THE BASICS OF BUILDING A BRAND STRATEGY

Your brand communicates more than just your product’s features to the customer – it communicates an identity. One of the best ways to drive repeat business is to create a branding strategy that sets expectations for consumers. For example, an Apple customer knows what kind of design they can expect from the company’s products, thanks to the effort Apple has put into being stylistically consistent. A brand should transmit an instant perception of a company.

According to Entrepreneur.com, one of the questions you have to ask yourself when defining your brand is: What qualities do you want them to associate with your company? Reliability? Prestige? There may be many qualities that you wish to communicate, but today’s consumers have many sources competing for their attention.

Here are some suggestions when developing your brand strategy:

Logo: Your logo is often the first thing a customer sees, and it provides information about who you are as a company. A visually pleasing, clean design communicates quality. Spend the time and resources necessary for a well-designed logo and place it everywhere.

Tagline: The answer to the question, “Who are we?” should be clear and concise. What phrase or sentence sums up your brand? According to trongiggroup.com, “A brand, if it is to be powerful, cannot be about many different things. You must have the courage to ignore those who will always be there whispering, ‘But this is important too.’ Capitulating to this urge is a recipe for brand mediocrity: in many such cases, it’s all there, and all true, and yet in the end, nothing sticks in the brand consumer’s mind. That’s the very definition of brand disaster.”

Consistency: Your company appearance, products and services should reflect your brand at all times. If you are communicating a trendy, cutting-edge vision for your company but have an outdated and clumsy website, consumer trust in your company will erode. Make sure your product, marketing materials and company culture are in line with the statement your brand is making.

If you’ve struggled with branding in the past or simply want a fresh take on your company’s image, please contact our full-service agency for a free demonstration of Conduit, our easy-to-use marketing software tool.