By Troy Kadavy | Jan 6, 2016

Categories: Branding & Strategy | Brand Strategy | Digital Marketing | Graphic Design | Website Design / Development |

A brand is without doubt one of the most prized assets any organization, regardless of its size, can boast of. It’s, therefore, unfortunate to see some businesses overlooking the strategic and systematic position of their brand when formulating their business strategy. As such, a large number of organizations today fail to leverage the influence a brand can have on their business success.

Why should you invest in developing a solid brand?

It boosts your authority in your market. This way, your customers can rely more on you when making their purchasing decisions. This gives you an edge over your competition.
Having a strong brand makes you indispensable to your customers making it easy for them to always turn to your business whenever they need a product/service you offer. As such, it promotes customer loyalty which is important in hastening business growth while also shortening sales cycles.
With a strong brand, your organization will easily lure and retain the best talents the market has to offer.

While a branding and brand management takes quite some time to develop, strong brands tend to be sustainable once stable. For you to create a brand that realizes your company’s utmost potential, you’ll need to conduct a thorough research on what works best for your business.

Here are five essential steps to follow when creating a brand that benefits your organization.

Step 1: Begin with a clear strategy

As mentioned earlier, your brand defines your organizational success which, therefore, means any brand strategy you formulate should complement the overall business strategy. This way, you’ll realize that creating a brand and all that appertains it becomes a natural process for you.

Stakeholders’ Tasks:

What are your strengths? It’s a no-brainer that being a jack of all trades doesn’t pay in the end and thus trying to focus on a position that appeals to the right people will be your surest best if you’re to succeed in creating your brand. Understand your key competencies and subsequently create your brand and marketing strategy around them.

Step 2: Focus on only the relevant audience

Narrow down your audience and only work to build stronger connections and more meaningful conversations with only the relevant audiences. Be keen to understand their particular needs and motivations.

Stakeholders’ Tasks:

Is your brand reaching the right audience and does it appeal to them? Is your message too broad for your targeted audience? This way, you can understand your audience’s ideal solutions and subsequently convince them that your product/service offers the perfect solution to their needs. You can then build your message around the same.

Step 3: Create a solid brand platform

An ideal brand platform should clearly describe your brand’s personality, what it represents, its unique position as well as how you’d want your audience to perceive it. As such, it should include;

Brand Promise
This is the pledge you make to your customers on what they should expect when doing business with you.

Brand value
These entails the codes of conduct your brand observes each day. As such, all decisions in your business need to align to these values.

Brand personality
These are the unique characteristics that audiences use to define your brand. Brand personality is, therefore, vital to building lasting relationship between your organization and its audiences.

Brand positioning
For your audience to develop an attachment to your brand, you first need to understand what motivates them to take action. With brand positioning, therefore, you have to communicate and convince your targeted audience that your brand is superior to all others and that it can satisfy their needs perfectly.

Stakeholders’ Tasks:

Are you making the right promises to your audiences? Are your positioning your brand in that it stands out from the competition? Are your values and personality contributing positively towards growing customer loyalty and lasting relationships?

Step 4: Develop a compelling brand story

Everyone fancies good stories. This is because good stories tend to be inspiring, entertaining and most importantly human. In business, good stories are vital in connecting people to others as well as organization to customers.

Stakeholders’ Tasks:

Every organization has its own distinctive story that describes what it is, what it does, and why it matters. So, what’s your culture? What compels your customers and employees alike to come to you and stay? What’s your story?

Step 5: Create a matchless brand experience

Your brand offers your audiences an opportunity to experience your business. This, therefore, means that with a strong brand, your business can quickly leave a positive impression that lasts. This helps to create a particular positive perception of your brand by your audiences that enhances your organization’s reputation.

Stakeholders’ Tasks:

Have you tried experiencing your brand firsthand? Well, get a users’ end experience of your website, your reception area, your marketing collateral and even your outgoing mail message. What’s your experience? Impressive? Motivating? Disappointing?

Ready to create a brand?

As you can see, creating a brand involves a considerable amount of time and effort, which is something you, just like most others, may find overwhelming. Fortunately, you have the professionals at 92 West to guide you through the whole process and ensure that you build a truly relevant and compelling brand in your niche. We’ll make all the necessary connections and leverage your customers’ insights to help you identify various unmet needs. This way, we’ll help you define a unique brand that transforms your organization. Contact us today for more assistance.