I have to say branding is not for everyone. For those who really want to stand out in a crowded market or industry, branding should be a backbone in large, mid, small organizations including retail businesses. A brand is actually a sense of identity, your purpose, services offered and any other factors, which distinguish you from others. It defines your company’s commitments, policies, values, strengths and passion towards achievement of goals. Branding simply describes what people actually think of you when you are not in the room. In order to succeed, the brand that offers a comprehensive and unbiased image of the company wins the day at last.
Great brands begin with great ideas. Your brand starts with an original and remarkable product or service built on a standard of quality. A brand can lend status, enhance an experience or make the price feel right. Your branding idea must directly align with the expectation of the customers. In simple words, your brand describes whom you are and what are you offering apart from the competitors. Two primary things to consider in any branding situation:
Brand strategy:
Your brand strategy means that how, when, where, what and to whom (niche or audience) you have planned to communicate and deliver on your brand messages. Advertising being the important aspect for any business is also a part of your Brand strategy. Your supply channels and what you actually communicate is also the part of it.
Brand Development:
As we have already seen how important brand can be for the companies. In order to enhance and add value to the established brand, let’s go through what actually brand development means?
Brand Development could be referred as a journey of business self-discovery. Research regarding your customers and their habits, values and personal preferences is essential as well. And don’t rely on what you think they think. You should know what they think. This process might be time consuming, difficult, complex and unpleasant but it’s totally worth doing it.
Defining your brand is one of the important factors in the development process. Branding basically helps to develop the basis of strategies on which other components will rely. Your brand definition will define you, your products, your services, your employees and your marketing strategies to cope with future challenges. In order to make things easy, let’s go through some of the brand development strategies.
- Are you really following the correct path?
Similarly to effective brand management, it defines your brand objectives that it needs to achieve and the targeted brand audience. Customers are expecting something unique from you. They won’t be persuaded at all if you offer the same incentives and products as offered by any other supplier. Research marketing would surely help to develop a strong and persuading tactics. Your goals define your existence. Customers would also have a keen interest in your future development programs as they are expecting to receive something unique but quality ensured. You must clearly have the idea what you offer and how you offer. It’s quite useless spending time and money in developing the brand without understanding the basis of your logo and what your audience is expecting.
- Know Your Audience:
Your value project must be relevant to your target market. This means your target market must be identified and clearly defined. While considering your brand policies, always remember whom you are offering your product and what they are expecting you to deliver.
Know exactly which of your products are more likely to persuade certain individuals, like single moms who work from home, students studying abroad etc. Policies according to your plans, products and your audience should than be adopted.
- Know your competitor strategy:
Although, I am discussing this point a bit early, but in some cases it actually helps you to develop some smart strategies. You should never impersonate exactly what the big brands are doing in your industry. But you probably should know what they do well and where they fail. Research about your main competitors, their strategies and identify the factors that lead to build their effective or ineffective brands. Examples might include,
- Are they regular with their message and visual identity among the customers?
- Knowing the quality of their products and services.
- Do they have strong customer reviews that you can read, or any other social discussion about them?
- Indicate Your Brand key qualities and benefits:
In this modern day technology, there will always be brands with more budgets and resources to have a complete command over their brand development policies. But do remember that, your products, services and profits solely belongs to you. You must think out of the box and figure out what you could offer and others won’t. Focus on the qualities and benefits that makes your brand ‘Your Brand’. However, you could adopt any policy like offers more promising service than others, better quality products or services, ensured delivery at doorsteps or you could save money to spend on another project.
We all have probably used at least one Apple product. Have you ever thought why we always consider buying one of the Apple products? Well, Apple is obviously not just another mobile company. The key to their success is clean design and user-friendly products. From unique accessories to their unexpected announcement dates, Apple has always been the best competitor and has persuaded the customers that products can be used right out of the box.
- Know Your Responsibility:
Customers made commitments with your brand because to expect something that is not offered by other suppliers. And, as a strong and consistent brand puts the customer at ease as they know what to expect from you. Customers expect that you keep up to the promise of providing quality products and services. So, your product must perform according to the standards set by the market. Unless, you decided to change your operations into something more effective due to customer reviews and strong preference, consistency is the key. Consistently changing your brand will ultimately create confusion among the customers and even your staff and thus will make long-term brand decisions even more difficult.
- Create a brand logo, tagline and website:
The most basic and probably the most important aspect of building a brand, is the development of your company logo, tagline and probably website. It will be on everything that relates to your business, whether it’s a promotion card, formal letters, emails and anything relating to your advertising campaigns.
Logo is a mixture of visual and verbal aspects which helps to get the basic idea of your brand. It is probably the easiest and most major component in the advertising campaign. They are intended to be the ‘face’ of your business. Your logo defines products, services, and relationship with the customers and your unique identity.
Website plays a vital role in the development of your brand. In this modern era of technology, website is probably the most effective tool in persuading the customers. This is your global access and medium to explain what you really offers, your commitments to future developments, how friendly is your working environment, who your clients are and potential clients you need . Friendly working environment is an important tool in attra
cting more customers, as your company would be regarded as friendly and caring, hence increasing the overall profit. Your website would probably contain valuable information which reflects your motivation, commitment to task and the efficiency of the operations. This will not only convince the existing customers but would also persuade new customers to know about the company.
While developing the tagline, make sure that you write a memorable, meaningful and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand.
- Color and Design Matters:
First expression is the last expression. We all heard that phrase mostly when we are going for the interview
or such things. But in business context, it has a deep impact, as your logo with your web properties could be an effective persuader. Customers due to their physiological nature are more likely to be attracted to colorful and easy to read logos appearance on digital platforms. In simple words, it creates a general impression about your brand and in order to make it an effective impression, be willing to invest money and time in developing ideal logo insync with look and feel of your website.
- No one knows your brand better than you, so it’s up to you to spread the word:
You heard that right, it’s completely up to you how you represent your brand in the most effective way. Once you have built an effective brand, you and your employees are the best advocates to market your brand. One must remember that your brand reflects you, your employees and the commitments you made in the mission statement. This can be achieved in numerous ways such as,
- When hiring your employees, make sure that they culture fit–aligning with the mission, vision, and values of your brand.
- Ensuring a friendly environment. This tactic is largely seen to persuade many customers unconsciously. Know the factors which helps to keep the employees motivated and to work with their full potential.
- Ensures customer satisfaction even after the delivery has been made. This not only improves the relationship among the customers but also helps to create a strong image of your brand.
Conclusion:
The most effective brands are built on the commitments made. When there is a strong commitment, operations are likely to be effective and customers receive the promised products. A simple idea could eventually be the greatest brand if the staff are willing to co-operate, commit and can deliver on time.
The brands are the most effective tool in the marketing and advertising campaign of any company. You cannot sell anything if people don’t know who you are and what you are offering. In order to make sure that you dominate your competitor, your brand should be an effective one, clearly showing the most prominent aspects of you and your product and services.
