Who Are You?

“Branding is fundamental. Branding is basic. Branding is essential. Building brands builds incredible value for companies and corporations.”  Scott Goodson, Owner of StrawberryFrog, a New York City-based branding agency, and author of the best-seller Uprising.

If you’ve been in the alarm business for any amount of time and have been reading business intelligence articles – either from within or outside the industry – you’ve heard some variation on the idea that branding is key to your marketing and sales.

But most articles and most marketing experts rarely pause to tell you why.  Here are a few thoughts on why branding is so important.

Your company’s brand is more than your logo.

Your brand is really your company’s identity. It represents to the world your mission – what your company is known for, the products and services you provide, and the promises you make to your customers about the value they will derive from their experience with your company. It also reflects your company’s culture and values, and uses those values to connect you with your market.

What do you want your company to be known for? Is it good value, great customer experience, quick service or innovative technology?

An effective brand delivers your company’s message clearly, consistently and authentically. It confirms your credibility – you are what you say you are – and builds trust and loyalty with your customers. It also differentiates you from your competitors.

In today’s digital world, where your customers and prospects may have more choice than ever and more information about those choices available to them, a strong brand is essential to building a profitable alarm business.

How do you build a strong brand? Here are a few key steps:

1. Know your audience – and your company. To build a strong brand, you have to know who your target market is and what your customers and prospects need and want. And you have to have a clean idea about how your company can meet those needs in new, unique or better ways than your competitors. Without that clear vision, you can’t know your brand promise, much less deliver on it.
2. Act consistently. Know your company’s value proposition and act consistently with it in every part of your business. If you want to be known for providing an excellent customer experience, for example, then every employee and representative that your customers and prospects come in contact with must deliver on that promise – every single time. Consistency builds trust.
3. Communicate clearly and authentically.  Every opportunity to communicate with your customers and prospects is an opportunity to communicate your brand message – what you stand for, what’s best and most compelling about your company, and what differentiates you from the rest of the companies in your area. All of your marketing, your website, blog, newsletters, and advertising, must communicate your brand message clearly. Social media has opened up new channels to engage your target market in conversations about your brand, but it must be done authentically in order to build long-term relationships with your market.
4. You can’t please all of the people, so don’t try. A strong brand knows that it can’t be everything to everyone. It doesn’t try to meet every possible need of every possible customer, but instead keeps its focus on its target market.
5. Don’t rest on your (brand’s) laurels. You can’t build a brand and then sit back and wait for it to create business success for you. A strong brand requires maintenance in the form of consistent action, mixed with strategy, creativity and innovation, so that it continues to deliver on its brand promise over time and in evolving markets.

At ACA, we recognize that you’ve worked hard to build your brand. And we respect that. That’s why, by participating in both our independent dealer program and our partial account acquisition program, you will have the opportunity to continue to capitalize on the name recognition and goodwill that you have developed over the years. For more info on how ACA helps its dealer partners build their brands, read our blog post here.