Having a successful brand is one of the important assets of your business. In this way, we can say that brand building is an important activity in the overall business development. It can make your consumers loyal and create awareness of your brand in the market. If you are a business owner and think to build a business brand, then keep in mind that brand building will keep you busy all the time and you must sacrifice your energy, time and resources.
In this branding tutorial, I will define brand building, why it is important and step involved in brand building strategy.
Table of Contents
Brand Building Definition
Brand building don’t have any proper definition. But according to many marketers, It is the communication and creation of customer value. It includes all those ingredients that customer feel and experience when interacting with your business. In other words, it has a positive impact on brand equity using different promotional strategies and campaigns.
We have already defined brand building, let us understand 7 types of brands.
- Disruptive Brands. Introducing new concepts that can bring change in the marketplace.
- Individual Brands. These brands are known as tangible and individual products like, motorbike, cold drink and car.
- Service Brands. Those companies providing and delivering intangible services such as hotel industries, airlines and accountancy firms etc.
- Geographical Brands. These are specific product and services in an area region i.e. Caribbean cuisine and Thai silk.
- Personal Brands. A person like a politician, player and celebrity is a good example.
- Corporate Branding. When a company is engaged to promote its corporate brand name instead of its other products and services like IBM, IKEA, Coca Cola, BMW etc.
- Cobranding. It is a strategic alliance between two or more brands. for example, Dell computers with Intel processor inside.
Why is Brand Building Important?
Brand is the combination of name, logo, color, design and theme or combination of these elements. These elements help to create brand identity of your products and services and differentiate you from your competitors in the market. Being a visual voice of your company you should be consistent on every media platform. It should convey a strong brand image in the mind of consumers.
5 Effective Brand Building Strategies
Brand building is a consistent and time-consuming activity. It requires creativity and customization that can help you to create a unique value proposition and provide a better experience for your consumers.
Here we will discuss 5 brand building steps.
Define Your Brand
The first step of the brand building strategy is to define your brand. When it comes to defining your brand, conduct a proper swot analysis to find out your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that can give you an idea what you can do better from your competitors. When defining a personal brand, jot down the skills that make you stand out of the crowd.
You should also identify and define your brand values because it separates you from your competitors. Successful brand carefully defines brand values and integrate them in the entire company i.e. sales and marketing, finance, teams, message and offering. Tell people your story and make them emotionally attached to your brand.
Brand Differentiation and Positioning
As you are engaged in the brand building process, focus on the unique values of your products and services to differentiate your brand from your competitors’ brand. When two products are available in the market with same features, price and quality, you should constantly work to differentiate your brand from the rest. This brand building strategy should focus on developing those unique advantages that can affect the consumers’ mind and they prefer your brand over competitors.
Your brand logo, font size, style, color, styling and packaging are important elements to differentiate your brand and build a competitive advantage in the minds of the consumer.
Once you are in the position to offer a unique value proposition it is the time to position your brand in a more appropriate way. A compelling brand strategy always enhances your brand positioning that attract consumers and appreciates your brand value from those competing brands in the marketplace.
When creating a brand positioning statement, it must be based on reality and you must fulfill your brand promise. When you are converting your positioning statement into a message it should appeal to all target audience.
Promote Your Brand in the Market
Once someone said, “I’m building a brand and I’m always busy”. It is a continuous process and engages your entire organization. You need to be focused and consistent all the time. You can use different advertising and promotional channels e.g. social media, newspapers, magazines, websites and blogs to promote your personal and business brand.
Let your audience know your brand personality, for example, Apple shows sincerity and Harley Davidson is rebellious. Your promotional campaigns message must be based on your brand personality. It is the important element of brand building strategy and it will create brand awareness in your audience minds.
Personalize Your Brand
To make your brand stand out, your marketing campaigns must personalize your brand. There are different strategies that will give your brand an identity. Always use a consistent voice (language and tone of your business) across different media platforms, websites, blogs, product description. Consistent voice and one broad message will help consumers to identify your across different platforms.
While you are in the process of brand building, keep in touch with your customers in terms of personalizing products to fulfill their need and wants. Consumer interaction through customization and innovation enable brand to have a strong perception in consumer minds.
Evaluate Your Brand
For any small business or large corporation, brand monitoring and evaluation is always important for its brand building. It helps to assess the brand success in the market whether it remains the same, strengthen over time or degraded the minds of consumers. Business environment changes rapidly, you can exploit new opportunities or face challenges.
Brand evaluation is not a one-time process. Even your growth means more expectation and more responsibilities. Regular evaluation keeps your brand in the right direction.
In this marketing tutorial, we have discussed the process of brand building strategies. You should adopt these strategies to differentiate your brand and stand truthfull to your consumers. Throughout your brand strategies, you might face a positive market share, remain the same or recede over time. In the brand cycle, always try to bring innovative strategies to fulfill your brand promise and enhance your brand value.
Brand building strategies must be consumer-centric and should be surrounded by consumer preferences as they are the co-creators of your brand. Time and consistency are the basic elements of creating a unique brand in the market.
