In a crowded marketplace, a strong brand can be the differentiator between a mediocre business and a successful one. A strong brand makes businesses memorable and more likely for customers to seek it out when they need the products and services on offer.
A brand is much more than just a logo, it’s the entire essence of a company and embodies the thoughts and feelings consumers have when they think about the business. It usually includes its values, personality, and promises to customers.
A brand, for any business, is an essential marketing concept which enables the customer population to distinctly identify a product, service, individual or company. Whether you’re a small business warrior or branding rep for global organisations, the process of creating a successful brand needs a strategic and holistic approach that will work for your ideal customers.
Read on for simple tips for getting started with creating a brand.
Why is it important to have a brand identity?
Brand identity is more than a marketing strategy that is useful for pushing social or corporate values and propaganda. It is beneficial for all types of businesses, regardless of the industry they belong in. With brand identity, companies can share not just their product, values and mission to target audiences, they can give their customers a deeper insight that can connect like minded customers directly to their businesses.
When done well, a strong brand can:
- Appropriately represent your business. A strong brand conveys what your business is all about including its mission and values.
- Establish credibility and build trust with your customer base. A strong brand that is seen consistently establishes authority in its industry. And as you become more and more trustworthy, you will gain a wider customer base.
- Marketing and Advertising campaigner – Your strong brand identity will serve as the face of your business in all its marketing and advertising campaigns. And it will attract and impact your target audiences.
- Promote and publicise your business
- Act as your spokesperson -As you create a brand and build a strong brand identity,, the values, purpose and mission of your business will shape, strengthen and distinguish your business from others.
- Attract more clientele and strengthen customer retention strategies – Having a strong, consistent and clear brand identity makes it easier to introduce your business, attract potential clients and build trust with your existing customer base.
- People who identify with what your business stands for will be drawn to your product and service. A strong brand will keep customers coming back as they feel more at ease dealing with your business, thus, building loyalty to your brand.
How to create a brand for your business
Research
Market research is your first and most important step when creating a brand for your business. As you go about the research, collect as much information as you can on your target audience. You must learn how to best reach and communicate with your intended customers and how to accurately relay your message to them. Market research involves:
Know your audience
Determine your cohort. Who is your primary target? Know the people you will be selling your product and service to. Know the ways you could effectively reach your particular audience.
When you get a better understanding of who your potential customers are, what they need and how best to communicate with them, then you can create a brand that specifically appeals to and connects with your target audience.
Know your competition and establish your edge
It’s important to know your competitors in the industry and specific location you are in. Conduct a thorough research. Identify and list them down. Once you’ve collected and collated this information, you’ll be able to establish your value proposition and market that. You have to let your targeted customers know why your product and/or service is better.
By establishing your competitive edge, you’ll show people your unique position in the industry and attract clientele accordingly. Let people know what you offer and why they should choose you over others.
Employ effective strategies that will help you disseminate this information across the customer population. Observe how competitors are marketing themselves and learn what you can incorporate in your strategies as well as what to avoid.
Define Your Business Mission
Being aware and certain of your mission as a business is fundamental because it will fashion and direct your agenda, goals, ethics, culture and values. Mission sets what your business is all about, what’s important to the business and what your business stands for.
Brand creation is dependent on the mission of your business. If you don’t know what your business is all about then you can’t accurately create a brand or identity for your business.
Setting the personality of your business
Personality is key to connecting with your customers. They must be able to feel connected to your brand so it must be relatable and personable. You must arouse interest and come alive before their observant eyes. So if you want to be fun and interesting, then use colour and font templates that evoke fun and piques their interest when they look at your brand. Use photos and other visual elements that captivate your target audience.
As you conduct your market research, get to know your own business more as this is key to creating and strengthening your brand identity. Use tools like the SWOT analysis to discover your own business more and more.
SWOT Analysis
With SWOT analysis, you take a detailed review of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as threats that present in your business.
Doing the SWOT analysis process gives you an opportunity to thoroughly assess your business for:
- Strengths – You examine the features and qualities that give your business a competitive edge in the industry and locality.
- Weaknesses – You study and observe the qualities and attributes that puts your business at a disadvantage among other competitors in the industry and locality.
- Opportunities – You note changes and trends in the industry that can open up opportunities for you to market and grow your business
- Threats – You look into factors, situations and things in the industry and locality that could hinder or negatively affect your business
Logo and design
After getting a full understanding of your business and its competitors, you can now focus on creating a brand identity for your business. This is all about the design and visual components that you will associate or mark your business with.
- Logo – Logo is a crucial component of your brand. It is often what people most recognise and remember about a business. It is displayed alongside business names, business cards, documents, web pages, printed advertisements, online advertising and social network postings. Thus, you need to really think about the design of your logo. It is an essential feature of your business.
- Colour scheme and fonts – Colour schemes and fonts can easily identify and distinguish your business among others. You must group or combine colours well and use them consistently across all printed and digital forms of communication and marketing.
- In a short time, your business will be easily identifiable and distinguishable among other businesses especially among your competitors in the industry and business locality.
- As for fonts, they bring out the personality and characteristics of your business. They set the tone and type of engagement you initiate and maintain with your market. The different types of fonts you use will communicate and affect your reader or observer in different ways.
- Sleek, plain and sharp fonts can take on a more “all-business” tone while freehand or curvy fonts can take on a more relaxed and friendly tone. As a business who wants to assure customers that they are serious about the business they provide yet easy and friendly to deal with.
- You can choose a mix of font types which you will use depending on the purpose and type of communication or advertisement but remember to maintain a consistent use of your font scheme throughout your communications.
- Advertising/Communication Templates – Your business will regularly produce and send out emails, business cards, letters, flyers and other printed or digital advertising and communication. It is wise to have templates ready to go for each type and purpose of communication. Use the same template per purpose every time as this establishes a professional, consistent, trusted and strong brand for your business.
- Consistent Use – Consistent use of logo and design will allow your target audience to quickly recognise and easily remember your business. Consistency is key to creating a successful, well-established and trusted brand.
- Flexibility – Your brand must be able to adapt to the changing times and market needs. There may be a need to update your logo and/or other visual elements. If changes are to be made, ensure consistency across new templates and bring customers along with you for this journey so avoid loyal advocates becoming disconnected from your business.
- Routine Documentation – Document the guide, standards and rules for your business and its branding and make sure to update those documents with every change.
- Having current brand guidelines documented is important, as it ensures that any outside consultants, designers and publicists are kept on the same page whenever they produce some work for your business or brand.
Integrate within the community
Once you complete brand creation, you can start working on building your community of followers. Planning is in order and you need to identify and apply ways to advertise and connect your brand to your target audience on social media and other avenues or channels.
One way to attract and create a following is to create publishable content online. Content creation includes text and imagery around company information, products and services, promotions, special events, etc. Through content creation, you sell your brand on a wider scale. As you publish regular content on your company page and social media channels, your audience gains more understanding of your business and brand. Every point of communication you have with your audience, you have the opportunity to be memorable for the right reasons!
To make the most of audience communications for your brand power:
- Use language that reflects the personality of your brand. If you’re going for a high-end branding, you need to use formal style of language in all business communication and promotion. If you want to come across as laid-back, then informal or conversational language will connect with your target audience more.
- Convey emotion – Emotional connection with the community is key to a strong brand. Connect with your target audience by sharing stories and letting people know how your brand is contributing to the community. When you connect to people on an emotional level, you build towards a strong relationship with current and potential customers.
- Invest in advertising – Print and digital advertising are basic yet effective means to communicating and connecting with your target audience. Provide exposure to your brand by taking out ads online and via print media.
- Utilise social media. Establish a social media presence as it is an effective means to creating and maintaining a strong brand identity. Social media channels such as TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube can easily bring exposure to your brand.
- Social platforms are a simple yet excellent strategy for promoting your business, fishing for new customers and maintaining a loyal customer base. When using social media, be sure to Interact with your followers, reply to comments and converse with followers online. Do this to show your followers that your business has personality.
Avoid These Brand Mistakes
When you’re done with brand creation and are on your way to strengthening brand identity, you must watch out for mistakes and avoid pitfalls that can set you back. Here are some errors to avoid:
- Mixed messaging. Avoid sending mixed messages. Always be consistent in your presentation and communication.
- Mimicking competition. Avoid copying competitors, you want to stand out for your unique approaches.
- Contradiction. Avoid following trends that do not align with your brand.
- Backtracking- Don’t abandon your mission and values. Otherwise, your customers will stop trusting your brand.
Finally,
Establishing a powerful brand is a continuous journey for your business. Once created, it takes nurturing to thrive, and eventually, when you truly succeed in building a brand, your supporters and customers can become your biggest advocates.
Remember to monitor your brands performance by gathering feedback then making necessary adjustments to ensure your business remains relevant and memorable for the right reasons.
Brands are not just logos. They’re the embodiment of your businesses values, experiences, and sentiment. A powerful brand creates a long-lasting, impactful presence in the hearts of the minds of your target market.
