Branding
- Expensive in the short run
- Cheap in the long run
Thoughts on building a media network from the NBA Front Office Show that’s also great brand building advice. 🏀
You want to do things really well before you just try to do a lot of things.
That’s one of the biggest mistakes people make is, “I want to do everything.”
Let’s do one thing really well first.
Find your niche. Get great at that. Then you can branch out.
Nike: A Cautionary Tale
But a strong brand can also become a crutch.
See: Nike.
When you’re trying to build a brand you’re aggressive. Focused.
Your focus is on meeting your customer where they are and doing the things that create moments of delight for them. On doing the things that make people, first, fall in love with your brand and, then, talk about it to others. To begin to incorporate your brand into their identity.
Once you’ve built your brand—reached that mountain top—you can start to lose focus.
You can start to forget about everything you did to get to this spot and start to think you deserve this spot.
You can make choices based on financial models and balance sheet forecasts and forget those dollars come from people.
And while you’re looking in the wrong direction, the next group of brands is doing all the stuff you did to get here.
Building a brand is the beginning. Once built, it requires maintenance.
Brands aren’t owed anything.
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Everything is customer service.