One of the most important things you can do for your business is create a cohesive branding strategy. Your brand identity should reflect who your company is and what it offers. You want a strong brand personality and brand voice that is both appealing to customers and reflects your company in a positive light.
In order to help you better understand how you can build your brand vision properly, we will be going over some of the components you need for a successful branding strategy. However, before we get started, we will explain what a branding strategy is and why it is so important for businesses to get them right.
What is Brand Strategy?
Essentially, a brand strategy is a cohesive plan that is designed to encompass your entire company’s image and persona, whether that be through your products, social media presence, content marketing strategy, and your brand story, among other aspects. Building a strong brand strategy allows your company to have an easily identifiable character and appearance. It should match the way you want your company to be perceived by your target audience.
A well-built, strong brand strategy will influence almost every aspect of your business. It will connect your business to the needs and desires of your current and future customers.
Your brand strategy is much more than your brand name, logo, advertisements, or products. In fact, a brand is the summation of your entire business. It will help you stand out from the competition by building a strong brand voice for your company. A strong brand persona and brand messaging will help people connect with the business.
To help you build your own personal brand and understand what separates the most recognizable brands from forgettable ones, we will now go over some of the essential components of a successful brand development strategy.
What You Need to Build an Effective Brand Strategy
1. Establish a Sense of Purpose
Before your business creates marketing material and develops an image, you need to establish its overall purpose. While on the surface it may seem like the only purpose of any business is to generate revenue, this is not enough to create a brand.
You need to discover what will set your business apart from the competition. Create a mission statement and come up with a list of long-term and short-term goals. Do you want your business to be associated with quality products, impressive customer service, low prices, or luxury? How do you want people to perceive your business? Answering that seemingly straightforward question will help you develop your entire brand strategy.
If you find you need a bit of inspiration, take a look at some brands you personally admire. What do you think of when you see their products, logo, and name? Take a look at the ways they explain their own vision. Many brands today associate themselves with a particular lifestyle, which helps them attract new business and retain customers.
Creating a cohesive sense of purpose will help you build your brand in a way that people will want to identify with the company and purchase what it offers.
2. Develop a Recognizable and Visually Appealing Logo
Your logo is one of the most important areas of your entire brand strategy. A well-deigned logo will instantly connect people with your business.
Given the overwhelming amount of visual stimulation people are exposed to these days, it is important to make sure your logo is recognizable in an instant. You do not need to get too clever when you are developing a new logo, remember, it is more important that your logo is easily identifiable than overly creative.
A good logo will be eye-catching and represent your company in a positive light. Once you have a logo, get into the habit of attaching it to everything you sell. Your logo should be displayed enough that it becomes inseparable from your business.
Think about some of the most recognizable company logos on the planet, such as Nike and Adidas. Everything these brands sell will feature their easily recognizable logos. When you see one of their products, you immediately know who made it.
Another way to help your logo communicate your brand image is by developing a tagline. A unique and timeless tagline that sums up your brand in a few words will help your brand make an impression on your customers.
The logo and tagline are some of the most important tools for creating a recognizable brand. Your logo and tagline will become intertwined with your company’s identity. They are the way people will visually recognize your business in an instant.
3. Focus on Consistency
You want to avoid confusing potential customers about what your brand is all about. One of the easiest ways to avoid confusion is to practice total consistency. Everything your company puts out should align with your branding.
Make sure any advertising your business releases, content it publishes, and products it sells are done in a consistent way. The most recognizable brands in the world will always offer a consistent message.
The way the best brands communicate with customers and the general public is always the same. This helps solidify brand image and ensure customer loyalty.
Integrate your brand into every aspect of your business. Your brand should be visible and reflected in everything that your customers can see, read, and hear.
4. Outline Your Brand’s Key Qualities and Benefits
You want to make sure that people see your brand as unique. When it comes to brand strategy, it is incredibly important that you are distinct from the competition. You need to create the impression that your business can offer what other businesses cannot.
Focus on the qualities that make your business different from the rest. Potential customers should immediately know why they should choose you over other companies.
Take the Apple brand as an example. For decades, their entire brand has centered on ease of use. Apple consistently advertises how easily you will be able to use their products. Unlike the computers the competition offers, you are told that Apple computers will work right out of the box. This consistent advertising of a key quality and benefit has helped Apple become associated with quality and simplicity.
You can study the competition in your particular market and find something you can offer that they don’t.