Can you describe your ‘brand’ in one or two simple sentences? Many people can’t. For a lot of small businesses, the brand lies in the mind of the owner. It is never expressed clearly but rather leaks out in the activities they do and usually in a haphazard way. Because it is not articulated, employees might do things that contradict the brand, and customers have very little chance of understanding it.

Think about some big companies you know about. John Lewis is very clear about its brand (“never knowingly undersold”, delivering quality service and value) and is very successful. Now think about companies with an unclear brand. For example, the Woolworths brand became very confused and the well-known high-street chain eventually disappeared.

In his book Start With Why, leadership expert Simon Sinek talks about the messages businesses give their customers. In it, he introduces the concept of the golden circle. He talks about three concentric circles and labels them What, How and Why, from outside to in.

Most people know what they do. This is easy to describe, but it is not an interesting message because many other people do the same things. Many people can describe how they do the things they do. This is often about how they try to create a competitive advantage – they do it faster or more cheaply.

Rarely will people describe why they do the things they do. This describes their purpose: what they are trying to achieve. However, Mr Sinek suggests that making money is not a purpose; it is a result or outcome. Purpose is a powerful emotional concept. When companies are clear about their purpose and that purpose is valuable to potential customers, they suceed by aligning everything they do to that purpose.

In his book, Mr Sinek uses Apple as an example. In everything that Apple does, it believes in challenging the status quo and doing things differently, and it does this by making devices that are intuitive and easy to use. By starting with why, Apple has engaged with the feelings of many customers. This develops great loyalty to the Apple brand and people will buy the mobile phone (iPhone), music player (iPod), organiser (iPod Touch), tablet (iPad), computer (iMac), television, etc. How many other companies have been able to diversify so effectively and maintain brand loyalty across such a wide portfolio? A number of tech companies have tried and failed.

Let’s put this in the context of a community pharmacy. If you create your brand around how you help people (the why) rather than dispensing prescriptions quickly and accurately (the what and how), how much easier do you think it would be to engage people with services such as MURs, NMS, flu vaccination and minor ailment schemes? Then, when you create explicit marketing messages to support your extensive range of services, how much more likely are people to engage with them of their own accord?