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It is image, branding, and marketing

Let’s have a pizza. Of course, our first decision is whether we want to go to a restaurant, get takeout or delivery, or have pizza at home. Making this decision will put many choices into consideration as well as eliminate many others. Their having delivery in our area or the driving time for pick up or restaurant sitting will also come into play.

While making the decision, someone’s preference will surely be in part due to what brand of pizza they want to eat. What will hopefully be an easy decision has a lot going on behind it because it is preference that will be the key to some business getting the sale.

Granted, the taste of the pizza is key to the brand we prefer, but how does a brand of pizza get us to consider them among all the choices that are available to us?

Some brands can increase the chances of their being selected because of their offering multiple choices; available as take out, delivery, sit down restaurant and available in a grocery store. Having these multiple choices also mean that while we may want take out today, we could have a restaurant experience with the same brand on another day. Think of Pizza Hut as an example.

This same decision process goes on within your business as you sell to your existing customers and hopefully to potential customers. The conditions surrounding our customer’s need for a part today are just as relevant as all those surrounding our pizza decision.

Inside the decision we are making there are three components that we are not likely to be directly aware of. The business selling the parts or pizza, that is aware of the three components and knows how to manipulate them is likely the one that is going to get the business of an existing or potential customer.

The three components are image, brand, and marketing. Let’s look at each of the three to see how you and your customers make your choices. Understanding this, we can know how to grow the awareness of your business and the brands you sell to your existing and potential customers.

When we discussed the pizza, one of the questions asked was, “Whose pizza do you want?”

And that is where image comes into play. The brand that is first spoken by each person is the brand with the best image to them. Likewise, when someone names another brand of pizza and another person says something to the effect of a bad experience or inconsistent quality, they are stating the image they have of the same brand.

What does this teach? It says that everyone in your business has the responsibility and potential to build and maintain your image. You need to write out the image you want. After all, if you cannot clearly state the image you want your customers to think about your business, how will those employees know what to do and how to do what is necessary to build that image?

A part of your image can come from other experiences your customer has with your business. How fast is your delivery? Customers will remember and comment about very fast or very slow delivery.

The same will be their experience with the inventory your business has. Does the business almost always have the products on hand as compared to frequently having to wait for a delivery tomorrow. Customers will talk about this extremely good or extremely poor level of stocking.

Nobody remembers the “average” parts house. All you will get by being average is a, “they’re OK” which is not much of a referral.

Writing out this image for your customers and staff, is the first step in creating a brand. Fulfilling and living that image is the important part. Your image is like a promise and if you do not live it, the image is not worth the paper it is written on.

The brand, your second component, is what you create/do to develop the image.

Look at the various brands of products you select to stock and offer your customers. Granted, you stock many brands because your customers ask for them. However, you can add your comments about the quality and reliability of that manufacturer’s products.

We know of a business that openly posts signs in their businesses explaining the “good, better, and best” of products they stock. They clearly let their customer know they are making their suggestion based on the performance they expect their customer will experience.
Are you building your image by continually educating your staff? A part of that education should be product knowledge while a part of the education should be sales skills.

All of these, combined, are your actions of building your brand so that your customer has the image of your business you want them to have.
The last step in the trilogy is your marketing; How you project your brand to your customer. While we all want word of mouth and referral advertising to build our business, we do have to do various things to get our message out there.

Is your business active with the local race clubs? When someone goes to the track, is there something they see or experience that tells of your business? Do you do something that is different for racers? We have observed a community with a short track where one parts house seems to dominate the market. It is easy to see how as they made a point to visit with the local racers at their garage to get that close connection. The parts house is also open a couple of nights a week so that the local racers do not have to wait until the following day to order or get a part.

Marketing is not restricted to just spending money with some media. There are many ways you can get your marketing message across to existing and potential customers.

When all three, image, brand and marketing work together, your business is the one that is first mentioned when someone asks another where they get their parts. It is just like the image you have of pizza.

By the way, what do you like on your pizza?

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