Now’s the time for CEOs and management to give their brands some much-needed attention. After operating in a low-growth economy for so long, organizations need to refocus their brands to help maximize growth potential and profit returns.

Why should you get involved in what’s essentially a marketing endeavor? A recent survey on managing corporate brands uncovered factors critical to brand strategy success. Primary among them: CEO leadership and support.

Develop a brand vision

Start by defining the strategic and financial goals and objectives your brand should help achieve. This is the only step driven entirely by internal management; the intent is for senior management to clearly articulate what its expectations are for what the brand can help the organization achieve over the next three to five years. The vision should include a statement of what the brand stands for, its intended audience, the brand’s benefits, and the financial and strategic goals for the brand.

Understand your customer

To truly reinvigorate your branding commitment, define your target customer based on qualitative and quantitative customer research. You need a fact-based understanding of who your customers are, how much they spend on your services/products, how much they’ll spend in the future, etc. It is not sufficient to believe you know your customers--you need hard-core data to back up your beliefs.

This is also the opportune time to determine how customers interpret your brand, how they think and act, and why and how they make purchase decisions. Ask about both tangible and intangible (emotional) brand attributes and determine customers’ overall loyalty.

It’s worth the effort; a recent study showed an increase in customer loyalty of only 5 percent can lift lifetime profits per customer by as much as 100 percent. It also suggests that an increase in customer loyalty of just 2 percent is equivalent to a 10 percent cost reduction in certain sectors.

In addition to analyzing your customer base, it’s also important to study your competition. Understanding their strategy will help you create a distinct brand with a long-term competitive advantage.

Identify your strengths and differentiate

Branding is the superior approach to differentiating yourself in the marketplace. Sometimes, organizations bend to price reduction as a differentiator, but it’s the worst differentiator because it’s easily copied, reduces profits, and dilutes brand equity. Instead, points of differentiation should include brand personality, as well as the intangible and emotional benefits customers receive from their relationship with your brand. Numerous studies have shown that relevant differentiation today is a leading-edge indicator of profitability and market share tomorrow.

After compiling your information, identify your own strengths with internal research and target market analysis. Determine which key benefits are most relevant to differentiating your product or service in the marketplace. Develop a brand position using your market research and planning. Your positioning statement doesn’t merely describe your product or service in a unique manner; it defines how you want your customers to think, feel, and act toward your brand.

Then ensure this differentiation is relevant to your customers. How good is the match between your brand’s value proposition (its unique differentiation) and your customers’ attitudes and behaviors? This entails going beyond demographics and getting to know your customers on a deeper level (learning about their needs, mind-sets, and beliefs).

Align your value proposition

Every business practice, customer contact, and even employee attitudes must support your organization’s brand positioning. Obviously, this affects everyone at every level of the organization because of their opportunity to engage in “touchpoints” with the customer. As such, each must subscribe to the value proposition, which should be consistently represented in all company messages.

Measure results

Obtaining feedback on your branding efforts and making modifications should be an ongoing objective to ensure your branding is on target. The results of these analyses should be shared internally so that employees and management alike understand modifications to branding initiatives, positioning, and messages.