Brand Builders Part 19: Where is the Harmony for Your Message?

When you’re building out a strategic brand plan, you want to have harmony in what you’re doing. Let me explain. So, it starts with focus. That’s who we’re talking to. Then we go to promise, “why they should choose you?”. We’ve got to take care of connection, that’s what you’re going to say to connect with them. And then last, but not least, is harmony. That’s where your messages are going to go, so that they all align, because you don’t want things that conflict or contradict. You don’t want to have one tone of voice over here and a very different one over there. It all has to be in harmony.

So, harmony are all of your tactics, all the places where you can think to put messages. That’s everything from a TV ad, to your website, to your LinkedIn page, to an email campaign, to a trade show booth. Anytime you’re putting your message anywhere. Now one of the most important aspects of harmony (Well, there’s really two big pieces of harmony) is planning it all out in advance. The last thing you want to do is just say yes to anybody who comes calling. The salesperson shows up and says, “Oh, this would be a great thing for you”, and you say “yes”. Another salesperson shows up, “yes”. It’s easy to get caught up in that, because they know the business so well. You want to plan it out, because you’re going to be able to spend less money, you’re going to get more coverage, you’re going to be just more successful overall.

You know that old mantra, “I know half of my advertising is being wasted, but I don’t know which half”? Harmony is the place where we’re going to be able to save a lot of money, because you’re going to be more proactive, more planned out. It’s just going to be better all the way around. The second thing that you want to think about with regards to harmony, is who is your actual target audience, and where do they really spend their time? Those are going to tell you what tactics you’re going to utilize, and then that’s going to allow you to have less tactics and do it more often.

You want to focus on frequency, having repetition, because that’s more important than reach, putting your message in front of more people. When I went to media buying school many, many years ago, one of the things they taught us was that you wanted to try to reach 100% of the audience and convince them 10% of the way. No, I would rather reach 10% of the audience and convince them 100% of the way. So, to do that you’re going to talk to less people, but you’re going to talk to him more often. This strategy is going to really save you money, give you more frequency that will turn people into curious investigators and get them very quickly on board with all in buyers and believers. And that’s what you want, right? So, when you could focus on your Harmony, you can build a better brand.