5 TIPS ON BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE BRAND
Be it an individual, small medium enterprise, MNC or an NGO, you can build yourself up to be the best BRAND one could ever think of. Why do companies spend so much money on advertising and promotions just to boost their brands? Do you want to be more famous, receive more likes on your Instagram/Facebook page or to garner leads and increase revenue? Whatever your objective may be, building a brand requires hard work and consistency. What impacts the decision-making process, you may ask?
Emotional connectivity. Emotional connectivity leads to greater brand experience. Welcome to the digital era where technology is moving at a speed of light. Items can be purchased with just a click of a mouse. Consumers no longer spend money based on what they say or hear about brands, rather, they place more value on brand and customer experience instead. Advertisers and brand managers are shifting their focus from creating simple brand messages towards building a lasting brand-customer relationship.
It’s vital for companies to connect with their customers on a deeper and more satisfying level through positive customer experience and here are some of my thoughts.
Five ways brands can create worthwhile and memorable customer experiences:
1. Define your brand. Make it stand out!
Customers value the uniqueness of a brand or an outstanding customer experience. The easiest way to achieve this is to create a memorable brand name. Let’s take Ramly Burger, for a quick example. Never would one have thought that a name such as Ramly would be so famous. However, thanks to Abang Ramly who started off selling burgers back in 1984, it is now a Malaysian household name. Talk about having a nice burger and you’ll instantly get your friends going “Ramly jommm!”
2. Talk about it! Network and share.
Since we are on the topic of Ramly Burger, I don’t think Abang Ramly carried a name card when he first started. Rather, he created a burger which was so good, it left people with no choice but to talk about how good it is. Live it, breathe it and share your brand as you continue building your network. Research and studies have shown that one of the best tools to build your brand is through the word of mouth. Let’s make the best of our brands and get people talking about it.
3. Be authentic and transparent.
Trust is the epitome of a thriving business. As the saying goes, trust goes a long way. Brand transparency has become a way of humanizing businesses and showcasing a company’s positive corporate values.
Take for instance, in the recent Readers Digest Trusted Brand Awards; Prudential was given the Gold Award for Life Insurance category. While I may not be able to pinpoint on the criteria that qualified them for this award, but what I do understand through my customer experience in these four years, is that they prioritise transparency. The agent that handles my account is always transparent on the policies and would never force or ‘hard sell’ a policy for the sake of extra commission.
Not all agents may be as genuine as the one that I’m dealing with, but the bottom line here is that Prudential as a company offers well-structured policies and claims are always promised and paid within the given timeline. It may differ for some but for me, at the very least, they have proven to be authentic and transparent in their approach and this makes me a satisfied customer. In the near future, I may even consider taking up further investment policies or even recommend my friends to this company simply because of their transparency.
4. Adapt, stop, look and listen.
Brands, it’s important to stay relevant. In the fast-paced Internet Age, staying relevant can prove to be rather challenging. Evidenced by many brands that have crashed over the last few decades, like social media platform Friendster and even fitness giants, True Fitness. It seems like any brand that fails to keep up to date and innovate, may suffer the repercussions.
Many businesses are finding ways to adapt to the changing times through social media. It goes beyond changing your approach to suit your consumer needs; the most vital thing to do is: to listen to your customers. Brand owners should never cut back on paying attention to customers. Monitor the messages, comments, and feedback from consumers. Through good situations and bad, position yourself strategically so that every issue is properly thought-out and processed-through. You don’t want to be too focused on revenue at the expense of staying relevant.
5. Consistency
Consistency — that is the key element to creating a brand that resonates with customers. This means keeping the brand in-sync with its strategies so that every product or service relates back to the brand. Ultimately, to be a functional brand, it boils down to creating memorable customer experiences. The brand message is surely important, but customers become more invested in a company when it walks its talk and prioritizes customer well-being and satisfaction above all else.
Consistency can be seen in various aspects. For instance, my recent experience with a company that promotes savings to the general public through a slightly different approach. Rather than usually promoting savings through cash, they do it through the accumulation of gold. You must be wondering, “Gold? Wow! I’m sure it would cost me a couple of hundreds, if not thousands.” Truth is, it only starts at RM1! The list of how it works can be found through their mobile app.
But what actually caught my attention here is not so much on the savings part, but rather the consistency in this company’s messaging and mission. Their mission is pretty straightforward: to get the general public to start saving. They understood the fact that they could not do this alone because it takes a huge effort, so they decided to pass their message across through collaboration with numerous companies.
They most recently collaborated with an organization that has vending machines that recycles plastics and aluminium. For every plastic recycled, the company would offer virtual points which can be exchanged for gold. Interesting, ain't it?
I’m confident that if we adopt these measures to brands, it would slowly but surely equate from mediocre to top of the mind brands in the long term.
