WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE BRAND IDENTITY
Don’t begin your branding campaign blindly. Branding is much more than just a thoughtful logo or slogan. It’s more than just a unique color scheme. There are steps that need to be taken in order to start your successful brand image. Doing research within the company will greatly improve the success of your brand.
Examine the Competition
One of the keys to creating a successful brand image is to differentiate yourself from your competition. To do this you need to know how consumers view your competition. You need to know how your competitors differentiate themselves from the market. Also, you should know your competitors strengths and weaknesses. Your business can benefit from knowing this information by learning from competitor’s weaknesses, and learning how to differentiate your company from the competition.
Identify Your Strengths
Once you know your competition’s weaknesses you can start to highlight your company’s strengths. Perform a target market analysis, learn from it, and use it to your advantage. This is a useful tool to make sure your company’s strengths are in fact important to your target market. Once you’ve realized your strengths, and what strengths are important to customers, you can think about ways to successfully market those strengths to the market and involve them in your branding campaign.
Know the Customer
Learn more about the customer, market to them more effectively. Know their purchasing behavior. Do they buy often? Buy only during sales or promotions? Do they buy an array of products or services or just a select few? These are questions you should ask to better market to your best customers. Also, know your customer’s lifestyles, needs, mindsets, and attitudes. Knowing and working with these personality traits are also key to marketing success.
Be Your Brand
Make sure your company really represents what your brand identifies you with. For example, if one of the traits your brand identifies your company with is politeness, be polite. This means every employee from the receptionist all the way up to the CEO should represent politeness in every interaction.
Follow these simple steps in the opening stages of your brand identity campaign and you will ensure success!
About the Author: Tyler Houts is the Public Relations and Online Marketing Director for Kinetica Media, an internet marketing company that works to harness the power of the internet for businesses of all sizes. Visit www.kineticamedia.com to see how their proven online marketing campaigns can enhance customer loyalty and attract new clients.
