Your brand is your reputation, and it can reflect the relationship between your business and your current or potential clients. In this article, we explain why brand building is important, followed by a step-by-step approach that your company’s marketing team can follow when building a brand.
Why is it important to build a brand?
The way a company builds its brand will determine how society views its business and its products. A successful brand can influence how people perceive a company’s name, story, logo and marketing campaigns.
In many cases, the brand is just as important as the quality and price of a product. When people buy a product, they also buy the lifestyle that the product represents.
When a company creates an attractive and memorable brand, people will more easily recognize its product or service and have a clear understanding of the value that item can add to their lives.
Branding is also one of the most effective ways to gain customer trust.
How to build a brand?
If you are part of the marketing team tasked with building your company’s brand, you can follow these four steps:
1. Define your target audience
The first step in brand building is to define your target audience. To create your preferred client base:
Determine who is most likely to buy the product
Consider factors such as age, gender, location and income to create demographics. If, for example, you plan to sell expensive and fashionable eyewear, your target audience may be middle to high-income earners under the age of 40. However, if your product is a new sports drink, your audience will most likely be athletes.
Consult available sales statistics and data
This information will be very helpful in providing you with valuable information regarding consumer spending habits. Statistics can also help you decide whether your company’s products will appeal to certain demographics.
For example, statistics can show that millennials tend to be very price conscious and prefer to buy products online. If required, you may also collect your own statistical data through surveys, or contact marketing companies to collect data on your behalf.
Learn about similar companies
You can learn from established companies that offer similar products or services. Try to gather more information about how they create marketing campaigns that are targeted at the specific groups that buy the most of their products. Compare the data of different companies to develop a thorough understanding of their brands.
Talk to your target market
Consider engaging with people who fit your company’s ideal client profile to determine their likes and needs, as well as what brands appeal to them and why. You can create a more detailed outline of what your customers want.
Once you have decided on your target audience, you can start creating a brand that will appeal to them.
2. Position your product and business
Positioning a business involves deciding how to differentiate a product or service from other similar offerings in the marketplace. To do this, you must first gather as much information as possible about your company’s direct competition, such as details about their products, prices and markets, and their marketing strategy.
Try to determine possible deficiencies in their product, service, or area of the market that do not satisfy them, and use this information to your advantage.
Once you have investigated your competitors, you must develop a unique selling proposition. USP is a short statement that tells the client what the company has to offer. Your USP should highlight the features of your product that make it unique and add value to the client.
3. Define your company’s personality
For the most part, brands convey a business identity. An important step in building a brand, then, involves determining the personality of the company. Apart from the company’s products and services, its target audience will also help build its personality. If your target audience is cycling enthusiasts, you most likely want an active persona.
Deciding on your company’s personality will require creative brainstorming with other members of the branding team. You can start the process by thinking of the company as a person.
For example, if the company is a backpacker, you can describe what these people look like and how they act. Using descriptive words like “traveler”, “independent”, “revolutionary” or “fun” will help you and your branding team verbally express your abstract thoughts.
You can also try to associate your product or company with any image or idea you have in mind. For example, if your company manufactures running shoes, you might think of a deer and use this image to come up with more ideas.
This kind of creative thinking process will allow you and your team to give your company a distinctive voice.
4. Choose a logo and slogan
An effective logo can make your brand visually appealing, while a successful slogan can help customers remember your product.
Logo
A logo conveys the image and personality of the brand. You may wish to consult a professional designer or branding agency during this process to ensure that your logo is tasteful, effective, and well-crafted.
A professional designer will advise you on things like fonts, colors, logo sizes, iconography, and general design. They will also help you design a logo that reflects or complements your brand name.
Slogan
Slogans are short, catchy phrases that you can use during marketing campaigns to give your brand an extra edge. This is not a permanent feature of your brand, so you can adapt and change it for new marketing campaigns.
For example, if you sell snorkeling equipment, your slogan could be, “Get the best view under the sea.”
Your brand should inform your company’s culture.
You can market your brand internally by aligning your dress code, professional conduct and voice with your image. Your behavior will set the standard for other staff members, which can translate into your company culture.