How Well Does Your Brand Behave?

I’ve been thinking a lot about inflection points lately, those moments in a brand’s life when it takes a great leap forward and everything changes. That kind of growth can be driven by an economic boom, or it can be the effect of a brand’s marketing catching fire. 

But I would argue that the biggest contributor to reaching those milestones is what I call brand behavior. 

The way a brand acts has everything to do with how it is perceived and whether you can command a premium for your products. In the modern world, brand behavior encompasses every touchpoint, from how you respond to customer issues to what you say on social media to how you treat employees, partners, and the community at large. It’s the sum total of a brand’s interactions. 

Let’s say you’re faced with an unhappy customer. A brand has a choice. You can either put money and resources toward doing whatever it takes to satisfy and even delight your customer, or you can do nothing for your loyal customer and instead use that money to go out and buy a new customer. The first option may cost more today, but over time your business will win. The second approach is exhausting and no way to build a healthy business for the long run. You will always be breathing heavy and struggling to chase growth, without a solid foundation that allows you to prosper in good economic times but protects you in bad times. 

Ditto for taking shortcuts with your product. Over the past few years we watched as the price of raw materials and shipping significantly increased. It would have been easy to substitute cheaper components to keep our prices low, but that’s not the way a brand behaves if it’s built to last. Again, that’s short-term thinking. 

If your goal is to build an enduring brand with a name that means something to consumers, I urge you to put brand behavior at the forefront of everything you do: your messaging, your products, your partners, your service, your community. Work to give your customers an experience unlike any they’ve had before. When you do, you will find that getting to those inflection points is easier, because you will have earned the trust and the loyalty that will allow you not just to hit your targets but to drive transformative and profitable growth.

- Ron Rudzin, Saatva Founder and CEO