Effective branding: What is a brand and why is it important for business?

From the outside, it may seem that a brand is just logos, colours and slogans. But in reality, it’s much more than that. It is the entire personality of your business. It’s what sets you apart from your competitors and makes you unique in the eyes of your customers.

Branding has always been a vital part of business, but it’s more important now than ever before. Thanks to social media, consumers are exposed to new brands every day.

There is a lot of competition today, so businesses need to make extra efforts to stand out from the crowd. To do this, you need to invest in building a strong brand that will attract and retain people’s attention. With the right positioning, you have the ability to gain some control over how people perceive your business, so don’t overlook this.

My favourite advice to any entrepreneur is to learn how to build a brand, not just a business. This is something that will give you huge growth and enthusiastic fans.

What is branding?

Branding your business is much more than just a cool logo or well-placed advertising. You need to do more than that. Let me give you a brief definition of what a brand is before I dive into the details of building one.

A brand is defined by the overall perception of your business by customers. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says it even better:

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

 

Your brand is your reputation! In today’s marketplace, a successful brand needs to be consistent in its communication and experience across multiple applications.

The truth is, branding doesn’t happen overnight… or even in a few months. Building a brand is definitely a process that requires a strategy. Only sustained effort will lead to long-term customer relationships.

The definition of brand building is to raise awareness of your business through strategies and campaigns in order to create a unique and sustainable image in the marketplace.

Positive image + distinction = brand success.

Branding can be divided into three high-level stages:

1. Brand strategy
2. Corporate identity
3. Brand marketing

A brand strategy will define how you are different, trustworthy, memorable and appealing to your ideal customer. It will convey your goals, promises, and how you solve people’s problems.

It’s the very first step you need to take when building a brand from scratch (whether you’re starting out or have already established one). You wouldn’t build a house without blueprints or plans, would you? It’s the same with your brand.

A brand strategy can be seen as a blueprint for how you want the world to see your business. An effective and comprehensive brand strategy should include the following components:

• Developing a brand purpose
• Audience development
• Competitor research
• Brand voice and personality
• Brand message and story

Strategy is the most important and fundamental element of building a successful brand. It is one of the areas that most companies overlook because they jump straight to design and marketing.

A brand identity is a way to communicate this to the public through visuals, messaging, and experiences. Your brand strategy will influence how you present your identity and align it with your purpose for maximum impact.

Brand elements should be applied consistently across all channels. This is how your business will become recognisable. This covers:

• Logo
• Colours and fonts
• Identity
• Website design
• Content and messaging
• Advertising
• Print or packaging

Brand marketing is a way for businesses or organisations to distinguish products or services and build awareness of them by connecting values and voice with the right audience through strategic communication. In 2024, enhancing your brand image can be done effectively through a variety of digital marketing activities:

• User experience (i.e. your website)
• SEO and content marketing
• Media marketing
• Advertising mailing list
• Paid advertising (PPC)

Together, these channels are central to building brand awareness and growth.

How to create a brand that people will love

1. Set a goal for your brand.

Every successful brand has a powerful purpose behind it. And you need one too. That’s why the first step in an effective brand building process is to find out what drives you. There are four questions you should ask when defining your brand purpose:

• Why do you exist?
• What makes you stand out?
• What problem do you solve?
• Why should people care?

You’ll use these ideas to form the foundation of your brand through your tagline, value proposition, messaging, stories and more. Research shows that 50% of consumers worldwide say they now make purchases based on a company’s brand values and influence. So dig deeper and find those nuggets of truth that can differentiate your brand from the rest.

2. Study competing brands in your industry

You should never imitate exactly what the big brands in your industry are doing. But you should know what they do well and where they fail. The goal of brand building is to differentiate yourself from your competitors.

Start by creating a table of your brand’s competitors for comparison. You can use Google Sheets, Excel, or just a notebook. Then answer these fundamental questions.

• What is the quality of the competitor’s products or services?
• Does the competitor have any customer reviews or social media mentions that you can read about?
• How does the competitor promote their business both online and offline?

3. Identify your brand’s target audience.

The basis of building your brand is to define the target audience you will target. It is wrong to work for everyone. It is important to be specific. Find out the detailed behaviour and lifestyle of your consumers.

Let me explain with a few short examples. Instead of “all mums”, you can narrow your niche and focus on “single mums who work full-time from home”. “Technical people” is very broad. But “tech-savvy early adopters who manage a large team” can narrow the focus. If you’re targeting “college students”, there’s definitely room to be more specific. An example might be: “college students studying in Europe for the summer”. “Anyone who needs a job” is certainly not a niche target market. However, “retirees looking to re-enter the workforce in a management position” might be! As you can see, choosing a niche requires something very focused to begin with.

The brand building process is based on a true understanding of the buyer persona. Here are some things to document when describing your ideal customer:

• Age
• gender
• place of residence
• income;
• level of education.

To get even more insight into your brand’s customer persona, dig deeper into these details:

• motivations
• goals
• pain points
• fears
• desires.

Identifying the target audience for your services or products is a task that will impact and benefit all areas of your brand building process, especially your marketing efforts.

4. Define the brand’s mission and vision.

The fourth step in the process of building a brand is its mission. This is part of your “why”; the reason you get up every day. Before you can create a brand that your target audience trusts, you need to know what value your business brings to the table.

Your brand vision is an ambitious statement about the future your brand is striving for. Think 10 years ahead.

Everything from your logo to your tagline, message and personality should reflect your mission and vision. We all know the Nike slogan: “Just do it”. But do you know their mission statement? Nike’s mission statement: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”. You can see it everywhere. They are focused on all athletes who use Nike products to perform at their best.

Nike goes even further in realising its brand mission by adding a footnote to the statement: “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” Think of how broad their target audience has become with this statement!

5. Describe the key qualities and benefits of your brand

There will always be brands with big budgets and big resources to lead their industry. Your products, services and benefits are yours alone. Creating a memorable brand means you dig deep to find out what you offer that no one else does.

Focus on the qualities and benefits that make your company’s branding unique. Assuming that you know exactly who your target audience is (see point 3), give them a reason to choose your brand.

It’s important to make more than just a detailed list of features that your product or services offer to your customer or client. Think about how you provide value that improves the lives of consumers (results that can be experienced first-hand).

If there is one example of how to build a brand that you should always pay attention to, it is Apple. Obviously, it is not just another computer company. One of the key qualities of Apple is its clean design, and a key advantage is its ease of use. From unique packaging to announcements, Apple always reminds customers that its products can be used right out of the box.

Do you remember Apple’s slogan back in 1997-2002?

“Think Different.”

 

This concept still exists today.

6. Develop your unique brand voice.

This is how you communicate with your customers and how they respond to you. Your voice depends on your company’s mission, audience and industry. A brand voice can be:

• Professional
• Friendly
• Service-oriented
• Authoritative
• Technical
• Advertising
• Colloquial
• Informative

There are an endless number of adjectives and possibilities that can create a brand voice that underpins your message. It is especially important when publishing blog articles or social media posts. Maintaining a consistent voice will help your brand image become recognisable across multiple channels in the same way.

7. Create a brand story and messaging

When creating a brand, briefly tell your customers who you are, what you offer and why they should care. A brand story is an opportunity to communicate on a human level, creating a direct emotional connection with your customers. Keep it simple and clear. Most importantly, when creating a brand story, pay attention not to what your product can do, but to why it is important to your customer.

8. Create a brand logo and slogan.

When you think about how to create a brand, visuals are the first thing that comes to mind. The most exciting (and possibly the most important part) of the branding process is creating a logo and slogan for your company. They will become your personality, your calling card, and a visual acknowledgement of your promise. So be prepared to invest time and money creating something exceptional to reinforce your business’ visual identity.

9. Integrate your brand into all aspects of your business.

The brand building process never stops. Your brand should be visible and reflected in everything your customer sees, reads and hears.

Whether a client walks into your office or a customer enters your store, your brand image should be reflected in the environment as well as in face-to-face interactions. Everything tangible – from business cards to advertising, packaging, and products – needs your logo imprinted on it.

On any digital platform, make sure your brand looks the same everywhere. Use your brand style guide to ensure that visuals such as colour and logo usage, fonts, photos, etc. are consistent.

10. Stay true to your brand.

Unless you decide to change your brand to something more effective based on measured consumer response, consistency is key. Refer to your brand strategy every time you need to make an identity or marketing decision. Once you’ve created a brand voice, use it for every piece of content you create.

Document all brand guidelines you create and distribute internally for reference. Don’t change your branding. Inconsistency will confuse your customers and make it harder to build your brand over the long term.

Branding is a marathon, not a sprint. With time and effort, you can create a strong brand that your audience will love and that will bring you success.

I leave interesting examples of how companies develop their brand. I share a lot of interesting cases and business solutions in my telegram channel:

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