Think about the firms that come to mind when someone asks you what brands you want. Ask yourself what it is about that company—that brand—that makes you think positively about it.
Do you occur to associate a brand with the founding father of a company? Because sometimes brands stand out by tapping into the essence of the founder’s personal brand. Or is it the story behind the brand that speaks to you?
Either way, there is no denying that a beloved brand is one of a company’s most beneficial assets.
As a small business, chances are you’ll be always competing with big brands with loyal customers and marketing budgets that never end. You may wonder if it’s even possible to beat them, let alone reach the same level?
The answer is yes. You have to learn to stand out from everyone else. Building a solid brand for today’s consumers is one of those surefire ways. Before you know it, you will be well on your way to becoming the top dog in your industry.
But creating a brand from scratch is no easy feat. It’s greater than just coming up with a catchy logo or a catchy ad.
What exactly is a brand?
In short, your brand is how your customers perceive your organization. It’s the whole lot people think they know about your brand offering—each factual (e.g., it comes in a box the color of a mockingbird’s egg) and emotional (e.g., it’s romantic).
Jeff Bezos once said, “Branding is what people say about you when you’re not around.”
Indeed, your brand is your fame.
Your brand should represent what what you are promoting is about. It should resonate with your audience and make them feel positive each time they see your ad.
Building a brand is definitely a process and requires a strategy. However, consistent efforts will result in establishing long-term relationships with customers.
Why is branding essential to what you are promoting?
Branding is critical for businesses of all sizes because of the overall impact it has. It can change the way people perceive your brand, it will probably drive latest business, and it will probably increase brand value.
Branding is how customers perceive you and what you are promoting plan. Its importance can’t be overstated.
But if done incorrect, branding can do the exact opposite. That’s why it’s greater than crucial to spend as much time as you wish on creating a killer branding strategy.
Strong branding can bring the following advantages to what you are promoting:
- Increasing sales and revenues.
- Attracting latest customers.
- Building trust in the market.
- We will make you stand out in a saturated market.
- Leads to customer loyalty.
- Attracting regular customers.
- We provide a sense of trust in your organization.
- You get monetary savings in the future.
Steps to Building a Killer Brand for the Modern Consumer
Whether you are just starting your personal business or planning to change the image of an existing brand, you need to know that building a brand is a process that requires a rigorously planned and thought-out strategy.
- Discover your brand purpose.
The truth is that behind every successful brand there is all the time a powerful purpose. Ask any seasoned entrepreneur and they are going to agree 100%.
When defining your brand purpose, ask yourself the following questions:
- Why did you begin your organization in the first place?
- What problems do you wish to solve?
- What sets you apart from the competition?
- What would you want to be remembered for?
If you wish to stand out, your brand needs to stand for greater than just your products and services. Purpose keeps you grounded and focused on what really matters. It helps you make the right decisions for what you are promoting.
- Research your competition.
Once you have established your brand purpose, it is time to research competitive brands in your industry.
Since your goal is to differentiate your brand from others so that today’s consumers select you as their top alternative, you need to know who you are competing with. Competitive research needs to be an integral a part of your branding strategy.
There are two principal categories of competitors you need to listen to: direct competitors and indirect competitors.
To higher understand your direct competition, you’ll be able to do the following:
- Conduct market research.
- Check out online communities on social media or forums.
- Ask customers for feedback.
As for indirect competition, it will probably be identified through:
- Keyword research.
- Google search results page evaluation.
- Paid data.
By casting your net wide, you maximize your opportunities to find a competitive advantage.
- Define your audience.
Your audience plays a significant role in your brand. You created your brand because you wish it to have a positive impact on them.
That’s why you need to keep them in mind when building your brand. Your mission and message needs to be tailored to their specific needs.
Below are steps to assist you discover your ideal customers:
- Create buyer personas.
- Conduct market research.
- Identify industry trends.
- Use Google Analytics.
- Define who is not your audience.
Understanding your audience will define every marketing plan and strategy you implement.
- Highlight your brand’s key features and advantages.
Remember, your products, services, and advantages are yours alone. To make your brand memorable, you have to dig deep to discover what you offer that no one else does.
Think about how your brand might help improve the lives of your audience. At this point, we highly recommend writing a value proposition, a easy statement that summarizes why a customer would select your product or service.
It’s like investing in the foundation of a house. You may not see the foundation, but the whole lot you see—and the long-term safety and security of the house—is based on the incontrovertible fact that it has a solid place to start.
- Define your brand voice.
Your brand voice is the way you communicate with your audience and how they respond to you. Whether it’s service-oriented, technical, conversational, or authoritative, you wish to select a voice that resonates with your goal customers.
Tone of voice reflects your brand’s personality, helps you connect with your audience, and sets you apart from others. It describes How we wish to communicate with our audience, not What.
- Come up with a good password.
Sometimes all it takes is a witty tagline to grab everyone’s attention and help them remember your brand. Your tagline can be your tagline—whether it’s in your website header, on what you are promoting cards, in your social media bios, or perhaps even in your personal merchandise.
To assist you get began, we have gathered some suggestions to spark your creativity:
- Be concise and to the point.
- Focus on your unique selling position.
- Make it timeless.
- Don’t overestimate yourself.
- Feel free to use humor.
Struggling with ideas? Here’s a handy tip. Pretend you are creating a brand message as a substitute of a slogan. What would your product say to your customers if it could talk?
- Build a brand story.
Brand history gives you the ability to communicate on a human level, establishing a direct emotional bond with consumers.
When creating it, don’t focus on what your product can do, but explain why it’s essential to your customers. An ideal brand story should have the option to do the following:
- Demonstrate how your product or service can improve the consumer’s life.
- Create a deeper connection with your audience.
- Deal an emotional blow.
- To tell the truth.
Once you have a brand story, you should use it as a launching pad for latest ideas. Review your content, assets, and brand touchpoints to wrap your brand around a story. And be consistent in telling your story so it sounds real, honest, and believable.
- Design your logo.
Perhaps the most fun and essential a part of the branding process is creating a brand logo. After all, it is the face of your organization.
Ideally, your logo needs to be unique, recognizable, and scalable to work at any size (which is often missed). It will appear on the whole lot about what you are promoting. It will develop into your identity, your calling card, and the visual recognition of your promise.
Brainstorming, creating a mood board, and trying out the competition are ways to spark creativity. Everything from color to style to type have to be considered representative of your brand identity.
- Evaluate your brand as you progress.
Building a brand doesn’t end with creating a logo or slogan, or even after your organization is launched.
Your brand needs to exist and be consistent in every single place your customers interact with you – from the theme you select for your website, the marketing materials you create, to the way you package and ship your products.
Final thoughts
A powerful brand is a necessity for almost every company in today’s world where the principles of equal treatment reign.
Lack of proper branding prevents you from emotionally connecting with your audience. This means they are going to not hesitate to move away from you to one other brand they feel connected to.
On the other hand, proper branding keeps customers coming back for more, sets you apart from the rest, and turns one-time customers into loyal brand advocates.