For many, whether specialists or not, branding is still just about the visual identity — name, logo, design, packaging, etc. Even more so, while the concept of branding and its understanding have evolved enormously over the years, the same old vision of branding is being preached, even by high-level marketers. Branding is important because not only is it what makes a memorable impression on consumers but it allows your customers and clients to know what to expect from your company.
It is a way of distinguishing yourself from the competitors and clarifying what it is you offer that makes you the better choice. Your brand is built to be a true representation of who you are as a business, and how you wish to be perceived. There are many areas that are used to develop a brand including advertising, customer service, social responsibility, reputation, and visuals.
All of these elements and many more work together to create one unique and hopefully attention-grabbing profile. If the explanation of branding was simple, there would not be so much ambiguity and dissonance regarding the concept. Still, for the most part, a strong understanding of branding requires a decent grasp of business, marketing, and even human relational basics. Branding is such a vast concept that a correct definition that truly encompasses everything that it represents would not bring too much clarity to the subject just by itself.
But, for the sake of lowering the propagation of obsolete, incorrect, and incomplete information about branding, we offer a more complete definition:. If you compare this definition to the official Cambridge definition, you can clearly see that the latter Cambridge offers more surface-level information, giving a false sense of understanding to the reader.
This might be one of the reasons why most people think that definition is correct and choose it as the foundation of their knowledge-building on the subject. In truth, basing your learning about branding on a definition that reduces it to only one element visual identity makes every other branding-related concept fall short when trying to connect the dots.
Our definition of branding, even if seemingly more ambiguous than the other, gives much more sense to the concept when diving deeper into its meaning. Here is a rough breakdown:. Perpetual process Branding is a perpetual process because it never stops. People, markets, and businesses are constantly changing and the brand must evolve in order to keep pace.
I simplified the path for a comprehensive brand building process below, to help your business brand or personal brand gain a more loyal following.
So dig deep and find those nuggets of truth which can distinguish your brand from others. The Golden Circle concept can help in identifying the purpose behind anything in business or life , really.
The goal is to differentiate from the competition. Convince a customer to purchase from you over them! Research your main competitors or benchmark brands. For instance, study how well they have gone about building a brand name. For a brand name to be effective, it needs to be easy for consumers to recognize and remember. Competitor research is a key element of your own brand development. Start by creating a brand competitor spreadsheet for comparison. You can use Google Sheets, Excel, or even just a notebook.
Choose a few competitors, two to four is a good number for your comparison chart. You might want to take a look at other local businesses, or even aim to benchmark against name brands. Competitor research or market research , is one of the key components in discovering and defining your brand positioning. When brand building, keep in mind who exactly you are trying to reach. The key is to get specific. Figure out detailed behaviors and lifestyle of your consumers. This can help ensure that your brand message comes across crystal clear to the intended recipient.
Solidify a picture of your consumers, then learn how to create a brand identity that they can understand and relate to. Brand creation relies on truly understanding the buyer persona. Here are a few of the things to document when describing your ideal customer:. Identifying the target audience for your services or products is an exercise that will affect and benefit all areas of your brand building process, particularly marketing efforts. You want the right person consuming your content, clicking on your ads, subscribing to your email list, etc.
As a result, determining the ideal audience for your business will support your overall digital brand building strategies. Have you thought about your brand mission and vision? Before you can build a brand that your target audience trusts, you need to know what value your business provides. Your brand vision is a future, someday, aspirational statement that your brand drives towards achieving. Envision a projection of where your brand aspires to go, what it aspires to be, and what impact it will have on the environment you are in — think 10 years out.
The mission statement is a now, everyday, statement of commitment that is a roadmap for accomplishing your vision. It will inform how you execute your brand building strategies. Everything from your logo to your tagline, voice, message, and personality should reflect your mission and vision. You can use the information gathered from The Golden Circle exercise s ee Step 1 to create a clear and impactful brand vision and mission statements.
We all know the Nike tagline: Just Do It. But do you know their mission statement? You can see the Nike mission everywhere. They focus on all types of athletes using Nike products to be their best selves. Think about how wide their target audience becomes with a disclaimer like that! When branding your business, start small and remember to focus on your target niche audience first.
Before crafting your vision or brand mission statement, gut check on whether you really committed to Step 3 of determining who your exact consumer is. Starting a brand that is memorable means you dig deep to figure out what you offer, and no one else is offering.
Assuming you know exactly who your target audience is see Step 3 , give them a reason to choose your brand over another. Apple is obviously not just another computer company.
One of their key qualities is a clean design , and a key benefit is ease of use. From unique packaging to their announcement events, Apple always reminds customers that its products can be used right out of the box. This notion continues to exist, today. A brand voice could be:.
There are endless adjectives and possibilities that can build a brand voice behind your messaging. Ultimately, you want to choose a brand voice that makes sense and resonates with your target customers. Again, going back to Step 3! This is particularly important when publishing blog articles or social media posts. Maintaining a consistent voice will help your brand image become recognized on multiple channels in the same way.
A community of followers, readers or subscribers will come to expect a certain brand voice and brand personality when they consume your content see the next step. Virgin America is known for its friendly and reliable customer service, and its voice constantly builds that brand. On Twitter, notice their personable style—using location-based humor in this instance. They also reinforce the value that they bring to their customers—guaranteeing power outlets on every flight.
Fish sticks will fly at Pike Place before we ever offer a flight without power outlets. They are looking for an experience tailored to their needs, backed by genuine personal interaction. Wondering how to brand your business in a unique way? Make your personality stand out in every aspect of your brand building process.
Be consistent with this brand personality across all points of contact. This part of the brand development process goes beyond your logo and tagline to define the key aspects of:. A brand story is an opportunity to communicate on a human level, making a direct emotional connection with your consumers. What this means, is that the language you use should be understood immediately while striking an emotional chord.
Most importantly: when creating a brand story, address not what your product can do…but why it is important to your customer. TOMS Shoes has built a huge social following and overwhelming positive brand perception.
With every product you purchase, TOMS will help a person in need. One for One. When you think about how to build a brand, visuals probably come to mind first.
The most exciting and arguably the most important piece of the brand building process, is to create a brand logo and tagline for your company. This logo will appear on everything that relates to your business. It will become your identity, calling card, and the visual recognition of your promise.
So be willing to invest the time and money by creating something exceptional to reinforce the visual identity for your business. Need help branding your business? Hire a professional designer or branding agency with logo and identity design experience, to help make your brand stand out. A designer can also develop brand guidelines , to ensure consistency for any future application of the logo and associated brand color palette or fonts.
Your brand should be visible and reflected in everything that your customer can see, read, and hear. If a client walks into your office, or a customer walks into your store—your brand image should be on display both in the environment and with personal interactions. Anything tangible—from business cards to advertisements, to packaging and product—needs the stamp of your logo. On any digital platform, ensure that your brand looks the same everywhere.
Use your brand style guide to create consistency with visuals such as color and logo use, fonts, photography, etc. Your website is the most important tool for marketing your brand. When you design your website: incorporate your voice, message, and personality into the content. Profile pages for social media networks should be branded visually, and with your chosen voice for engagement.
YouTube, Facebook Video and Facebook Live, Snapchat and Instagram Stories are all platforms that need to have content executed with your unique brand voice and personality. For those venturing into podcast audio, adhere to a theme that supports your brand message, value, and voice. Warby Parker has managed to quickly develop a brand that is unique and best in class.
Their innovative product home try-on experience, retail environment, and digital content marketing efforts are perfectly tailored to the lifestyle of its target audience. Unless you decide to change your brand into something that is more effective based on measured consumer response, consistency is key. Refer back to your Brand Strategy whenever you need to make a decision about identity or marketing. Once you establish a brand voice, use it for every piece of content you create.
See above, Step 6 in the brand building process. The inconsistency will confuse your customers, and make long-term brand building more difficult. They always write your name on your coffee for an extra personal touch. Even despite a logo change in removing the company name!
When you see that simplified green mermaid logo, what do you feel? When you build a brand that works for your small business, you and your employees are the best advocates to market your brand. When hiring employees, ensure that they are a culture fit—aligning with the mission, vision, and values of your brand.
Encourage employees to establish a personal brand that aligns with your company brand building process, further strengthening reach. Now that you know the steps for creating a brand successfully, I want to quickly go over the components needed to really set up a good digital foundation to build upon.
These are the key areas my own brand agency executes on when we build brands for businesses just like yours. Your website is the most important marketing tool you have for business growth and brand building. This is the place that your consumers will visit to learn more about your business, and take action when they are ready.
Not only does the user experience have to be exceptional in order to convert, but your messaging needs to tell your brand story. Your website has to load fast and be mobile-friendly a responsive web design. The majority of your brand marketing activities will drive traffic back to your website. Aside from a professional and beautifully designed interface, your content has to be compelling. This brings us to the next element of a great digital brand strategy : SEO and content marketing.
One of the most effective long-term ways to increase brand awareness and generate relevant organic traffic to your website is search engine optimization SEO and the right content.
There are many ways to achieve positioning in search engine results. Aim to develop a comprehensive strategy addressing the major search engine ranking factors , as well as creating highly valuable content that satisfies user intent.
A defined content marketing strategy will help you better connect with your target audience and support them through their customer journey—building brand trust to ultimately result in conversions. Brand content can also exist as infographics, video, podcasting, case studies, whitepapers, lead magnets and more.
How can your brand best educate, communicate and engage with customers and clients through social media? Social media marketing best practices include the following activities:. A well-defined social media strategy will help determine what to achieve in order to better connect with your community. Every brand should be represented consistently across all social media networks via the posting of relevant, high-quality content. With social media, your aim for consumers is first to gain trust.
Then become loyal. Did you know your highest click-through rate will come from the emails you send to your list? Think of your email marketing list as your most close-knit community, and treat your subscribers as such.
The right content, at the right time, to the right person is critical for driving traffic to your website and increasing conversions from email. Use the following types of email campaigns when targeting specific audiences within your marketing funnel. Building a successful paid advertising campaign for your brand comes with a unique set of challenges.
There are multiple elements that contribute to the overall effectiveness of your pay-per-click PPC ads. Paid advertising alone can drain your budget…once the ads stop, so can the leads and sales. The allure of paid advertising is that it can yield quick short-term results.
From this data, tweaks to your brand building and marketing activity can be made to leverage those tactics which show the most opportunity. Your first step is ensuring that your website has Google Analytics installed. This tool is free and will give you loads of valuable information about user behaviors. It also allows you to set up goals to track conversion. Want to see an example of an organization that has a clear vision for its brand?
Branding is more than just a fancy marketing term. Branding for companies has grown in importance over the years and for some, it is now even included on the balance sheet. Because to have a valuable brand helps to develop a profitable business. Yes, it will be adapted and modified over the years but a strong brand that is able to adapt will survive any test of time and guarantee future business. As well as allowing you to keep your loyal customer base, your brand strategy should also allow you to target and attract new customers.
And therefore increase sales! Furthermore, companies now look to buy or invest in other companies not for the raw materials or employees but for the value of the brand attached to it. See the most valuable brands of :.
Branding is more than a design on a product, a logo, or a strapline. It is about all of these things and more, customer experience, brand promises, company philosophy, and culture. It is all of the characteristics of what makes you, you. Going back to the human example, every individual is different, unique, and has something different to offer. It is this difference that sets us apart, how this is portrayed and marketed is what makes companies leaders in their industry.
A branding strategy that is part of your overall business strategy — is certainly a strategy for growth and success. An excellent article Amanda. Very insightful — excellent branding is often neglected, or reserved for something businesses invest in later, when in my option it should be the very first thing, especially if it is a product sales based business. Pretty good! By using our website, you agree to our privacy policy and our cookie policy. Building a brand from the ground up that stands out is no easy task.
What should it look like? How should it make people feel? Will it resonate with my target audience? You can check our guide on how to start a business to get started.
Your brand is how people perceive you wherever they interact with your business—both the impressions you can control and the ones you can't. When you think about it, people have personal brands , too. We each have a name, a face, a style, a way of communicating, and with these traits, we make different impressions on different people.
The best way to build a brand starts with establishing what that consistency is going to look like and the feeling you want it to evoke. A great brand can help your products stand out from the crowd. Get a crash course in small business branding with our free, curated list of high-impact articles.
We'll also send you updates on new educational guides and success stories from the Shopify newsletter. We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe. Get started. Before you start making any decisions about how to create a business brand, you need to understand the current market, i. By evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of your competition, you can begin to formulate how to give your company an advantage. Download our free competitive analysis template and gain an edge over the competition.
Here are some questions and branding exercises to get you thinking about the focus and tone of your brand. A positioning statement is one or two lines that stake your claim in the market. For example: We offer water bottles for hikers to stay hydrated, while reducing their carbon footprint. Unlike other water bottle brands, we plant a tree for every bottle you buy. Find it, go in on it, and make it a part of your brand's messaging. Alternatively, if the company you want to start has a cause at its core e.
One way to look at how to build your brand is to imagine your brand as a person. What would he or she be like? What kind of personality would your customers be attracted to? This will help inform your voice on social media and the tone of all your creative, both visual and written. A fun and useful exercise for how to create a new brand is pitching three to five adjectives that describe the type of brand that might resonate with your audience.
I compiled this list of traits to help you get started.
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