Business competition is increasing daily, and it has never been more important to stand out and create a unique business identity through strategic branding. Sure, your quality products and services will make your business thrive, but never underestimate the power of an effective brand image for your business.
Brands need to wisely devise systems that help them build a strong brand image. Some of these include:
Understanding Your Target Audience
The best brands on the market have an in-depth understanding of their target audience, what interests them and how they engage with products and brands.
Most businesses out there have a very specific target audience. Make sure you understand the audience as it provides a direction for you to go in when launching a marketing campaign and when creating your brand’s identity. Trying to appeal to everyone is ineffective for branding and will be counterproductive.
Be Unique!
When establishing a brand, you need to offer something that will make you distinctive and stand out from the crowd.
- For companies offering products: products need to be innovative, appealing to the eye and minimalist. E.g. Apple is known for their minimalism and their ability to innovate.
- For companies offering services: services need to be something that no one else has dared to attempt. g. Dominos offer of delivering a pizza in 30 minutes or less.
You don’t need to pull a rabbit out of a hat, just find that ‘special quality’ which will separate you from the competition. Think about what makes you unique; is it a product, service or a unique selling point?
Fueling your passion to succeed
Sure you can build a brand without passion, but sustaining said brand without passion is impossible. Passion keeps business owners working hard and pushing themselves to continuously deliver quality products and services. Passion leading to enthusiasm is highly infectious. Customer enthusiasm leads to word-of-mouth advertising. A win- win situation for everyone.
Being Consistent at all Times
Make sure you maintain the same level of quality all the time. Customers expect consistent quality especially if they are repeat customers. E.g. fast food chains and restaurants need to maintain their food and service standards.
Inconsistency due to excessive competitors is a reason why consumers end up taking their business elsewhere. E.g. burger king has amazing consistency. They have a consistent menu available across the world. Doesn’t matter if you order in the UK or in the Middle East, the Chicken Royale will taste the same.
Creating your Competitive Edge
Gaining an edge in this day and age is not easy, and it will become increasingly difficult in the future. To make a name for yourself, brands should thrive on competition and always work harder to improve. To stand out from the crowd, you need to take an active interest in optimizing the brand, then going above and beyond customer expectations. Make sure your brand is always up-to-date and using cutting edge techniques.
Maximizing Exposure on different platforms
When attempting to be recognized as unique, the success of a brand is its ability to maximize its exposure on different platforms. Bigger companies will always have an advantage when it comes to exposure because their marketing budget is higher and as they have been in business longer, they will have created more business connections. As they can afford more expensive means of advertising, you can bet they will rank higher in search engine results.
These days the use of social media is bridging the gap between small and large companies. By developing your brand on networks such as: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, anyone can reach a consumer at the click of a button.
Leadership that can develop and motivate teams
Just like ‘behind every successful man is a woman,’ there is another saying ‘behind every successful brand, there is a dedicated leader.’ This is always the management be it for a big corporation or for small companies. Leadership requires the stepping up and the resolving of issues. Leaders must act as the go- between for departments and company heads. They are trained in motivation, understand and take full advantage of each team member’s strengths.
Building an effective brand image requires businesses to think out of the box and take necessary actions in a timely and strategic way. What do you think contributes towards strong, robust and resonating brands? Do share your comments below.
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