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The success of a business is dependent on much more than the quality of the products it sells. After all, within an industry, at least a handful of firms sell the same items. What then ensures the success of a business?
Branding!
As per Contently, over 60 percent of consumers prefer purchasing from brands that offer unique content. Label Insight claims that transparency ensures brand loyalty in approximately 92 percent of consumers.
While branding is effective, it is not easy to implement. For instance, as per Pam Moore, it takes at least five impressions to ensure a brand’s recognition. However, if done right, and consistently across platforms, it can increase the revenue by 23 percent.
Crayola doesn’t just deliver crayons. Instead, the purpose of the brand revolves around unleashing the originality found in every child. Dove isn’t just a beauty soap. It is a symbol that helps women in developing a positive relationship with themselves, just the way they are.
Developing a robust brand purpose will help you in differentiating your brand. Even if there are similar products in the market, your product will get a unique identity of its own.
To best define your brand purpose, ponder over the reason of your business’s existence, the problem your product solves, or wishes to solve, the thing that differentiates you and why consumers should care about you.
This will help you in forming a brand purpose and vision, which you will then reflect through your tagline, brand story, visuals, and other communications.
Know your target audience, in and out
You might have heard of the famous yet cliché adage, “Customers are King.” This is extremely true when building a brand.
A successful brand is one which caters to the needs and interests of their target audience. If you fail to do so, your business will become irrelevant and hence experience a dip in sales.
Therefore, make sure to tailor your efforts around your target audience. For this, you must know them inside out. Identify your ideal buyer’s demographics, concerns, wants, lifestyle, and interests. Then see how you can become relevant in their world.
Moreover, use the information gathered about your audience to create campaigns that are most likely to be effective. For instance, while for an older audience, email marketing may be a good idea; a younger audience can be easily found on social media.
In this case, you can use various new social media marketing techniques to engage with your customers. Identify the core platforms they are using and launch effective campaigns.
Draft a brand mission and tagline
Once you have defined your brand purpose, you need to draft a brand mission. This a short, clear expression of the main reason your brand exists.
Use the insights you have gotten during your target audience research as well as brand purpose brainstorming to come up with a brand mission that best positions your brand in the market.
This brand mission will then be reflected in your brand tone, personality, and tagline. Therefore, it is, by far, the most meaningful phrase. It is the answer you give when someone asks you what your company does.
For instance, Nike’s tagline might be “Just Do It,” but their mission revolves around bringing innovation and inspiration to every athlete present in the world. And to broaden its target audience, Nike defines an athlete as anyone having a body!
This mission is reflected everywhere. Each of their ads aims to inspire. They use athletes belonging to different sports, whether it be golfing, or football to showcase the extensive use of the brand. And their tagline, too, is a reflection of what they wish to achieve.
Build a brand voice and image
While a business may talk to its audience in a bland formal way, a brand converses in a way that is in line with its image, mission, and the audience it is catering to.
Consider your brand positioning, mission, and target audience to build a brand voice. You can choose to be friendly, professional, authoritative, conversational, informative, or technical. It is up to you and the niche you operate in.
Make sure that whatever brand voice you adopt resonates with your customers. If it does, there is a high chance of them building emotional associations with the brand, thereby leading to brand trust.
But where do you use this brand voice?
You use it anywhere and everywhere you talk to your customers. This includes customer service, social media posts, ads, blogs, etc.
For instance, Uber has maintained a bold, simple, and consistent brand voice across all communication channels. On the other hand, Coca-Cola adopts a friendly, down to earth, and positive voice.
The voice and hence the personality you create will all become part of your overall brand image.
Design a logo
Now, it is time to work on the elements that will give life and identity to your brand. Your business logo and its effective designing ensure that your products are recognized off of shelves or billboards.
McDonald’s, Starbucks, Fed X, and Apple are just some of the logos that have managed to achieve high brand recognition and retention.
Design a logo that is simple, relevant, and meaningful. Keep it timeless to ensure usage for years to come. Make sure your logo is aligned with your brand voice and mission.
Your logo, along with your template, should be placed in all of your communications and marketing collaterals. This helps in achieving consistency in branding, and utilizing a professional logo maker can ensure your brand image remains cohesive and impactful across all channels.
Verdict
With these five simple steps, you can build a brand.
Make sure to keep working on it and adapting it as per consumer response. After all, the world of marketing is dynamic! So, keep your eyes open and make sure your brand is the best version of itself at all times.
This article does not constitute legal advice.
The opinions expressed in the column above represent the author’s own.
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