August 17 2021

What is Razor Branding™?

The goals of any marketing strategy are often explained using a funnel analogy. At the top of the marketing funnel, a business builds awareness of their brand, product or service. In the next part of the funnel, they deliver an informative message about the brand in an effort to compel an audience to consider taking action. If the message is successful, interested audiences will be converted to paying customers. And if the experience is enjoyable, then the business gains loyal customers who will also spread the word about the business to friends and family.

While this marketing approach is standard practice, brandRUSSO noticed one major problem: It’s focused more on what the customer can do for the business – and not what the business can do for the customer.

Instead of sticking with the traditional business-centric marketing strategy, we decided to create a more customer-focused branding strategy. A process that explains why a certain brand is worthy of customers’ attention, how it fulfills customers’ needs, and lays out a guide for customers to take action and become the heroes of their own story.

We call our innovative process Razor Branding™.

In the following article, you’ll learn all about this contemporary approach to the strategic brand building process and discover how it helps businesses reconsider the whole concept of marketing.

What is Razor Branding?

Razor Branding is brandRusso’s exclusive strategic brand process. Similar to the traditional marketing funnel, Razor Branding is composed of four core elements; Focus, Promise, Connection and Harmony. However, these core elements are more aligned with customer needs. By following this process, we’re able to define and learn more about our clients’ audience, what messaging will inspire them, where we can best reach them, and reasons for why they should care.

The four core elements at the heart of Razor Branding are:

Focus: This phase of the process sets out to discover who your intended audiences are. Most businesses aim for one specific audience. This is shortsighted since it overlooks the fact that a business’s products or services can be beneficial to multiple audiences. To identify these audiences, we consider traditional factors such as demographics (age, location, education) and psychographics (activities, interests, personalities). Yet, to recognize all interested audiences, Razor Branding also considers such factors as pain points to learn the reasons why people are searching for specific businesses, products or services.

Promise: In this part of the process, we look to answer the customers biggest question: Why? Their world is full of so many choices, so it’s important to show customers that your business is the right choice for them. This is where we assure the audience that your brand is special and that you can solve their pain points and enhance their life by providing superior service or a higher quality product. This promise to the customer is what will break their existing habits or prior experiences with another brand and choose your business.

Connection: This is where we develop your brand’s voice through thoughtful and inspiring messaging. Since we will be speaking to multiple audiences, each message must be fine tuned to match their specific needs and wants. These more clearly defined and attentive messages also underline the promise made in the preceding phase of the process. When these elements come together, it helps your brand eclipse your competitors.

Harmony: Just like when two or more voices join together to create a beautiful sound, it’s important for your messages to pair with the appropriate communications channel. By delivering specific messages through the most appropriate channels, Razor Branding cuts through the clutter to reach the respective audiences.

When we blend these four elements, they provide your brand with the best opportunities for success, while at the same time inspiring both loyalty and advocacy. Instead of focusing on a brand’s story, we concentrate our attention on the customers’ journey. Razor Branding helps businesses see the world through the customers’ eyes. It’s a more empathetic form of engaging audiences – and we believe it’s the foundation for more meaningful and successful marketing.