Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid!
The recent market turmoil forced many organizations, including one of our clients, an established association serving the banking industry, to reexamine their brands. The weak economy had hit our client’s members — banks of all sizes — particularly hard, and as a result, membership numbers were dropping.
While conducting internal research, we uncovered a discrepancy or “brand gap.” Our analysis revealed that the association believed members derived the most value from its education and training services. This wasn’t surprising, given that the association devoted over two-thirds of its staff solely to conference development, training programs and other education development services for members.
When we spoke with members, however, we quickly learned that while education and training were perceived as highly beneficial, advocacy among legislators and regulators (which was handled by a small group of staffers) was seen as the most valuable benefit of membership.
Many organizations fall into this trap. They assume that the activities to which they devote the most resources are the activities that their customers (or members) find most valuable. To truly understand your value proposition, you need to know what your customers (or members) deem valuable! And when you only look from within, you may not see the whole picture. To identify an organization’s value proposition – the core of its brand – an outside perspective is critical.
Remember, it’s not what you think and say that constitutes your brand; it’s what your customers and other important audiences think about your company that determines how your brand is perceived and valued.
