In business, when someone wants what you sell, you want them to think of you, and only you. You want to be first choice. So how do you do it?

I got thinking about this after reading this blog post. It’s a really interesting piece, talking about brand names that have been absorbed into our vocabulary, and have become verbs. The examples they give are ‘to google something’, ‘doing the hoovering’, or ‘making a xerox‘ (which sounds a bit 80′s now!). It’s surely the greatest accolade for any brand that your name finds its way into a dictionary – in terms of ‘brand recognition’ you can’t get much higher!

While most businesses won’t find their name in the pages of a dictionary, this level of recognition is certainly a goal to aim for. You might not be aiming to do it on a global scale, but to be recognised as THE provider of a particular product or service, is a smart goal for any business.

So how do you do it? You need absolute clarity on these four points:
• What is the primary product or service you provide?
• Who is your target market?
• What communication channels will reach them?
• What message do you need to communicate?

Now, that might not put you in a dictionary, but it should make you first choice!