Last night, during a wonderful evening event of my Toastmaster’s Club out at one of the member’s homes, the president of the club introduced me to her husband as someone who develops branding strategies and helps companies market their products and services
Then she paused for a second and asked me:

“So, how do you develop a branding strategy?”

I had to smile, because branding one of my favorite marketing topics to think about, read about, learn about and of course, talk about…
I tried not to get carried away, but some of the things we talked about were:

• Researching the core message
• What your customers think your brand is, is your brand
• Having a promise, knowing your promise and always delivering on your brand promise
• Make sure everyone knows your brand strategy promise: your potential customers, vendors, suppliers, customers and especially  employees
• A branding strategy is just part of a marketing plan but it really strengthens the  core of a program

Hmmm. Just reading this, I realized I probably talked her ear off! (Sorry about that Mary!) Too much “work talk” at a party makes everyone lose interest.

So we moved on to talking about enjoying the outdoors, great wineries in Ohio, glow sticks, blogging, biking, and how Portage Lakes is so  incredibly beautiful on a hot August evening.  We all enjoyed riding on the water in a pontoon boat looking at all the beautiful landscaping and the golf course rolling hills.  What a delightful evening!

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By the way, AM Akron Toastmasters isn’t just folks from Akron, we’re from all over Northeast Ohio, Cleveland, Canton, Medina, Hudson, even as far away as Ashtabula county!