Opinion
Food for Living: Distinguish Your Brand
By Henry Ukazu
Greetings Destiny Friends,
Beauty lies in the eyes in the beholder is a popular saying, which has proved to be true because if you ask ten blind men to describe an elephant, they’ll describe the elephant based on the way they feel it. One of the beauty-aspects of life is its originality. In this contemporary age where digital communication has gone global, no one likes a fake product, a fake friend, a fake person, etc; everyone likes it when you’re the best version of yourself. Though some schools of thought might relish in the aphorism, “fake it until you make it”, If truth be told, there’s nothing sweeter than when success is organic, especially when people identify with you for what you truly represent. When you’re fake, it goes to prove you’re not worthy and confident of yourself. But when you’re the original version of yourself, it makes your life much more simple, easy and accessible. Let me share an insightful business tip with you; when you’re fake, you’ll only attract fake people around you thereby driving your potential helpers away from you, but when you’re the original version of yourself, you give fake people the opportunity to run away and the original people the opportunity to come closer.- Food for thought.
In one of the chapters of my first published book Design Your Destiny- Actualizing Your Birthright to Success, titled: Understanding Your Uniqueness, a striking statement therein is a quote from Oscar Wilde “Be yourself, everyone is taken”. This affirms the saying, you can lie to others but you can never lie to yourself. The question now becomes, how do you distinguish not only yourself but your brand? During the course of this article, we shall be focusing on how we can make not only yourself unique, but also our brands, business, and lifestyle in general. We shall conclude with advice on how to stay relevant in business.
A brand must uniquely solve a particular problem and it must recognize the target audience it hopes to serve. Brand differentiation can be a corporate brand, product brand, or even a personal brand.
In order to truly know yourself and what people think about you and your product, ask them what do think about you and your product? Depending on the response you receive, you can evaluate and reconcile it with who you truly are and what your brand represents. Let’s take the case of Coca- Cola, for instance, it has been in existence for one hundred and twenty years and therefore needs no introduction nor marketing. The interesting thing about Coca-Cola is that no one knows the composition/ ingredients. That goes to tell you they have distinguished themselves.
Let share practical examples of how you can distinguish yourself, your brand/product.
Position Yourself
Location is very important in business. Being at the right place and time is very critical for the success of your business. Your ability to know what is needed and lacking in any region can influence your brand recognition. Regardless of where you are in the world, figure out where your customers, services or skills will be relevant and find a way to get there. This helps to give your customers more opportunities to be involved in the decision-making process. It also provides customers the benefits of distinctiveness and variety, enabling them to choose the experience that is most meaningful to them.
Cultivate Stronger Relationships:
It is widely believed that you are addressed the way you dress and your network determines your net worth. If you have great clientele base and build a solid relationship, you stand a better chance of getting business opportunities due to the referral you’ll get.
Consistency
One of the most important keys to distinguishing yourself is consistency; over the course of months, will people begin to recognize and appreciate your brand for what it is. Craft your brand identity carefully, and stick to it once you’ve found a way to distinguish yourself.
Be informed
Information is power. Make it a duty to inform your customers about new developments in the industry. You can do this by way of newsletter, flyers, text messages or social media engagement. In that your customers will know you are not interested in their money, but you also care about them.
Tell A Story
People like stories that relate to them or why you do what you do. Your story may also be about the source of your product, service or inspiration and it can also relate to you.
Every successful brand has a compelling story behind it.
Great Customer Service
Customers love great customer. Exceeding expectations can differentiate your brand. For example, little words like thank you, gifts, can I help you find something? Constant checking on your customers and informing them of new products helps them to see you a reputable brand due to how you have positioned not only yourself, your employees but your business in general. Make people feel value: You can appeal to people’s emotions by delivering an emotional experience that’s associated with your product or service. Great customer service and pricing are very influential factors for customer service. When you deliver a world customer service, your customers stay happier and stick around longer.
The quality of a company’s customer support and service directly impacts the overall customer experience. Take care of your employees by treating them right and they will, in turn, treat your company/business well.
Give Back
Modern customers like a bonus, points, gift cards, and other incentives. Most people love to get behind a brand that gives back to the community. By emphasizing corporate social responsibility (CSR), you can differentiate your brand and get an edge over the competition
Provide Higher Quality
When you are recognized as a brand that specializes in giving quality products, a distinct class of people will be familiar with your business. E.g. Rolex watches are unique. Luxury brands are able to command premium pricing through an emphasis on higher-quality Toyota and Honda cars are regarded as durable cars while Bentley is regarded as a luxury car.
Finding a true strategy
Having a unique strategy is very important in succeeding in business. Coming up with a great strategy may be the single most difficult step in building a business. But it may also be the most important. Here are a few possible strategy variables to consider: High quality versus low price, narrow versus broad product line, high-tech versus low-tech product, trendy versus conservative products, brand name versus generic, customized versus standard, niche market versus mainstream market
Solve a real problem for customers
Once you identify those unsolved problems, you can take a few different approaches to solve them. However, once you come up with a plan of attack, validate it with your customers before implementing it.
Brand Ambassadors
Brand advocates are people who love your brand so much they promote it to friends, family, or colleagues. They are also commonly referred to as “brand ambassadors”. When they become convinced of the value you offer the market, they start promoting. They do this on their own, without any request from your company. This constitutes a great form of free advertising for your business. And it’s the best type of advertising.
Become an expert
If you paint yourself as an expert in your space, customers and prospects will look to you for advice. They will look for your content when they have a problem that needs to be solved. They will search your website for other resources that will help them.
Focus on social listening Skills
Consumers use social media to gather new information about a brand than ever before. They also use social media to blast negative comments across the airwaves when they have a poor experience. Consumers using social media have more power than ever to dictate the direction and future of a company. If you disappoint customers, many will quickly take to social media to share their negative experiences with the world. And it is done in a public forum, which can kill your brand reputation.
When someone posts a comment—whether positive or negative—you need to respond as quickly as possible -be engaging.
In conclusion, how does your brand differentiate from the competition? Is your packaging distinctive or stand-out in some way? How could you change that? What does your brand do to differentiate your customer service? Are there new audiences you can reach through differentiation?
What would it take to reposition as a luxury brand and differentiate through added value?
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the author of the acclaimed book Design Your Destiny – Actualizing Your Birthright To Success. He can be reached via henrous@gmail.com
By Henry Ukazu
Greetings Destiny Friends,
One of the best things that can happen to anyone is to believe in themselves. Often, we don’t see the value and potential we have due to several factors including detractors’ utterances, disbelief in oneself or even past mistakes. Sometimes, we want other people to believe in us before we can believe in ourselves. Ordinarily, this shouldn’t be so.
If one is desirous of stepping up their game, one must understand how to use affirmations. Affirmations are powerful. And more powerful when they are positive. When you affirm to yourself, the universe has a way of affirming your thoughts, imaginations and words. However, it should be noted that affirmations are not about stating what you want, one must also work towards the affirmations, and believe the universe will align with you. One can practice affirmations by either writing it down or speaking it into existence.
Affirmations can be spiritual; they work like faith. If you don’t have faith, affirmations won’t work. You can attract opportunities, blessings, and favors from people when one affirms right. When people see your faith in action, they will generally feel the impulse to support your convictions.
Regardless of whatever situation one may be experiencing, it’s always good for one to feel good about oneself. It’s easy for one to feel discouraged, frustrated and depressed when the lines are not adding up, however, one can change the narrative by affirming to oneself, I expect my every need to be met; I expect the answer to every problem; I expect abundance; I will not lack; I will be great, I will attract blessings, favors, opportunities, etc. All these positive words are meant to trigger us to always think positive thoughts about our life regardless of our situations or what we are experiencing.
As human beings, sometimes, we don’t know the power we have. We tend to give other people power over us. In some cases, we want the world to give us opportunities or platforms to thrive, we fail to understand we are the platform we are seeking. For instance, sometimes we look for big companies, organization to showcase our work or give us opportunities to thrive, and when they fail, we become demoralized. However, if we can look into ourselves, we will realize in this age of technology we can showcase our work and when our supposed idols and organization see our work, they will rate us and give us potential opportunities.
It’s sad to see people begging for platforms to showcase their work. Sometimes they go extra to seek for roles and opportunities as interns or volunteers just to get an opportunity to have their name on their resume. They don’t know they can use the internet to showcase what they have. It’s instructive to note that when you showcase what you have, the platforms you are looking for, will begin to look for you. And when you showcase what you have, speak into it and affirmatively believe it.
This is how affirmation works. When you showcase your work, say I believe my work will thrive, I will get recommendations, my work will attract attention, my business will not fail, my articles will go viral etc. Trust me, when you do this, the people and organizations you are looking for, will start to look for you. As a seasoned creative writer, each week I publish articles, before I send my article to my editor, I do say a word of prayer over my work and trust me, the grace to write and succeed has truly been felt from my tribe. I say this because I do get positive feedback almost on a weekly basis. creative.
Let me share personal experience with you, I have been blogging for quite a while before big media platforms began to give me recognition and opportunity to publish my articles on their media platforms. I believe some of them saw my little effort before they gave me an opportunity.
On a personal note, I have practiced affirmations, and it has worked for me. Let me share a practical example, when I was studying taxation law as a graduate student in New York Law School, I remember when a friend of mine asked me a question, Henry, if your exam is tomorrow, how do you feel you will perform? In all honesty and sincerity, I do know if my professor is kind to me, I will score a C or D, but I told her, I will score an A or B the least. You will be surprised to know, I scored an A- and B+ during that semester. That’s the power of positive affirmation. T
There’s another scenario where I shared on Facebook, I would like Mr. Peter Obi a former Governor in Nigeria who was aspiring to be the President of Nigeria. In three months, the universe connected me to him, and the most interesting thing about our meeting was that he gave me his number and advised me to keep in touch.
In conclusion, in your search for validation and opportunity, endeavor to practice affirmation and see it work like wonder in your life.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
By Henry Ukazu
Greetings Destiny Friends,
There’s always the urge to get certain things done as a living person. Most times, the urge transcends to impatience and desperation as the thirst for fame, power, wealth and success increases. This happens to the extent that the average human being either forgets or fails to take into consideration the process and most importantly, the foundation or origin of their inspiration.
It is worth noting that before anyone decides to go on a journey, several factors play a role; before anyone decides to study a course in college, he must have a sponsor assuming they don’t have the personal financial muscle; before anyone becomes a millionaire or billionaire, there’s always someone responsible for the opportunity; before one becomes a Chief Executive Officer of a company, he must have climbed through the ropes from internship either in the said company or another, and it’s also instructive to note that someone gave him the opportunity to showcase his charismatic work skills; before anyone decides to go into politics, different people play roles either in form of mentors or citizens. There’s always a significant source in the making of a the person. The list is endless.
Why is it necessary to highlight these significant points? The answer is quite simple; nobody achieves greatness on his or her own. Nobody is self made no matter what one may claim. Even God in his infinite knowledge used Virgin Mary to birth Jesus Christ. So, if the saviour of mankind can come in the form of man, why should anyone think he is self made?
It’s sad to see certain people think they have arrived either because they now have money, power, influence or attained a certain height. They begin to act like demi-gods, and sometimes, play God in the affairs of men. They fail to remember they were once nobody, and had nothing.
It’s always good for one to remember their source, and this is very important. Sometimes, when we see people doing great and big things in the world, we wonder what their secret or source is. While some people will be bold to acknowledge their source, others might be a little bit hesitant and decide to keep it as their best kept secret, especially when it involves trade and merchandise.
To know the secret of anyone, look at their lifestyle, some people attribute it to God, some to mentors, mentees, good food, exercise, academics, rest, parents or spiritual leaders. For me, I am unapologetic to state three things responsible for who I am today; the first is God. We live in a society where some people find it hard to acknowledge God publicly for reasons best known to them. I truly know I am not the smartest, strongest or most intelligent, but I can authoritatively tell you, I have seen and experienced the hand of God upon my life.
Another great source of mine is my late parents comprising my late grandmother, my late father and my late mother. They all played significant roles in my life with their prayers and blessings. I can say with all boldness, they are my biggest inspiration and reason I do what I do today. It’s sad to see young men and women who fail to recognize and appreciate their parents because they are either old, not academically exposed or for whatever reason best known to them. Well, I won’t judge anyone, but I do know that the earlier one receives the sense to appreciate their parents, no matter their shortcomings, the better the positive influence it would have in their lives.
Finally, my third major source of strength is the people I work with, especially my immediate team. Like I always say; I’m not just smart, I am only smart by association. I have a team of ingenious minds, who I am very loyal and committed to in any way I can. What attracts me to them is their mindset, attitude and most importantly their talent/gift. If I may add a fourth category, I will say my mentors, there are certain people I look up to based on their position, accomplishment, personality. I call this set of mentors my pinnacle mentors because of who they are, or what they represent. If you would like to know the role of mentors in my life, please read one of my most insightful articles Mentors Are Life Savers.
Let’s get this clear, anyone can be a source. It might not really be a man of substance. Your mentee, child, partner or employee can be your source. What’s important is for one to recognize their role. Like I stated earlier, my team who I work with are my third greatest source, and I strongly believe God is using them to lift me up.
One may be wondering why I took my time to address these salient points. The reason is not farfetched. It’s regrettable to see people who have attained certain heights, and they seem to forget their roots. Some even forget their source. Like accomplished journalist, Dr. Dele Momodu, would always quote his late ‘unlettered mother’, who admonished him to “never forget the son of who you are”. That’s a very deep statement.
Acknowledging one’s source is very critical to one’s growth. It speaks volumes about one’s mindset and personality. Let’s take a case study where someone assisted you to become great, and ends up insulting or using sarcastic words on you. They may even be uncharitable to you. I get all these narratives, still acknowledge them.
Acknowledging one’s source can be ambiguous. As Christians, sometimes we pray to our creator, give up our daily bread. By doing so, we are remembering our source, but quite often sometimes when we eat this bread and become well fed, we tend to forget from whom it came, and in some cases, fail to give credit to whom it is due. This is the attitude of ungrateful minds.
I will conclude with a prayer thus; in our quest for greatness and search the material things of the world, may we not forget our source, who gave us opportunities when we were nothing. Can I hear you say amen!
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
When one grinds, he is practically working or studying very hard, often in a repetitive way for a better future outcome. It can also be the act of hustling or striving for success, according to internet overview. This principle explains the phrase, ‘rise and grind’, which encourages individuals to wake up and work hard to achieve goals.
Having said that, please permit me to be a bit personal about my next exposition. It’s for an instructive reason.
As a Christian, and practicing catholic, I’m trained on the mysteries of the Holy Rosary. In one of the mysteries – Sorrowful mysteries, we have five other mysteries namely: The Agony in the garden, scourging at the pillar, crowning with thorns, carrying of the cross and death and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
One may be wondering what the symbolic and relative nature of the above mysteries are. Well, the answer is quite clear; the mysteries of the sorrow mysteries symbolize the difficult terrain Jesus Christ must go through for the salvation of mankind. As a Christian, each time I meditate on the sad experience of Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind, it makes me rethink about life, especially whenever I am tempted to sin against God.
As human beings, we also experience the same trajectory in our effort to succeed, and this entails the act of ‘grinding’. Life never promises to be easy, and it will never be easy. As a matter of fact, the higher one goes, the tougher the hurdle.
It is an undisputable fact that nothing good comes easy. Whether you have an interest in running a business, raising a decent family, earning a degree, or improving on your personal development, one must grind, and this entails exploring all legitimate means. Sometimes, life does not give you what you want, but it will surely give you what you deserve.
So, when you grind, and life doesn’t give you what you desire, don’t give up, continue to grind. The mistake most people make is giving up quite early when the odds seem to be against you. Sometimes, when you don’t get what you want, there might be several reasons. It might be a case of one not being prepared or competent for such a position. It can also be a case where the universe has something different for you which one might not see in the immediate sense.
Again, when one doesn’t get what they desire, it is not because they don’t have the capacity, or competency, it might be a case of the timing not being right. On a personal note, I have applied for job opportunities and was rejected; I have tried to meet with resourceful people, but access was denied; I have written hundreds of articles, but only a few went viral. The stories are many, but one thing is certain; I learnt a lot from those experiences.
In your grinding, you might think nobody is watching or noticing your efforts, trust me, your efforts and work are seen. In due time, the work will be rewarded. I can testify to this statement because over time, I have been in the wilderness tilling the ground to make an impact. I am surprised to get award nominations in addition to being an award recipient on several occasions.
In some other cases, I get recommendations on the streets from people who see my work. One of the major challenges may be having the right person to spot your work. One may be wondering how it works. Let’s take the case of a man, who is trying to woo a lady. The lady in question knows what she wants in a man or the qualities and values. So, when you approach a lady, and she says no, what a rational mind will do is to explore other options that appear to be beneficial to both parties, and who knows in the long run, she might give consent.
Grinding can mean a thousand and one things depending on which aisle one is resting on. According to a notable ghost writer, Dr. Yomi Garnett, “The best pictures of you are yet to be taken. The best stories about you are yet to be told. The best of your years still lies ahead. So, affirm to yourself today: The good days are here, but the best is yet to come.”
So, while waiting for the best pictures, stories, and years ahead, continue to put in the work of learning, exploring opportunities, having faith in the creator and universe, and continue to grind. By so doing, the right opportunities will be attracted to you when the timing and the universe feel it’s for you.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
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