5. Build Trust, Not Loyalty: Earn trust at every interaction.

They’re the foundations of building a brand that works as hard as you do.

P.S. If you’re tired of wasting money on branding that doesn’t bring in customers or grow your revenue, let’s talk. Reply to this email to set up a free discovery call and see how I can use my 20 years of experience to help you solve your unique challenges.