The Essential Guide to Building a Strong Brand Image
When choosing products to buy, whether in traditional brick-and-mortar stores or in online retail channels, brand image plays a large role. For many customers, it is the deciding factor as to which product they will pick off the shelves or add to their carts, making it an essential part of business.
But what is it exactly?
What is brand image?
Brand image is the customers’ perception of a brand and what it stands for. It is not to be confused with brand identity which, in comparison, refers to how the business defines itself. While brand image is determined by external factors that a business has no control over (i.e., the market), brand identity is determined by internal factors or by the business itself.
What do you think of Nike and Adidas? Just by the mention of their brand names, we’re sure you’ve already come up with mental images of famous athletes and style icons wearing their sportswear. Christiano Ronaldo anyone? How about Kendall Jenner? You get it. And through association and experience of their products, you probably trust these two brands to provide you with quality, long-lasting sportswear products that are also quite trendy. Overall, their brand image leans towards being a reliable brand for the sporty and fashionable. Because of this, they are known and patronized worldwide, becoming household names and garnering annual sales worth millions of dollars.
Brand image defines your brand’s reputation and standing. It dictates what thoughts or ideas are associated with your business. It determines whether or not your target market will find you appealing and worth buying. As such, it greatly affects a business’s overall sales and performance. It can also determine your pricing. A lot of brands are able to put a high price on their products just by stamping their logo on them by virtue of their brand image. For customers, their logos already serve as a sign of quality because of their perception of the brand.
That’s why if you are aiming for business success, it is crucial to build a strong brand image.
Building a strong brand image
While the market has the final say on a brand’s image, you can adjust business strategy and marketing in order to sway them to perceive your brand as desired.
Below are some tips to help you do just that.
Match your brand identity with the brand image you’re building
Go back to the reason why you started the business and identify your mission, vision, and goals. Lay out your brand story. In doing so, you are inadvertently defining your brand identity. Your brand identity defines who you are and how you want to be perceived. It gives direction to your business strategies and marketing efforts, thus helping you achieve the ideal brand image. And a strong and effective brand image is one that will help a business realize itself and its goals. For example, if you started your business to earn extra income and indulge in your love for home decor, and you aim to have your pieces adorn the mansions of the social elite, then you can direct your marketing team to release ads in places or websites exclusive to the rich and famous, with your visuals matching their tastes. As a result of this fitting approach, your target market will take notice and patronize your brand, which will help it achieve a reputation for being fancy and luxurious. A mismatch in brand identity and brand image often leads to unrealized business goals.
Know the value of your brand
By finding out your value in the market, you will be able to aim for a realistic, achievable, and effective brand image. For example, if you’re brand’s unique trait is its surprisingly cheap but chic clothing made possible by the use of common but gorgeous fabrics, then you can aim for being the go-to brand for middle-class fashionistas. Aiming to be a luxury brand, perhaps through misleading ads, will only lead to disappointment and may even result in harsh criticisms from customers misled by mismatched marketing. Build a brand image you can live up to for the best results. One way to do this is to analyze your brand’s strengths and weaknesses when compared to the competition.
Research your target audience for direction
When building a brand image, you have to determine your target audience. Even better, create a buyer persona that will represent your perfect customer. Set their age, gender, location, civil status, social class, interests, and any other detail that will affect their interest in your products and services. In doing so, you will be able to equip your business with relevant information that will guide your marketing efforts and help create the brand image your desire.
Identify your key brand message and find your brand voice
To truly mold people’s perception or image of your business, you need to have a solid and consistent key brand message and brand voice. Your key brand message is the main proposition of your business to your customers. For Forever21, it’s providing trendy styles that will have you looking forever young. That’s just one example. Your brand voice, on the other hand, is the tone you use to communicate with your customers and deliver your message. Will you be friendly, professional, or maybe even haughty? Same with how people form mental impressions of a person they just met after a conversation, your brand message and brand voice play huge roles in creating rapport with customers and building a brand image.
Match your brand visuals with the brand image you’re building
When faced with a brand offline in a mall or online on a website, the store or website’s visuals are often the first thing a customer notices. As such, they become the basis for their first impression. And prior to actual experience of a brand’s products and services, this first impression often determines the brand image a customer develops. It also becomes the basis of whether or not they stop on their tracks to buy or continue on to the next store. This is why at first glance, your visuals should already portray the brand image you’re building. So take time to design your logo and your theme. Use bright colors, beach scenes, and tanned models if you wish to be seen as a premier brand for everything summer-related. Use gold, silver, diamonds, and anything else that sparkles if you aim to be the best uptown jewelry brand. Dress your brand for the occasion you want to attend.
Establishing your brand image
So you’ve decided on the brand image you want and have made efforts to market yourself accordingly. But once you’ve put yourself out there, perhaps even made a name for yourself, you still need to make sure that the image you’ve created sticks and solidifies.
Below, we’ve listed some of the things you can do to establish your brand image.
- Practice multi-channel marketing. In doing so, you will be able to increase your brand presence and better establish your name in the market. There are many retail channels available, especially online. Among your choices are online marketplaces, social media, mobile marketplaces, live selling platforms, messaging channels, and ecommerce websites. As a note of caution, be careful in choosing the channels you will use and how you use them. Make sure the channel’s own image matches the one you’re nurturing. Avoid extremely exclusive sites if you’re image leans towards being accessible to the masses. If you’re using your own ecommerce website, choose a website theme accordingly.
- Keep your branding consistent. As in all things, consistency is key. Make sure your retail channels, marketing channels, and marketing materials have the same branding. Choose brand ambassadors and influencers that share a similar image with your brand. Plan your promos and events to target your buyer persona. Doing otherwise will lead to differing brand images or perceptions.
- Participate in industry events. If you are trying to establish a positive and strong brand image within the industry to better engage your target market, you have to get yourself seen where it matters. And one easy way to do it is by participating in industry events. By putting yourself out there, whether by sharing innovations at conferences or winning contests, you are able to show that you are an industry authority and a quality product and service provider. It gives you the avenue to present your brand in front of an interested audience and show what you’re truly about.
- Stay current and reactive on the issues related to your branding. Staying relevant is important in establishing brand image. Just like in person-to-person interaction, not being seen for some time can lead to a case of out of sight, out of mind, especially if a strong relationship has not yet been formed between you and your target market. To avoid this, use your channels to start conversations and engage in discussions about the latest issues and trends related to your branding. If you’re building a reputation for being an eco-friendly brand, then share your thoughts about the latest environmental issues. Perhaps create an event or promotion surrounding it to help build awareness. This way, it will be easier for people to associate you with your desired brand image.
- Publish positive reviews and other earned media. Social proof is a powerful tool in establishing a positive brand image. As social creatures, people are swayed when others vouch for products and services. They feel that reviews from other people are more authentic than marketing materials which tend to be biased towards the brand. So when you do earn some positive media from your previous customers, share them on your various channels.
- Listen to your customers. The best way to check if you’ve built your brand image accordingly is by actually asking the people who view or buy from you. Send out surveys or interview customers to get a better grasp of their true perception of the brand. Only then can you adjust your marketing strategy accurately to improve shortcomings.
Nurture your brand with Cafe24
Nurturing your brand and your image is a never-ending process that requires continuous effort. It’s all part and parcel of having a business. However, having that burden on top of other business management tasks can be stressful for many entrepreneurs.
Thankfully, there’s Cafe24. Cafe24 is a global ecommerce platform dedicated to providing online business solutions to new and seasoned entrepreneurs alike for an easier business experience. A product of Korea and with a reputation trusted by some of the biggest brands in the country like SMTown & Store and YG Select, it offers everything you’ll need to sell online including features that will help you build, establish, and nurture your brand image hassle-free.
With Cafe24 themes, you are able to access a wide variety of free and paid themes you can choose from and use on your online website for instant visuals that match your brand. Why stress over every minute detail when you can just download a theme that’s already perfect for your website? If you’re more particular about branding, you can also use Edibot themes which allows you to easily create your own website design through its drag-and-drop feature.
Cafe24 also offers multi-channel selling made possible by Market Plus and various apps like Google Channel, Facebook Channel, and Plus App to help build brand presence and establish brand image.
Review Talk Talk is also made available for viewable customer reviews sure to establish your rep to the thousands of shoppers online.
To top it off, Cafe24 comes with an all-in-one dashboard where you can view and store data and use various integrated tools that optimize and automate various business processes like inventory tracking, customer management, and logistics.
Build the brand you’ve always dreamed of with Cafe24.
