We all have a vision of what we want our audience to experience and feel about our company and product. Positive feedback is always remembered clearly. But, criticism is hard to hear and we want to get past it as quickly as possible. How did you handle your product’s most recent criticism? Did you approach it as a single unique issue?
How you handle customer complaints and compliments is telling about how important audience impression is to your planning. Business coaches agree you need a positive attitude to successfully navigate the challenges of running a business. This includes having a great opinion of your product or service.
Every business I work with knows their product’s competitive points. Like a competitive team, they love their product and want to beat the competition in each challenge they face.
Keeping objectivity is important to see opportunities and pitfalls.
Staying objective is not easy when we understand the primary focus of business is on sales and operations. Marketing and advertising directors are given the responsibility of watching the competitive environment. But many businesses place other responsibilities on those who are assigned either of these positions.
Consider implementing a vision board system to manage audience impression.
Maintaining a vision board for each product and corresponding competitor will keep the facts visible for daily conversations. On this board pin pictures of your package, web pages, ads, in-store impact, POP, etc. On a second board, track the competitive brand impression: in-store, on-line and available visuals of their marketing impressions.
The boards should be in continual transition, a daily and monthly story. Keep the vision boards accessible to everyone. Unique observations can come from unexpected sources. For those of us working closely on the brand we can miss the obvious.
Relying on memory can be costly.
The vision board is a great tool to illustrate retrospective, contemporary and future vision. Staying on top of competitive activity is crucial to innovating marketing activities and knowing whether a rebrand is necessary. If you are an individual who continually evolves your message, the vision board helps the team see the progression, brand diversity and goals. Include everything you want to achieve. Navigating the competitive sales landscape is never ending.
What are you waiting for?
A vision board is your love board – all your visuals and messages you created and pushed to your audience are visible on one wall. Look at your vision board often to stay the course. It can make a big difference in your competitive position.
