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Podcast Episode #62 – Transformational Branding

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There are two ways to move your business forward. The first way is to make your business better. You look for ways to incrementally improve your business to gain an advantage against your competitors. It’s a crazy tough battle because your competition is likely doing the same thing. That causes you to think about the second way.

The other way is to be different, to turn your business into something that creates it’s own space. True differentiation is powerful because it changes the game. Your business is no longer part of a competitive herd. Sold! “What are we waiting for? Let’s be different.” But here’s where it gets tough.

To be different, you have to change. If you really want to be different, you have to transform your business into something that truly is different. That’s a lot harder than playing the improvement game. But not impossible.

In this episode of Power to the Small Business host Jay Ehret and guest Eric Brown discuss how you can achieve true differentiation with the Keys to Transformational Branding.

Guest: Eric Brown, The Urbane Way, Royal Oak, Michigan
Length: 23 minutes

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Transformational Branding Notes and Links

The Keys to Transformational Branding

1. Reframing your business into something that’s different (second-order change).
2. Analyzing the purpose of the things you do in your business to determine if they align with the results you get from those actions. Eliminate those that don’t.
3. Changing the rules. Getting rid of the old rules and making up some new ones.
4. Overcoming the fear of being something that’s different.

Selected Quotes from the show:

ERIC BROWN: “In lieu of doubling down on our strengths, sometimes we try to work on our weaknesses. Therefore, that brings us to a very safe and level place, but we’ve reduced what we’re different about.”

JAY EHRET: “In order to be different, you have to become something that’s different.”

ERIC BROWN:“The answers were really always right in front of us; by merely looking at, ‘What are we doing in our industry that everyone else is doing, that maybe we shouldn’t do?’ And then the opposite question is, ‘What are we not doing in our industry that maybe we should do?’”

JAY EHRET: “First order change is change that’s not really change. You rearrange the furniture in the house. Second order change is becoming a different class of business; reframing your business into something that’s truly different.”

ERIC BROWN: “When we began to focus on the customer’s experience, as opposed to our rules and regulations, it began to free up a lot of old thinking.”

JAY EHRET: “There are two big determinants (to transformation): Being able to think differently and reframe your business, and then overcoming the fear of changing into something that is different.”

ERIC BROWN: “When you start really transforming your brand, and by that I mean your behavior, and all of your employees’ behavior, your culture begins to shift. Your customer starts to notice that. And there is an expectation then, of what you’re different about.”

JAY EHRET: “One thing you have to decide as an entrepreneur is do you really want to be different, or do you really just want to be a little better at what you do. And If you do just want to be better, then you have to expect that you will be confined within your industry, competing with everyone else.”

Show Links

Eric Brown’s Company: The Urbane Way
Jay Ehret’s Company: The Marketing Spot
Transformational Branding Presentation at: Optimization Summits
Jay’s Presentation at ProductCamp Austin: Selling Your Soul
Recommended Event: ProductCamp Austin