Initial Branding Steps

Editor’s Note: Here at Dispatches, we are always looking for ways to help our readers do things. For some of our readers, that means helping navigate the working world, for others, it means assisting in the ever challenging question, “what’s for dinner?” For still others, it means figuring out how to balance family life with everything else. In an effort to aid in all of these endeavors, we have collaborated on this article written specifically for our readers.

There’s no guaranteed way to create a brand that is memorable. If there was then every entrepreneur would be running their own Google, Ford, or Microsoft. While a lot of success is down to good timing, there’s a lot you could do to take the initiative with your company. There is a science to creating a successful brand. Consumers resonate with certain ideas more than others. Big corporate brands can attract a huge client base because they’re trustworthy, but small brands can often attract their fair share of customers because they’re warm and personal.

Again, there’s no way to guarantee the success of your brand by following a guide and even these tips may not be right for you or your business. There are, however, initial steps that your company could take if it wants to head down the right path towards creating a successful brand. The marketplace may not be entirely predictable because it’s always changing, but there are certain methods that ring true across industries. 

Know your audience.
The best way to create a renowned brand is to know your audience. This means that you need to do your research frequently and thoroughly. For example, if you’re selling a type of cider then you already know that your audience contains consumers who like cider. However, successful brands need to target their demographic with pinpoint accuracy. You might want to sell that cider to a younger market. Why? Well, every business needs to find its niche. If you want to stand out from the competition then you need to figure out what the consumer wants. Don’t just offer what every other business is offering. Your brand will become popular with the target market if you know the audience and what they want. You need to offer solutions. Perhaps there’s a gap in the market for an existing product or service targeted towards a more specific portion of the target market. Your brand needs to get its foot in the door, essentially. That’s how you create a renowned name.

Work on your promotional strategy.
One of the best ways to turn your unknown brand into one that is more recognizable is to improve your business’ promotional strategy. There’s a limit to your success if customers don’t know you exist or can meet a need. Part of growing as a business is learning how to raise awareness of your brand. You need to reach potential customers in all corners of the marketplace. Your promotional strategy wouldn’t be complete without an online aspect in this digitally-oriented era. You need to have a strong presence on social media but it should not be your bread and butter. Make sure you know how to use Twitter and Facebook. It isn’t enough to simply create profiles. You need to regularly post content to keep your followers interested as part of an overall campaign.

Additionally, you need to work on your business’ website. Think of this as your store’s shop window. Your site is the face of your brand, in many ways. This is where ranking well on search engine results pages comes in to play. Consumers don’t want to be forced to see adverts; they want to independently find the products and services they want. That’s why the best form of promotion in the modern age is to let potential customers find you. If you optimize your website’s content so that it shows up at the top of search results then that’s what you’ll do; you’ll let your target audience find you of their own accord. It’s free marketing. You could consider help from a professional software company such as Svitla Systems when it comes to the front end or back end of your website’s development. Whether you outsource the work or not, the point is that a strong promotional strategy needs to utilize the internet. That’s how your brand starts to expand.

Focus on your brand’s identity.
Finally, your brand needs a strong identity if you really want it to take off. Any business that wants to stand out from the competition in its industry needs to find a gap in the market. The best way to do that is to ensure that your brand is different. You might be selling similar products and services to other companies, but that doesn’t matter. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to be different, you just have to captivate the target market. It’s your brand that separates you from the masses of similar businesses in your industry, and that’s why it’s so important to make sure that you focus your energy on making your company really stand for something. Create a message that defines your business and its objectives. That’s how you’ll connect with your target market in a meaningful way.

Your identity should be personal, above all else. Don’t let your corporate goals define you. Consumers won’t be interested in a brand that seems concerned only with making a profit. In the modern age, people want to buy goods and services from businesses that share their values. Is your business relatable? Is there any depth to what you do as a company? Again, you don’t need to be selling something that’s going to change the world; you just need to let your human side show through. You might be a company that sells toilet roll. However, your brand could be more enticing than the brands of your competitors if you took the eco-friendly route of replanting trees for every tree your business uses. The point is that any brand can become renowned if its identity really connects with consumers. Your business just needs to find an identity for its brand that resonates with the intended audience.