Building a Strong Brand Identity for Long-Term Success
The business world is a game of chess, where competition is based on strategies. Those who take their time to brand properly win the largest share while the rest is left for the others to share. The business world is evolving, branding is no longer a luxury but a necessity. But what is branding, and how does it differ from brand and brand identity? Where I come from people believe that branding is about the image and the more images, especially the logo. They believe that putting a logo on a cap, T-shirt, and water bottles, among other places is the whole essence of branding. But what is it? And what is its purpose in business?
From perception to identity: Understanding branding
Many times people use terms such as brand, branding and brand identity without understanding their true meaning. There exists a subtle, yet crucial, difference in meaning that is mostly misunderstood. A brand can be defined as the belief in the consumer’s mind about what your business is, and what values it holds. It is a sum of the experiences they have while interacting with your business from the service, and product quality to delivery levels, messaging and overall company culture and values. It is from this belief that customers decide what businesses succeed and which ones fail. One thing you must understand is that you are just a caretaker of your business but the owners are your customers, they are the ones who control it. You have the power to influence this perception through strategic branding efforts, but decision-makers on which brands survive and fail are the customers. Brand identity is the process of creating a visual style that communicates the company values based on the company’s mission, vision, culture and values. Branding, therefore, is the process of shaping and bringing all these factors together to form a coherent brand that effortlessly and effectively communicates your business values. It is a continuous process to make sure that you build a strong customer perception which results in a strong brand association.
The power of branding: Why it matters
Some will ask: why invest in branding and not marketing? First of all, branding is not marketing and vice versa is true. Marketing must be weaved around the branding efforts under the company values with its main aim being to facilitate sales, market presence and improve brand awareness. However, branding main aim is to communicate the company values to its potential customers in a consistent manner all through the business life. Branding, therefore, offers a multitude of benefits:
i. Easier selling: Most of the time, people tend to buy based on behaviour, culture, beliefs, and price. Based on their past experiences, they tend to buy a product since they trust its benefits. Other times they buy due to their cultural beliefs on a given product. Each individual has their own beliefs on a given product based on their experiences with them. Finally, some make their decisions based on price. Some buy because the price is low, and that’s all they can afford, while others think that the lower the price the poorer the quality of the product. It all depends on the perception. However, with branding, you can effectively communicate your product or service value to your customers without depending on price as a competitive tool. It helps you to understand your customers to a level that they know what they need and thus deliver it in such a manner making selling easy and effective.
ii. Problem-solving: Customers need products that effectively address their pain points. Sometimes it’s not about how the product appears, although important, it is about how well the problem the customer is facing was solved. It is about how much a brand cares about the solution they are offering. Through branding, you can effectively communicate what your brand is about and how it solves the problem at hand.
iii. Preparing businesses for success: Branding helps businesses to have a strong foundation for their strategy and how to communicate their solution. With branding, your marketing efforts are well-guided, shape product development and thus offer a consistent customer experience. Without branding, it is difficult to pinpoint where to improve and how, but branding guides you on when to rebrand, how and where. This sets a strong ground upon which your business stands thus easy to define and achieve success.
Branding as an art: How to craft yours
Branding is not a one-time event but a continuous process. It requires time, money and attention. One has to keep the feedback loop open for improvements. Below are a few steps you can follow to build your brand:
i. Define your values and find your way
The first step is to understand why you are in business. What is the problem that you wish to solve and how are you going to solve it? Do you completely understand your target audience? When you answer all these questions, the only remaining thing is to deliver as promised, and consistently engage the audience to make sure you keep up with the promise.
ii. Differentiate yourself
The business world is a crowded place unless you are a first-mover, which will be crowded in no time anyway. To do this, one needs to do a thorough research of who are your competitors, what they are doing, and the kind of solutions out there. With this in mind, it is easy to differentiate your product or service may it be how you interact with your customers or how you deliver your services. At this stage, many fall into the trap of differentiating their selves using price as a strategy hoping that everyone will jump aboard since the prices are lower, this might surprise you. You need to understand the market in a way that when you deliver, your customers are wowed, not because the prices were low but because the service or product was exceptional.
iii. Narrow your focus
Most of entrepreneurs especially beginners start by targeting everyone and anyone. Well, the thought is you will have a wider market segment which might enable you to come out with a bigger market ratio. However, you might end up with non or troublesome customers. You need people who resonate with your values. This means that you need to identify the one thing that you are best at and deliver on it better than anyone else.
iv. Communicate
At this step, you know who your customers are and how you will deliver your product. The next step is to put your communication channels at bay. The aim is to utilize visual identity through brand identity to communicate your values based on the above steps’ results. You want to be as consistent as possible in your social networks, website, adverts, audio, videos, packaging and perhaps magazines. Your message needs to remain consistent and clear to the point. You must aim to communicate with the same tone, to capture attention and grow your brand. It is at this stage that logos, colours, imagery, and website, among other assets, come into play.
Branding is a never-ending journey
Branding is everything today, it cuts across businesses to help deliver messages in the right manner, where brand identity is just a piece of the puzzle. Brand identity, therefore, is built based on branding foundations which include the brand’s core values, mission, and vision. For your brand to be effective, you must make sure that all the pieces remain consistent across all touchpoints, think of it as an orchestra, where every element supports each other to come up with a harmonious whole. Branding is a never-ending journey, embrace it by consistently listening to your customers and thus refine across all the areas with an open mind based on customer preferences. While building your brand, don’t think of branding as an afterthought, but a fabric within your business from the beginning. Now you know what branding is, craft a brand identity that will propel you to building a brand.
