Tag: brand

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How to Get Your Team to Align On and Live Out Your Mission

Posted on by Maria Ross
How to Align Your Team on Mission

Your mission statement is meant to be a brand tool that informs your decisions on a daily basis. 

It describes what you do on a daily basis as an organization in pursuit of your larger vision. 

But as a leader, how do you ensure your team is aligned on mission? And most importantly, how can you ensure they are living it out on a daily basis? 

The first challenge requires communication and education. The second challenge requires empowerment and a strong operational structure. 

First, how to ensure your team is aligned on mission? 

This starts in the recruiting process. Does HR understand what the mission means, truly means, to the business everyday? Are you screening for people who embrace the mission and are passionate about it….or are they just looking for a job?   

Does everyone in the organization even know what it is and apply it to their daily work? 

But further back, how was the mission created? Was it just a great idea in the head of the founder? Sure, it probably starts out that way, but as you scale, you have to bring in other voices and perspectives to contribute to what they believe the mission of the company to be. From where they sit, what is most important? How do they view the work? 

This doesn’t mean you have to poll every person in the company every six months to provide input and (shudder) Frankenstein a mission statement that appeases everyone. It means when you go through a brand messaging exercise, mission and vision should be a part of that, as they are the top of the brand messaging pyramid, and everything else trickles out from there to support them.  

If people don’t at least have a say, they won’t buy in.

An effective mission is not dictated from the top-down without any input or diverse perspectives. It needs to be more than a poster on the wall. It should impact daily work. (Tweet this!)

(I’ve developed a proven brand workshop process so that different voices have a say, but then a final decision can be made with buy-in from everyone. Yes, it works. Really. We’ve successfully wrangled the most errant cats, and even got a team to consensus and excitement after they had tried FOUR times before to craft brand messaging. But I digress….) 

To the second challenge, of ensuring they live it out on a daily basis: This is trickier. But not impossible. 

As with anything, you get what you reward. Have you developed a mission statement that can guide decisions making on a daily basis? And if so, how do you promote or reward those who exemplify living out the mission? 

What’s that? You don’t. Well, there’s your issue right there. 

You get the behavior you reward. If you want your people to truly live the mission, you have to make it show up for them in performance reviews, promotion discussions, and rewards.  

As I share in my book, The Empathy Edge, technology company NextJump bases everything they do on their core values, one of which is humility. They issue an annual Avengers Award to the person voted by their peers to help others the most, by however they define it: “The Avengers Award is focused on the trait of ‘service for others’ and recognizes the Next Jumper who most exemplifies steward-leadership….It is an annual peer-nominated award.” (Read the book to find out what the winners get (it will blow your mind!) 

Next Jump makes the stakes very high to ensure people live out their values. It shows commitment that the company is not messing around when it says it values humility.  

You can do the same for your mission. Attach rewards, accountability, and attention to your mission. Invite employees to articulate how their daily activity supports the mission and to reframe their work toward that higher purpose. Challenge each other to take a step back and think about the mission when making important decisions.  

This is how you energize your employees to adopt a particular mindset and live out the mission. 

PS: Aligning on your mission statement is not merely a nice-to-have. It ensures everyone is in pursuit of the same goal, which makes decisions easier. Learn how REI’s strong alignment around mission led to one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history, the #OptOutside campaign, which results in the stores being closed on Black Friday. Where, you ask?! Check out my newest book, The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success (A Playbook for Brands, Leaders, and Teams)  

Photo by Vlad Hilitanu on Unsplash

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How Do I Use My Mission Statement in My Brand?

Posted on by Maria Ross
How to use your mission statement

Mission statements are cute, aren’t they? 

Clients get all tangled up in using words they’d never actually say and lofty statements that sound amazing but have nothing to do with their product or service. “Our mission is to empower women to be their best selves.” Um, you sell hosiery. 

Or they make it so generic: “Our mission is to help people.” Help them do what? 

Yes, some my favorite mission statements could fall into one of these categories. I adore JetBlue’s “Inspiring Humanity” but you may wonder, what the heck does that have to do with air travel? 

A good mission statement is one that: 

  • Inspires 
  • Delights 
  • Informs what you do every day, at a high level, in support of your larger vision 
  • Has legs and room to grow 
  • Can be used to make decisions on a daily basis. 

Let’s break this out. 

The first two are pretty self-explanatory. If the statement is not going to send a little tingle up your spine, it’s not going to inspire employees or customers, which is what it is designed to do. A mission should encapsulate your brand strategy and support your reason for being. 

But what about the other factors? 

Your vision is your desired future state. What is the change you seek to make in the world with your work? If your vision was achieved, your organization might not be necessary anymore. So what is that large lofty world you imagine? 

As I’ve said before, not every solopreneur needs a vision statement. But you DO need a mission statement. 

Your mission communicates what you do every day in pursuit of your vision. But it needs to leave room for your whole suite of current and future products or services, not just one specific scenario. 

(Read more about the difference between your Mission and Vision statement.) 

Therefore, you must be able to use your mission statement, to some extent, when making daily decisions about product, direction, content, and priorities. “Does this decision help us achieve our mission?” If yes, do it. If not, rethink it. (Tweet This!)

We came up with some great mission statement options for clients this year (which I can’t reveal because rebranding is still pending!) What I loved is that all of my clients understood how to use this mission as a decision-making tool, not just as a cool poster on the wall. 

That is how you use your Mission in your brand. You use it to communicate a higher purpose, a focus, and even the tone of your brand voice in how you write it. Your employees should know it from memory, not because they’ve been forced to, but because it’s used to guide the customer experience every day. They should be asking themselves in all decision-making meetings if what they propose is in pursuit of this mission or not. 

This maintains a consistent experience across all touchpoints so that customers understand exactly what you do, what value you offer, and what you stand for.  

And that, after all, is at the heart of what “brand” really is. 

PS: Aligning on your mission statement is not merely a nice-to-have. It ensures everyone is in pursuit of the same goal, which makes decisions easier. Learn how REI’s strong alignment around mission led to one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history, the #OptOutside campaign, which results in the stores being closed on Black Friday. Where, you ask?! Check out my newest book, The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success (A Playbook for Brands, Leaders, and Teams)  

Photo by Anna Samoylova on Unsplash

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

5 Ways Empathy Benefits Your Business

Posted on by Maria Ross

Empathy is not just good for society, it is good for your organization’s performance. 

(Yes, if I have to speak to selfish motives to make the world more empathetic, I will!) 

Empathy has been shown to have a direct impact on everything from customer loyalty to innovation to profits. When embraced with genuine intent and not simply as a glossy PR veneer, empathy can offer your organization countless benefits beyond just, well, being a good corporate citizen and doing the right thing for people!  

Caveat: While empathy offers all these wonderful benefits, it must be genuine. Your organization can’t just paint a glossy empathy veneer on for good press. 

It must truly embed empathy at the leadership, culture, and external brand levels.  (Tweet This!)

Here are 5 proven ways that empathy benefits your business:   

  1. Empathy spurs innovation: When you understand your customers, you can keep pace with changing needs and desires. Internal studies at Google found that their most innovative and profitable ideas came from teams leading with soft skills, such as empathy. 
  2. Empathy aligns you with customer wants and needs: The more in tune you are with your customers, the faster you can deliver best-fit products or services before your competitors catch on. In order to know what customers desire, you must see things from their perspective. Building an ideal customer profile will help you know what their life is like. Steve Jobs, for instance, focused on understanding a customer so well that Apple’s product designers knew what the customer wanted before they did. 
  3. Empathy improves employee performance: Employees with more empathy and collaboration skills can often outperform and advance faster than those with purely the technical skills to succeed. Organizations find that having these skills aids in team members’ individual successes. 
  4. Empathetic brands — and workplaces — appeal to millennials and Gen Z: As professionals, they are among the most diverse generations in the workforce and seek to leverage diverse perspectives to solve tough business challenges. They stick with employers who embrace new perspectives and value their points of view. As consumers, they’re loyal to companies and brands that care and make a difference. 
  5. Empathy drives sales, growth, and market performance: The best and most progressive corporations have begun to adopt and employ compassionate business tactics, which have improved their standing in the market. Many companies report improved metrics such as a healthier stock price, higher valuation and increased revenue. 

Want to read more about how empathetic mindsets and practices specifically benefit your leaders, culture, and brand performance? Please download this free guide: Five Ways Empathy Benefits Your Brand, Performance, and Culture 

And don’t forget to check out my new book, The Empathy Edge: Harnessing the Value of Compassion as an Engine for Success (A Playbook for Brands, Leaders, and Teams. You’ll get an even deeper dive into research and case studies that process these benefits and get actionable steps you can take right now to make yourself and your organization more empathetic. 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Are you giving too much away?

Posted on by Maria Ross
Don’t be afraid to give them a taste

Recently, someone wrote to me and asked: 

“Maria, how can I differentiate my services without actually ‘giving it all away’ in the marketing and sales process? It’s literally like pulling people out of The Matrix: unfortunately “no one can be told what the Matrix is – you have to see it for yourself.” So I spend all this time ‘explaining the disrupter’ to explain and  differentiate myself – but then I’ve given everything away.” 

Trying to understand how to give away “valuable content” (aka, content marketing) to get your audience to know, like and trust your brand can be confusing. If I share all my secrets, you worry, why would they even need to pay me? 

It might feel like you’re telling them everything, but if the only expertise you have to offer can be given away in a few posts and free eBooks, I’m worried that you may have chosen the wrong profession! True experts know there is so much more they can possibly share. It’s okay to tempt with a few tasty morsels. When you do, you create more trust in your brand and expertise. 

Here’s what is actually going on: You feel like people already know “the basics” of what you do. So you may think you have to give away the good stuff. Au contraire.  

Don’t discount sharing the basics as part of your content marketing strategy. What is basic for you is a revelation for others who are not as skilled in that area. People will realize there is SO MUCH more that they don’t know – and they need your help. 

Here’s a very personal example: I wrote a book, Branding Basics for Small Business, that gives entrepreneurs and business leaders a DIY, bare-bones version of my consulting process. They can build their own brand strategy using some of the actual questions I ask. 

But I still get paying clients. For a few reasons: 

1. As I said, this is bare bones. Working with me is a richer experience, we dive into deeper questions, I probe further, and we deliver polished recommendations and messaging (they have to come up with that on their own with the book!) This will be true for you, too.  

2. There is always a volume of clients out there who think they want to DIY but then can’t/won’t. They know they need the experience: the hand-holding, the accountability, the creative insight and wisdom that only YOU bring. So they buy the book – and then they might hire me anyway to get things DONE. (PS, I am that person) 

3. There will be those who will never buy from you anyway. Great. They can take the free stuff and not waste your time. But then there will be those in #2. So give them a taste and they will want to engage more deeply with you and benefit from your focused attention. 

Don’t be afraid to give away a piece of what you do to better explain your work and offer a taste of your style, philosophy, and smarts.  (TWEET THIS!)

You have a lot of expertise and knowledge. Years. Perhaps also years of education, certification and lessons-learned.  You couldn’t possibly give it all away, even though you think you might be. And even if you reveal some goodies, your ideal client wants you to tailor your advice and coaching to their needs – so, in the end, they will hire you. 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How Your Money Story Impacts your Business Success

Posted on by Maria Ross

Did you know? By the time you are 7 1/2, your money story has already been imprinted on you. 

And it’s either fueling or hindering your business success. 

What is your money story? It’s your relationship with money. It’s how you view it as a tool or a weapon. As scarce or abundant. How well you budget, plan, save and invest. 

All formed when we were kids, watching our parents and those around us.  

As an entrepreneur (heck, as anyone who earns a paycheck), your relationship to money is the single greatest indicator of success and profitability.  

Your money story impacts your success more than how many clients you have, how much revenue you generate, your experience/awards/accolades, or…how good your brand and marketing are. 

Today, Certified Money Coach Debbie Page explains how and why to uncover and adapt your money story so you keep more of the money you make. 

If you don’t already know her, you’ll love her! Debbie is an internationally recognized and award-winning entrepreneur, business coach and advocate for women’s economic independence.  She is recognized as a leading authority on cash flow and profitability for women in business and guides women to keep more of the money they make.  

For over two decades Debbie has worked with women and money and has acquired, scaled and sold two businesses of her own. Her clients achieve stunning success with profitability because of her commitment to accountability, execution and the systems and processes that create sustainable and scalable businesses. 

Watch this lively video interview now if you want to be more profitable and keep more of the money you make! And gentlemen, this video is just as applicable for you, too. 

YouTube video

Highlights include: 

*“You could be doing all these things correctly – marketing plans, sales calls, touch point plan, etc. – and still have no money in the bank. It’s a really unhealthy place to be.” (3:40) 

*A phenomenal example of a client whose unhealthy relationship with money, formed in childhood, led to underpricing (5:15) 

*How the entrepreneurial mindset and the way we handle money in our personal lives is so intertwined. (10:07) 

*“As entrepreneurs we are not trained how to run our business; it will default to the relationship we have with money.” (12:30)  

*Why our money has energy – and how that impacts out ability to create mindful money practices in our personal and professional lives. (13:26) 

*How small shifts in your language can make a big impact (16:02) 

*The small and significant steps you can take to achieve your money goals (17:49) 

*How Debbie’s “zero balance” shocker years ago was her wakeup call and affected her success mindset from that point on. (21:13) 

*What’s your daily money mantra daily? Here’s Debbie’s. (24:09) 

*Why just a healthy money story is the start, but it’s still not enough – the first step you can take (27:11)  

Grab a pen and soak up all of the wisdom in this video. My fave takeaway? 

“All the wishing, dreaming & pretty vision boards isn’t gonna do anything. If I’m not working the hustle muscle, I’m never gonna get it. Marry MINDSET with EXECUTION” – Debbie Page. (TWEET THIS!)

Connect with Debbie Page and learn more about her services and coaching: 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How a Chocolate Éclair Makes You A Better Marketer

Posted on by Maria Ross

Ever thought about why you dive into a chocolate éclair (or mint chocolate chip ice cream, or a bag of jelly beans…name your guilty pleasure!) 

I mean, it offers so much, right? Maybe you’re hungry. Maybe you had a bad day. Maybe you’re celebrating a big client win. Maybe you’re having coffee with a friend and want to share a bit of decadence together. Maybe you just think it looks gorgeous (an adjective I love to apply to food). 

Hunger. Comfort. Reward. Friendship. Beauty. 

There are many different reasons that could have driven you to that purchase decision. And it may be a different from my reason for buying one in line right behind you. 

Your reasons for indulging in this culinary creation are your buying drivers.  

The chocolate éclair’s benefits need to speak to those buying drivers…or you won’t care. 

What does this have to do with marketing and messaging your offerings? EVERYTHING. Because if you are trying to sell me a chocolate éclair as comfort food for my bad day when I want to celebrate a big win, I’m gonna pass. That message just won’t speak to me. 

Determine the benefits your ideal customer craves and speak to those when you talk about your work.  (TWEET THIS!)

There are lots you can choose from, to be sure. This is why understanding your ideal client at an intimate level can help you narrow it down to what is most relevant and important for them. 

Don’t talk about cost savings if I only care about top-notch quality. Don’t talk just about weight loss if I care more about fitness and health. Don’t talk about how complicated your process is as a way to prove it’s amazing if all I care about is ease and simplicity. Don’t talk just about how hopeless and sad is your cause if I’m looking to donate money that will offer hope and impact.  

Know your audience. Speak to their buying drivers. If you don’t know what they are, ask them. Amplify the benefits they care about the most, not the ones you think they need to know. 

Make sure the benefits you offer match up to the buying drivers of your target customer. Otherwise, you need to tout different benefits or find a new audience who cares about the ones you want to promote. 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How to be a better negotiator 

Posted on by Maria Ross

Nice guys and gals finish last. 

That has been the conventional wisdom, hasn’t it? That only sharks using cutthroat tactics can make favorable deals and negotiate effectively. 

I’m calling BS.  

Turns out, empathy is a secret weapon when it comes to negotiation and effective collaboration. And author, activist and strategic consultant Elisa Camahort Page shared with me how she learned this powerful lesson from an unlikely source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

 Elisa knows how to successfully get what she wants, so of course, I had to sit down and talk with her about how empathy helps you negotiate deals that are mutually beneficial for both parties. 

Elisa is known as co-founder and COO of women’s media company, BlogHer. After the successful sale of that powerhouse brand, she’s now focused on speaking, writing and consulting with entrepreneurs and organizations. She co-wrote Roadmap for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Activism and Advocacy For All, a resource guide to activating around causes you care most about, which features contributions and/or endorsements by diverse activists and advocates such as Gloria Steinem,  Guy Kawasaki, Soledad O’Brien and Senator Kirsten Gellibrand (get it – it’s empowering!) 

Elisa’s thinking on this topic was triggered by an episode of her favorite cult classic TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you’re not familiar with it, she gives us a quick overview. 

So many things I think you’ll love about this energetic interview, especially: 

YouTube video

Highlights include: 

*Why Buffy the Vampire Slayer is rich with lessons in leadership and collaboration (2:23) 
*How innovators can learn to see unintended consequences and “take responsibility for the magic you create” (12:15) 
*What BlogHer taught her about mutually beneficial relationships (13:30) 
*Three things to look for in healthy relationships…and three things that can destroy partnerships (14:21) 
*Why we need to compromise and prioritize (18:30)  
*How to think about inclusivity when marketing and storytelling (20:30)  
* The easiest way to get to what someone really wants (28:21) 

Too many great Tweetables from Elisa, so I’m giving you my faves! 

“Innovation + Empathy > Innovation + Efficiency” (TWEET THIS!)

“Instead of thinking about negotiation as a war, think about it as party planning. What pieces do you need in place to get this party started?” (TWEET THIS!)

“You can’t develop a bigger audience and community until you develop empathy for the people you want there” (TWEET THIS!)

Learn more about Elisa Camahort Page’s speaking and writing on her website  
Follow #RoadMap4Revs for info about the book, Roadmap for Revolutionaries 
Check out her new consulting firm, Ternstyle Group 
Discover her work with Mentor Bureau 
Connect with her on Medium, Facebook, or Twitter @elisacp 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How to Break the Rules of Success

Posted on by Maria Ross
Be a maverick. Break the rules of success.

Everyone applauds mavericks and innovators for breaking the rules when it comes to products or technology.  It’s the classic Cinderella story. And we celebrate this image of the lone wolf, standing on a TED stage, sharing with the world how he or she refused to listen and followed their own heart to find success. 

We tend to think of technology companies or big thinkers with huge global acclaim when we envision this inspirational story.  

Some of you might believe you can’t be such sexy mavericks in your own industry. I mean, what can a wellness coach, website designer, or financial planner really do to break the rules and innovate? 

I’d like to encourage you to think bigger about breaking the rules. 

For too long, the myth of the maverick has been stuck on replay: Compete. Be fearless. Invent something new. Take no prisoners. Be relentless. Hustle. Move. Go. Go. GO!   

But here’s the thing: you can be a maverick, a true innovator, by breaking the rules… of success and achievement.  (TWEET THIS!)

You can show that vulnerability is sexy (thank you, Corey Blake!) and endear yourself to your clients or community. 

You can use empathy and compassion, not more paid ads, shiny objects or get-rich-quick courses to build a stronger community and attract raving fans. 

You can prioritize quiet time, family time or creative time and still keep forward momentum. 

You can patiently achieve your goals and still make space to rethink and reinvent without constant hustling, “crushing” anything, or grinding yourself into the ground.  

You can use your success–at any level–to make the world a better place. You don’t have to wait until you have Oprah or Branson influence. 

You can be scared, confused, lost, and unsure when tackling any challenge. And admit to the world that you are doing so. Calling fear out by name, publicly, can fuel your resolve and drain its most potent power: the power to make you turn back or never try at all. 

You have the power today to be an innovator and rewrite your story of success so that it works for you.  

So what’s your story going to be? 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Does empathy make you a better leader? And thought leader?

Posted on by Maria Ross

In researching my forthcoming book, The Empathy Edge, I found ample evidence that empathy can make you a more successful leader,

But…why?  And can it also impact your success as a thought leader?

Yes.

Today I’m interviewing Denise Brosseau, CEO of The Thought Leadership Lab, where she works with executives and entrepreneurs seeking to grow their influence. She’s the author of Ready to Be a Thought Leader, which you must read if your brand strategy includes boosting your visibility as a thought leader.

Denise has taught at Stanford Business School, co-founded both a trade association and the first VC conference for women entrepreneurs, known as Springboard, which has helped women raise over $8 billion. Denise has also been honored as a Champion of Change by the White House.

Or, more simply, Denise is a “thought leader about thought leadership”!

She has seen what it takes to be a strong, effective leader and to amplify your message for massive impact. And a critical component to that success? Empathy.

You will love this lively video interview packed with insights on how to sharpen your leadership (and thought leadership) skills… and if you watch one thing, watch the important distinction between thought leadership and being a visible expert!

YouTube video


Highlights include:
*Do successful leaders exhibit more empathy and how do they act on it?  (3:21)
*Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s big faux pas in front of thousands of women…and how he responded with empathy and reflection (7:00)
*The difference between empathy and submission (9:12)
*The growth mindset – and why “changing your mind” as a leader is not a bad thing (10:55)
* Defining thought leadership and empathy’s crucial role in success (11:52)
* The importance of appealing to both sides of our brains to make change (14:31)
* What a thought leader really is…and is not! (16:55)
*Are there people who should not be thought leaders? And the important difference between being a thought leader versus a visible expert. So good! (18:40)

“We want leaders to mature, take in new information, ideas and perspectives and carefully consider them. If you’re not even listening and you’re still stuck in where you were when you were 25, I don’t know that you should be leading my organization!” – Denise Brosseau (TWEET THIS!)

Learn more about Denise and the Thought Leadership Lab
Take her LinkedIn Learning course, Becoming a Thought Leader (soon she’ll be adding a course about Thought Leading Organizations)
Connect with Denise on LinkedIn

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How Brand Benefits Define your Position

Posted on by Maria Ross
Do your benefits attract the right customer?

Choosing the right lead benefits for your brand messaging dictates which customers you will attract. And a pair of hospital system giants in the San Francisco Bay Area exactly prove this point.

Why this is even more amazing: healthcare advertising is the WORST. Most of it talks about the exact same things and offers no real differentiated position for customers. In my advertising days, we used to joke that, with any hospital billboard or TV spot, you could just swap out a logo and it would be the exact same one as any other hospital in the country.

Here in SF, UCSF and Dignity Health are two separate hospital systems.

UCSF has gone big with promoting their commitment to advanced technologies and treatments. To their doctors’ experience and the medical breakthroughs that they are a part of every day. 

Their tagline: Redefining possible.Their ads and billboards, as this campaign video suggests, focus on technology and offer hope based on what science can do for medicine’s toughest challenges. They have created a brand that showcases them as leaders in medical advancement. If you want cutting-edge treatments for complex problems, go here.

This is one of my favorite ads, for UCSF’s Benioff Children’s Hospital.

Dignity Health differentiates itself based on the human experience. Their ads focus on how extraordinary acts of kindness create miracles every day. They have created a brand that if you want to be treated as a human, and not just a medical test subject, go here. Their tagline: Hello Humankindness.

You MUST watch some of these ads (get ready for all the feels!):

How far would you go for someone?
Kids playing hockey
We can face anything together
Is there a hero is all of us?

Both work as complements in the market, because they both claim a different space.

Obviously sick people care about getting well. But some people care more about the science and technology aspects. Others care more about their experience being treated as human beings.

Clearly, patients want both. But these different brand strategies each claim a separate space based on the main motivator (or buying driver, if you can call it that in healthcare) of their target audience. 

If your primary concern is getting cutting-edge treatment to achieve the impossible, and you care maybe a little bit less about how nice your doctor is (not that UCSF’s doctors are not nice, but if that is not your primary motivation), UCSF will appeal more. I think of data-driven thinkers, those comfortable with risk, those early adopters who want the latest science and technology.

If your primary concern is the patient experience, and you value that above all else to help you get well, Dignity Health will appeal more. This could be someone who had a traumatic experience at another hospital, or someone who knows they really need their hand held. Doesn’t mean Dignity Health’s quality of medical care is not also excellent, it just means they are more attractive to someone who cares more about kindness, respect and well….dignity.

Neither position is wrong or right. But each brand position is super clear on who they are talking to.  And that is why they both work.

Honda and Porsche both sell cars but they sell to very different drivers with very different motivations and needs.

Your brand must claim its space in a crowded market as well. And you do that through the brand benefits you choose to lead with. (TWEET THIS!)

Who is your brand talking to? What benefits do you lead with? Are you taking a position that people can clearly understand or can any company just slap their logo on your website and no one would be the wiser.