Establishing a brand may seem like your only goal, but perhaps there’s much more to it. Branding is a complex process that involves several critical factors, right from producing to advertising, which is a combinatorial manner required to improve your brand performance’s efficiency.
You may look out for shortcuts to increase your brand presence. However, these easy-go methods can be superficial and would not suit a long-term benefit business.
Discover your purpose!
To define your brand’s purpose, you need to pose specific questions and be able to answer them. these include:
– Why is your business important?
You need to give characteristic features that make up your business and evaluate the need to have your company.
For instance, Amazon is a multi-network company that has, through its products and services, proclaimed to be one of the best online shopping websites where millions of people make purchases, making it a strong E-commerce network.– What change will your product bring in the society?
You can have hundreds of products, but there will rift in the market if all of them provide the same service. Here it would be best to define how your product is different from the rest and its edge over its competitors.
– How does your business empower others?
This can include empowering your employees, customers, or other small-scale businesses that rely on your business. Your business should be able to inspire your counterparts and open new experiences.
Know your Position!
The first important aspect of branding is to understand where you stand within the crowd. Knowing your position enables you to improvise because, remember, there’s always a space for improvement. To know this, you need to answers this question:
How do customers perceive your brand?
They might have various opinions, and you might have a different take altogether. A fall in business usually occurs due to a difference in mentality between the producers and consumers. Most of the time, this builds a bridge between the brand creators and the audience.
One possible way to re-evaluate your position is to ask your customers about their opinions on the brand Name, Slogans, Packages, and delivery.
To understand this relationship, you could design surveys, feedbacks reviews from your customers to know their thoughts and use the same data to change their perception.
Another aspect includes competitor research that most branding companies do not indulge in before setting up a brand strategy. This research will help you develop your sense of uniqueness compared to your competitors in the market.
For instance, Nike and Adidas have been rivals but have sufficed in the market for over decades. This is because of the uniqueness that these brands possess. However, they sell almost the same products, but the makeup and service to the customer matter.
Create a strong tagline and logo!
A strong tagline and log have been said to be essential features that help your brand reach higher. A logo is a symbol related to your company, while a tagline is a phrase or a statement that reflects the primary goal of your company.
A well-designed tagline and a logo are like a trailer that gives a glimpse of your products and services.
For instance, when you think of brands like Starbucks, Apple, Nike, or BMW, what first comes to your mind is their logo which makes that unique and recognizable. It is a natural human tendency to remember pictures and figures more than other written stuff.
But what makes it so important?
- A strong tagline and logo gain some strong attention from the crowd.
- It creates an excellent first impression and strong impact.
- It forms the foundation of your business.
- People may not remember you, but they will remember the logo and the tagline.
- Makes you stand out in the crowd.
- They reflect the goals of your company.
- Give an identity to your brand.
- Helps you differentiate from your competitors.
- You hold a patent for it.
- Pivotal for every brand strategy.
Pivot on Messaging and Targeting!
One of the main aims of the company should be identifying and understanding its target audience. Most successful brands have devoted themselves to procuring knowledge about their customers and their needs within the specific time frame.
Optimization of brand products is likely when you know your audience thoroughly. Apart from that, gauge into ways that make these connections more manageable and more robust. Your customer care services play a vital role in finding a grip and constantly letting your customers know that you care.
Your content marketing strategies need to be aligned to encompass all your target audiences. Be it Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest, make the best use of these sites to market your product and reach a larger audience instantly.
For instance, you may own an electronic franchise and seek to increase your target audience through social media sites such as Instagram. One can use these sites for brand promotions, endorsements, and even advertisements. To increase your followers and in return to increase your target group, you can come up with exciting offers or strategies such as giveaways, contests, and quizzes. It increases the hype surrounding your account and, therefore, increases your brand’s reach.
List out your brand’s positives and benefits!
By doing so, you are filtering what’s good and what needs improvement. So when you focus on the positives, you are better prepared to face any questions that come forth to you. Start by telling your brand story. It’s about addressing to the crowd why and how you thought of designing the product. It may be your struggle, but remember, every successful brand today is backed by a story known by a few. These point out the positives of your brand.
What about benefits?
One needs to define benefits in various aspects. These include:
Economic benefits
They describe your products and services and how important they are to the customers. They also focus on the well-being of your brand, if your company is making a good profit or if it is sinking.
Functional benefits
These include the work that is done by the products and services. Every company produces services that need to be functional. Here, they emphasize if the company’s sole purpose, that is, functions of the products and services, are met.
Emotional benefits
They describe the emotions related to customers. How do the customers feel about your products and services? They are said to be the most potent benefits because they are associated with the heart of your customers.
Your focal point – Value!
Understanding your target audience is the first step in adding value to your product and service. For instance, if your product is designed to be cheap and affordable, you might not attract a crowd that gets lured to hyped-up expensive products. Rather your customer base will common individuals that look for reasonable pricing.
You may even plan to design new pricing strategies that would target the luxurious class, but by doing so, you tend to try to group your brand value propositions. For instance, your brand may sell clothes for less than a 100 dollar or over 2,000 dollars. Here two different value propositions are set, focusing on two other target groups but collectively, you sought to increase your target group.
Once you filter and target this crowd, adding a solid value proposition should be the next goal on your list. For instance, the motto of WhatsApp is “No ads, no games, no gimmicks,” this summarizes that one can use text, voice call, video call their loved ones in one app, and it’s all ad-free. This is adding value which has attracted millions of audiences to WhatsApp.
Build strong connections!
Connections between you and your audience are essential for a healthy and sustainable long-term business. Find ways in which you connect to your audience in more emotional and sensible ways. Your audience should feel wanted and appreciated.
You may have a loyal customer base, but what have you given them in return?
Come up with offers, discounts, seasonal sales, birthday month offs to make your relationship better and stronger with your customer base.
For instance, Walmart makes it easier for customers to shop online or through their stores. They have solely indulged in creating high conversation rates that attract customers towards their basket values. By selling things cheap and affordable, they develop a sense of understanding between them and their customers.
Here are a few ways to increase connections with your customers.
- Learn about your customers- gather data such as demographics, birthdays, passion, and likes.
- Personalize communication- make one-to-one communication more straightforward and more manageable.
- Focus on customer feedback- good or bad, improvise always.
- Be honest- tell them about any deficiencies and be sure to fight back more robustly.
- Customer knowledge- educate your customers with information and resources.
- Customer rewards- to capture confidence.
Relevancy is the key!
It would be best if you were relevant to be consistent in your brand strategy. If you fail consistency, you will likely be less consistent in your branding policies. Even the slightest change in your product and service can alter your customer’s thoughts and perception about your b, causing your business to fullness.
Your marketing and advertising strategies have to be consistent. If your company is engaged in external offline work, let your online member know about it. Promote your brand business through online content marketing strategies such as writing blogs, updating social media posts, regularly managing and upgrading your online website page.
There should be consistency in the tone and working of your company across online and offline modes. If your brand is full of humor and fun on Instagram, it should have the same person on Facebook or other social media site. If your brand focuses on food, then the flavors need to be consistent.
For instance, KFC offers consistency with their secret ingredients, and you know, no matter in which state you are in, the service, pricing, and most importantly, the flavors should be exact and consistent.
Cause Originality Counts!
This may be last on our list but should be first on yours. Following the same path taken by other brands may get you feeling safe, but there’s no fun if risks aren’t accepted—the trends in the market spike towards brands that speak for originality and authenticity.
Mimicking others will not make you stand in the crowd, provided you have a solid plan that could overtake the market. For instance, Thomas cook Airlines was one of the top brands in the aviation sector. However, due to increased competition in the market, it collapsed with bankruptcy.
On the other hand, brands like UPS and FEDEX are rivals that have sustained in this competition. The former operates the world’s cargo airplanes, while the latter deals with ground vehicles with thousands of delivery trucks in operation. Though UPS is in a pleasant situation and remains dominant, both brands set a strong footprint in the international markets.
The bottom line!
Branding can be entitled as an art that can be learned by some but mastered by a few. It creates a legacy based on position, targets, connections, value, and relevancy.
You may look out for some more factors, but all these are cumulatively required to form a good structure and long-lasting business. Apart from that, you may feel that these aspects need to be considered only when venturing into a new business. But it is essential to learn that these crucial features remain valid throughout the company’s age and should be in working throughout your brand life.
Since you are now aware of these critical factors, your next step is to include them while designing your branding strategy. Following these steps can build a niche that helps you be consistent and flourish within the business environment and give a tough fight to your competitors.
