Branding your business is an ongoing, never-ending, always-changing endeavor that should keep you asking yourself, “What should I do next?” In preparation for a recent Instagram Live conversation, I asked myself just that. What should I be doing to improve my brand positioning, reach, and retention? The answer to that question led me to three things I’d like to recommend to you today.
01: You must be the face of your brand.
- Who is the face of Apple? Steve Jobs, even though he died in 2011. Rest In Peace. He changed the world.
- Who is the face of Amazon? Jeff Bezos, even though he stepped down as CEO in 2021.
- Who is the face of Twitter? Elon Musk, even though he purchased Twitter 16 years after it was created.
- Who is the face of Nike? Michael Jordan? LeBron James? Ronaldo? Tiger Woods? Serena Williams? Rafael Nadal? Most likely you thought of one of these amazing athletes.
Serena Williams is one of the many famous “faces” of the Nike brand.
Most of the greatest brands in the world have a face, a human face. Nike believes this so much they are willing to pay a ton of money each year for athletes to be the face of their brand. I looked up the numbers. Nike’s endorsement contracts cost them 1.3 billion in 2021, 1.5 billion in 2022 and is projected to be 1.244 billion in 2023. That’s a lot of money for brand faces!
Who is the face of your business? YOU!
You MUST be the face of your business brand. Start mustering up the courage to video yourself and post it. If you’ve been putting it off, this is “the sign” you’ve been waiting for. Through video content, your potential clients will grow trust in you. That trust will turn into project opportunities and referrals. Your business will grow.
I did a good job of sharing my face on Instagram last week. And I didn’t even lose very many followers. Haha.
02: Deliver your message faster.
To be honest, this one drives me crazy, because I tend to be long winded by default. After all, I am “More Janda” not “Less Janda.” (Har. Har. The crowd goes wild.) But trend number two has also been brewing for a few years. You must deliver your message faster. That includes your brand message, slogans, educational content, sales pitches and any other “message” that comes from your business.
- If you can say it in 10 words, don’t use 20.
- If you can deliver it in 30 seconds, don’t use 60.
- If you can convey it in 2 words, don’t use 3.
When I started learning to edit video I stumbled across the advice, “Cut it in half. Then cut it in half again.” Meaning you should take your 60 second video and cut it to 30 seconds. Then cut the 30 second video to 15 and that will be the right length. Such good advice (for all content). It really makes me think about what I’m sharing.
I also started thinking about famous slogans that some major brands have used over the years. Many of them wouldn’t work today due to the declining attention span of consumers.
Kentucky Fried Chicken: The slogan “Kentucky Fried Chicken: It’s finger lickin’ good” was used in the 1950’s. Mike Janda’s 2023 recommended version, “KFC: Finger lickin’”
Coca-Cola: Their slogan “Have a Coke and a smile” debuted in 1979. Today’s version would need to be “Coke: Smile.” We are way to impatient for the six word version. Coca-Cola recently launched the campaign “Real Magic.” Kudos to the creatives on that campaign and evidence that we all need to streamline our message.
McDonald’s: Their “I’m Lovin’ It” campaign started in 2003. Twenty years later, I would push for just “Lovin’ It.” One less word, because the “I’m” is implied. Even some of the short brand slogans can be even shorter.
These are just a few examples to illustrate the point. In 2023 (and beyond), we all need to be faster at delivering our message. (Unlike my long-winded newsletter articles. Haha. Thank you for reading this far.)
03: Get to market now.
Business operates at breakneck speeds and in 2023 it is only going to get faster. The days of “fiddling” with an idea and developing it over months (or years) of time are over. We all need to get to market faster, because tomorrow everything might change.
We live in a “Fire. Aim. Ready.” world. If you’ve been putting off creating something, now is your time. Get it launched and tweak it from there. The world has never been more tolerant of “glitchy” launches than it is today.
Those are my three branding trends and tips for 2023. And to be honest, they were all written for me. I need to work on each of them which makes me assume that you do too.
