A brand is effectively the personality of a company. What it is you do, what you represent and how you choose to convey that message. Companies can sell similar products but go about creating their message and positioning themselves at different price points.
Think of a car company, whether you want a flashy sports car, a family estate or an executive car each company has a range of cars to suit different needs while companies such as Mercedes and Fiat provide cars to suit different price points. Each has taken years to create the high quality or affordable alternative that first comes to mind when their name is mentioned. Providing good customer service will help you to build a solid customer base and help customers to get through the consumer decision-making process quicker and easier. Things to consider are:
- Know what it is you do
- Stand out from the crowd
- Use consistent Colours and Design
- Have an Online Presence
- Have Visibility and Credibility
- Have a very clear vision
- Understand your Audience
- Lead with the Story, Not the Product
- Use appealing Design
- Sell the problem you solve not the Product
- Know what it is you do and do it well.
Often people will come to me and say that they have a particular type of business but when you look further into it, they have much more than that. A restaurant is primarily a place where people go to eat, however, it is also a place to go to meet friends, have a romantic meal, or go to for a first date. It is also somewhere just to go on a night out. Each of these offerings needs to be advertised separately, knowing your full range of competition offers you the opportunity to promote each section correctly and effectively so that you can get the maximum return on your budget.
- Stand out from the Crowd
What is your USP? (Unique Selling Point) Have you clearly defined your offering? What makes your company special and what is it that you offer that is different from your competitor? Once you have clearly defined your offering you will know how to target your ideal customers much more effectively.
- Use consistent Colours and DesignColours in Branding are particularly important. Knowing the psychology of colours and what colours can evoke different the reactions you want should be considered when choosing a logo. Blue is a favourite colour of men and can gain loyalty to a brand. Yellow brings clarity and warmth, green promotes growth, health, and peace while red creates feelings of excitement and boldness and so on. When you have chosen your colours, talk to your printer/designer and get the Pantone reference and keep the same shade of colours every time your brand is represented.
- Have an Online Presence.Regardless of the size of the business you have, you need to be online. If you are not online nowadays you do not look like a reputable company and if someone looks you up and can’t find you, they will find your competitor. So not only have you lost business but have handed it over to your competition.
- Two things every company should have is Visibility and Credibility.As we have just said you need to be Visible to your customers by having an online presence. This also includes your social media. Once you have your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) sorted and your page is ranking highly on Google, your customers can find you, you need to build credibility, how do we do this? Well, we do this by building our community and creating information to help your clients to understand what you do more. Be consistent with your message and help people along the way without looking for anything in return.
- Have a clear visionIn order to succeed in any business, you need to have a clear vision of where it is that you want to go, and you need to be able to create a strategy that is going to get you to your end goal. Being able to understand your end goal clearly will make the strategy easier to create.
- Know your audience and how to reach themWhat age group are you trying to reach? Where are they going to hang out? Online? Newspapers? Etc. Each generation has particular interests, hobbies, and values, by understanding who it is we are trying to reach we can market our products or services correctly and make sure that we can maximize return on our budget.Baby Boomer – 1944-1964
Generation X – 1965 -1980
Millennial – 1981 -1998
Generation Z – 1999 – 2015 (More on this later!)
- Lead with the story, not the Product
Every day people come into contact with up to 4,000 adverts and it is hard that get past the noise. Every brand has a story to tell and by relaying this story instead of trying to constantly advertise to people you can build much more of a connection. Everyone remembers a part of a story and can be a good way to connect to your consumers. A good example of this is Nike. Their products are never the main feature of their advert instead they have an athlete at the top of their game telling you what they did to get there. by telling stories we give consumers something they can relate to and remember easier.
- Use appealing designWhat is your product or service? Work with a good graphic designer and printer to correctly convey your message. Capture the true essence of your business through your design so that people know just by looking at what it is that you do. This is also important with the Name of the company.
- Sell the problem you solve, not the product.Great so the new camera you want to buy has just been upgraded and has all these new features. Instead of promoting technical jargon, promote how your product or service is going to make someone’s life easier and going to solve a problem that they have.