How Do Brands Work?
What do Starbucks, Home Depot, Levenger and Williams-Sonoma have in common? They represent consumer brands that communicate emotional messages when you hear their names. Each of these companies recognizes the power of their brands. They pay attention to the smallest details that make their brands attractive and emotionally appealing.
What else do these brands communicate? If you were blindfolded and taken inside any of these retail outlets, could you tell where you were? Of course, the layout, colors and products sold by each company are consistent from one retail outlet to another. Each of these companies recognizes their brand is their promise to their customers. They are careful to keep that promise by maintaining consistency from location to location.
Additionally, these brands transcend the products they sell and focus on their customers’ experiences. Starbucks is more than a cup of coffee. They focus on creating the environment that increases your enjoyment of drinking the coffee. Home Depot is more than hammers and nails; they focus on teaching do-it-yourself types how to build a deck or install a new water heater. Williams-Sonoma sells spoons and toasters by conducting cooking demonstrations. And, Levenger sells expensive pens and library furniture by romancing the art of handwritten correspondence and hardcover books.

How Can Home Based Agents Benefit From Branding?
So, how does the branding success of four retail giants translate into tools that individual Home Based travel professionals can use?
First, acknowledge that many consumers do not know travel agents exist. Many consumers think travel agents disappeared when Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz appeared. That’s because these online brands consistently tell consumers that the lowest prices are only available through them. This is not true, but Home Based travel professionals have not focused on creating branding messages to counter their online competitors’ claims.
Additionally, Home Based travel professionals’ Web sites, newsletters, direct mail and advertisements promote travel products, bargains, deals, and lowest prices, while ignoring the real reason consumers travel — the experience and the stories they can tell when they return home.
If Starbucks set out to only sell cups of designer coffee, they would still have one location in Seattle. Instead, they focused on the ritual or experience of drinking coffee. They installed “Friends” sofas in their stores, promoted hanging around to talk, read and surf the Web. They introduced guests to new music and artists. They invented new scone flavors and brought-back the old-fashioned memories associated with Rice Krispies’ marshmallow treats.
The Starbucks brand was founded on the coffee-drinking experience, rather than on selling a cup of coffee. Likewise, if a Home Based agent sets out to only sell cruises, they will limit their growth and battle price competition during every sale. On the other hand, if they create a brand for themselves that speaks to planning girlfriends’ trips, family travel, Italian cooking school travel or dude ranch experiences, they will tap into the emotional power of branding and transcend price competition that stems from selling commodity products.
Next, Home Based travel professionals need to become secure in knowing that when they promote their knowledge, expertise and skills in creating extraordinary travel experiences, consumers will focus on the aspirational or emotional component of travel which, in turn, will move price to a less prominent position.
If this sounds too esoteric to be practical, consider the difference between a 4-day Princess cruise cabin and a couple relaxing in an orchid blossom scented hot tub at sunset after an invigorating horseback ride along a white sand beach. The cruise cabin is a price-sensitive commodity while the hot tub experience is priceless and appeals to the consumer’s emotions.

To Brand or Not to Brand
The Home Based travel professional’s business decision is straightforward: promote travel products and “deals” and prepare to compete on price, or promote your brand that accents your knowledge and expertise in creating extraordinary travel experiences and compete on your ability to understand and exceed your prospects’ emotional desires.
Branding offers an effective marketing tool that tugs on your prospects’ emotions by promoting your ability to design extraordinary travel experiences. Your brand communicates relevance, simplicity and humanity, and that brand will always triumph over technology. People like to buy travel from people. Many just don’t know how to locate you or what you do.

Your Brand Is Your Promise
Branding grabs your prospect’s emotions and moves the conversion away from “needing” a vacation toward “wanting” a romantic getaway.
When prospects start thinking more about travel experiences and less about airplane seats, hotel rooms or cruise cabins, their focus shifts from objective cost comparison to subjective feelings about how much they value you, your knowledge and your ability to create extraordinary travel experiences. This shift, of course, also changes your role from price-dispensing: reservations-making: travel commodities broker for seats, rooms, cars and cabins to a valued and trusted professional travel advisor creating extraordinary travel experiences that will last a lifetime.
Essentially, a brand is a set of mental associations that are linked to a company, a product, an individual or a service. These associations reside in the memory of your prospects and customers. They help prospects and customers understand what you do, how this is relevant and how this is different or similar to other companies, individuals, or services.
Consumers consider brands to be a promise to deliver a specific set of expectations. Because your promise is unique and based on your knowledge, expertise and experience, your brand is unique and differentiates you from all others.

Implementing Your Brand
Consumers benefit from brands because they receive promises of features and benefits, but how do you start building your brand?
First, you clearly communicate what you do. It helps you shift your prospect’s perception of you from a reservation-making travel agent to a valuable and creative source for travel experience planning. It helps shift your prospect’s obsession with price toward imagining how they will feel and what they will do while they travel.
Now that you have an understanding of branding, consider this marketplace dialogue.
Prospect: “What is your price for this 4-day cruise?”
Travel Professional: “Hello, my name is Scott, what’s yours? [pause for answer] I will be delighted to secure the best price for you once we’ve discussed what you want from this cruise experience. Now, to get started, may I have your phone number and E-mail address?”
At this point, if the prospect refuses to provide his name, phone number and E-mail address, you should refuse to give any of your knowledge, experience or expertise. Most of all, you should refrain from quoting a price. This approach gives you and your brand integrity because you are planning a memorable experience rather than selling a commodity product based on price.
One of the important principles of branding is that you always “get” something (name, E-mail address, phone number, etc.) before you “give” something. This includes price quotes to shoppers. If you make “get before you give” a cornerstone of your brand, you will take a giant step toward delivering the value your brand promises. Your knowledge, experience, and expertise possess great value and you must protect that value by always “getting” something before delivering your valuable knowledge.

To begin constructing your brand, answer the following questions:
1. What skills do you bring to the travel planning process that turns reservations into experiences?
2. How do you approach the travel planning processes? What questions do you ask? Why are the answers to those questions important?
3. Describe a few of the most satisfying travel experiences you have created.
4. What do you previous customers say about you?
Arrange the answers to these questions along with a photo of you and your customers enjoying unique travel experiences on your branding Web page. Then convert the Web page to a one-page flyer, and an E-mail template.

Viral Branding
Branding is not just for large companies or for consumer products. Every product and service benefits from a strong and consistent brand. Today, brands can even be communicated inexpensively. E-mail broadcasts, Web sites and viral marketing (word-of-mouth) are very effective and very inexpensive ways of establishing your brand.
Once you have your Web page, flyer and E-mail template, you can start spreading the word. Consider every contact an opportunity to communicate and spread your brand.
Remember, when you lead with product and price, your next marketplace conversation will end with discounting and rebating. When you lead with your brand that demonstrates your knowledge, experience and expertise, you become a unique product that cannot be shopped or compared.

In addition to volunteering as chairman of The Travel Institute, Scott Ahlsmith, CTC, is the president & CEO of Host agency Magellan360, as well as the president & CEO of eSMART Communications, creators of YOU! the Brand, which delivers brand management services for individual travel professionals. Scott welcomes your comments and feedback and can be reached at scott@you-the-brand.com
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