3 Reasons Why Brands Matter to You As An Entrepreneurial Parent And The Effect They Have On Your Customers
Let us explore the reasons why your branded online business matters to your customers as an entrepreneurial parent.
Have you ever travelled away from home and felt a little homesick, only to see a brand you’re familiar with and felt at home?
I’ve been blessed to live on four continents and interact with people from all walks of life and diverse cultures. I have also been fortunate to form lifelong friendships along the way- look at my Facebook page.
As an entrepreneurial parent who needs to settle the children into good schools, find suitable accommodation for our family as soon as possible so we can take root in our new environment and routine. And we can start to thrive. Familiar Brands are usually my comfort blanket.
If I go to the grocery and see my favourite tea brand, PG Tips, or Starbucks down the road, I know as a family, we’re going to try and make this new place home for the present.
As an entrepreneurial parent, you must give your customers the same assurance. Your brand and business should signal ‘home’ for your dream customers. Your brand is where your core target audience will find solace, comfort and solution for the problems they’re currently facing.
That is the power of building your business as a brand. If you want to provide your customers with a sense of comfort, happiness and satisfaction and simultaneously increase the company’s value, then this article is for you. Read on
Reason # 1 Brands Matter: Because Brands Provide Peace of Mind for Your Core Customer
You know you’re in a safe environment when you see and hear familiar things. Brands possess that unique ability to draw in your customers to your business. As with everything in life, your brand must consistently deliver a positive experience and elicit pleasant emotions from your customer.
The experience starts immediately after your customer becomes aware of a problem your brand can solve. Do you make it easy for them to find you online or offline? Does your company website, social media platforms, YouTube channel, and podcasts communicate the solutions your enterprise provides?
How easy do you make it for your customers to find you and understand your offer? Do you have a value statement? A simple message that says who you are and what problems you solve better than anybody else. Have you made it easy for your customers to consume your content on their preferred platform? Do they enjoy reading? If so, think about adopting your videos into blogs or podcasts into blogs. Adopting content from one form to another is now very easy with the use of the MarTech.
At Hippos to Horses Marketing, we are super fans of marketing automation. It helps to free up time so we can focus on what really matters.
Your business and brand should consistently deliver a positive experience because your customers will believe that your business or brand is trustworthy, giving them peace of mind. A brand that offers peace of mind for its consumers also provides a feeling of safety.
People, you and me included, avoid risk consciously or unconsciously. We seek the familiar because we are guaranteed about expected service. Brands signal quality, risk reduction and differentiate our products from others in the industry.
Reason # 2 Brands Matter: They Express Who We Are as Entrepreneurial Parents and Help Our Dream Audience Find Your Company.
In a previous blog, I wrote an article that boldly stated that we are brands. And brands are us because, like it or not. Brands are an expression of who we are. The brand, in our case, our online business, makes a statement about who we are and want to be.
The brand Hippos to Horses Marketing subtly makes a statement of transformation. Our customers are given the promise of moving from one state to another. If you’re a parent who wants to run an online business and still have the time and freedom to be present for your family, then you are in the right place.
At Hippos to Horses Marketing, you will find down-to-earth, practical and easy-to-understand content that essentially holds your hand through the transformation from Parent and ‘wanna be’ business owner into an entrepreneurial parent. Yes, there is a difference, and it’s not subtle.
In the latter definition, you accept that you have many ways to express yourself. Your life’s work should be a reflection of you. Give you a reason to wake up in the morning, be a source of sustainable income, allow you to step into your space and allow you to bloom as your true authentic self.
Hippos to Horses Marketing has also transformed me. You only need to look at my initial social media posts and see what I posted back in 2014. When the business started, the main focus was brand managers who needed to move up the corporate ladder into more strategic and leadership roles.
My transformation happened when I started a regular morning routine that helped me develop a better version of myself. It’s a straightforward exercise. I simply write down what I want to achieve and then go out and execute it. I think the magic is in writing down the goals because you are consistently reminded of them daily. My goal to help brand managers is still my life purpose and mission. Only now, my brand managers are online business owners.
There are many stay-at-home parents who, for whatever reason, are at home, looking after their families. They are the under-utilized resource of educated professionals. My life mission is to get stay-at-home parents to advance this world by sharing their knowledge and expertise to enrich society.
Your customers will become emotionally attached to the brand that offers to solve their problems. Are you an IOS or an Android fan? Depending on how you define yourself, you and your customers will be drawn to brands that reflect their personality, self-perceptions, and aspirations. What is your business brand project? Does your brand attract your dream audience to your online company? Are you the one who will hold your customers as they cross the bridge away from pain towards comfort?
Reason # 3 Brands Matter: Brands Add Value to Our Business as Entrepreneurial Parents.
Brands add value. You will notice the price differential between a branded dishwasher tablet vis a vie, a supermarket brand. The additional money you pay for a branded product is your insurance; your branded dishwasher tablet will dazzle you in its performance (goes back to the importance of the value statement).
You are guaranteed that the product you use will not only meet your needs, in this case, clean dishes, but will also delight you with fresh-smelling, shiny, dirt-resistant dishes. Investing in your brand (business) adds value to your customer and your business.
I think bringing in the idea of humanity in an enterprise is vital. Your core premise for starting your company is to be of service to your tribe. You can only truly solve their problems if you empathize with them and feel their pain. As an entrepreneur, you show sympathy by creating a product (goods or service) that will solve the problem better than competitors. You display compassion by continuously refining your business offering (4 Ps of marketing) to stay relevant and competitive.
Your business will become sustainable because you’re guaranteed consistent income over time. Your target consumer gets value by having a compatible product that meets and supersedes their needs and expectations.
And at a price, they’re willing to pay. Value is a two-way traffic. In the end, both parties win.
I’m not advocating for Super profits. I would argue that marketing is good for society. In general, it leads to the expansion of the economy.
I believe that entrepreneurial parents want to leave a legacy because we are conscious that we play a role in preparing the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial parents want to engage in ethical business – A company that employs ethical sourcing and remuneration for everyone in the supply chain.
Tony Chocolonely’s mission statement highlights the fact that the millions of farmers who produce cocoa remain in poverty because they are paid the lowest possible prices for their produce. This poverty enables child labour and slavery. Food for thought: The next time you take a big bite of your favourite chocolate, think of the chocolate company’s role. Especially for us entrepreneurial parents, what legacy are we building in our businesses?
Tony Chocolonely is raising awareness of this injustice in the chocolate industry and demanding ethically sourced chocolate bars.
So today, you know a few things about Tony Chocolonely. They make chocolate; they are ethical and have a duty of care to ensure that everyone in the supply chain prospers with every bite of chocolate we consume.
As online entrepreneurs, we possess the ability to scale overnight- this is a reality. Especially if your branding resonates with your dream audience and your product over-delivers in value. As your profits grow, always remember that your most significant contribution is making a change in the lives of your dream customers.
Final Thoughts on Why Brands Matter to You, To Your Customers as Entrepreneurial Parents.
Your business brand is the insurance your customers need. Your Brand guarantees that you will continue to meet and exceed their expectation. Your brand will help customers find you because they will identify with your core values.
Your brand’s core values are a reflection of your dream customers’ personalities and their aspirations. The stronger the resonance of your brand and that of your core target’s aspirations, the higher the probability of scaling your business.
Brands that are authentic, ethical, and genuinely want to help solve problems, in the long run, are the true winners.
Life is good with money in the bank but better when you can positively impact the lives of others. As an entrepreneur, life is best when both the money and the service complement each other
If you’d like to read more content like this, I also have a free guide to help you identify your dream customer. Click on the link here to download