by Daniel Anstandig

The biggest challenge today for any operator is retaining focus of their core product, their brand. It’s only natural to get distracted by the chaotic demands and surprises that every day brings. Today, give yourself the luxury of five minutes of reflection on your brand’s health by reviewing these traits of the most profitable entities.

1. Building successful brands starts with an intense understanding of your audience.

The first step in building any successful brand is understanding the people you are targeting. It does not matter whether you are marketing a website, AM/FM frequency, or streaming audio product. When it comes to positioning and marketing your brand, understanding the audience can mean the difference between walking into a room with the lights on or off.

2. The organization’s culture must corroborate with the spirit and fundamental nature of the brand.

The character and personality of the people responsible for implementing your brand should resonate with the disposition and persona of your brand. Don’t expect a group of linear-thinking accountant types to breathe life into a wildly exuberant and unpredictable brand. Radio stations and websites generally take on the personality of their programmers.

Once you have identified the audience you are hoping to reach, recruit key people who resemble your target to implement the brand. If you are launching a radio station that targets young moms, don’t staff it with all retired dads.

3. The best brands are shaped by interaction with their customers.

Feedback from your buyers, listeners, and supporters can clue you into important trends and emerging needs in the marketplace before your competition. More importantly, feedback from heavy users (frequent buyers and/or listeners) can help you adapt the product for better compatibility with other heavy users in the market.

What feedback mechanisms do you have in place today for your constituents? Always give them a way to offer opinions and suggestions.

The bottom line for creating awareness effectively is this… Encounter your audience positively and leave a favorable lasting impression.

4. Strong brands have support of upper-management.

No brand, product, radio station, website, or idea can survive without the support of top-level management. Period. While ideas may be generated at any level of an organization, without top-level management’s support, traction is impossible.

5. Awareness drives brand vitality.

If your audience does not know about you, they cannot choose you or your product. There are many ways to build awareness beyond spending millions of dollars on advertising. The bottom line for creating awareness effectively is this… Encounter your audience positively and leave a favorable lasting impression.

6. Every employee understands and passionately embraces the brand.

Buy-in and comprehension are important at all levels of your organization. Every employee should understand what makes your brand or radio station different from the others on the dial. What is your handshake with the audience?

7. Emotion is the currency of branding.

You are a meaningless passerby in the mind of a consumer until you make them feel something. Emotion is the key that unlocks the archives in anyone’s mind.

Think of the most memorable and meaningful moments in your life. Pick up a pen-and-paper, and jot down the first three events that come to mind, without giving it too much thought. Then, observe that the three events you wrote down are likely charged with significant emotion. At the time of those events, your memories were imprinted with powerful feelings.

Give your buyers and listeners/viewers a positive emotional experience surrounding your brand, and they’ll always remember you.

8. Community trumps solitude. The best brands build community around them.

Harley Davidson, Starbucks, Mac/Apple, Star Trek, Nascar.These are all brands that can fill stadiums with like-minded consumers. What do your constituents all have in common? What makes this group of people unique? Incorporate it into your marketing message, and invite people to form a community around your brand.

9. If it ain’t broke… fix it! Always innovate.

Everyone in your organization should work in “Research and Development.” Exploration and evolution are critical traits of winning companies. Radio stations at the top of the ratings tend to get suspicious about making any changes, fearing that the slightest change can sabotage their success. Often, it’s the enduring rigidity of resisting change that forces a brand out of the leading position and makes room for another to succeed.

Allow each employee the time and flexibility to examine their role and find ways to improve their approach. Also, empower them with the privilege of speaking out internally about the brand and its future. Give all players inside your company the opportunity to vocalize their view on where your brand is headed—and where tomorrow’s opportunity awaits.

In today’s rapidly changing digital world, focus on the core product, your brand, is essential.

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