Are brands just a quality symbol in customers view?

Whenever we hear the word “Brand” we think of something unique and distinctive. The origin of the word is in early farming parlance where a particular farmer marked their animals in order to identify them. This kind of marking to distinguish something from others came to be known as branding.

Although we are referring to the corporate world here and not the relaxed world of farmlands, the concept remains very much the same. Even today, the word brand strikes the same chord – we think of something distinct and different from others. Every business owner wants to create his own brand and be identified with it.

When you have a brand and the brand delivers the best to its customers, your customers will automatically seek your particular brand and prefer it on others when it comes to the specific product or service that you are offering. The association of a particular brand with a certain kind of quality also dates back to many years. For example, a particular farmer branded his cattle and then sold it in the market. When people saw that the meat they bought had one thing in common – the brand – they began to prefer it to others. Right from an early age, the word brand then became associated with quality and better services.

In today’s intensely competitive business world, you need to have a brand in order to combat the existent brands that have become an integral part of people’s lives. Right from biscuits to cars, every item is identified with a brand that people acknowledge to be superior then others.

In fact, something like a symbol or a catch line becomes the signature of a brand and then the product is identified by that particular symbol. A good brand is something that the customers invest their complete faith on. The brand becomes synonymous with quality and service once the customers accept it.
The meaning of the word brand:

The word brand cannot be assigned any particular meaning. To a business owner it means something, to a customer it means another thing and to another person it again means something else. So we can say that brand is a very relative word, signifying different things to different people.

If one needs to define the word in a very broad sense, then one can say that it signifies the trust and the expectation that the customers have for a particular product or service. At the same time, a brand is also symbolic of quality and character. For example, a customer will choose a good brand over a random product because they believe that the brand will deliver what it promises and at the same time, it will also be of good quality.

Gauge the competition and then develop better products
In order to start off a brand of your own, you need to keep track of what the competition is offering. Merely knowing what the others have to offer is not enough. You need to establish a unique feature in your own product and service in such a way that the focus of the customers drifts from the earlier to yours.

Another term that is much used in business jargon is “strategic awareness”. Your brand reaches the level of strategic awareness with the consumers when your customers are able to identify your brand with certain qualities and distinguish it from the competition. Strategic awareness is very close to your USP or Unique Selling Point. The USP or the strategic awareness is the characteristic feature of your brand that the customers identify and understand as superior to others.

Internal and External Communication Approaches for Business

So you are a business owner and you want to know how you will be able to expand your business. One of the most important things in the world of business is to trigger off great relationships with other enterprises so that you earn a name in the business. In order to establish a reputation in the business world, you need to have a great business communication strategy. Business communication can essentially be divided into internal and external communication.

Things like establishing a brand, marketing your products and services, advertising, working on things like public relations, media management and even business dealings with customers or other business firms fall in the category of external business communication.

As for internal business communication, things like building up the ideals of your company, setting certain guidelines that you expect to follow in your business, carving out strategy and goals to ensure success, keeping your employees inspired and egging on all those involved in your business falls into the category of internal business communication.

All the things mentioned above contribute to the betterment of your business prospects. Be it internal business communication or external business communication, it ultimately contributes to the growth of your business. Thus, business communication is an integral aspect of your business that will help you go ahead and establish yourself.

When it comes to business communication, or for that matter, any aspect of the business, the most important thing is the customer. You need to ensure that you deliver what the customer wants. Even when it comes to things like marketing or advertising, you need to show what the customer appreciates and likes. Different customers accept different kinds of marketing. It all depends on you to ensure that via business communication, you are able to cater to the choices of a wide range of people. If you are able to master the art of impressing many people by various means, you will be able to take your business to the top.

However, merely enticing your customer by showing them certain things is not good business. Good business means getting a quality product together and then marketing for it wisely so that people accept it. Just promising your customers a lot and then delivering nothing will only get your business into a soup. So gauge your products and services and then embark upon advertising and marketing. Internal business communication is the key to get all your people together and then inspiring them to deliver the best.

If you want to create a world class product, the first thing that you need to do is believe in yourself. This is where internal business communication comes in. It helps you get all your employees together and tell them that you can pull it off with élan. If there is a lot of positive thinking and bursting enthusiasm in your camp, the good spirit will show in your product. Your employees are an integral part of the company, so keeping them happy and making them believe in the company and themselves is very important.

Business communication is a very important aspect of your business and you need to take great care in improving your communication strategy so that your business keeps booming!

How to Keep Your Customer Base Thriving

Once you start a business, the first thing that you need to concentrate on is building up a customer base. The key to having a successful business is that you need to keep your old customer base in tact and at the same time seek new customers. Often, business owners have a problem – they are unable to sustain their old customer base while trying to gain a new customer base. There are some points given below that will help you to keep your old customer base as it is and at the same time, expand your clientele.

The first thing that you need to do is ensure that you keep on providing the services that you have gained your clients for. If you keep on delivering the service that you promise, there is no question of your clients drifting away.

Another thing that is very crucial to the holding of your customer base is keeping track of your customer base. You need to maintain a database of your clients in order to ensure that you have a customer database to follow up your clients. It is very important to have the details of your customers so that you can contact them whenever required. Apart from the email id of your customer, you should also have their postal address and their telephone numbers. The importance of the database is that there may be a certain customer who does not log on to the internet regularly, so it is handy to have that customer’s phone number if you need to contact him or her urgently.

Remember that direct interaction with your customers goes a long way in keeping your customers base intact. Follow up your customers and send direct emails in order to keep your customers happy and your business thriving.

If you want to keep your business thriving, you need to ensure that your customers are contented with your services. Try to entice your customers by giving special offers. You can attract your customers to your products and services by giving a special offer or two. You can give them offers like discounts or free services to attract them to your products and become your permanent customers.

Another great way to keep your customer base alive and thriving is to arrange special events for your clients. You can arrange a seminar or a presentation on something that is related to your products and services and then invite your customers. In order to further establish your relationship with your customers you can even host luncheons and dinners. Such interactive platforms will help you keep your clients satisfied and your network stable.

A little bit of personal interaction can go a long way in keeping your customers rooted to your business. You need to keep track of certain important dates for the customers like birthdays, anniversaries or festivals and wish them on these special occasions. You can keep track of such things by having a good database. This kind of personal interaction is something that makes your customer rely on you even more and stick to you through thick and thin.

A good follow up of your products and services is very important. After you have sold something to the customer, you need to be there and assure your customer that in case of any problem, he or she can fall back on you. Try to send follow up emails or make follow up phone calls in order to build up the trust.

A good first impression is very important. Thus, you must have a space where you are able to demonstrate your achievements so that your customers are impressed and attracted towards your business.

Never let your old customer base think that you are ignoring them because you are hunting for a new customer base. Always inform them about new offers and functions so that they feel part of the family. Also, ask your old customers about any problems they are facing with your products and services and do your best to set them right.

Tips for developing great teams in an organization

The people working in every office often talk about developing a team, team work, their team, etc. but very few people actually understand just how to build an efficient team or work as a team effectively. Being part of a team is essentially feeling like you belong to something which is bigger than yourself. A very important part of being in a team and working together as a team is that everyone understands the aims and objectives of the company.

When you are working in an organization which is team-oriented, then you directly put in your individual effort into the total success of the business. You have to work with your colleagues in the company to bring about this result, not work on your own as you want to. You have to adjust and compromise with your teammates and only then will the organization achieve success. Although you still retain your own job profile in a particular department, you are joined to the other members of your team to reach certain common goals. You no longer work alone, but think of the larger scheme of things such as the good of the whole company.

To be productive within a team, you must be able to separate the general sense of working as a team from the efficient team which has been created to realize a particular goal. Most people cannot differentiate between the two and this leads to lower productivity levels. It is also the reason why many team building meetings, retreats and seminars are considered failures by the participants. If team leaders cannot define the kind of team they want to create, then it is not practicable to develop an effective team.

Managers, executives and members of the staff in organizations think that team-centric organization structures are a great way to improve profits in business and also get better results. Since these kinds of business structures involve all the employees of the organization, they are most conducive to increasing productivity and profits.

Every team-based company is striving to improve their services for their customers. However, not many organizations are happy with their team improvement attempts. If your organization is one of them, go through the following checklist to know why. Careful attention is needed to these as these could help you build an efficient, focused team. Impromptu

1. Context:
Make your team understand the organization’s business strategy, how vital the team’s role is in achieving corporate goals, how the team’s work features in the company’s overall principles, values and vision.

2. Commitment:
Do team members actively participate in the team? Do they understand the company’s mission, and see how important their service is to the organization? Do they expect recognition for their work and want to improve their skills through teamwork?

3. Clear expectations:
Executive leaders should tell the team members about what is expected of the team’s performance. Team members should know why the team was built, and executives should support the team with the necessary resources and money.