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How many potential customers are right under your nose? Walk past your premises every day? Need your services but aren\'t aware that you offer them? People use intrinsic and extrinsic cues to develop beliefs which affect their evaluation and choice. Consider the number of ways someone may form a first impression before even meeting you: advertising campaigns; Yellow Pages; logos and slogans; office/store location; signage; packaging; other people they see using your business; dress style of staff; telephone technique; hours of business; parking; and décor.

OK, now look at this list again, and ask: Do you do all of the above consistently, communicating the same underlying message of quality and credibility

every time? What we are really talking about is branding.

\"A brand is the tangible sum of a product\'s attributes, name, packaging and price, history, reputation and the way it\'s advertised. A brand is also defined by consumers\' impressions of the people who use it, as well as their own experience.\" - David Ogilvy, 1955.

Why build a \"brand\"?
A brand eases the problem of choice and purchase, engenders trust, confidence and loyalty in the user, and can command higher prices and better margins. We have different expectations about Toyotas and Range Rovers, even though we may have never owned one. So why are some brands more powerful than others?

All brands have imagery, symbolism and prestige, to some degree. The difference is that some brands build charisma through imagery, symbolism and prestige to generate extraordinary levels of buyer attachment and motivation which is not felt toward identical products. This can be converted into loyalty, market share and increased profits. Consider how Nike grew to over $1 billion in sales in only a few years.

How do we take our brand to such a level?
A brand\'s personality is created over time by the entire marketing mix - its price (high or low), location/distribution, benefits, promotions and advertising. A major contributing factor to brand personality is communication. Advertising communicates cues by way of claims, appeals, headlines, layout etc to maximise attention and influence beliefs and attitudes about the product. \"In an age when most products do the same thing, the emotional relationship is the only thing that gets people to pay a premium for a particular brand\" - Max Blackston, Ogilvy & Mather.

Thus your advertising, to build brand charisma, must build on emotional appeals. The heart dictates to the head. The more effectively you present your emotion, the more predisposed your reader becomes to believe your claims and facts about advantages. What are the underlying emotional drivers to buy your product or service?

Of course branding is not based purely on first impressions, but also on the consumer\'s own personal experience in trialling your products and services. If you fail to match their expectations about what your branding cues and messages have told them, their impressions about your brand will also change!

Building and managing a brand is a complex process. One thing is certain; effective brands are ones for which all cues portray a consistent message. Do yours?