Brand Journalists Ask Hard Questions; This Is Good for Everyone

Journalists seek the truth. They don’t always find it and the truth doesn’t always find its way into the published story, but the pursuit remains. In marketing communications, as in journalism, the need to challenge and to question is equally important.

These are the core questions that a dedicated brand builder must continually ask:

1. Why should anyone care about our messages or our products?
2. Have we walked a mile in the customer’s shoes?
3. Are we merely talking to ourselves?
4. What is the company’s true point of difference in the marketplace?
5. Where do the customer’s interests intersect with the brand’s?

Discovery is fundamental to the communications profession.

These core questions — when left unanswered — will hang on the air like late-summer humidity in Houston. They’re also capable of making people sweat.

Asking tough questions (whether or not trust has been established) may put the person with the purse in a defensive position, and that’s risky business. Yet, there’s no point in going forward until the fundamentals of the marketing proposition are properly aired. A client may want to believe that his product is the only basis for a conversation that the company needs. But it’s rarely the case because people don’t want to be pitched. A brand’s true task is to meet people on common ground.

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Read the entire article on Bonehook.com.