B.R.A.N.D. – The Ultimate Guide on Building a Successful Brand

The global economy has developed so much that there’s almost no scope for a single producer producing one of a kind of product. The day a company launches any innovative product some other company launches its replica at a comparatively lower price. Uniqueness in the market has become rare if not non-existent. Your Brand is important.

In a nutshell, the days are gone when a business was able to capture market solely on its products. It’s obvious for you to put your 100% effort in manufacturing your product or providing your services. But is it really enough to bring you the justifiable portion of profit from your industry? The answer is absolutely in negative. What apart from your product or service can bring you your share of customers? It’s your brand!

According to Marc Straessle, founder of Museproject, a leading digital Marketing agency in Perth Western Australia, a brand is not only your logo, your website and visuals. Essentially, a brand is what people think of when they hear your company name.

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In today’s global market customers have more than enough options for getting what they wish, at the price their budget can afford. So, a product in isolation cannot make a customer stick to you. It’s the emotional bondage with brands that make a customer loyal. Surveys have given clear pictures that majority of buyers chooses a product with a brand they are already familiar with. For a customer, brand defines the level of trust they can put in a certain company or organization.

Let us understand this with a hypothetical example. Take an Apple laptop without the Apple’s trademark and try to sell it to a customer visiting Apple store at half the original price. The customer would prefer to buy an Apple laptop on its original price rather than risking half the amount on a product without that trusted trademark. The reason is clear; the customer cannot trust that product without its brand.

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Is it tough to understand now that customers pay for the trust rather than for product? And that trust is built by the company through a gradual and systematic process.

The level of trust of customers defines any company’s level of profit earning. And, this trust can obviously not be built overnight. A company can tap massive amount of profit from the market once this trust is built because customers pay for the trust rather than for product. Like any other relationships the relationship between a company and its customers need to be nurtured. This nurturing of relationship between the company and its customers is a gradual and systematic process.

We have broken the whole process of branding or better say building trust in 5 simple and easy to remember chunks. So let us tell you how to B.R.A.N.D. your brand.

Build Your Reputation

Building reputation is an ongoing process that includes almost everything related to your company. You are misinformed if you think your products and services are the only things that contribute to your brand reputation. The work environment in your company, your social presence, the way of customer dealing, your relationship with the law of the land, your contribution towards society, etc. all play a vital role in building your reputation.

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Your tax-defaulter status has nothing to do with your product or service quality, but it can harm your reputation and cripple your business without a doubt. You see big companies involving in charities and sponsoring sports etc. Why do they do all these rather than focusing solely on their business? They do so because they want to build their reputation by striking the emotional chords of their target audience.

On the same note, find how Microsites can build your brand.

It’s not enough to have a good relationship with your customers only. You need to have a healthy working atmosphere for your employees to build a positive reputation in the society. Employees do come from this society only, and they mingle with people who are your target audience. Don’t ignore anything that can bring you a bad reputation in the market. It is a fact that bad words float faster than praises.

Raise Your Brand like Your Child

How do you raise a child? You need lots of patience to raise a child and so do you need in building a brand. Don’t expect your newbie brand to work like large enterprises’ which have already made a mark for themselves. Give it proper time and nourishment to grow. The amount of effort you put today will show itself in future, and you’ll feel proud of your brand.

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You give your child lessons of your ideologies to make him, or her behave properly; the same applies to a brand. You must pass your ideologies to your brand as a legacy because you already know how important reputation is for a business. Whenever someone talks about your brand, your vision and ideologies should reflect in that.

You are always ready to invest your hard earned money for your child then why not your brand? Hire professionals who can create a logo and write a catchy tagline for your brand.  It should have a well organized social media page to flaunt its achievements and a timeline which showcases its growth speed.

Advocate Your Brand Everywhere

You are the creator of your brand; you know the most about it; so, it’s your responsibility to advocate it everywhere possible. It is a psychological phenomenon that a person feels connected to anything that repeatedly comes in his or her eyesight. So make sure to use your professionally designed logo everywhere your product or anything related to the company goes.

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Advocating your brand does not mean pushing it in every single sentence you speak regardless of the context. It means knowing and not missing any place where your brand can justifiably be mentioned. It also does not mean telling every passer-by to buy your product. It means decently telling people about the existence of your brand. Let people know the story, mission and vision behind your brand.

Navigate Through the Market

Business is nothing short of school exams where anybody who answers the questions correctly is awarded the marks. Business is like competitive exams, where one extra mark for your competitor means your ranking slips down. Your business is not only affected by what you do; it is very much affected by what your competitors are doing as well. So, you must always be aware about your competitor.

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Keep in mind that we are not encouraging any malpractice; we are simply talking about healthy competition between business.

Visit your competitor’s’ store, their websites and social media pages to have an idea about their strategies. You don’t need to copy your competitor even if their business strategy seems to be working better than yours. You must maintain your brand’s individuality. Navigate through the market for analyzing the competitor’s strength and your weakness and update your strategies accordingly.

On another note, you might want to see SEO techniques for the year 2018.

Determine Your Brand Voice

When you are raising your brand as a child and treating it as an individual, you should also create a voice for it. There’s no set rule for creating a brand voice. It completely depends on your choice and type of business. Your brand could have a professional voice, friendly voice, informative voice or anything you like. Whatever you choose, be consistent to it; every piece of write-up on behalf of your brand should have the same voice.

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You can test different options before finalising the most appropriate one for your brand. However, once you have finalised your brand’s voice don’t change it. If you put blog posts on your company’s website or maintain social media accounts in the name of your brand make sure to hire professionals with a voice that matches your brand. Try not changing copywriters frequently as every individual has differing style of writing and this can affect your brand voice.

Do you have other tips which have helped you in your journey to make a successful brand? Do let us know by commenting below.