National Clothesline

Seven out of ten American companies (an even greater percentage of drycleaners) have no concept about how to brand their business or are going about it the wrong way and are wasting precious marketing dollars.

Fortunately, the cure for poor branding is simple. The major obstacle to branding is fear. Building a dynamite brand requires a total commitment to a single path, an approach that involves taking at least some risks.

Many drycleaners try to make their businesses all things to all people. The “full-service drycleaner.” They’re afraid to leave anything out, no matter how marginal a selling point it might be. They fail to grasp a critical marketing rule: The power of your message is directly related to its simplicity and clarity.

Branding entails a relentless focus on a concise, compelling message. Just like with skydiving, the first step is the hardest. After that it gets easier.

You’ll find that developing a strong brand is worth the effort and the money. It leads to more market share, more sales, more competitive strength, and greater overall growth.

Don’t think that you can’t brand drycleaning. Frank Perdue branded chicken. Perrier branded bottled water. And Florida and California have branded sunshine.

The even better news is that, based on 25 years of statistical analysis, you can be reasonably sure that your competition ’s branding is awful. It’s either non-existent, or it’s based on concepts that have nothing to do with a differentiating value that customers want.

What this means is that you don’t have to create the most innovative marketing campaign in history to capture your market. You simply have to use branding the right way to separate yourself from the pack. Here ’s what you have to do.

To build an instantly recognizable brand, you need to attach your name to an exclusive idea of value to the customer. A great brand is one that ’s successful because it’s different from your competitors’ and meaningful to customers. A bad brand is one that’s unsuccessful because it’s undifferentiated and, thus, meaningless.

Strengthening your brand requires finding a specific idea that you stand for. Over time, branding means building complete trust among your customers that you ’ll always deliver what you promise.

To be number one, you have to have a specialty. This is another word for positioning, but I ’m using it because it forces you to think about differentiating your brand in a highly focused way.

Successful branding is based not just on having a specialty, but on having a specialty that you ’re number-one in. It promises that you’re the best at whatever you do. It must be important to the customer. It has to be believable to the customer. It has to be memorable in its emotional effect. And, you must consistently live up to your promise.

This specialty will then become your Dominant Selling Idea. For many drycleaners, simply repositioning their brand around a DSI (Dominant Selling Idea) can increase sales from 10 percent up to 100 percent.

The narrower your focus, the wider your message spreads. In other words, you say the most by saying the least, because the simplest, clearest message invariably wins.

If you are selling a service of real value, your DSI will take very few words. For example, think of ESPN, “the sports channel” or ADP, “the payroll company” or Rolex, “the luxury watch.”

Your brand can only achieve superlative status if it owns a particular difference in the customer ’s mind. How can your brand own such a difference? When you’re perceived as the one who can, does, or will do something in a special way that others won ’t.

Just because you build a better mousetrap doesn’t mean an overstressed, impatient world will beat a path to your door. The only way to get them in is to make a compelling case for your specialty. You have to weave into your message a proposition that says the value you ’re offering exceeds the cost. When you do that, your offer will be worth the customer ’s time, risk, and money.

To make a successful value proposition, communicate that your specialty satisfies one or more of these basic emotional needs. Every person wants to be:

1. Happier.

2. Smarter.

3. Healthier.

4. Richer.

5. Safer.

6. More secure.

7. More attractive.

8. More successful.

Overall, your appeal should be direct, powerful, and short. A great selling idea must have an emotional component. It will do so if potential buyers feel your services make them either more successful in their jobs, or more secure in their home lives, or both. For example, a well-dressed businesswomen will be more confident, and cleaner clothes and household items make for healthier living.

Boost your brand’s emotional dimension by giving customers the knowledge that they’re dealing with the number-one company. Infuse your message with emotionally charged images.

A number-one brand must demonstrate consistency. Every brand element, message, and customer contact has to be in sync with your Dominant Selling Idea.