The 10 Building Blocks to a Better Brand

1. Identify your values: This is most critical step and one most often overlooked in business. Do some soul searching and get a crystal clear idea of what matters most to you as an individual and then as a company. Your values form base of your company and should influence every decision, from what kind of toilet paper you buy to business partners you seek.

2. Identify your mission: Once your values are identified, it’s time to write a mission statement. Ask, why does my company exist? What do we aim to do? Write it in simple language that a 12-year old can understand. Do a search on internet for mission statements and use most compelling ones as a template. This is statement that should get you out of bed each morning and inspire you morning, noon, and night.

3. Identify your ideal client: Again, a critical step. Look at your mission and why your company exists at all and ask, “Whom do I serve?” The hard part is getting as specific as possible to point of potentially turning off a lot of other people. Don’t worry. The biggest mistake you can make is trying to please everyone. This dilutes your service/product so much that you really don’t strike a nerve with anyone. No one will have a compelling enough reason to buy from you. By turning some people off, you attract others who will bond with you for life. And a final benefit to knowing specifics of your ideal client is you then have a much better idea of where to look for them.

Psychological Tricks in Selling

By Stephen Bucaro

In this article, I'm revealing six powerful secret psychological tricks that you can use to increase effectiveness of your advertising and marketing. What if you don't sell anything? Should you ignore this information?

You ARE selling something. Whether you are a Real Estate agent selling multi-million dollar homes, or a worker trying to sell your boss on idea that you are a valuable employee, everybody is selling something. So it would be wise to learn these secret tricks and use them to achieve your own personal success.

The secret psychological tricks that I am going to reveal are not really secret. They have been used by shrewed salesman for millenium. Their existence was revealed back in 1984 by Dr. Robert Cialdini in his book "Influence : The Psychology of Persuasion".

You will recognize these tricks being used everywhere in advertising today. Now you will be able to put them to use to enhance your own personal success.

Psychological Selling Trick Number 1: Reciprocity

Reciprocity works like this: you give someone something of value for free. That individual feels an obligation to return favor. Reciprocity is a very powerful principle.

To use reciprocity as a marketing tool, you give people something of value for free, they reciprocate by purchasing your product or service. But you would be surprised how many advertisers totally blow it. Either they don't understand concept of "free", or they don't have total faith in principle of reciprocity.

For example, consider offer "get a free camera when you subscribe to our magazine for two years." That's not free. Or, "free installation with a one year commitment." That's not free. The customer is paying with an obligation. No sale.

Consider offer,"receive latest issue of our magazine absolutely free. No bill will be sent." If prospective customer finds magazine to be of value, they feel an obligation to subscribe. Or, "one month of free Internet service. No credit card required." If Internet service performs well, prospective customer feels an obligation to sign up.

The trick is to create something that has high perceived value to a prospective customer, but costs you little or nothing to produce. Free information is a good example. Here again many advertisers totally blow it. The free information turns out to be nothing more than blatant advertising.

Free samples of your product or service is another good example. Again, many businesses blow it. They either produce a cheaper version of their product to use as free samples, or they use free sample campaign as a means to dump reject product.

The largest Internet Service Provider is well known for giving away hundreds of hours of service for free. No credit card required. The largest cookie company is famous for giving away free cookies. Reciprocity is a very powerful marketing strategy.

Psychological Selling Trick Number 2: Scarcity

Scarcity works like this: There is a limited amount of item available. After those are gone, item will not be available. "urgency" implies Scarcity. For example, "this offer will be honored only for a limited time".

The effectiveness of scarcity principle is well demonstrated by large segment of population involved in pursuing antiques, collectibles, and memorabilia simply because these items are scarce. Scarcity is often contrived, as when a company produces a "limited edition".

For example, when Disney releases a limit edition of one of its classic stories - yes, limited to a production of more copies than they could ever possibly sell - then it goes in "vault". And how fortunate we'll be a few years from now when they decide to do us favor of taking it back out of vault.

Note: Manufactured items, especially DVDs and CD-ROMs, cannot be "scarce". It's a simple matter to put manufacturing dies back into production. All scarcities of manufactured items are contrived.

One popular incarnation of scarcity is "going out of business sale". Customers somehow don't pick up on fact that mark-downs are not that great, or that store has new merchandise coming in back door to take advantage of increase in traffic.

Scarcity is a very powerful marketing tool. There are many ways to contrive scarcity. You can create a limited edition, or for items like information products, scarcity can exist in form of urgency by creating a limited time offer.

Psychological Selling Trick Number 3: Commitment

Commitment involves getting a prospective customer to take a tiny step towards a goal. For example, you might get them to request free information, or fill out a survey. When prospective customer takes that first step, they have made a commitment, however tentative, towards goal you have set out for them. They are likely to take another step.

One example of this process is "two step" method used in mail order. When a mail order marketer runs an advertisement, they don't even try to sell product. Instead, advertisement offers free information. A prospective customer makes that first commitment towards purchasing product by requesting free information. The free information they receive is designed to entice them to take next step.

Another example of using commitment as a marketing tool is a survey. By checking a few boxes and answering a few questions, a prospective customer takes that first step towards a commitment. The result they receive from survey is designed to entice them to take next step.

Yet another example of using commitment as a marketing tool is a lottery. For example, people enter their name and address on a ticket for a chance to win a new car. A salesman uses that information to contact them. By entering their name and address on lottery ticket, individual has made a commitment to own that new car.

The most common example of principle of commitment are those long-winded full page advertisements in magazines. The prospective customer invests a great deal of time reading through entire advertisement. That investment of time represents a commitment. They are likely to take next step, responding to advertisement.