Here’s the 3 essentials for a high performing brand

Want to know the secret to creating a high performing brand? It’s more than designing a great logo or coming up with a set of values to ask your team to follow. High performing brands have essential differences that work together to build strength and success that goes beyond sales or profits. So what are these are stand out elements? We start with three essential areas where brands and customers can find common ground.

1. Understand your ‘what’

First up, you need to be clear on your ‘what’. That means what you offer and why customers want it. Your ‘what’ is usually your product or service and the basis for transactions between your brand and your customer. Creating a high performing brand requires a deep understanding of what it is you are actually offering (pro tip: it’s not as simple as your product or service) and why customers choose you over your competitors. Start by asking yourself these questions:

  • What are we offering?
  • More importantly, what do our customers actually want?
  • How unique is our offering?

2. Shake up your ‘how’

Next, it’s time to look at your ‘how’. This is the experience of how you deliver your product or service. This is where most innovation happens and it can be the thing that elevates your brand most successfully. Take Netflix. They were offering the same product as Blockbuster but ‘how’ they delivered it disrupted an entire industry and changed how we consume movies and TV forever. Same goes for Airbnb, Uber. Look what happened when they shook up the ‘how’. Try these questions to explore how you might innovate your ‘how’:

  • How are we offering our product or service?
  • How do the customers actually want it?
  • How can we do this differently

3. Be clear on your ‘why’

Now comes the big one. Understanding your ‘why’. High performing brands have great clarity of purpose. They have a reason to exist beyond making money and make this clear to everyone so that it becomes both a defining feature and shared belief. That is, your ‘why’ is also your customers ‘why’ too – and the reason they choose you over your competitors. Here’s a final set of questions to help you nail your ‘why’:

  • Why do you do what you do?
  • Why are your customers choosing you?
  • Are you communicating this clearly to your customers?

By working on these three areas of your brand and business you will create true transformation for your customers. Your customers become loyal fans and you’ll become an ‘only choice’ brand. That’s the sweet spot a brand needs to thrive.