Courtney McCarron Hastings, director of communications at APCO International, discusses the importance of differentiating your brand.

In my last post, we talked about what a brand isn't. We learned that a brand is not a logo or any other piece of collateral we use to identify or market our organizations. We also learned that a brand is a person's gut feeling about our organizations. And our communication vehicles-logos, websites, etc.-all support this brand. Rather, should support this brand.

I guess the most appropriate starting place is identifying why all of this is so important. The simplest answer, of which we are all well aware, is the current communication environment. The average person is exposed to over 4,000 messages a day. Further, experts say that it takes the average person eight to 10 exposures to an organization to remember it.

More importantly, people make decisions based on emotions. Brands appeal to emotions by creating trust between an organization and its constituents and strong brands have the ability to cut through the clutter.

A brand also has some incredibly important secondary benefits as well. A brand strengthens the impact of all communication and, in doing so, paves the way for new customers. A brand also provides employees and customers with a sense of pride and commitment. Finally, a brand can be a helpful litmus test for making decisions within your organization. A brand is consistent, memorable and repeated often.

I am well aware that the idea of a brand being a feeling is pretty obscure. But these four questions can help clarify what I mean, help you identify your brand and get you on the way to having your constituents start feeling the same way.

• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• Why is it important?
• Who is it important to?

If your organization is anything like mine, answering these questions is not an easy task. We have a number of different constituents who consume our products and services for very different reasons. The answers to those questions would vary from person to person.

The usual solution to this quandary, and one of the keys to a successful brand, is differentiation. What do you do that nobody else does? And, don't worry. The answer doesn't have to be so direct (we all have competitors). Your differentiation can be the way you do it, where you do it or how long you have been doing it? It just has to be a meaningful difference to your consumers.

Avis, the car rental company, is a good example of this. Obviously there are a number of options when choosing from the various car rental companies, but Avis's tagline - one of their brand communicators - tells you why to choose them. "We try harder."

How do you know what makes your organization different in a way that matters to your consumers? Ask them. Research is probably the most important step in the branding process. Answering these questions will, at the very least, involve an entire day of brainstorming with several colleagues and, preferably, some constituents as well. It will also mostly likely require a communication audit, market research and a competitive analysis. The more information on which you base your answers, the more successful your brand will be.

The answers to these questions should lead you to the creation of a positioning statement, which is the brand elevator speech. The idea is to create one sentence (about 25 words) that answers all of these questions and, in doing so, clearly and concisely communicates your brand. This positioning statement will serve as the foundation for your brand and all of your products and services and communication vehicles should be in line with this statement. Once you have your positioning statement, you are well on your way to having a brand and making your organization more successful.

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