Building Your Brand. Why It Matters.
Branding is still the hot topic among today’s successful business’ and corporations. Top marketing researchers say that with much of today’s companies’ market value is based upon intangible assets such as branding. With this much effort and spending to gain market share, it’s obvious that branding matters.
In the 80’s it was about “positioning” and in the late 90’s and in the 21st century it’s been about “branding.” What is branding and does it really make that much of a difference? Take the telecommunications industry, for example. From the top several, nation-wide providers, which has the best top-of-mind-awareness to you? Southwestern Bell, Nortel, AT&T, GTE, Sprint or Verizon. This industry, like many others, isn’t for the faint of heart. There have been millions spent on effective and targeted branding to gain particular market loyalty away from their competitors. Each company striving for the right message and visual stability to woo loyal customers to trust their brand because it provides them the best service for the best price.
In today’s economy, branding builds loyalty. In fact, in some cases branding is more important than price or deliverability. When you buy, you consider your purchase partially by the overall “feeling” of assurance a particular brand gives you. Your past experiences with this company, their advertising message and visual recognition is what supports your decision. It’s the same with your company’s customers. So, if you don’t care about your company’s brand image and what your customers might think, then neither will they.
Branding is the complete summation about your company, its message and presentation to the world around it. It has also been described as the complete summation and experience that a customer has from your company. This is based upon the words, visuals and their associations with the viewers presuppositions and previous experiences. It is a given that each person, your prospective customers, will make conscious, sometimes sub-conscious, decisions about your company based on what they see, hear, think and feel. Call it a urge, a vibe or a view. Either way it’s a decision, and it can mean whether customers do business with your or not. Again, this is why branding matters.
Well, branding is more than just a logo, tagline, words and graphics. Here are few items to help you evaluate your company’s current situation.
- Make sure it’s targeted – Know your target audience. Every company has a group or groups of targeted customers that they wish to do business with. In developing your branding strategy, make sure you identify exactly whom it appeals to and why. Put together a customer profile checklist that can be used as a filter when building branding and marketing materials.
- Make sure it’s expressive – Get noticed or get lost. Your customers are hit with an ever-increasing plethora of sales and marketing literature, some even from your competition. Your company must strive to differentiate your particular strengths and reinforce this in the minds of the customer.
- Make sure it’s understandable – Be concise and to the point. Again, many messages get lost when brevity is not exercised. Your company’s brand should clearly, quickly, and concisely communicate the services your company provides.
- Make sure it’s consistent – Consistency builds stability. Ensure your brand remains intact across all mediums (print advertising, direct mail, Web site, e-mail advertising, collateral, PR). Wherever your customers see you, it should be the same message and the same company. A hodge-podge collection of branding messages and visuals will only help to create a disjointed concept of your company and its services.
- Make sure it’s memorable – The key word here is repetition. Once you have embarked on a creative, targeted message, send it out there again and again. Brands take time to establish themselves, so resist the urge to change it based on your “boredom” or the desire to keep trying new things.
