From bland to brand: Creating a corporate branding strategy

The business world today is more cluttered than ever before. In fact, the government found that 5.7 million small businesses were operating in the UK during 2017. That’s just the sole proprietors and local stores — when you add in larger, more well-known corporations, the numbers become astronomical.

While any company can benefit from great branding, corporations are particularly in need of the differentiation and identity that a brand can provide. After all, the more a business grows and expands, the more likely it is to lose the personal touch that helped it to appeal to everyday customers. The key thing to remember today, is that old, tried-and-tested #BrandPolicies are becoming increasingly outdated.

It’s no longer enough to simply tell people that you’re the biggest and best. Modern corporate branding is all about flair, creativity, and dynamism. As the digital environment continues to transform the way companies and consumers connect, corporations like yours will have to rethink the way you approach your audience. For instance, did you know that 75% of all purchasing decisions are emotional?

Here we’re going to be looking at how you can create a corporate branding campaign that’s unique, engaging, and ready to inspire your customers.

Are you ready for the journey from bland to brand?

How to banish the boredom from your corporate brand

A brand is more than just a logo or a piece of your marketing campaign. It’s an identity that helps you to outshine your rivals with passion and focus. A brand ensures that you can resonate with the right customers and build relationships with valuable people.

The problem is, as consumers continue to evolve, many of today’s brand are still using the same old #BrandStrategy of days gone by. If you want to be successful in this competitive space, then you can’t just pick a name and logo out of a hat. Corporate branding is about telling a story and creating an icon. It needs:

• Originality: If you try to follow the best practices of the brands that came before you, then you can never be truly unique. Becoming a one-of-a-kind company means assessing your corporation and finding a way to set yourself apart from the competition.
• Sincerity: Today’s customers are more cynical than ever. If you want to prove that your corporation is more than just a soulless machine, you’ll need to create a genuine, and authentic personality for your brand. Maintain your sincerity, and you’ll find it’s much easier to connect with customers.
• Courage: Fortune favours the bold. The best corporate brands are constantly experimenting with new techniques in logo creation and web design, and they’re willing to take a stand on controversial issues.

3 golden rules for great corporate branding

Perhaps the main thing that makes #CorporateBranding so tough in the modern marketplace, is how cynical today’s customers are. There’s a stigma around corporations that paint them as mean, soulless organisations. It’s no wonder that 54% of customers say that they don’t trust the companies they see each day.

If you want to get ahead of the competition in the current marketplace, then you need to show your customers that you’re more than “just” a company. This means building your brand with the following three rules in mind:

Rule 1: Design a brand that speaks to your customer

In the past, your target audience may have been a lot broader than it should be today. Many companies, both large and small labour under the misconception that a spray-and-pray approach to branding is the best way to get a lot of leads. The truth is, the more you try to appeal to everyone, the more likely it is that you’ll connect with no-one.

Choosing a specific niche audience, then working with your branding company to create a campaign that speaks to that market is the best way to boost sales. For instance, the Doctor Manzana brand in Spain decided to differentiate their technology brand by appealing to fashion-savvy customers:

Rule 2: Be authentic and emotional

Great corporate branding isn’t just about choosing the right logo or picking a good name for your business. Instead, you need to think about how you can develop genuine connections with your target audience. Some corporations find that when they begin to grow, they forget how to connect authentically with real people.

To avoid losing your humanity, think about how you can implement more “feeling” into the things you do. For instance, you could tell your story on your “About Us” page or get creative with a marketing campaign designed to trigger emotions. For instance, Dove’s 2004 “Real Beauty” campaign helped to separate the soap brand from other cosmetic companies by positioning them as an advocate for self-esteem and empowerment.

Step 3: Go beyond the archetype

Finally, when you begin to define your #BrandPersonality, you might use templates to guide you. One particularly common template discusses the 12 traditional brand archetypes, ranging all the way from “The Hero” to the “The Outlaw”. These archetypes established by Carl Jung are a great way to choose the foundation of your personality. However, there’s more to corporate branding than picking your favourite character out of a line-up.

Look at BrewDog, for instance. You might instantly assume that this craft beer company’s archetype is the “Outlaw”. After all, they use swearing in their campaigns, and define themselves as “punk”. However, while Brewdog does fit into the outlaw archetype, it’s also a creator, frequently developing new flavours, and a “hero” with charity campaigns like the Unicorn Fund, which promises 20% of all profits to charity.

Unforgettable corporate brands aren’t just one-dimensional creations — they’re entities with passion, vision, and values.

Time to launch your corporate branding strategy?

The corporate world has changed drastically in recent years, driven by empowered and cynical customers on the search for genuine relationships.

In a saturated business environment, if you don’t have a brand that resonates with your target customer, they’re sure to find what they need elsewhere. With unique corporate branding, you can stop simply “selling” to your customers, and start making them feel as though they’re part of a powerful community.

Corporate branding involves a consideration of everything from your straplines, to your colour scheme, but it also means working with the right agency to create a human side for your #CorporateBrand.

To find out more about corporate branding, check out our exclusive guide. On the other hand, you can reach out to Fabrik for some personalised help. Remember, your brand is how your customers perceive your organisation. The right strategy can break through the stigma of the “corporate machine.”