Your brand is how you become known to your potential and existing customers, and you should never leave this to chance. Through developing a solid brand strategy, you can control your brand and make it what you want it to be. Without a solid brand, you will be forgettable. With an uncontrolled brand, your business will never reach its full potential and may even seem untrustworthy.
What does your brand LOOK LIKE?
Every communication you put forth impacts your brand. Everything you say is naturally important, but often a picture is worth a thousand words — or more. When you are on social media or your website, the images you share with each post also shape your company’s image. With each image you share, your potential customers will get an impression of how you are likely to treat them if they work with you. Your existing customers will once again be reminded of what your company stands for. Because of this, every image you share and everything your company does publicly needs to be consistently… consistent.
Who relates to your brand and WHERE are they?
One of the major keys to marketing is finding out where your customers are. When you come to them with your message where they are, you can reach them far more effectively than targeting random people in random places. One of the major parts of your brand strategy is knowing who your target customers are and finding them, both emotionally and physically.
Why does your brand MATTER?
Your unique selling proposition is what you offer your customers that no other business out there does. What makes your company unique in the world? This is not a time to discuss pricing, but it is the perfect time to discuss value. What value do you offer the people who will pay for the products or services you offer? Your brand strategy needs to focus first and foremost on the value you add, concentrating on the people who will most benefit from your offering. Your message grows from this by stating in simple terms what this value is.
How does your brand SOUND?
Your messages do contain an important element in the form of images and videos, but this is only part of your overall message. The words your executives say in interviews, the words in your marketing copy and everything else your company shares with the world are all a part of your overall message and brand personality.
Every time one of your employees interacts with the public, your public perception changes slightly. In some cases, the change is tiny because you are doing what you have always done. However, the point is that all of your employees need to be aligned with your message and need to share it whenever they are interacting with anyone outside the company in any way. This keeps public perceptions positive while all but eliminating the negative possibilities of “loose lips that sink ships.”
Is your brand strategy getting THROUGH?
How do you know how well you are doing? Ask your customers. When you poll your customers regularly on how they see your company and what you offer, you get the most reliable barometer of your successes and failures. You learn more from failures, but the ultimate goal is to succeed in being positively viewed and respected. It is too easy to be overly positive, but the results of an impartial poll do not lie.
Your brand is the life of your business. Your brand strategy is the control you take over your brand. It can take time to get it right and requires ongoing vigilance to keep the consistency long-term.
Need some help with your brand strategy? Schedule a consultation.
See how we helped Avenir, a real estate apartment community targeting millennials in Philadelphia, develop an impactful and competitive branding campaign. View case study.
