The invention of the internet has made the business world more competitive than ever. While small businesses could once depend on being the only place in town where people could buy a certain product or get a particular service to keep on driving sales, that advantage has been eroded by the fact that people can get so much today without even leaving their house.
So, how can a business stand out in today’s uber-competitive landscape? There is one long-standing trick that still works – branding. A strong brand can help companies create a connection with their customers that results in trust and loyalty. When done well, it can make that company part of their customers’ own identities, and this makes switching a hard thing to do. The power of strong branding has been demonstrated by plenty of companies of the last two centuries, but it begs the question of how a strong brand gets built.
This short guide is here to share a few of the answers to that question so that budding business owners can start building their own memorable brands today.
A consistent identity
When most business owners think about branding or consult with a brand strategy agency, their brand identity is their main focus. These are the visual and emotional components of a brand – the logo or mascot, colour scheme, mission, and values of the company. While these are not all that there is to a brand, they are the most salient components and they represent a good starting point for building a recognisable brand. However, it is crucial that companies keep these elements consistent across all the different places where people interact with their brand.
A compelling story
While memorable visual elements can help customers recognise the company they are interacting with, it is an interesting narrative that often really hooks them and makes them choose that company over others. This is especially the case in competitive industries where there is no clear “best” company. For example, taste is subjective, which is why people favour different chocolate brands, but Cadbury was able to use the story of its humble founder and the ethical way he treated his employees to become one of the world’s most well-known confectionary brands.
A clear target audience
When companies create marketing materials, they duly consider the kinds of customers that they are trying to sell to. They make sure that they are speaking their language, using words and images that appeal to them. They do this to try and sell a specific product, but it is a useful exercise for branding too. After all, branding is really just companies selling themselves rather than a specific item. Understanding their audience and tailoring the brand to them is important.
Providing a good customer experience
A nice logo will get you nowhere if your customers are having a bad experience when they try to engage with your business. Providing a good experience does not only mean delivering the products or services that customers are paying for. If a business’s target audience is very active on social media and is trying to interact, then companies should make social media an important part of their brand. If their customers are the kind of people who often phone up to report problems, then clearly customer support is important to them and should be a focus of the brand.
Conclusion
A strong brand can be a major competitive advantage for modern businesses. Approaching the creation of a brand by considering the elements above is a useful exercise, but even once it is done you should come back to it often. While strong brands rarely change protected intellectual property like logos, they are constantly looking for new audiences to target and ways to provide a better experience for their customers.