Picture a restaurant. There’s fun décor on the walls and the food served is traditional American fare with an emphasis on ice cream. The waiters sing and light sparklers when delivering sundaes to celebrating customers. Perhaps this restaurant has been around for years and years, but when someone thinks about where they want to go to celebrate, they always pick that restaurant. Why? Because it’s “the fun place” to go when celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, etc., and the restaurant has worked hard to market itself as such. They’ve created TV ads that feature happy families blowing out candles on a sundae and offer free ice cream scoops for birthday boys and girls. Marketing images and messages are all carefully cultivated to be “fun” and celebratory, with ice cream at the forefront. Therefore, customers looking for a fun place to go will consider this restaurant because it simply looks like fun. This is an example of a successful brand in action.
A brand is more than just a logo or a catchphrase, it’s what resides in your customer’s mind after they’ve interacted with your company, your marketing, and everything else in-between. It’s the experience and perception your customers carry with them after they visit you or pick up one of your products. This perception can include anything from ads to blog posts; even the attire and personality of your employees can affect your brand.
Every day, businesses launch new brands or modify their existing brands. Whether your business is in the early stages or has been around for dozens of years, effectively building your brand is of the utmost importance.
So what can a successful brand do for your business?
Outside of associating your company with a particular industry, brands can accomplish a lot for your business. They can help drive traffic to your store and in a lot of ways, and they can even make selling easier. For instance, if you have a well-recognized brand that your customers can easily connect to, then you don’t need to continually introduce the virtues of your product, nor do you have to build confidence in your company. This leads to less wasted time on introductions and more time spent on the nurturing of your customers, which is especially helpful for online sales where people will most likely buy an object because they recognize the brand – even when they don’t have the product in hand. If buyers don’t recognize the brand, it can be an uphill struggle to convince them that they should trust your company to give them what they want.
You don’t have to be a huge company to have a brand
We all know the big name brands out there: Coca-Cola, Target, Chipotle, etc. These brands are intricately woven into a thousand associations inside our minds. When we decide to pull a Coke off of the shelf to drink, we’re grabbing it because we recognize the caramel brown coloring and vivid red logo. We know that Target’s red and white bullseye promises a huge variety of products at competitive prices. Chipotle offers high-quality, fresh-off-the-farm, “do-it-yourself” burritos along with annual promotions that offer free food or a big discount. We know that all three of these brands signify different things in our minds, and as consumers, we know exactly what to expect when choosing these brands.
But these are all big names and while it’s true that your brand relies on how well you are known, the global scale of your brand shouldn’t be something to concentrate on for now. The good news is that while you may not have the instant notoriety of a big-name brand, you can shoot to be a well-known brand in your target market. All you need to do is create, protect, and grow your brand.
How can I brand my business?
To find your brand, you must first find out what people currently think of your company and see how that measures up to what you want your brand to be. You can gather this data by talking to customers, employees, or even business partners and finding out what emotional, verbal, and visual associations they already have with your products. If everyone seems to be saying the same thing, then half of your work is already done! But if everyone is saying different things or they nothing to say at all, don’t worry. With some elbow grease and a clear idea of what you want, you’ll be able to build a strong brand that will be beneficial and successful.
Here’s a few tips to get you started:
1) Define who you are and what you want your brand to be. What is it about your business that makes it appealing? What benefits do you offer your customers? What are your company values? What do you want people to think about when they see your company name?
2) Build your desired image through words and visual aids. One tactic for starting this process is through a mood board. Simply start going through magazines or websites and look for images that evoke the feelings that you want associated with your brand. Collect these images and paste them on a large poster board. Then, when you’ve finished, use the board to guide your brand inspiration. Once you’ve decided on your brand, make sure that everything related to your company that your customers see or interact with lives up to that desired image.
3) Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Don’t be afraid to be critical when looking at your brand through others’ eyes. What you discover may surprise you, but once you understand how your brand is viewed, you’ll be able to make the changes that will lead your brand to success.
4) Be consistent, not just across all of your social media sites, but in all of your marketing communications and in the quality of the product or service that you offer. Your online brand messaging should be consistent with offline marketing such as product packaging and store displays. Consistency is key!
5) Keep your branding simple. You don’t want to confuse customers with competing associations for your brand. Remember, the simpler it is, the easier it is for your customers to remember.
Having a successful brand means building and fostering a strong emotional connection for your audience to share with your business. Just like the ice cream restaurant that focused on celebrations and family fun, your business can also find its special niche and build a successful brand. A strong brand can help your customers create a strong emotional bond with your business, fostering loyalty and ensuring that your company grows successfully into the future.
