I recently attended a seminar held by Melvin D. Nelson, co-author of Business Model Innovation. In his speech, Mel (yeah, we’re on a first name basis now) talked about the importance of business models, making sure the idea of the business made sense and it generates wealth for the company and its customers.

It seems basic, but it’s surprising how many businesses stumble by foregoing the most fundamental management and marketing principles.

To avoid a business catastrophe, I argue for the development of both a business and brand story. Realistically, the story should be the same.  Here’s how to do it.

Choose which product benefit your brand wants to convey – price, quality or service. Let the “Invisible Hand” dictate which of these categories best suits your business. Next, rally your business around this category. By fixating on delivering the best price, quality or service, everyone in the organization drives to the same goal. This makes branding easy, okay, it makes branding easier.

Here’s a rundown of the three categories and how you can take the next step towards creating a brand story that promotes how your company provides the best price, quality or service.  Keep in mind, success comes from promoting only one of these. Trying to be everything to everyone leads to empty consumer promises, generic marketing and a lot of wasted resources.

Price

“Winning” on price is awesome. Price drives consumers, especially under the current economic conditions. But “winning” isn’t everything. In an effort to keep prices low, other things get sacrificed. Maybe the quality’s lower or the store is minimally staffed to reduce overhead.  Something has to give.  If price is the primary selling point, be weary of overusing coupons. Special offers increase traffic, but if customers expect sales in addition to already low prices or only purchase the loss-leader items, more cuts will need to be made to quality and service. It’s a vicious cycle.

Good branding minimizes or eliminates the internal price-war cycle. Price requires more than just promoting slashed prices. It requires justification of why the price is lower. Maybe your company gets its products direct from the warehouse or removes some other luxury to lower the bottom line. IKEA and Southwest Airlines are masters at this. People don’t need to expect coupons to buy the services and products they offer.

Quality

Sadly, the word quality gets kicked around more than a Hacky Sack at a Phish concert.  To me, quality means the best – not the best bang for the buck. A business story that fixates on quality means their well-pour is the price guys’ top-shelf.  This no-matter-what philosophy is easier said than done, especially when you consider factors like planned obsolescence, which are used by price-driven companies to make future sales. In addition, selling higher quality goods generally requires a more knowledgeable sales staff which may increase the cost of labor.

Quality is the easiest thing to defend. Branding efforts can be specific to address a particular item or more general to reflect the entire company. It screams justifiable logic and support with empirical evidence. “Hey consumer, would your rather buy a widget at $50 every two years or would you rather buy a $100 widget every five years?” Quality can also be positioned through process, “our product is manufactured in this way, taking these steps to ensure its done right.” BMW cars, Bose speakers and Brita water filters nail quality. Brita’s approach mirrors the “buy this once” principle. Bose throws more detailed body copy into its ad than any other product I’ve seen (I could write an entire article on my love of the Bose long copy, but I’ll spare you my nerdery this month). You may not buy the four-figure speaker, but if you read the ads, you’ll want to.

Service

Service is the most elusive of the three product benefit categories. Being treated well by a company is expected. Courteous employees and accountability for mistakes should be the norm of every company. So what is service? Your business story should demand reverence for the customers. But service can be paired down into convenience or knowledge. Convenience means speed or ease. It’s that simple. Convenience eliminates hassle to enhance the user experience. Knowledge-based service invites the customers to ask questions and be educated on the service they want. This service doesn’t mean a bunch of die-hards working at the front desk, it means willingness to invest the time and resources to enhance the customer experience through trust and relationships. Selection is the third sub-category of service. Big box stores or boutiques both benefit (holy alliteration Batman) by offering either a wide variety of options or items that are unique.

Branding service, like all other product categories, require justification and an understanding of “how” a company provides superior service. It also means explicitly stating which aspect of service your company wants to address – speed, knowledge or selection. From there, your company can niche-out and help the customer make their purchasing decision. Speed should be shown by demonstrating what steps are being removed. Certifications, years of experience or consultation offerings tell the knowledge story. Selection has its own subsets (see how this can get tricky?) and can be presented in a myriad of ways but it’s important to give selection its own tone. For example, a funky boutique should always be funky in whatever it does, whereas a giant furniture store should always show how in-fashion, yet diverse it is.  For national brand examples, look to Amazon.com for convenience, Radio Shack for knowledge and Target for stylized selection at an affordable price.

A brand story and a business story are important. The seminar I mentioned wasn’t just about businesses models, it was also about why businesses fail. Trust me when I say a brand story matters. Normally, I’d close this article by pitching Absolute’s services and how we can help, but I feel so morbid talking about business failure that I’ll leave you with this nugget instead.

Superman is my least favorite superhero. He has no flaws. His invulnerability makes him boring. Spiderman is a much better superhero. Just look at the box office. Why is he more successful? Because we can relate. We love him for his flaws. We cheer for his success. The same can be said about business. No one wants a be-all-end-all provider. We want to buy from a company who knows themselves and accepts their own shortcomings, but is the very best at what they do. Those are the companies that we root for.