1. Is your product or service as good as the best available in the marketplace?



2. Are your customers absolutely clear about your brand promise?

3. Do you know what makes you and your business unique?

4. Have you invested in a professionally designed brand identity?

5. Do you have an effective management system for your brand?

6. Do you spend a lot of money promoting your brand?

If you've answered ?No? to any of the questions above, then it's time to fine-tune your brand's performance.

Seven ways to improve your brand's performance

1. Undertake an audit of the way you currently communicate to customers. This audit will

show whether your communications are as successful as you hope they are.

2. Assess how well your brand identity is performing in the marketplace. Employ a good research company. Competitors, customers and other influential stakeholders are more likely to tell independent researchers what they wouldn't dream of telling you.

3. Identify the gaps. This process highlights what must be addressed to improve brand

performance quickly, and what must be tackled over time.

4. Devise a strategy to improve performance. Examine what must be done first, how it can be achieved in the most cost-effective way, and develop a structured plan for completion of the rest.

5. Ensure your brand identity is performing the way it was designed to do. Inconsistencies can creep in like a cancer, often escaping attention until they become expensive problems to fix. Avoid unnecessary complications or additions.Prepare a custom-made brand book that ensures everyone in your organisation knows how your brand identity is meant to work.



6. Development a management system for ease of control. Don't give anyone authority over your brand unless they know what is required to maintain its integrity. An easy-to-understand management system will provide firm guidelines to protect your investment.

7. Employ an expert to increase profile. It's easy to be a big fish in a small pond; almost

impossible for a small fish in a big pond. There are a myriad of ways to improve profile, as long as you are prepared to invest cold, hard cash to do so. Otherwise, you're captive to the

?do-it-yourself? world of publicity (if you have the time, that is).