Brand Building: Why Do Customers Buy From You?
By: T.J. Tedesco
For: Dee Gentile, Management Portfolio
Published: December 5, 2006

Why does your company exist?

This is not a philosophical question, and there aren’t any wrong answers. But the purpose you envision for your company – its reason for being – goes to the heart of the “brand” you build and articulate to customers and prospects.  

Think carefully. Why do your customers buy from you? Many graphic arts business owners consider quality, fast turnarounds and competitive pricing to be the essential traits that win business. In most markets, nothing could be further from the truth. Customers expect these attributes, and companies that can’t deliver them will find themselves struggling, or worse, out of business. Your brand must go beyond these baseline promises to reflect why customers should do business with you, now and in the future.

Building Your Brand
Consider a simple product we see every day: bottled water. Every bottle of water contains the same basic ingredient, H2O. Yet bottlers have managed to position their products as elegant (San Pellegrino or Perrier), sporty (Propel), pure (Spa), hip and stylish (Tau), exotic (Fiji) or economical (Costco’s Kirkland brand). This is a tiny sampling of the hundreds of water brands available, and consumers buy each one for a specific reason.

Companies in the graphic arts industry have a distinct advantage over water bottlers: We aren’t selling a commodity. We are instead selling knowledge, experience and competence. We are selling creative solutions to difficult challenges. We are selling peace of mind.

Start building your brand by pinpointing what makes your company exceptional. Differentiation is essential to convincing prospects to select your company over your competitors. Do you offer lightning-fast turnaround on estimates? Is your customer service the friendliest in your market – hands down? Do you boast the longest average tenure among your head pressmen? These are just a few differentiating factors that can paint a positive and unique picture of your company in the minds of customers and prospects.

A word about equipment: It can be tempting to hinge your differentiation solely on specialized capabilities. For example, your company may be the only bindery offering PUR adhesive binding in your area, or the only printer with a supersize sheetfed press. But these advantages can evaporate when competitors encroach on your market share and duplicate your capabilities. Even if your company enjoys a competitive advantage based on service offerings, look for more distinct factors that can differentiate your company.

Telling your story: The USP
Picture this familiar scenario. You are out of town attending a conference or trade show, and find yourself in the hotel elevator with a group of fellow attendees – and potential customers. Upon introducing yourself, one of them turns to you with curiosity and asks, “So what exactly does your company do?” Think fast. How do you answer? Don’t get tongue-tied; your reply will define the identity of your company to your fellow elevator passengers.

This “elevator pitch,” or unique selling proposition (USP), is your big chance. In 30 seconds or less, your USP should successfully articulate your company’s differentiating factors – your purpose for being, so to speak. The importance of your USP cannot be understated; on a chance encounter such as the scenario above, it spells the difference between forging a lasting impression on your listener or an opportunity vanishing into thin air.

An airtight USP is as much an element of your company’s brand as your logo and company name. It’s an opportunity to excite and create interest. You’ll put it to the test often, so create a UPS that’s brief and easy enough for you and your listener to remember. Your employees should also be intimately familiar with your USP, which leads to another step in building your brand.

Employees as ambassadors
Each and every employee is an ambassador for your organization, and influences how your brand is perceived by customers and prospects. The employees are part of the company’s identity and brand, and they are selling and marketing your company on a daily basis.

Sounds dubious? Consider that every contact your clients have with your company is a marketing or sales opportunity. Every phone call, every email, every customer visit and every delivery can create or strengthen a positive impression of your company. This is important to recognize: Positive interactions can lead to repeat business or, better yet, referrals — the most cost-effective way to harvest new revenues.

To that end, every employee should know the company’s story and be able to recite the USP. They should know why customers choose to do business with your company, and represent that in the way they answer the phone, interact with customers or communicate unpleasant news when there is a problem. Employee buy-in is essential to a company’s brand.

Sell these “virtual products”
We’ve discussed the importance of identifying true differentiating factors as key elements of your company’s brand. These factors help you move the sales battlefield away from price and toward the difference-makers that offer true value to customers.

Rule No. 1 about the “price war” we all face in the graphic arts industry: Don’t enter it. Instead, position your company as a safe haven in the dangerous wild. Never underestimate the power of fear to significantly influence buying behavior. Fear of making a bad buying decision is a huge motivator, especially when print jobs - and the jobs of those making buying decisions - are on the line. When you consistently make the people you do business with look good, this fear goes away. The result? The frequency of pricing objections will gradually diminish and you will consistently sell more ... at better prices.

You'll only get profitable selling opportunities if you can sell more than just the basics. Here are three "virtual products" for which your customers and prospects will gladly pay a premium:

Convenience: When a prospect considers doing business with you, one of the first things they think about is, "Will this decision complicate make my already hectic business life?" The simple things are very important. Make all customer "touch points" easy and convenient. Examine how you and your company give estimates, OK proofs, do press checks, answer phones, return messages, give job status updates, resolve billing issues and more. Does your web site provide useful information? Do you offer design advice? Have you structured your business around your customer's needs or yours?

Be the safe choice: This is important enough to state again. Never forget that you're in the business of making promises and keeping them. It's really this simple. Like you, your prospects are afraid of blown deadlines, dealing with new vendors and dreaming up ways to consistently please their customers. In today's job market, they're perpetually afraid of making wrong outsourcing decisions. Discover your prospect's source of fear and position yourself and your company as the safe alternative.

Peace of mind: When you sell convenience and safety, it's up to you to deliver! Kept promises are the peace of mind your prospects simply can't put a price on. In this industry, the key to success is the ability to forge and maintain long-lasting business relationships. Companies that continually prove their value will develop a roster of happy clients that see no reason to do business with anyone else, even for a nickel off.

Energetic marketing
Perhaps the most important step to developing your brand is spreading the word. Energetic marketing and sales support efforts, including a frequently-updated website; press releases; trade-publication articles and trade association participation and leadership are all components of a successful brand promotion campaign. It’s important for a company to define and shape its own brand identity.

Since you’ve already differentiated your company as a knowledge leader, build as much of that knowledge as possible into your marketing efforts. For many customers and prospects, your website represents the face of your company. Fill it with useful information that positions your company as experts in your service areas. When it’s updated frequently, your website can become a “must-click” destination.

Keep it fresh
Persevere with your marketing and promotion efforts, but know when to update or expand your focus. Markets grow or shrink, new materials are developed and new technology arrives on the scene. Being steady doesn’t mean being inflexible. Know when it’s time for an overhaul of your message or marketing approach if you want to remain relevant. Try emphasizing a new skill-set or capability to keep your advantage in the marketplace.   

The shoemaker’s children…
Remember the old adage about the shoemaker’s children never having shoes? Much of the graphic arts industry is largely dedicated to branding and promoting other companies and industries. Often, these same graphics, printing and binding operations neglect or forget to create their own brand identities and adequately promote their business images.

What’s your story? What makes you great? Find a compelling way to tell the world who you are. Defining your company and projecting an image can reflect positively on your bottom line.

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