Audience
When we talk about audiences, we generally mean the people we want or need to reach, engage, motivate and influence to achieve a particular business goal.
An audience does not exist until you have something to do. In other words, an audience is only a way of viewing, prioritising and segmenting people in relation to a specific business goal.
But here's the kicker.
It really is an outdated and linear term. It assumes you are on stage and have a captive audience sitting there waiting for you to speak. That's just not the way things work anymore. So I'd rather talk about the people you need to reach and engage OR your market.
However you describe them, you should know them.
And I mean really know them. Be able to walk in their shoes. Imagine them at a moment’s notice. Talk about them with insight, respect and understanding.
Depending on your business goals, the sort of things you should know can include:
Of course, you can;t keep all of this is your head, so a Relationship Management system is a must-have.
An audience does not exist until you have something to do. In other words, an audience is only a way of viewing, prioritising and segmenting people in relation to a specific business goal.
But here's the kicker.
It really is an outdated and linear term. It assumes you are on stage and have a captive audience sitting there waiting for you to speak. That's just not the way things work anymore. So I'd rather talk about the people you need to reach and engage OR your market.
However you describe them, you should know them.
And I mean really know them. Be able to walk in their shoes. Imagine them at a moment’s notice. Talk about them with insight, respect and understanding.
Depending on your business goals, the sort of things you should know can include:
- Socio-geo-economic demographic profiles
- Roles & responsibilities in the context of your business activities
- Drivers/motivators/influencers - pains and gains
- Communication preferences
- Behaviour (user pathway/customer journey)
- Commonalities - areas of mutual interest
- Perception, attitude, expectations
- Service needs
- Satisfaction levels
- Knowledge and knowledge gaps
- Cost:benefit statistics (lessons learned from previous communications)
- Contact history - frequency of and reason for contact
Of course, you can;t keep all of this is your head, so a Relationship Management system is a must-have.
Brand
A brand is a knowledge system that drives the stakeholder experience.
It does this by bringing together all the things everyone should know about us ... and what we should know about ourselves ... to help us:
If done consistently, all of these things drive the experience people have with us, which in turn drives social capital, marketplace position and, ultimately, profit margins.
In simple terms, a brand is our promise to our stakeholders, and our commitment to each other to make good on that promise.
It keeps us honest and helps us stand out in a noisy and busy marketplace. It’s what people say about us when we’re not in the room.
So, what's in this system we call a brand?
It does this by bringing together all the things everyone should know about us ... and what we should know about ourselves ... to help us:
- align our actions (what we do) with our words (what we say we do)
- harness what makes us different
- create a positive and memorable experience for our stakeholders
If done consistently, all of these things drive the experience people have with us, which in turn drives social capital, marketplace position and, ultimately, profit margins.
In simple terms, a brand is our promise to our stakeholders, and our commitment to each other to make good on that promise.
It keeps us honest and helps us stand out in a noisy and busy marketplace. It’s what people say about us when we’re not in the room.
So, what's in this system we call a brand?
- Our promise to our customers (consumer value proposition)
- Our commitment to each other to make good on that promise (employee value proposition)
- The things everyone should know about us (our narrative)
- How we express ourselves (our visual and vocal identity)
- How we connect and interact (from SEO and information architecture to content creation and channels)
- What our customers and employees ... and other stakeholders ... actually experience (metrics and insights)
- Our role and relevance in the marketplace we operate in (metrics and insights)