Branding Focus

The way to keep a plant vigorous is by pruning.

Pruning, by definition, can be painful. But the typical business E X P A N D S into more products, services, offerings, divisions, distribution channels, price points, and partnerships. The boardroom buzzword is “EXPANSION” of products and channels.

Expansion weakens organizations because they now stand for a wider and more confusing range of offerings. Expansion also weakens management because its span of control is stretched thinner.

Narrowing your business definition—in other words, branding FOCUS—while counterintuitive, is actually a more powerful tool for building a strong brand.

In the Reis and Reis book, War in the Boardroom, the authors discuss management’s desire to EXPAND the brand versus marketing’s call to CONTRACT the brand. After all, how do you grow? Logic suggests a company needs to expand.

But in order to grow in profits, if not in sales, companies need to contract the brand, rather than expand it. That may not be logical, but it works.

The Smile Train is a wonderful example of how pruning a business leads to laser-like focus—and results.

One Charity. One Problem. One Goal.
Unlike many charities that do many different things, The Smile Train is focused on solving a single problem: cleft lip and palate.

According to The Smile Train’s web site, “clefts are a major problem in developing countries where there are millions of children who are suffering with unrepaired clefts. Most cannot eat or speak properly. Aren’t allowed to attend school or hold a job. And face very difficult lives filled with shame and isolation, pain and heartache.”

The Smile Train helps children with surgery that costs as little as $250 and takes as little as 45 minutes.

Their mission?
To provide free cleft surgery for millions of poor children in developing countries.
To provide free cleft-related training for doctors and medical professionals.
Until there are no more children who need help and we have completely eradicated the problem of clefts.

The power of focus is what makes The Smile Train’s value proposition so easy to understand. They are focused on a single problem: cleft lip and palate and 100% of your donations used for programs. That’s it! With such a pruned scope of activities, it’s an easy choice to support their cause.

Is it working? Since March 2000, The Smile Train has provided free cleft surgery for 500,000 children. That’s a big yes.

In developing a brand strategy for your business, just as in architecture, less is more.

You have to sharpen your message to get into the mind. Jettison the ambiguities.Simplify, then simplify some more if you want to make a long-lasting impression.Select the attributes and competencies of your business that have the best chance of getting through.

It’s an overcommunicated society. Oversimplify your message.