Personal Branding and Brand Positioning

Personal Branding and Brand Positioning:

People buy from brands they know and trust. By creating a trustable website and delivering eye-catching marketing materials, your clients experience the value you offer. By creating material targeted to your ideal client, by speaking to them through your materials, you control the percieved value and can claim your desired price point.

Imagine walking into the Apple store to discover the store lined with cheap posters that say $1.00. Or, 10 for $10. After the initial excitement when you think that iPad you have been eying is now a mere $1.00, you discover that this tried and true brand is not actually offering its high-end Apple products you have come to know and love. Instead, you see plastic pay as you go phones, and throw away accessories cluttering the shop. There is stuff everywhere. You could throw an iPhone party with kitschy iPhone paraphernalia. As you trip over a package of inexpensively made in China iPhone charges carelessly left on the floor aisle next to plastic cases outdated speakers, you make your way through the store, in an attempt to remember what you actually came in to buy. Lost in the bombardment of stuff, eventually, you find yourself overwhelmed and leave disapointed by your experience, without buying a thing.

Now let’s flip this scenario. Imagine, your kid is turning 4 and you need to stock up on some cheap party supplies. As you walk into the Dollar Store, you experience wide isles with minimal stock laid out beautifully on each table. You are greeted by one of the 25 staff members tending to the shop. They kindly ask you what you are looking for, once your desire is revealed, another staff member escorts you to the desired area and helps you select your birthday candles and paper plates for tomorrow party. You look at your options, beautiful and artistically laid in front of you. “Can you please tell me the price of the candles?” you ask. The very attentive and kind employee picks up a phone and enters in the product number you are referring to and responds with “that will be $21, and you can get supplemental insurance for an extra $12”.

Hmmm. Not the experience you were expecting in either scenario. In both cases, I imagine you would have left feeling a bit cheated, wrongly sold on the quality of the products you were viewing. It’s simply was not what you were expecting. So I ask you, to look at this in your own business. Where do you stand in the model of perceived value? What do your clients expect to experience when they are in your presence or using your products? Are you consistent with all your marketing efforts? If not, I encourage you to look at who you are marketing to and create a plan that appeals to that client avatar.

If you want to be an Apple store, you must have a clean, well laid out website with an easeful customer experience. The quality of both your website, marketing materials, messaging, and your images on your site, demonstrates to the viewer the quality of work you put out in the world. It speaks to your brand.

You need to demonstrate that you have the diligence and dedication to create the quality of work you promise. You demonstrate to your client the quality of you work via your website and marketing material. A $2000 website can look like a $500 site, or it can look like a $10,000 site. People make a judgment call on whether they like you or your brand in a split second. You have only that first moment. So, how are you going to capture their attention immediately?

Are you going to package yourself with the commitment Apple does it’s products, or are you the Dollar Store? A site with professional images is akin to a product delivered in boutique packaging.  It’s the Apple store versus the Dollar Store.

Pricing:

I know I pay more if what I am buying comes in a beautiful box. The reason why am willing to pay more is this beautiful packaging tells me (hopefully) about the level of detail that goes into the product. Bottom line, if you want to sell a top dollar product or service, you need a top dollar website.

When I put the finishing touches on my business offerings, found my niche, updated my website, believed in what I was offering, and cut no corners, people saw the dedication and commitment to my work. They trust me to offer them the same level of professionalism and detail to attention. They are far more willing to make the investment. Perceived value is huge. If you are a boutique business then you must present yourself as boutique, and high end. It is the customers looking for exactly this type of experience that you will attract.

Have you ever noticed, you tend to buy things from brand and people you know, love and trust? Create your marketing materials with this in mind. From high-end personal branding photography to the beautifully designed website. It all comes together to create what we call your Personal Brand. How are you going to stand out in a busy marketplace?

Brought to you by yours truly,

Suzette Hibble,  SHE Photography, Personal Branding Photography for Women!