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How come you only remember some brands very specifically? If you see a big, yellow 'M,' you immediately think of McDonald's, or if you see a colored 'G,' you might think of Google. How have these brands made their brand recall so high? We will be drilling down on making branding for businesses stand out among competitors.
No matter how good, a business will not be sustainable if the branding isn't done right. With the power of branding, you can give your business identity; you can shape how people perceive your brand. Your business can have a voice of its own through branding. Good branding for businesses includes the core communication you want your audience to relate to. It could be to the point, like how Apple markets their tech products, or it could be like Nike, invoking inspiration and motivation. Branding cannot be achieved in a day or a month; it takes constant efforts to establish your business as a brand in the industry.
A good brand strategy is a mix of a lot of things. Though branding is a very subjective task, and there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to branding, we have curated a list of things to follow to get started on your journey from a business to a brand.
Your brand needs to have a purpose. How do you want to market yourself? Should the target audience be attracted to you because of the product technicalities or because you hit an emotional nerve? Figure out the communication, personality, the tone for your brand. This is of utmost importance because every effort you take from here will be based on the brand identity.
For example, the Nike 'swoosh' symbol hasn't changed or communication. Despite this, Nike has stayed relevant over the years. They market themselves differently based on the campaign, but their marketing efforts revolve around communication.
Once you have the communication sorted, identify how your customer or potential customers perceive your brand. This will help you understand if your communication reaches the way you intend to. Retaining new customers is as important as acquiring new ones, if not more. With the data available in real-time today, you can understand the latest trends about your brand and make changes accordingly.
For example, Pepsi has changed its name and logo over the years but could still retain and attract new customers. At a point, Pepsi marketed itself as a cheaper and tastier version of Coca-cola. So, understanding your target audience gives you an upper hand amongst competitors since you know which chord to strike for your target audience.
After identifying the target audience and the message you want to deliver to them, you need to narrow down on channels that work best for your business. You need to identify where your audience spends most of their time, and that's how you reach them. Your audience could be on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or any other platform; you need to scale your marketing efforts accordingly to get them.
Mobile usage has increased over time, so you also need to make sure that your communication is mobile-friendly, or you run at the risk of losing potential customers.
Analyzing your competitor's strategy can be very helpful as you can identify your target audience and channels. Studying your competitors will be time-consuming, but your efforts in market research will be reduced considerably.
This can be done as quickly as just visiting their store, checking their social media channels, etc. You can plan your strategy in a way that counters theirs and stands out.
Make sure that your product/service stands in line with what your brand communication and strategy are. Enticing customers and losing them is worse than no recognition. You don't want to have a negative reputation because that can be hard to come back from. Build your brand on authenticity.
As discussed before, there is no rule for a successful Branding strategy; it will be different for each brand. But starting with these 5 ingredients will help you take a step closer to the perfect dish. If you want to delve deeper into Branding, we have curated a course to help you start branding for businesses. So what are you waiting for? Get started on your brand strategy today!
Rashika is the brain behind the content strategy on ProApp, both in terms of courses and marketing. She is an Engineer by education but a Content Writer, UX Writer, Marketer, and Mentor by profession. She has worked with tech giants like IBM and Accenture and has spent the last 3 years working with designers and training them. Currently - Focusing on Building an army of creators via ProApp.
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