“The greatest weapon in the hand of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”
- Steve Biko
That’s a profound quote no matter how you look at it.
This quote is also highly applicable to Marketing. For the sake of this post, I’ll argue that the greatest weapon in the hand of any organization or individual person is, yup, you’ve guessed it, their brand.
But why, Steve?
Your brand is EVERYTHING. You have a personal brand – your products have a brand and your services have a brand. Everything has a brand.
I will even argue that brands work by association and your mind is programmed to basically brand everything, even things that have nothing to do with traditional “work”. What do I mean by this?
We all brand things in our personal lives. Doing so gives something meaning. You know that annoying but loveable friend you have that’s always late? You’ve given them a brand. Their brand is that “annoying but loveable friend you have that’s always late.”
I hope you can begin to see how powerful the concept of a “brand” is with that last example.
Your Brand Is The Beginning Of How Your Customers Perceive You
Your brand is the beginning and focal point of perception for both your customers and your potential customers that have yet to come into contact with you or your services. If your brand image is positive, then you can potentially “sell” yourself or your stuff to someone before they are even interested in you. Positive brands also allow people to do your marketing for you; when you come up in conversations you will have literally created an army of people who are personally recommending your products and services. A good example of this would be Apple and their infamously strong and dedicated army of followers.
To counter that last point – a negative brand can sink your ship before you even have a chance to promote yourself or any of your stuff. Whenever your brand comes up in conversations, you’ll now have an army of people that won’t recommend your stuff and instead talk badly about it. Do you see the contrast now? Reflect on these points and let it all sink in.
How to Create the Perfect Brand
In a perfect world, the perfect brand would function something like the Apple example I’ve given before. The perfect brand would be talked about globally and would be spread through positive personal referrals. By doing this, you are winning over and leveraging these positive recommendations about your products and services long before people even find you. And wherever somebody turns, they will only find good things that can reinforce their decision to purchase something through you.
This is why the greatest weapon in the hands of a marketer is how the mind of your buyer perceives your brand.