Branding is important for the success of any business. Your brand is what your customers will associate with before considering your products or services. If the brand is unknown or if the brand has had a bad reputation, you will not be able to achieve the success you need. It is this reason that makes creating a winning brand strategy important. This post looks at the key things you need to do when creating a strategy for your brand.
- Identify the business audience
One of the most important steps in branding is identifying your target market. It is by knowing who your target audiences are that you will be able to pick a strategy that will truly appeal to your target customers. There are so many online tools that will help you know what your target audience will be interested in. You can also conduct surveys. The goal here is to understand who will be most interested in what you have to offer.
In the same vein, you need to do a thorough market research. Building a successful brand strategy is not about copying what your competitors are doing but using strategies that are attractive and effective. You need to break down your brand. Take a look at the name, your symbol as well as slogan separately. The typefaces, logo design and message conveyed will also need to be considered. Make sure that every element is geared towards delivering the same message.
- Compare your ideas with those of your competitors’ branding
Before you create your branding strategy, it is important that you find your direct competitors and take note of what they are doing. Compare your branding ideas with their brands. The aim here is to understand the specific characteristics that are being used generally to attract target audiences. If you notice that your name, colors, size and other major factors are significantly different from those of your competitors, there is a good chance you have veered off course. Take a look at the differences and understand why they are unique to your business.
- Priority should be on the message
The message is what impacts the reaction or feeling of audiences. Your message needs to be clear, bold and easy to understand. You must also ensure that you have a logo that is easy to identify and one that represents your message even without having to use any words. The logo needs to be legible in various sizes. You should also pay more attention to the name as well as your catch phrases. One fact you have to remember when building your brand is that what people see is what they think about your business. You therefore need branding that really explains the essence of your business.
- Choose colors carefully
Your choice of colors will determine whether your strategy will gain the attention you desire or not. You have to select colors that will attract your audience and ones that makes it easy for your logo to be seen. Again, you need to understand your demographic. For example, bright colors have been known to be great for the younger audience whereas the older audiences prefer the classical colors such as medium brown, forest green and navy.
- Be honest
There is nothing harder than trying to be someone you are not. When developing your strategy, you need to be true to yourself. If offering warranty on your products is not possible in your type of business, don’t claim that you offer warranty when branding. You have to be honest. Do not be afraid to decline things that don’t fall in your area. To succeed in branding, you don’t need to be omnivorous. You just need to focus on what you do.
- Engage all your employees
The responsibility of brand management should not just lie with the top three members of top management. Effective branding involves every member of your team. How a junior employee treats a customer can significantly tarnish your brand. Every member of your team needs to be involved in the process so that all the efforts are streamlined towards building the brand you desire.
- Involve your customers
Brand building involves building a relationship with your customers. This will not be possible if you do not involve them. Some of the things you need to ask them include what they feel about your brand, what they feel needs to be changed, whether they are able to understand who you are through your online presence, etc. Don’t silence your audience. Give them a voice.
- Consistency is mandatory
Last but not least, you have to be consistent in your branding. You should not use this branding strategy today and then adopt a different one tomorrow. Everything about your brand has to be recognizable across your marketing platforms.
Using these points, you can create different branding strategies for your business. The important thing is to make sure that you keep your audience first and be consistent.
