What promise does your
business offer to its consumers? This is essential because, ideally, the
promise defines the brand. Think of it as the level of
credibility or the confidence
consumers place in your brand, business, and related experience.
What are their emotions,
experience, and look when using your product? Nike is not just a shoe company;
it's an experience. Coke is more than just a soda.
The iPhone is not a
phone, it's the prestige of using the brand. Every time you reach out for an
iPhone in a store, it's about the experience it will bring and never about its
functionality.
Besides, brands like
Apple or Coke have managed to sell an experience they want you to have when
interacting with their products. These are why you choose to purchase a certain
brand over the other. You're buying the experience and not just the product.
Nike, Coke, and Apple are some of the few businesses that have effectively
cultivated their brands for this reason.
The main goal of
branding is to establish a solid connection with your target audience. In other
words, you need to understand that your brand needs to exist everywhere. If
you're a new business, you can leverage start-up marketing services to help
strategize this aspect of your brand.
How you curate your
Instagram caption, the color scheme, and the packaging should bring out a warm
experience to the consumers. It needs to resonate and appeal to your target
clientele. In this definitive guide, let's look at what's a brand and how you
can design it the right way.
What Is Branding?
Branding is when you
consciously study, create, and implement unique features that define your
business. This process is essential as you will use it to sell an experience to
your existing and new customers. It has the potential to inform your consumers on
how to relate to your goods or services.
The Nike brand has a famous logo and
tagline that everyone can identify from afar. Even more interesting is that
it's easy to tell when the logo on a product is not original.
The swoosh logo was
introduced in 1971, and this logo is hard to forget and easy on the eyes. It
effortlessly illustrates its mantra, Just Do It. Over the years, Nike has
endured and is proof of the effectiveness of a persistent, well-loved brand.
Therefore, branding
becomes successful after several iterations as it needs to connect with your
company's and customers' souls. You can leverage the help of startup marketing
services to walk this journey with you. An effective marketing agency can grow
a powerful brand from the ground up that will exist in the future.
So let's explore and
dive into effective ways of creating your own brand.
1. Establish Your Target Market and Their Personas
Perfect branding will
boost brand awareness, trust, recognition, and sales revenue. But let's take a
step back. How do you achieve all this, though? Your customers and potential
clientele are the impacts of your brand results.
To generate visibility
and increase conversions, this depends on your connection with your audience.
So, a crucial process you should prioritize is leveraging target market
research.
But don't worry; target
market research is part of the startup marketing services. Therefore, as a new
business, this shouldn't worry you. Outsources such services to experienced
personnel to ensure your work is easy.
This step is essential
before putting your cursor on a digital platform or pen to paper. Working with startup marketing services will make it easy for
you to identify who your product is intended for, the perfect client for you,
and why you established your business.
Ensure you prioritize
this phase. This is because once you identify your target market and customer
personas, it will be a breeze when developing your branding strategy later on.
2. Define Your Mission Statement, Vision, and Values
The first step you need
to accomplish is articulating the benefit that your business offers. Having a
mission and core values is a great place to start before developing your brand.
This will form the basis of your entire brand strategy.
So, ensure you can
figure out what distinguishes your brand from competitors. What are some of the
core beliefs that define your business, and why does it exist?
Coca-Cola focuses on the
lifestyle and emotions associated with the brand. It portrays this well with
its ever-genius slogans, which always promote humanity and friendship. Under
the Real
Magic platform, One Coke Away From
Each Other does a splendid job celebrating our common humanity.
If you're new in the
game and find it challenging to curate such a powerful and solid human
connection with a mission statement, you can leverage a startup marketing firm
to help.
They will be able to
help you create your new brand and solid foundation. Then reflect on this goal
and vision in every aspect of your brand, including logo, images, tagline,
voice, and personality.
Remember, for a
successful mission statement, it needs to explain why your company exists and
why consumers should care about your brand. This is the primary base to ensure
your branding is successful.
3. Develop Your Visual Assets
Your target audience,
mission, vision, and core values are integral to your branding. These are the
distinctive features that make up your business.
So, after mastering and
effectively executing these processes, the next step is visual design. This
includes choosing a color scheme, typography (fonts), logo, and other visual
elements.
During this stage,
ensure you build a set of brand rules. This is significant as it will help
control your visual assets' layout and application. It is essential as it
guarantees brand consistency across various platforms. Even if you’ve
outsourced the services to a startup marketing agency, you should be in control
of this process and a custodian of the style guide.
Final Thoughts
Your company's name,
logo, color scheme, voice, and imagery contribute to its branding. It's that
elusive sensation that buyers encounter while interacting with your brand. That
experience we discussed at the beginning, you know.
Powerhouse brands differ
from the rest in this way. You can outsource your startup marketing services to
create beautiful logos, creative taglines, real manifestos, and distinct brand
voices. This is because these are tangible elements that help.
But, truly powerful brands succeed when they concentrate on the big picture of their business. A successful brand will emerge if you deeply understand your target market and company.
