... And the Clients Went Wild!: How Savvy Professionals Win All the Business They Want

Chapter 8. Build a Brand Identity on a Shoestring Budget

Spending Time Effectively Can Be Worth More than Money

Your brand is ultimately what your clients say about you.

According to integrated marketing specialist Karl Schaller, "The brand craze of a few years ago signaled the beginning of a marketing communications revolution [that is] now coming to full bloom across the country." This revolution has caused businesses, professional firms, associations, and even nonprofit organizations to place greater emphasis on branding than ever before.

"It's no longer good enough to be good enough," warns Seth Godin, successful entrepreneur and author of numerous books, including best-selling Purple Cow."Only the exceptional, the amazing, and the remarkable have a chance to build awareness, word of mouth, and profits."

The American Marketing Association defines branding as: "a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of [these] intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers."

Branding, then, essentially means image-building. Professor of marketing and leading thinker in the field, Dr. David Aakers defines branding as, "the internalized sum of all impressions received by a consumer, which results in a distinctive position in their minds based on perceived emotional and functional benefits."

The key word here is "distinctive." Duane Knapp, a pioneer in the field of brain science and author of The Brain ...