There’s a lot of chatter about the make-up of a brand.  What is it? What does it mean to be a successful brand - and what you need to do to make sure your brand breaks through the clutter and resonates with customers?

When you’re buried deep in paperwork or just trying to fulfill orders, it’s easy to forget about the importance of your brand. As a result, many people put their brand on auto-pilot and don’t worry about it for weeks or months on end. This is the wrong approach and needs to be avoided at all cost.  Just ask Starbucks, who forgot what their brand meant, strayed from their origins, and is now paying the price (though they’ll be back, because their brand is strong enough to survive even these gaffes).

But first: what is a brand, anyway?

* Is it a logo?
* Is it the color scheme on your site?
* Is it the way you answer your phone or what you wear?
* Is it your product or service?

The answer is: all of the above and more. A lot of people can argue about brand and what it means (and whole books have been written on the topic) - but I’ve come to the conclusion that the brand is simply ‘the experience’. The totality of your customer’s experience when they interact with your product or service is what they will equate with your brand. Basically, it’s the taste left in your mouth, and either that taste is something you want more of, or something you want less of.

So in essence a brand is the logo, the color scheme, the way you answer your phone, and the kind of pants you wear. It’s how you treat customers, and how your customers perceive how they’ve been treated. Some of the biggest brands in the world are popular just because you and I know what we’re going to get, before we eat it. It’s a consistency in experience, and in excellence. Or not. And that’s why some brands that once shined (American car companies are just too easy to beat up on) falter: because they forgot to provide the customer with an experience they needed or wanted to repeat again and again.

So how does that apply to your business? Deliver to your customrs what they want, when they want it. Make Customer Service a foundation of your mission. Make things simple and fast to use. And smile, which is exactly what you’ll notice every barista doing these days. Good Product+Good Service=Good Brand=I want more.

If you’re a smaller company, you can afford nothing less.