Rebekah Gillespie, CTC
Who are you? Can you give a succinct description of the values and attributes of your business – who you are and why you exist? If you find this hard to do, then chances are that your clients do, too. The idea of cultivating an image that you want your business to convey to others is called branding. It defines who you are and what sets you apart from others. Branding also builds awareness. Independent travel consultants often don’t take the time to think about their brand, that is, how others perceive their business. Although this may seem like one more thing to add to an already full plate of being a soloprenuer, it is the main thing that can help focus your direction as you grow your business and bring in more of your ideal clients while weeding out those who are not.
I discovered the importance of branding after I quit my position as an inside sales consultant and became an independent travel consultant with a host agency. In order to grow my business, I focused on the bridal and honeymoon market in our area. My host agency already had a good reputation in this niche (it was one that I had helped them establish when I worked inside sales for them). So, it seemed like a good idea to continue in this established market since their name was already known in bridal circles.
I worked many bridal shows, using my own money, and I was diligent in following-up with couples. However, I found that I was not getting as many leads as I was expecting, based on previous experience with the bridal market. It turned out that there was not a lack of leads. Instead, couples would remember the name of my host agency, but they would not necessarily remember my individual name. Couples would call the office or send an email to the generic agency address, but they didn’t remember to ask for me. My host agency was benefitting from my marketing efforts because of their strong branding in the bridal market. As an independent contractor, I was getting lost in the mix because their agency brand was much more recognizable and memorable. At that point, I knew that it would be beneficial for me to develop my own brand identity, separate from my host agency. I needed to set myself apart so that potential clients would recognize my business.
While your situation may differ, the importance of creating a brand for your business does not. Five key ways that creating a brand can benefit you as an independent travel consultant are:
– Building recognition
– Building uniqueness
– Setting expectations for your clients and creating trust
– Generating new business
– Providing clarity and focus as you move forward
Building recognition
People feel most comfortable doing business with companies that are familiar to them. It is easy to gain this familiarity if your business is referred to someone by a friend who has worked with you, but what about people who haven’t worked with you previously? This is where branding your business can give you leverage. “If your branding is consistent and easy to recognize, it can help people feel more at ease purchasing your products or services” (Why Is Branding Important?”).
You can build a uniform brand through your logo, your tag line, your marketing materials, and your interactions with people. Use a consistent image in all these areas as you convey the message of who you are. For example, if you have a relaxed and casual tone on your Facebook page, then your marketing materials you send out should carry that same tone. Don’t change your messaging for different audiences.
People will respond to the consistency that they see as they encounter your business via your website, the table you had at the bridal show, or even when talking with you on the phone. This consistency leads to familiarity, which then builds trust between your brand and the client.
Building uniqueness
Prior to the mid-1990s, it was easy to find a travel agent. Brick-and-mortar travel agencies abounded, with a peak of 46,000 offices in the early 1980s (Rice). If someone needed a travel agent, they would frequently go to one of the local agencies in town. With the cutting of airline commissions, followed by the rise of online travel agencies, then the events of 9/11, the number of agencies was reduced by nearly three-quarters. A new business model grew where many remaining agencies and agents closed their physical locations and started working from home offices to help minimize overhead costs. Websites, Facebook pages, and other online presences took the place of a traditional storefront.
The online storefront cut out the cost of rent and other expenses, but it created a new issue that needed to be addressed. Instead of customers deciding which of their local travel agencies they wanted to work with (few options), customers now looked online for travel agents (thousands of options, or more, depending on how general the search terms). How can you differentiate yourself from the thousands of others?
Branding your business is the key to letting potential customers know what makes you unique from the myriad other options available to them. According to The Branding Journal’s article Why Is Branding So Important for Your Business? [+ Real Life Examples], “People don’t tend to have relationships with products, their loyalty and commitment is to the brand.” If there were no branding among travel agencies, people would purchase from any agent because they all look the same.
Branding is what sets your travel business apart from others and what makes clients purchase from you instead of someone else. You may offer the same exact cruise as another travel agent, but your brand and what it represents resonates with that client, causing them to choose you as their travel agent over all the others.
Setting Expectations for Your Clients and Creating Trust
According to Strategy Marketing & Technology Solutions website, “your brand represents you and your promise to your customer” (“Why Is Branding Important?”). A brand promise is a value or experience a company’s customers can expect to receive every single time they interact with that company (“The 5 Building Blocks of an Effective Brand Promise”). You set forth what you will do and clients trust that you will keep the promise you make. Consistency is key.
Bruce Poon Tip, Founder of G Adventures, believes “life revolves around our meaningful connections and how we make people feel. That’s what your brand should be focused on” (Poon Tip 189). As Poon Tip recognized early on with G Adventures (then Gap Adventures), they had to “put together a compelling brand promise if [they] were going to get someone in Denmark to book an African safari with a Canadian company” (Poon Tip 14). The majority of G Adventure’s business comes from places other than the United States and Canada, but according to Poon Tip, “it only works because [they] built a brand promise that was strong enough to withstand challenges from local, conventional-travel competitors” (Poon Tip 15). Clients expect that traveling with G Adventures will allow them to build connections with others – an experience they can’t get with another travel company. By upholding this brand promise, G Adventures has enjoyed strong repeat business and continues to grow.
Keeping your brand promise builds your reputation and creates happy clients. What promise are you making your client and are you consistently keeping that promise?
Generating New Business
A travel experience is something that creates lasting memories. One great vacation can provide a client with many years of happiness. When you create an outstanding experience for your clients, they are more likely to refer you to their friends and colleagues, generating new business for you.
It is easy to get these referrals when the vacation experience is still fresh in a client’s mind. But how can you still get the referrals once months, or even years, have passed since that getaway? The key is in having a strong brand. You want to leave an indelible impression on your clients so that whenever someone asks them about travel, you are the first person that comes to mind.
In addition, having a strong brand will allow you to target and attract new customers. Mary Van de Wiel, founder of The NY Brand Lab, explains how “[a] brand is a complex bundle of feelings. It’s how you’d like the people in your world (customers, tribe, clients) to feel about you and your business. So a brand infused with an irresistible luster is going to make your customers’ hearts beat a little faster. If they’re confused or baffled by your brand, they’re not to going to buy” (Fields). A strong, consistent brand will deliver the message of who you are and what you do for your potential new clients, in turn encouraging them to work with you versus another.
Providing Clarity and Focus in Decision-Making
A strong brand will guide in making decisions by bringing clarity and focus to those decisions. It provides the criteria to use in decision-making. The online company, Zappos, is an excellent example of how to use your branding as a guide. Their brand is solely focused on the best customer service. According to CEO Tony Hsieh, their “philosophy has been to take most of the money [they] would have spent on paid advertising and invest it into customer service and the customer experience instead, letting [their] customers do the marketing for [them] through word of mouth” (Hsieh 142). Some of the decisions they made, based on their brand, include free shipping on orders and returns (to make the transaction as easy as possible for customers), offering a 365-day return policy (to give customers more time to make decisions), staffing a 24/7 U.S.-based call center (to allow customers speak to representatives when it is convenient for customers) and running their warehouse 24/7 (so orders can be filled immediately). These decisions all support their brand of the best customer service and led to Zappos to grow to over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales annually (Hsieh preface).
As a soloprenuer, this may seem applicable only to large companies, but the concept is even more important as resources are more limited for soloprenuers – every dollar counts. A brand will help you focus your marketing efforts so that you are only spending money on marketing campaigns that align with your brand message. This allows you to convey a consistent message to current clients and potential clients instead of just spending money on marketing because an opportunity presents itself. It also gives you the freedom to turn down marketing opportunities if something does not align with your brand. It’s okay to not participate in every community event or sponsor all sorts of organizations if they do not fit with your brand.
Your brand will help you decide which suppliers you want to work with in your business. For example, there are many different tour operators who offer vacation packages to Mexico. Your decision on who you should work with should be based on which tour operator best supports your business brand, as this will carry over to the experience your clients have with their Mexico vacation.
Conclusion
Taking the step to brand your business may seem like a daunting step as a solopreunuer. When I first embarked on creating my brand for my business, it took time to decide what image I wanted to convey and the ensuing brand promise I wanted to make to my clients. I talked with existing clients to determine their perception of my business and see if it aligned with how I envision my business. I then made adjustments to make sure that the brand I project is consistent and that it is the image I wanted to convey.
Considering that creating a strong brand can build recognition for your business, show your uniqueness among other travel agents/agencies, set expectations for your clients and build trust with them, generate new business, and provide clarity and focus as you make business decisions, it is clear that this is an important step to take to make your travel business successful.
Works Cited
Fields, Jonathan. “Branding for Small Business: Does It Really Matter?” American Express Small Business Forum, 11 July 2011, www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/branding-for-small-business-does-it-really-matter/. Accessed 29 April 2017.
Hsieh, Tony. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose. Business Plus, 2010.
Poon Tip, Bruce. Looptail. Business Plus, 2013.
Rice, Kate. “How Many Travel Agents Are There?” Travel Weekly, 03 December 2013, www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Travel-Agent-Issues/How-many-travel-agents-are-there-. Accessed 24 May 2017.
“The 5 Building Blocks of an Effective Brand Promise.” Workfront. 17 January 2017, https://resources.workfront.com/project-management-blog/the-5-building-blocks-of-an-effective-brand-promise. Accessed 26 May 2017.
“Why Is Branding Important?” Strategy Marketing & Technology Solutions, 10 March 2017, https://strategynewmedia.com/why-is-branding-important/. Accessed 14 May 2017.
“Why Is Branding So Important for Your Business? [+ Real Life Examples].” The Branding Journal. www.thebrandingjournal.com/2016/06/why-is-branding-important-business/. Accessed 5 May 2017.
