Apr 27, 2018
When I say the words “brand culture,” do you know what I'm talking about? Brand culture has to do with how your brand is perceived by customers and how you as a brand engages with them to facilitate good feelings about your brand. It sounds complicated but it's really not. It's the same thing we experience in any human relationship - and the relationship between consumers in the brands they support are just larger versions of that same thing. In this brief episode, I'm going to tell you a fun story about what happened with one of my clients' brands where their brand followers came to their defense all on their own. It's the kind of brand culture every one of us wants and I'm going to tell you how you can begin developing it for your brand. Seriously, you don't want to miss this.
It’s rare, but it’s an amazing experience when your community defends your brand
Here is an amazing example of what happens when you create a healthy culture around your brand. Some clients I work with, who are amazing people, by the way, have done an incredible job of nurturing a culture around their brand. As a result, their customers are incredibly enthusiastic about their products. Once, when somebody posted a negative comment about the brand, these clients were naturally concerned and took time to consider how to respond. Before they could get to their computer and key in a response, their community had come to their defense. Comment after comment was made in response to the one negative remark. THAT Is what you are looking for when it comes to building a powerful brand culture. It's not something that comes from having some sort of magical touch, it's something that happens from very intentional actions on your part as a brand owner. Listen to this episode and I will explain exactly how to do it.
Here are the 3 things you can do to build a powerful brand culture
We all know that there are three basic ways to make more money from your business. You have to get more customers, get those customers to buy, and then get them to buy even more. It's the last of those three that we were talking about when we approach the subject of brand culture. We want a culture full of raving fans who are eager to purchase every single thing our brand provides. I have discovered three things that you can do that begin to build that kind of the following.
#1 - Engage with your community personally.
#2 - LIsten to find out who your customers are and what they enjoy.
#3 - Give your community what they want.
It really is that simple but it takes diligence, consistency, humility, and hard work to really do it. I go into greater detail about each of these pillars of a powerful brand culture on this episode, so don't miss them.
Pillar #1: Stay engaged in your community in a personal way
When I say that you need to stay engaged with your community, I am talking about personal engagement. Whether you gather your community in a Facebook group or some other platform, you need to make sure that you are there, in the trenches, talking with your customers and discovering the things that matter to your customers. Don’t rely on automation. You can’t substitute for personal engagement with a canned response or a chatbot. When your community knows that a real person is there to answer their questions and respond to their concerns, that will communicate how much you care and will be the foundation of a powerful brand culture.
Pillar #3: Use what you learn from your community to give them what they want
As you spend time engaging with your community, you need to be making good use of what you learn. If you pay close attention and if you ask the right questions your community will tell you exactly what they're concerned about and what products they wish existed to address their needs. It's your job at that point to create what they want. It's amazing how the people who buy what you have to sell will tell you more about what they want to buy. A brand culture enthusiastic about what you do and how you engage with them will help you sell more products directly to them. This short episode explains how you can get started on the track to that kind of community.
Outline of This Episode
- [0:33] A story about the power of moving from commodity to community
- [1:57] It’s an amazing experience when the community comes to your defense
- [3:58] 3 ways to make money: more customers, spend more, spend more often
- [5:07] The three pillars to building a powerful brand culture and community
- [7:50] Two ways to apply what you’ve learned on this episode
Resources & People Mentioned
- Kevin Kelly’s post about 1000 True Fans
Connect With Bryan Bowman
- On Facebook