Branding is one of the most beneficial steps your business can take to achieve massive success. It will enable you to communicate with your customers, sell to prospects, and drive recognition and loyalty. Having a unique personality and differentiated position in the market will make it easy for you to attract the right customer. A positive brand identity turns consumers into friends. However, like any other marketing campaign, branding demands careful planning and smart tactics.
In order to understand the concept of branding, you can take a leading brand as an example and study its philosophy. Apple, for instance, is a highly recognizable brand because they never do a thing without branding it. From core values and objectives to marketing and overall messaging, a brand needs to remain consistent in delivering what it promises. 64% of people cite shared values as the main reason they have a relationship with a brand. Take a look at this video and observe what Steve Jobs thinks about branding and Apple as a brand:
Your business growth largely depends on how you brand it. 77% of B2B marketing leaders say branding is critical to growth. Let’s take a look at the fundamental principles and strategies that can help you launch a super effective branding campaign and turn around your struggling business.
Start with the audit
It is necessary to clearly understand the nature of a problem before you can fix it. This is why it is advisable to start the process with auditing your existing brand elements. Carefully analyze your brand message, logo, website, visual elements, and print collaterals. Make a list of all the weaknesses and strengths. Once you are aware of all the areas which require improvements, you can come up with the suitable solutions. It is also required to audit your marketplace and see what your competitors are doing good and what they are struggling with.
Define your values and culture
What does your business stand for? This is a fundamental question you have to answer in order to build the foundation of a strong brand. A good approach is to conduct a meeting and invite all the staff to refine and discuss your mission, core values, brand messaging or in short what your company stands for. Your tagline, content, website, logo, and rest of the marketing tactics should be built upon your core brand values.
Bring your visual elements to life
Once you have all the fundamental information about your business, you can narrow it down and incorporate it into your visual elements such as the logo. Improve or replace your existing logo if it is mundane, generic or meaningless. Your logo should be an exquisite representation of your brand. Create a perfect logo for your brand to stand the test of time. Do not undermine the significance of colors in branding. The right color increases readership by 40% by making messaging visually appealing and easier to read.
Your website is the cornerstone of your overall marketing and branding campaigns. Make sure your site is aligned with your brand values and customers’ needs and preferences. Moreover, always utilize your own original and high-quality images that reflect your personality to make your site and marketing collaterals stand out from the crowd.
Stay consistent no matter what
If there is one thing really important to developing and maintaining a brand, it’s consistency. Successful brands make a promise and try their level best to keep it. When people get back to a business for a repeat sale, they expect to receive the same level of quality as they received the first time. In order to be a successful brand, you have to be consistent, from visual identity to the quality of your products. If you are constantly revising your visual identity and shifting one look to the next, it will be hard, if not impossible, to establish a strong brand that people can recognize. Check out the list of world’s most valuable brands.
For business owners who have not yet decided to brand their business, it can be a challenging task to even sort out where to begin. It is understandable that most of the businesses cannot spare time and resources to start over with their websites, social media presence, and other marketing material to make it look branded and consistent. However, the longer you wait, the complicated it gets to execute a successful branding plan. You can consult a reputable branding and online marketing company to produce the ideal outcome.
Reach first is a credible digital marketing agency in Edmonton with a robust design portfolio and great references. Branding being a major service, we provide a complete range of online marketing services; from web development to paid advertising, to businesses in Edmonton and across Canada. By applying creative and result-oriented marketing practices, we make sure that your brand reaches its full potential.
If you are ready to create a quality brand for your business that inspires confidence and trust, contact us now for a free consultation.