Adding value for your customers is the key to growing your business. Sophie McLean takes us through the three key questions you need to ask to ensure brand safety.
It’s a business ‘101’ that when it comes to buying and selling goods, the key to business growth lies in adding value. Across all aspects of our lives, everything hinges on a value exchange. You do someone a favour because in turn, it will be reciprocated; you buy the latest model of something because it will add value to your quality of life; you read news that will better inform your opinion and subject expertise – and you like people’s posts on Instagram because their content offers you something of value.
How we market ourselves and our brands then becomes driven by how we can create added value for our customers.
In our (drinks) world, ‘value add’ is more than just the quality or the price of the wine or spirit we are showing. It’s what else we bring to the table when it comes to serving our customers – and theirs, by extension. It is a masterclass where you’ll go home more knowledgeable on that segment of the wine world or grape variety, an experience where you meet the winemaker or tread on the soil on which his or her beloved bush vines grow, sharing moments between like-minded peers where you’ve used your hive minds to come to an industry-wide solution. It’s the space-saving sustainable packaging you’ve implemented, your flexible or consolidated delivery, the creation of a vegan or gluten free ‘edition’, or simply finally ‘getting’ Pinot Noir through tasting a selection of someone’s portfolio from all over the world.
Ultimately, what we take away from experiences like these, we then pass on to our customers or whoever it is we influence in our own individual ponds – bettering their own experience and enjoyment of whatever it is that we are serving and promoting. It is what we experience. It is what we learn. It is plugging the gap to enable us to move forward.
The magic number
Brand value is achieved in a variety of (long-term and short-term) ways. When you’re offering a product or a service, or hosting a specific brand campaign, here’s a quick list of things to check and measure against to ensure continuity of engagement and long-term ‘brand safety’.
What is the business getting out of this? This could be increased sales/revenue/market share, or enhanced reputation and greater visibility.
What are our customers and employees (people) getting out of this? Think better-quality products vs competition, quality of life-enhancement, wow factor, new flavours, more efficient processing, greater subject knowledge and education.
What is the society getting out of this? A reduced carbon footprint, supporting local communities/independent producers, sustainable production and land management, better base-line global technology, social development, industry training and upskilling.
The key to bringing this trio together is keeping in mind our overall business objectives: The ‘who are we’ and ‘why are we doing this?’ If we take a slightly more holistic approach, and approach this ‘value-add’ as a concept applicable to the wider drinks-trade, this will in turn, help keep customers returning and business thriving. It will contribute to the building of our all-important industry relationships, alongside nurturing and upskilling our industry-brilliant next generation.