Let’s begin our discussion of developing your sales offerings’ brand identity. For a sale offering to be successful in the marketplace, it must be recognized as a preferred choice over the competition. Otherwise, what would motivate people to choose it over the competition?

To ensure your sales offering becomes a preferred choice, it needs to embrace a profound idea that is (a) extremely meaningful to a targeted audience, (b) uniquely different from the competition, and (c) distinct enough for you to “own” and become recognized as representing. This idea should be so powerful that people buy into your offering on its merit alone. Let's call this “Ownerable and Relevant Differentiated Offering” (ORDO for short).

Well-branded offerings, by definition, are based on clearly defined ORDOs. You can often find it in a company’s mission statement, tag line, slogan or advertising. Fedex’s promise, “Absolutely, positively overnight” or Lands’ End’s “Guaranteed Period,” are examples of obvious ORDOs.
To arrive at your offering’s ORDO, you must research the following three categories, cross-reference them, and then combine their results. The three categories are: You (and your product), Your Competition and Potential Audiences.

Here are some things we need to consider in each category to establish your ORDO:

You: What are your (or your product’s) strengths and weaknesses? How are you unique? Specifically, what strengths do you have over the competition? We'll consider the feasibility of ridding you of your weaknesses and acquiring strengths. It might mean, for example, moving to a better location, hiring certain experts or agents, or investing in better equipment.
The Competition: Your power lies in differentiating from the competition in a meaningful way. We'll Analyze their strengths and weaknesses to determine if there’s a marketplace void you can fill. A good way to differentiate from them is to be their opposite. For example, if their ORDO emphasizes comfort, we'll consider focusing on style; if theirs stresses professionalism, we'll consider touting friendliness.
Potential Audiences: An idea or benefit can rarely be meaningful to everyone. We need to ask: Which type of audience...
would benefit most from your offering (before it’s branded)?
would provide the most profit?
requires the least convincing?
has a natural affinity to your offering?
do you naturally work with best?
is willing to overlook your weaknesses?
have competitors not yet targeted with a similar type offering?
Most importantly, we consider which audience desires your natural strengths most and is most unhappy with your competition’s weaknesses. We boil them down into definitive stereotypes and decide which one is best to target. The more specific your target audience is, the stronger your brand will be. Don’t worry about us being too focused. If properly branded, you should notice equal or more business from peripheral customers and “wanna bes", as from the targeted audience.

Just like diamonds polish each other; rubbing these three components against each other will make your ORDO emerge. The ORDO is the soul of the brand. Your brand’s identity will be built to support it. Discovering your ORDO, therefore, is the very important first step to building a brand’s identity.
P.S. this post was published 11:30 pm. computer clock had wrong time.