Building your brand is the heart and soul of your company, it is responsible for influencing audience perception, driving advocates to your organization, and differentiating you from your competitors.
After all, building a brand isn’t just choosing a logo or picking the perfect name. The right brand is the product of various interconnected factors, all designed to change how people think and feel about your business.
In this article, we will give you a quick guide on how to succeed in building your brand.
Branding a product or a service? Which one is easier?
First things first, you need to know whether are you branding your company, or something that your company offers – a product or service?
Although branding has a common foundation in general, there are differences between branding products and branding services.
Branding a product
Branding products can be somewhat less complex than branding services. Branding something with a physical form and an instant “effect” is much simpler.
For example, you will be able to tell if the quality of the clothes you purchased does not meet your expectations immediately after wearing them. Therefore, product branding may be difficult, but it is much simpler because it concentrates on specific features that purchasers will notice before making a purchase.
Branding a service
Branding a service on the contrary is different. There are some services with quick results and others that require a bit more time to produce results. Such services require long-term branding. Essentially, they require a plan that will persuade the customer/client to trust the services even if the outcomes are not immediately apparent.
Simply put, you should concentrate on leveraging visual and audible stimuli to attract new clients if you are selling things. If, on the other hand, you are selling services, you should develop a branding strategy that focuses on establishing a relationship of trust with your target audience.
However, keep one thing in mind. Branding extends beyond the products and services. It concerns the profile of the entire organization, your reputation, and your desired recognition in your field and this is what effective branding can achieve for you and your company.
Research your target audience
After knowing what are you branding, you will need to research your target audience.
It’s proven that knowing your buyers personas will guarantee that you are targeting the right people. Focusing on their wants and how you can help solve their problems in order to establish a positive reputation.
It’s not about how great or powerful you are, but rather how intelligently and effectively you can handle your customers’ problems. Of course, It is impossible to please everyone.
By answering the following questions, you may personalize your objective and messaging to your target audience.
- What are their demographics?
- What is their Age, gender, and location?
- How do they obtain their knowledge?
- Do they experience any challenges?
- How can I ease their challenges?
Here’s an example that illustrates a buyer’s persona
Knowing your buyer’s persona is crucial. According to statistics, 80% of marketers have said that target audience-tailored content on social media is more effective than non-target audience-tailored content.
Highlight your brand’s purpose
Defining your brand’s purpose should be the first step your company takes, even before developing its vision, mission, and values.
Identifying the purpose of your brand allows you to understand how you can adapt to the changing and evolving needs of your target audience.
To define your brand’s purpose, you must go back in time and ask yourself: Why did you start your company? What market-need or gap were you attempting to fill? What issues were you attempting to resolve?
Thinking of your brand as a solution to an existing problem in your community or in society as a whole adds value to the products or services you provide.
Here’s the golden circle for branding made by Simon Sinek
The 3 Parts of The Golden Circle:
Your purpose is the driving force behind any and all things that you do. Every single aspect of your branding needs to reflect this to ensure a strong brand identity.
Defining the following will give you more direction:
- Vision – the what. This is the sole reason for your brand’s existence
- Mission – the how. The action that your brand is taking to bring your vision to life
- Values – the why. The driving force behind your vision and mission
Establish a brand identity
Choose your brand’s name
You are aware of your intended audience and brand positioning. Now is the time to choose a significant brand name.
This is one of the most essential features that distinguish your brand. The ideal name should condense into a single word all your customer needs to know about you.
Your brand’s name should be:
- Meaningful: It expresses the core message, conjures an image, and fosters a positive emotional connection.
- Distinctive: It is distinct, memorable, and distinguishes you from your competitors.
- Protectable: You can trademark it, register a domain name for it, and “own” it both legally and in the public consciousness.
- Future-proof: It can evolve with the company while remaining relevant and can be adapted for different products and future brand extensions.
- Visual: You can translate it using design elements such as icons, logos, colors, and so on.
You can check this great blog about How to Choose a Good Brand Name.
Here’s a FREE brand name generator that can inspire you.
Choose the look of your brand
Your logo and colors of your brand are of the most important aspects to take care of, as this will be the visual and memorable part of your brand. You will need to understand the Psychology of Colors and choose the right colors that reflect your brand’s purpose.
Research your competitors
In order to stand out, you must be aware of your brand’s direct and indirect competitors.
Competitor research enables you to determine your optimal market position.
Effective research includes an in-depth investigation of competitors’ or benchmark brands in order to find gaps, areas of potential, and distinguishing factors for brand positioning.
The objective of this stage of the brand strategy framework is to stake your claim on the market and in the customers’ minds.
You can study and analyze the following:
- Brand message
- Visual identity
- Customer satisfaction
- Search engine marketing
- Blog content
- Social media involvement
Knowing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses will allow you to comprehend your edge and advantage.
And because you have previously developed your audience, you can establish the one major differentiator that is most important to them.
You may conduct a SWOT analysis to determine the competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
Here’s what a SWOT analysis can look like
You can check this link to know more about conducting a Competitive Analysis.
Promote your brand
Expanding your brand by promoting it is the final piece of the branding puzzle. You can’t expect to set up all of the above points and then sit back and watch your brand grow.
You must do everything possible to get your brand in front of your target audience; otherwise, your competition will outperform you.
You can do the following to promote your brand:
- Run promotions and advertisements.
- Create social media accounts and share relevant content; engage your audience by starting conversations and participating in relevant communities.
- Create a website that you can link to from your ads and social media.
- Improve your Google profile through SEO (search engine optimization), so that users can find your website when searching the web.
Include your brand voice and personality in whatever method or methods you choose, and be consistent with your images and messages.
Conclusion
In today’s competitive world, branding is a marathon not a race. A strong brand is a must-have for any business. While developing a powerful brand takes time, however, in order to be successful over the long run, it is necessary to have an all-encompassing brand strategy.
You can’t connect with your customers on an emotional level unless you have the right branding. This means that any customer will leave your company as soon as they find another brand which they can connect with.
Finally, building your brand identity is what keeps people coming back for more, distinguishes you from the competition, and converts one-time customers into devoted brand advocates.
In order to have a great branding strategy you will need to hire professional branding experts, At SupportFinity we made it easy to either hire Freelancers or Employees worldwide.
Explore how to hire great brand experts from here.
Read more at SupportFinity’s blog.
