SEO expert Nikki Pilkington reminded me recently of the three words test.
The idea is simple and works for business branding and personal branding.
What three words do you want customers and clients to think of when they hear your name or think of you?
Three Word Branding Examples
When I challenged Nikki, her answer was “SEO, social media, helpful” – OK that’s four words including one acronym but you get the idea.
When I thought about it for me, I want you to think “profit from differentiation” or something similar – in particular I want you to think of profit and differentiation as a united concept.
If I think of Maserati, I think of “fast, stylish Italian car”. Lamborghini is similar with “fast, flamboyant Italian car”. Ferraris are “red Italian racing cars” to me because of their grand prix heritage.
Aston Martins are “luxurious British grand tourers”
Mercedes means “prestigious, German engineering” to me.
Or for Kylie Minogue I think “Australian singer with a nice bottom.”
Applying The Brand Concept To Your Business
This simple test shows how clearly your brand is positioned in the mind of your customers.
I suggest you stop for a few minutes and ask yourself what you want your customers to think about you in three words.
Then ask a few of them.
If what they say echoes what you want them to say, then you can be reassured that you’ve done a fine job of branding yourself.
But if what they say is radically different, then you have a problem.
You don’t see yourself in the same way that your market sees you.
What To Do If Your Branding Isn’t What You Want It To Be
You have a choice.
Either you adapt your self-image to match what the market thinks and focus on using that to its best advantage.
Or you have to try to change the perceptions of the market to match what you want.
If the market doesn’t have a clear view, then you need to reinforce your brand through constant repetition of a few key ideas. Branding expert Ben Mack calls these “verbatim vitamins” because they pep up your brand.
But if the market has a clear view and it is wrong, then you’ve got a tough time ahead.
Look at Skoda cars as an example.
They used to have a terrible brand image and were the butt of jokes like
“What do you call a Skoda with a sun-roof?”
“Answer: A skip”
Since the takeover by the Volkswagen group, quality is much improved and the brand is strengthening.
But I bet there are people who don’t buy Skoda cars because of the old image.And others who buy despite reservations about the image.
Alfa Romeos have a similar problem. I can’t justify buying a Maserati, Lamborghini or Ferrari but I can afford an Alfa Romeo. I’m drawn to the brand because they are “Italian fine driving cars” but I can’t shake the old “unreliable rust-buckets” out of my mind that was the reputation the brand earned from the 1970s. I think I might need a second car if/when the Alfa breaks down and that makes buying an Alfa prohibitively expensive in my mind.
Why is this clarity so important?
Because it works the other way around as well.
When I think of Nikki, I think of an SEO expert.
And when I am asked about experts in SEO, I think of Nikki and a few others.
That top of mind awareness is powerful.
It’s where the money is.
Any other SEO expert who contacts me faces a big challenge.
He or she has to show me in great detail that they are worthy of being ranked alongside Nikki, Dan Thies, Leslie Rohde and Jerry West.
And it’s an even bigger challenge to create a preference because the space as SEO expert is filled in my mind. It would take a lot of time and it’s time I’m not ready to give willingly because I don’t feel any need to.
You have a simple choice.
You either stand for something and get remembered.
Or you stand for nothing and get forgotten and ignored.
What three words do you want customers to think about you?
It’s Your Turn
You’ve got the chance for a little self-promotion by leaving a short comment for your three words or phrase you want customers and clients to think when they hear your name.
No comment spam around keywords – it won’t be published.
