What the new CPMRs learned about branding

The October 2007 issue of Agency Sales got my particular attention because of its focus on CPMR certification, including a list of the 28 new 2007 graduates of the program, just a few pages away from an article on rep firm branding.  (The list also includes 3 graduates of the CSP programs, who are not necessarily top management, and therefore not directly responsible for their firms’ branding.)

Now many people confuse branding with corporate identity, and it’s true that corporate identity as expressed in your logotype and carried through in your firm’s sales materials and other company graohics are part of your brand, and influence the way people think about you and your company — if and when they do.  And remember the key principle of branding, paraphrased from the way it’s been verbalized by branding expert Steve Yastrow:

Your brand is not what you say it is, it’s what your public thinks it is.

That formulation applies to the people who know you.  What about the people who don’t know you?  And that brings me to the list of newly certified reps.  From their company names, I can hazard a guess about what six of them sell, but the other 22 aren’t providing a clue.  If I’m a manufacturer looking for a certified rep, how do I know which firm to call? What information does the company name give me? 

Now I can guess that Steven Jones from the Robert Jones Company in Paducah (all names are made up) is probably the boss’s son, which may tell me something about the firm’s longevity, but not about its product line.  I have less guessing to do when I read about Joel Mathews from Florida Electronics; now at least I have an idea of what he sells and where he sells it. 

In future posts, I’ll talk more about considerations for rep firm names as a branding element.  The thought for today, though, is that What’s in a name? is more than just a quotation from Romeo and Juliet.

What reps know, and don’t know, about branding

Manufacturers’ representatives make their livings selling stuff.  Good reps try to assemble portfolios of top brands.  Often their portfolios consist of commodity products, where there is no real difference between product A and product B,  except for the branding differentiation the manufacturer has been able to establish in the marketplace.  What’s the difference, for example, between flying United and Delta?  United flies in friendly skies, and Delta is ready when you are. 

If you’re a rep, and your portfolio includes a widget line, you probably rely on your manufacturer principal to feed you reasons that a blue widget rated for a lifespan of 100,000 operations is a superior choice to someone else green widget that other than color is the form-fit-functional equivalent, at essentially the same price and the same delivery.  Some buyers may believe it.  Some buyers may know there’s no real difference, but select the blue widget because they like you better or trust you more than the guy who sells the green widgets.  Even though you didn’t necessarily set it up that way, your brand as a rep is Trust…at least with that buyer.

Who should determine your brand, you or the buyer? 

This blog is built around my observation over the decades that most reps know a whole lot about selling, very little about marketing, and even less about branding.  In future posts, I’ll discuss what I think they should know about it, and even more important, what they should do about it.  

Hello, Rep World!

This is a new way to access the thoughts of Larry Kaufman about rep marketing and branding.  If  you know my name, I’m delighted.  If you don’t, check me out by clicking on the About link.  And keep those cards and letters coming, either to my email box (lak(at)bworld.com) or by commenting here on the blog.