How deep is your brand?
You can say anything you want about amazon, but you cannot doubt the power and the depth of their brand.
They own way more than their name in the marketplace. The brand name you know best is amazon shopping when youre comparing a price at a bookstore or an appliance store, or a hardware store, or for that matter, any store. You take out your smartphone and you compare amazon pricing to whatever youre thinking about buying. And at that moment in time, you make a snap decision to either buy at the store or buy with your phone.
NOTE WELL: Amazon shopping is just the tip of their brand-iceberg. The depth of their brand goes way beyond their name because when you purchase from amazon, you refer to it in one of two ways: You either 1-click it or you prime it.
1-click means you purchase with your credit card without having to enter anything or do anything other than click your smart phone.
Prime it means you get it in two days, freight free.
Think about that for just a second. You dont even say the companys name. Amazon is known by the services that they provide. 1-click for my credit card, and prime for two-day free shipping.
That is the definition and the power of brand depth. They have created services that are so powerful that their company is literally known by the name that they have attached to the service.
Okay, so much for amazon. What are you known for? What name is attached to your brand or your business that you have or are creating a reputation for?
Okay, you dont have one. So my next question is:
- what could you become known for?
- Could it be same-day shipping?
- Could it be a better guarantee?
- Could it be free freight?
- Could it be a live person answering the phone 24/7?
- Could it be one-hour service response time?
Whatever it is, it has to be something that sets you apart, far apart, from your competition.
Amazons brand is so deep that someone would have to spend billions of dollars to compete, and even then, there would be no guarantee of success.
Theres a new company on the horizon, jet.com, trying to compete with amazon. They have a huge budget, but amazon owns 1-click and amazon owns prime. It will take years and billions to dent that marketplace. Amazon also has very low margins making it even more difficult for someone to build profit and equity to market enough to gain a sizeable share.
And regardless of who enters the market against amazon, they have a customer comfort level in dealing with them and social ratings to prove it. You feel safe and secure, they are 99.9% reliable, and its likely that you have received hundreds of their packages. Even their boxes are branded.
So for you, amazon is a great brand to study. A great company to use as a model for services that youre trying to provide to your customers in order to secure their long-term business, their genuine loyalty, and help build your reputation by posting positive things about their experience with you, your products, and your services. And, oh yeah, make a buck.
More than a hundred books have been written on branding. I wonder if Jeff Bezos has read any of them.
If you look at other dominant brands, like Apple, or google, or eBay, they own their space and their keywords, because they have consistently provided products and services that people know and trust, and have sophisticated their online presence to a point where they can claim ownership.
Whether its iTunes, or buy it now, or google it, they own the phrases and words that connects and creates recognition of their brand.
What words, phrases, and services are associated with you that disassociate you from your competition? MAJOR CLUE: If youre still fighting price, it means theres little or no differentiation.
The best thing you can do right now is take a close look at every aspect of your business, your products and your services, and determine at least one area where you have the potential for recognition and market dominance.
Focus on that with every ounce of your social power.
