Introduction
Branding is the art of combination of knowable, likable, and trustable. A Brand is a result, it’s a customer’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company. It is an idea of what a customer thinks about a company or personality. This could be million or billions of ideas, based on who the person or company is and how they represent themselves.
In order to get the reputation of a Brand, a person or a company so have a distinctive personality that is appropriate for the target audience. In creating a brand or “branding” a business is managing the effect that the product or service is having on the customers.
Branding can be a key to a company’s success while a poorly managed brand can sink a company. It is a concept that helps people identify a particular company, product, or individual. It is one of those concepts you need to understand. Not just in terms of what branding means, but how to apply the elements of good branding to your own company.
You might think that your product is your band, but in marketing terms, they are two different things. Your product is what to sell whether its is something physical or service provided. It is likely that there are similar products on the market, if not identical. But your brand should be a unique one. And in order to make your brand a unique one, a branding strategy should be applied.
What exactly Branding?
A Brand is a result, it’s a customer’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company. It is an idea of what a customer thinks about a company or personality. This could be million or billions of ideas, based on who the person or company is and how they represent themselves.
In order to get the reputation of a Brand, a person or a company so have a distinctive personality that is appropriate for the target audience. In creating a brand or “branding” a business is managing the effect that the product or service is having on the customers.
Branding can be a key to a company’s success while a poorly managed brand can sink a company. It is a concept that helps people identify a particular company, product, or individual. It is one of those concepts you need to understand. Not just in terms of what branding means, but how to apply the elements of good branding to your own company.
You might think that your product is your band, but in marketing terms, they are to different things. Your product is what to sell whether its is something physical or service provided. It is likely that there are similar products on the market, if not identical. But your brand should be a unique one. And in order to make your brand a unique one, a branding strategy should be applied.
Described Branding Strategy?
Brand strategy is a part of the business plan that outlines the growth of the company within the market. The goal of the brand strategy is to attract the target audience and to become memorable in the eyes of the customers so that they decide to adopt an air of condescension toward the business over the competition.
A well-defined and executed brand strategy affects all aspects of a business and is directly connected to consumer needs, emotions, and competitive environments. First of all, it should be clear up that your brand is not solely your product, your logo, your website, or your name. Yes, your brand includes these, it’s all of that and more.
What keypoint elements of brand strategy?
- Purpose.
- Consistency.
- Loyalty.
- Employee Involvement.
- Identifying Target Audience.
- Emotion.
- Brand Awareness.
- Flexibility.
1. Purpose
Brand purpose is the reason for the brand to exist beyond any financial profit. It is important because it shows your customers that you are not just for products, services, or advertising campaigns. You have a purpose and that’s bigger than just turning a profit.
The purpose-driven campaign is a way for a company or brand to engage with a target audience based on their shared needs and interests which includes supporting worthy causes. In order words, your purpose is more specific in that it serves as a differentiator between you and your competitors.
A purpose should be both Functional and intentional as making money is essential to almost every business. We admire brands that emphasize their willingness to achieve more than just profitability.
2. Consistency
Consistent branding makes your brand memorable. Branding consistency is the ability of the brand to maintain communication and position in line with its values and the elements that make up its identity. In branding work, companies are always looking to develop their image through different actions.
Providing consistent, good-quality product allows customers to know exactly what to expect every time they purchase your products. This increases trust in your brand and can have a significant impact on the number of products you sell. Ultimately, consistency contributes to brand recognition, which fuels customer loyalty.
3. Loyalty
Loyalty is an important component in relationships, whether romantic, familial, social, or official. It can help stronger bonds and create social support. Loyal customers believe in your company and they are not shy about sharing positive feedback with others. New customers who purchase your products and become ‘brand loyal’ will become your permanent customers or more precisely, your repeat customers.
It is found that a positive brand image could influence customers’ loyalty so they would repurchase more products or services and recommend others to buy as much. 77% of the customers have been loyal to at least one brand for 10 years or longer.
Loyalty is a critical part of every brand strategy, especially to support your sales organization. Highlighting a positive relationship between you and your existing customers sets the tone for what potential customers can expect if they choose to do business with you.
4. Employee Involvement
As we mentioned before, achieving a sense of consistency is vital if you wish to build brand recognition. It is equally essential for your employees to be well-versed in communicating with customers and representing the brand. Employees help your company grow brand visibility, generate sales, and increase employer brand and recruiting by sharing on social.
Frequent blogs on company events, work culture, company hiring process, benefits, etc. Social media posts with photos and videos of the events. Video testimonials from employees sharing their positive experience in the company and making them the part of branding exercise ensures effective ‘employee branding’.
Holding all the employees to a company’s core values and helping them to sustain a positive attribute towards the company, builds a strong reputation for solid, helpful, and human customer service.
5. Identifying Target Audience
The target audience is the group of people that may want to purchase your product or service. They have common characters and demographic traits such as age, gender, education, location, marital status, etc.
When you know your main target audience, you can more easily tune into their needs, desires, and interests. Brands with a clear target audience know what their chosen demographics want and need.
Generally speaking, target markets usually fall into three segments: Demographic, Geographic, and Psychographic. Demographic grouping is based on measurable statistics such as age, gender, race, religion, education, etc. Geographic grouping involves segmenting the market based on location. Home addresses are one example but you could also use neighborhood, area code, region, country, etc. Psychological grouping involves dividing the target market based on socioeconomic class or lifestyle preference.
6. Emotion
Emotion is an exotic means of branding. Emotional Branding is the process of forming a relationship between a consumer and a product by proving their emotions. This means, whatever strategy your business will make in creating an image to marketing experience, everything must target a consumer on a different level of emotion.
Marc Gobe created the concept of emotional branding over 15 years ago. His philosophy is based on the observation that connections can take place on an emotional level in relationships between brands and people.
7. Brand Awareness
Brand Awareness is often considered a critical first step in building equity and the basis for a strong branding strategy. This awareness leads to trust, meaning the more recognition your brand has, the more successful your brand will be.
It is the foundation of acquiring a customer audience and helping them understand and become comfortable with your products and services. Repeated exposure to brand messaging creates familiarity and increases customer trust and willingness to purchase, as consumers don’t believe in the quality of unfamiliar brands.
8. Flexibility
A flexible brand means that a brand’s visuals and strategy can be easily adapted to reflect the evolving core values, focus, and consumer needs in a continuously changing market. It is a system that takes care of market uncertainties, by sensing competitors, movements, and market fluctuations, and taking quick decisions on. When your brand strategy is flexible, there’s room for creativity, and that can result in something spectacular. Not only it retains your brand’s personality, but a brand mark must also be flexible in its design to
communicate across all different media and devices.
Conclusion
Brand strategy and brand identity communication must be clear and understood by all stakeholders with a strong focus on specific customer segments. Brand strategy and management have now changed in their emphasis. It isn’t so much about persuading consumers to prefer a brand, but more about understanding consumers so well that one can give them a brand that really adds value to their lives. The brand has to become a part of them. Let excellence be your brand when you are excellent to become unforgettable.
