What Do You Represent…Beyond What You Sell?
Entering 2021, the stark reality of the business landscape has become all too clear.
There is an increasing divide between those who fared well during the 2020 pandemic and those who did not.
There are many reasons for this widening gulf between the business have’s and the have not’s, but let’s be clear about one thing.
Our hearts are with those who have suffered and continue to do so.
In sectors like music, hospitality and events, many owners, operators and millions of employees drew very short straws. As the Dalai Lama was quoted as saying:
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive." In business, however, we need much more than love and compassion for companies to survive, thrive and provide opportunity for others.
More than anything, business leaders need clarity on three issues.
Unblinking clarity in terms of your overarching purpose.
Unvarnished clarity on the types of customers you serve and problems you solve with products/services that are highly relevant in a COVID-19 world.
Unflinching clarity on knowing your true identity as a business and brand in a way that distinguishes you from all others.
Since March of 2020, we have detected an alarming increase in the number of companies where a strong brand identity has been a definitive factor in driving profitability that ensures future growth, stability and sustainability. An illustration of this dynamic can be explained by what’s happened with a small company, based in New Brunswick, Canada, selling an otherwise ordinary product for decades. However, their unshakeable commitment to creating a highly differentiated brand has paid off handsomely. Even more so through the uncertainty of the troublesome year gone by. With a clear, differentiated message and compelling brand story, this company leveraged their reputational equity to enter an entirely new market in 2018. By the next year, they were ranked second for sales among 160 other dealers. By the end of 2020, this company – thanks to its massive brand footprint – finished the year ranked # 1 in a nation called Kawasaki Canada.
Since Kawasaki Canada launched in 1972, not one dealer in their network had been able to break the 500-unit mark in terms of annual sales. The small town company has become the metaphorical equivalent to Sir Edmund Hillary, Roger Bannister or Neil Armstrong. In other words, Jim Gilbert’s Wheels & Deals has been able to summit their version of Mt., Everest, break the 4-minute mile or take that first small step on the moon.
One click on this video and you will see why.
As Canada’s Huggable Car Dealer has so vividly demonstrated since September of 2006:
When you know who you are – beyond the products and services you sell – you have a chance to create a story no one else can tell.
Once you have clarity on that brand story and are committed to telling and living it, you make the competition irrelevant.
Now let’s talk about you and your brand.
With each sunrise, you wake up and face the same demands on your time and attention as your customer. Constantly bombarded and assaulted daily with thousands of advertising messages or pitches. From the moment you rub the sleep from your eyes in the morning and check your Apple watch, to the moment you yawn and close Facebook to shut it down for the night. Some experts estimate we are now being exposed to anywhere between 5,000-10,000 messages a day.
In the Attention Economy, future prosperity and growth is now inextricably tied to getting attention like never before.
You cannot afford the luxury of being invisible.
How will you, as a business leader, start attracting the kind of attention that allows your business to stand out from all others?
What if you focused your marketing efforts less on the products and services you provide, but more on the values and the brand story you represent?
You might need to start from a clean slate and re-think your entire brand strategy, but that’s what’s great about the start of any new year.
The perfect opportunity to begin again. To imagine and create what could be.
Like the way 22-year old Josh imagined when he created his small company
A year ago, he re-launched with a bigger idea and grew it substantially while we all battled through the pandemic.
You can see it for yourself.
And in this short video, see what’s possible for you and your brand:
“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves”SIR EDMUND HILLARY
P.s… Throughout the course of the pandemic, we have made every effort to serve small to medium-size business owners with an open heart and no strings attached. That's why we allot a certain amount of time each month for readers like you to schedule a 20-Minute Discovery Session via ZOOM. If you are facing a business or branding challenge that you are not quite sure how to handle and need to bounce ideas and gain clarity, we’re only a click away.
YOUR BRAND. WIDE-OPEN.
If you're feeling now is the opportune time to re-position, and differentiate your company or organization, you might want to explore a metaphorical road trip called THE BRANDING HIGHWAY. Our in-person and virtual Executive Bootcamps serve as both journey and destination to help you emerge as an undeniable, undisputed, "Category of One". Impossible to describe, this unpredictable journey is best understood when you take a peek at this Video Overview:
“The most important victory is the one which has to arrive” ENZO FERRARI
PLANNING A SPEAKING EVENT??
The wheels of business turn faster each quarter and your company or industry association may be anxious to stay ahead of the lighting-fast relevance curve. In that respect, we are scheduling many in-person and virtual programs for 2021 with customized content designed to inspire conference attendees to acquire a “STADIUM-SIZED PERSPECTIVE”.
For more information on scheduling an In-Person or Virtual Speaking Program, send us a note here: bookings@gairmaxwell.com
Every week someone asks a question about our videos and more specifically our media partner responsible for the storyboarding, production and editing. Now headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Defiant Astronaut Media is uniquely positioned to help business leaders re-think what's possible with this art form and how it can help build your brand. If you are curious about what's involved to get the proper gear to support your own video publishing efforts, here is a few ideas to get started. Click here: https://kit.co/defiantastronaut
Get daily updates and continue the DISCUSSION on FACEBOOK or visit www.gairmaxwell.com
“If you choose not to decide you have still made a choice” NEIL PEART