Hi [fname],

If your organization is like most, it doesn’t have a real point of differentiation.

Sure, you’ve got great products and services, but you may not be “connecting” with your customers. Some of your customers like you well enough, but they’re not actually raving fans, and they’re just as likely to defect if something less expensive or more interesting comes along. And who knows if they recommend you? They probably don’t, especially if you don’t regularly ask them to.

If your brand doesn’t help you differentiate your organization so you can really connect with customers, you might need a little work on your brand.

Success to you,

Marcia E. Hoeck, President, Hoeck Associates, Inc.

Your customers feel distanced from you — they feel like they’re doing business with an organization rather than with people, so they don’t mind leaving you for a competitor, and they figure you won’t mind — after all, they don’t really know you, you’re just a business. What’s the harm? The harm is you can’t afford to lose the customers you worked so hard to get.

You just don’t stand out from the competition — and the competition is getting tougher. It’s hard to really describe what makes you different or better, isn’t it? You think your customer service is better, and that should be enough for customers to buy and to stay with you. But it’s not and they don’t. You think you really care about your customers, and they should recognize that and continue to buy from you. But they don’t recognize it, and they leave when something else catches their eye.

And yet some organizations create raving fans, stand out in the marketplace, and demand premium prices.

Why is that? It’s the power of their brands.

Done correctly, branding can do more than anything else to plant a preference for your organization, product, or service firmly in the minds of your customers.

A neurological study at the University of Munich in Germany using MRI technology to monitor brain activity has revealed evidence that strong brands have a larger impact on the brain than lesser-known brands, regardless of what product the brand is known for.

While the study is preliminary, the information revealed suggests that it’s not the product — like cars, which people expect to be associated with positivity and self-identification — that evokes positive brain activity. It appears to be the strength of the brand, and the positive emotions tied to it.

This is exciting proof that a strong brand can be a powerful differentiator. It's proof that you can do much to differentiate your organization — stand out in the marketplace, create raving fans, and demand premium prices — by strengthening the power of your brand.

For more information on neuromarketing studies, download our Neuromarketing special report.

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