While the branding process has become much more accessible in recent years, the practices of building a successful brand can make the difference between a struggling business and an accomplished business.
If you’re not familiar with the many strategies of branding, it can be overwhelming to figure out what steps are necessary to create a brand.
To help with that, we’re going to talk about everything you need to know about creating a strong brand identity for your business.
What is a brand?
Most people associate branding with a company logo or name. While that’s an important facet of branding, the practice goes beyond logo and tagline design.
Branding is about creating a good reputation and fostering a meaningful relationship with your customers. The brand includes the image you want to communicate to your followers and how the company identifies and differentiates itself from its competitors.
At its core, a strong brand helps customers instantly understand what your business is about and what benefits it offers them.
Whether you imagine the iconic logo or the quality and taste of their products when you think of starbucks, your brand is significant enough to be recognized around the world. Over time, customers have learned to expect the kind of quality that comes from a powerful brand.
Benefits of building a strong brand
An established brand builds your reputation, reliability, and does wonders for customer relationships and loyalty. Working on your brand is a must for a small business as you will need to win over potential customers before they can trust you over names that are already well established in the market.
Brand identity also requires and allows for consistency, as you will need to determine the exact values and vision for your business when you begin to create your brand.
Here are some other benefits of establishing a strong brand:
- Improve the credibility of your brand. Established brands are considered more credible and trustworthy. People are more likely to buy from you when you have a credible reputation.
- Increase recognition and exposure. People tend to recommend brands they like to their friends and family. Free word of mouth marketing increases your brand reach and potential customers.
- Attract the ideal clients. It’s also easier to attract like-minded customers when your customers have a clear idea of your brand’s values and mission.
- You get repeat sales and deals. A good brand identity can lead to loyal, returning customers.
- Increase revenue. In general, a good brand increases sales and revenue. In other words, people prefer to buy products from a brand that they have heard of before.
How to create a business brand
Creating a strong brand identity is an extensive process that includes defining your goals and values, researching your target market, creating a compelling brand story, and effective branding.
To help you understand this process, we’ll go over the seven steps necessary to create your brand.
1. Start by defining business goals and values
Before you fully begin your branding journey, it is crucial that you are fully aware of your business goals and values. This will help you understand the ultimate goal of your business and what steps need to be taken to achieve it.
The goals and values of your business will also be the foundation of your brand identity and, at the same time, will be useful in measuring whether or not the business is achieving its goals.
Here are some statements you can generate to realize your business goals and values:
- vision statement. A vision statement is essentially a broad description of what the company is trying to become: visualize the ultimate goal of your company.
- Mission status. Define the impact your products will have on your customers and why it is important. This can also include practical steps to take day by day to make the business vision a reality.
- Statement of values. Define the principles and code of ethics by which your company is governed. It is what the company and employees must follow in daily operations.
To write these statements, start by defining what your company does for your customers and identify your long-term goals. Then, lay out the steps to achieve those goals and break them down into actionable goals.
2. Research the target audience
The next step is to research your target audience: determine who you’re trying to captivate and how to meet their exact needs. This allows you to understand what these potential customers may be looking for in your business and what branding should be created to attract them.
When researching target markets, being specific is vital. For example, instead of targeting fashionistas in general, target a particular group that loves vintage collections.
One of the best ways to conduct market research is by defining a buyer or user. It represents what your average user is like, created based on customer preferences and interests.
To create one, start by collecting data from your target audience. Discover their behavior patterns and what interests them. Once you’ve gathered enough information, create and describe the resulting buyer persona.
To go the extra mile, create multiple personas with different patterns and preferences to see how each group will react to your brand and products.
3. Analyze the competition
Keeping track of your competitors is essential when deciding how to design a brand. Knowing what customers and the market think of them, what they offer or what they don’t, can help you stand out.
When it comes to brand building, you need to research your competition’s market positioning. It is what establishes brand identity and plays a major role in how customers view and perceive a business compared to its competitors.
Take note of their goals, strategy, and audience. Perform an analysis to determine your strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. This information can help you find the gaps and problems in the market that your company can provide solutions to.
4. Define your positioning and brand image
Once you have a clear idea of your long-term business goals, target market, and who your competitors are, it’s time to define your market positioning and brand image. This is what you should do:
Determine the market positioning of the brand, products and services
As mentioned above, market positioning is how customers perceive your brand image and identity. This is how your brand differentiates itself from other companies in the niche. This can take the form of prices, type of product, quality, etc.
Market positioning can be regulated through a strategy that involves marketing and promoting products in a unique way to establish a brand image within your target audience.
To do this, you’ll need to find what sets your brand apart from its competitors. Find the unique distinctions of your brand, products and services, and highlight them when promoting the brand.
Unique Selling Proposition (USP or PVU)
A unique selling proposition is something that separates your brand from your competitors. It’s what you get that other companies don’t currently offer.
A USP should highlight the unique benefits customers will receive from your brand.
To find your UPS, brainstorm and discover all the characteristics that make your brand unique and from the perspective of your customers. Use the data collected earlier from your target market research to determine what customers can expect from your business.
Then, find out how the brand can more practically meet your needs compared to your competitors.
Create internal guidelines and procedures for the brand
Internal brand guidelines establish the operating standards of your company. It is a measure used by your employees and collaborators who work with your brand to understand your goals and values.
These procedures should also set expectations for how employees are expected to act based on the values specified in the guidelines.
Your brand identity will come to fruition much sooner when all employees are well informed of what is expected of them and the reasons behind it. Here are some tips for creating brand guidelines for your company:
- Use the mission statement and brand values as a foundation.
- Take your employees’ thoughts and input into account when developing guidelines and branding.
- Create a strong and healthy company culture with your employees.
- Appreciate high-performing employees so they invest more in the brand.
5. Create effective brand communication
The way you communicate your brand plays a big role in how customers perceive it. Clear and effective brand communication increases the trust of your customers and strengthens the credibility of the brand.
To communicate your brand effectively, take a look at the following tips on how to improve your communication strategy:
Find the voice and tone of your brand
Finding a brand voice isn’t just about figuring out what to say to your customers. It’s about how your business communicates with customers based on their identity and personality.
Your brand tone describes how your brand voice is applied. While the voice should remain consistent, the tone can change depending on the circumstances your brand finds itself in.
For example, when marketing on social media, the appropriate tone is friendly and upbeat, while a serious setting may call for a more professional manner.
To find your brand voice and tone, think about your brand values and how you want customers to perceive your brand.
Think of the adjectives that best describe the brand. It could be educational, playful, inspirational, witty, creative, and many more.
Create a compelling brand story
A good brand story should show customers how your brand benefits them through a narrative that can provoke an emotional reaction.
You can tell your brand story in many ways: through a dedicated page, posting video content, posting on social media, etc. Here are some key elements of a powerful brand story:
- Present the problems your brand is facing and the solutions you have found to overcome them.
- Explain how your brand will solve problems that customers may have.
- Engage customers and make them care about what your brand has to offer.
Create a catchy slogan that communicates the companies USP
A slogan is a kind of phrase that…
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