Your brand is the important assest to your business. It’s more than your business name, logo or colour scheme, essentially it’s the entire relationship and association your customers have with your company.
Bad news for lazy brands
In today’s competitive markets brands have to compete harder than ever to gain and maintain their position in the hearts and minds of their customer. When the competition heats up, the value-driven relationship you’re brand has established will give you the edge over any competition.
Successful branding does not just happen overnight. It requires a consistant presentation of values that develops into the identity of your company. Often the challenge is not to present your company as graphic symbols and slogans but as a trusted provider which places value on customer engagement and satisfaction.
Successful planning and strategic thinking will build your brand awareness to a stage where people not only identify your values in the market place, but they’ll also understand the distinctive qualities that make you better than the competition.
Once you’ve established the identity of your brand it’s very important to ensure that it remains consistent across the board. There’s little to gain from having one design for your website, something different for correspondence and a third theme for literature and promotional activity. A lack of consistency will not only destroy the hard work you’ve pumped into building your brand but it will encourage distrust in your customers as they fail to build an association with your company.
The benefits are endless
Having a core identity for your business means customers are much more likely to remember it. A strong brand identity will help to keep you at the forefront of your customers minds, something which is particularly essential if you sell products that are often bought on impulse. Brand recognition can be the difference between no sale and a sale.
Once you have secured your customer, your brand helps retain loyalty to ensure they come back time and time again.
Consider this.. In blind taste tests the majority of people will choose Pepsi over Coke because they prefer the taste. However, in a branded test the majority of people will choose Coke despite having admitted that they prefer the taste of Pepsi! Coke has successfully secured the emotional attachment with its customers and as a result of they’ve maintained customer loyalty even though customers prefer the taste of a competitor.
A strong brand identity will also project the image of an established, trusted business that values customer engagement and delivers quality.
If your business has a strong brand association, it allows you to link together several different products or ranges. You can put your brand name on every product or service you develop, which will encourage customers to buy from your entire range.
At 10thstep we believe only in intelligent, savvy branding that is led by strategic direction. Our team of branding experts are passionate about successful brand strategies that create awareness, build association and encourage loyalty.
Chat to us today about how we can build or revamp your brand.
Posted in Blog