Do you own a business? Does your business have a brand? A brand is the entity that represents your business to the world.
We often think that brand is restricted to only logo or a tagline. But it’s is much more than that. Read this blog on why your brand needs much more than a logo.
For those who think that a business and a brand are the same, they are not. They are two separate entities. The former is the organization that offers either services/products, whereas the latter is the personality or the image of the organization that distinguishes you from your competitors.
Why is branding important?
Branding helps customers easily recognize your business among a group of businesses. This makes a memorable impression on customers. A brand reflects the true personality of your business. Branding can decide what perception customers have about your business.
Why branding strategy?
A brand strategy tells you how you can build, represent and share your brand. It is a documented strategy of what your brand is, who it is for and how it can evolve. It is a manual of how you can communicate and whom can you communicate with.
Although it is important to have a well-defined branding strategy, not all organizations have one. A brand strategy helps you build a powerful business. So, if you as a brand don't have one, your business is bound to fail at some point in time.
Key elements of a brand strategy
Want to know how to develop a brand strategy? It’s good to first be familiar with the elements of a brand strategy. This gives you a sneak-peak into what all areas need to be worked on.
Target audience- You should be extremely familiar with your target audience and you should know exactly who is in need of your business services/products
Brand promise-This gives the customers an idea of what they can expect from your business.
Brand perception-How well do the customers know your brand? How do you want your customers to perceive your brand?
Now that you know the basics of branding and why branding strategy is important.
Here are 5 Brand Building Strategies
Know your business goals & strategy
Clearly define your business goals. What is it that your business wants to achieve? Defining this allows you to keep your branding strategy aligned with your goals. This is important to keep things cohesive and on track.
Design your branding strategy in such a way that your business goals fit in. Analyze how you want to present your brand to the market, such that you can achieve your business goals along with it.
Tagline
Ever thought of how you can define your brand in one line. That is what brand taglines do. But for this, you need to define your brand. This brings us to the next point, i.e knowing your target audience well.
Who is your target audience?
The tagline should be something that is short, precise, yet reflects your brand’s personality. It should be something that speaks to your target audience.
For example, what comes to your mind when you hear “I’m loving it”? We're sure it is Ronald McDonald, the burger giant’s brand mascot. Taglines can be so important in shaping your brand. Learn how to create a mascot for your company.
Motivate your target audience
Know who your brand is for? Are you offering appropriate services/products for your target audience?
Yours is a perfect brand if your target audience relates to your brand easily. This is possible when you think from your target audience’s perspective. Everything about your brand should be relatable to them.
Motivate your target audience to adopt your products or services. For example, Nike, in some of their commercials, motivate men and women to get out there and “Just do It”, thereby encouraging them to adopt Nike products, while also motivating them to do something larger. Similarly, your brand should motivate your target audience and also resonate with them well.
Use social media wisely
Once your business goals are clear and you know the needs of your target audience, its time to interact with them. You need to get going with how you want to reach out to them. And what’s better than social media?
Are you leveraging the power of social media to the maximum?
Research to find out where all your target audience spends their time. Make sure that your brand has a presence on these social media channels. Create posts that are aligned with your brand strategy and goals and then move on to make a detailed marketing plan. This will include your digital marketing strategy.
Implement and evolve
Implement the course of actions that you’ve decided. But you should also be flexible enough to adopt new changes as they come.
The market is changing at a very fast pace, and if your business cannot adapt to changes important to your branding strategy, you may not succeed. Therefore, it is important to be flexible when it comes to changing strategies and plans.
It also helps to stay updated with the market trends. Know more about 5 emerging trends in branding that businesses have been following in 2018.
We hope you’re a little more familiar with branding and brand building strategies. What is your branding strategy for your business? Let us know if we missed out on any points in the comments below!
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