Welcome to brand building 101! Here’s where you’ll learn how to build a strong brand that will last in time and space and maintain its relevancy.
What do Coca-Cola, Apple, or Starbucks have in common? They all knew exactly how to build a brand the consumers would love. We get it. You’re no billion-dollar worth company. But building a strong brand may be just the way to become one.
Is it even possible to build an equally strong brand that will attract as many consumers as possible? First of all, yes, it is possible. Secondly, it’s not going to be easy, but it is absolutely worth it.
Every business has a brand or must have one, just like every person has one too, whether we’re aware of it or not. Whenever someone thinks of you, they recall memories and impressions that help them decide how they feel about you. These impressions may be from your face-to-face contact, comments from other people, your online posts, and so on.
That’s exactly how brands for businesses work as well! A brand is an image that people have of your business, and it is also what influences how they feel about you.
That being said, let’s explore these five steps to building a brand that customers will love!
1. Find A Strong Brand Purpose
Businesses sell. Brands have a greater purpose. It’s as simple as that!
Knowing your purpose when you start building your brand can mean the difference between success and failure or the difference between gaining large profits or barely closing a sale.
Think about it: most huge brands have a clear, strong, and greater purpose behind their branding. Sure, Apple sells all sorts of gadgets, but the company’s purpose is to empower creativity and self-expression for its customers. Nike sells sports apparel, but the greater purpose is to “unite the world through sport to create a healthy planet, active communities and an equal playing field for all.” The purposes these two brands have not only sound so cool but also attract customers as they want to be creative and express themselves or contribute to a healthy planet. That’s how powerful a brand’s purpose can be!
Now, as you define your brand’s purpose, make sure you don’t get lost in your goals like making money or selling your product. When you want to find your brand’s purpose, better focus on the “why” types of questions. Simply put, answer the following question: “why is your brand on the market?”. Once you have that figured out, you’ll know that special thing that makes you unique.
2. Determine Your Target Audience
None of the huge companies mentioned before would be so big without their customers. A strong brand is one that attracts people, ideally people who then turn into paying customers. So, defining your target audience is a crucial step to be able to create a brand that people genuinely resonate with and want to buy from.
How do you do that? First, create the profile of your ideal customer considering factors like age, gender, location, and income. Next, dig deeper into more complex data about your target audience, including values, marketing triggers they best respond to, and shopping habits.
Once you have a clear idea of your target audience, you can start building a brand that will attract them. If you need help identifying those fine details that will make your brand more attractive to your target audience, you can always ask for expert advice from Branding Firm New York.
3. Identify your unique selling position
Besides looking at your target audience, you also need to pay attention to your industry rivals so that you can identify your brand’s unique selling position. Simply put, it is all about determining how your products and services differ from other similar offerings in the market.
Gather as much information as you can about your business’s direct competition, including details about their products, prices, markets, and marketing approach. Focus on finding those things that your products/ services/ company do better and use this information to your advantage as you create your brand.
4. Define Your Company’s Personality
Besides purpose, a company needs one more thing to be as relatable as possible so that it attracts people: a personality. A brand perfectly suits a business’s identity when it also represents the company’s personality, whether that is excitable, sincere, sophisticated, you name it.
What exactly does it mean to find your business’s personality? Ideally, the personality of your company needs to be in line with the audience you have. For example, if your target audience is made of fitness lovers, your company would best suit the personality of an active persona.
This step involves some creative brainstorming. Start by thinking of your company as a person and try to imagine everything it would do, say, like, and their overall behavior. From here, craft a personality you can verbalize through your brand. This step also helps you define your brand’s voice and messaging.
5. Get Creative with Your Brand’s Design Elements
Visuals are king in today’s world, so your brand’s look is just as essential as everything else discussed before. And, your visual elements need to work hand-in-hand with everything else you’ve built up to this point. From the color scheme you choose to the fonts, logo, and images, everything needs to be in line with your purpose, target audience, uniqueness, and personality.
Think about it: What happens when you see Coca-Cola’s logo? You likely can instantly imagine yourself drinking a glass of Coca-Cola. That’s how powerful logos are. But, what if you don’t see the logo but only think about companies that use red and white as their colors? Chances are Coca-Cola is among the first ones, if not first, to come into your mind. That’s how powerful all visual elements of a brand are.
As a new brand to the party, you should do your best to be unique and ensure that all your visual and non-visual branding elements are in perfect symbiosis with each other.
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