A brand is a unique business concept that allows people to identify a product or company. In other words, it is the way people perceive a particular company or product. Your brand is also how you interact and communicate with customers in the market.
Companies have their unique branding style, but a basic one will include things such as a logo, color, web design, illustration, video, photography, and more. Businesses need to foster a good brand as it significantly contributes to their growth.
Foremost, a strong brand can give your company a competitive edge in the market. If your company wants to launch a new product, having strong brand recognition can make the launching process more manageable and less costly. Furthermore, excellent brand recognition can enhance your credibility with clients, directly connecting to their buying behavior.
Building a brand can be daunting, especially for a company with a deficit of various resources such as time, finances, and knowledge. Even so, building one can be one of the most straightforward processes if you consider the following practical steps.
Define Your Purpose
To begin building a unique brand for your business, you should first define your organization's purpose. Knowing what your company wants to achieve in the long run can jump-start your brand-building process adequately.
By identifying your overall goal, you can create a brand strategy that will guide you to achieve your goals. Your brand strategy is also an effective tool your company can use to communicate to your employees about actions to take.
Know Your Target Audience
Once you define your company's goals and brand strategy, you should identify your target audience and assess their needs. Next, you need to understand your current and potential customers to build a unique brand for your company.
There are several ways to know more about your market. One of the most effective techniques includes interacting with customers via social platforms or physically. For example, Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, sought feedback from his colleagues on the Ethereum white paper to identify how to improve.
With such inspiration, you should also communicate with your customers to get their honest reviews and feedback about your products. In return, you will be able to work on your weaknesses, allowing you to build a strong brand by satisfying their needs.
Know Your Competitors
Before you make any critical decisions on promoting your brand, it is vital to assess your current and potential competitors within your industry. Learning more about your competitors is an excellent way to build a strong brand allowing you to gain a competitive edge in the market.
To effectively assess your competitors, you must first understand their strengths and weaknesses. Knowing what your competitor is weak at can unveil particular opportunities you can take advantage of to foster a great brand. Furthermore, assessing their capabilities allows you to identify where you can improve to reposition your brand.
Assess Your Current Brand State
Another step you must look into is defining and analyzing your current brand state. For example, do people in the market perceive your brand positively or negatively? If negative, what led to that, and what can you do to change such perspectives? And if positive, what is contributing to that, and are there ways to improve it?
If you want to reposition your brand, you need to approach this process from a realistic standpoint. First, you need to know where you currently lie; that is your brand's current situation.
It is only through this that you will learn how to proceed to the next step. Next, you should identify where to craft new strategies or tweak existing ones to align with the new branding goal. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to attain this.
For instance, you may issue a questionnaire to your employees, customers, and stakeholders addressing questions ranging from your brand's value to position in the market. Their feedback can enable you to know what to work on.
Choose a Look for Your Brand
Once you know what your customers want, how to outstand from your competitors, and understand your current brand situation, you can choose a new look for your brand. If not, you should focus your energy on finding ways to improve parts of it.
If you are starting a new business, you should start by choosing a unique business name. If you have an existing business, you can change its name to reflect your new identity. It is also advisable to develop a catchy slogan that comes in handy in your social media platform bios. You can also use the slogan as a website header which can help draw more attention to your website content.
Once you have a name and a slogan, you should look into visually representing your brand. This may be in terms of color, logo, and fonts.
Colors
Colors have a significant meaning, so you should be more careful when choosing them. The study of color psychology reveals that colors can affect the behavior and perception of something. Besides, specific colors evoke various emotions, which can positively or negatively impact your level of sales.
For instance, red can command attention to your brand leading to more sales. Yellow evokes positive emotions such as happiness and optimism, which can also mean affordability. And green signifies a connection to nature, attracting buyers who are more into preserving the environment.
Therefore, it is vital to choose your branding colors carefully as they are a great way to communicate with your buyers.
Logo
A logo is probably the first thing that will come to your mind when you think of repositioning your brand in the market. Ideally, you want your company's logo to be unique to help differentiate you from competitors. So, you need to get inspiration from famous brands with unique logos and create one.
Incorporate Your Brand into Your Business
The last step to building a unique brand is incorporating it across your business for cohesion purposes and setting the stage for interaction with customers in the market. If all business processes align with your branding strategy, it will be easier for your company to foster a unique brand.
The above are some of the most straightforward steps to help you build a unique brand for your company. Whether you are building a new one from scratch or trying to reposition an existing one, they are a guarantee to help you attain this.
