How to Develop a Unique Brand for Your Business
Branding your business: is it that important? You have an idea that matters, a product people want, and a ready market for everything you have created. Does it matter if you consistently use things like the same color and tone when developing your brand?
Today's market is more crowded than ever. There are more products available from businesses small and large alike. Making your brand recognizable is critical to ensuring that your target audience can find you amidst the other available products in your industry.
The Benefits of Developing a Brand
A solid brand is integral to growing your business and ensuring it has the reach you're hoping for. Your brand and awareness are critical to who your business is and how your customers recognize you.
1. When you brand your business, customers know when they're dealing with you
You don't want your competitors to be able to draw in your customers simply because they happen to offer similar products. Unfortunately, all too often, businesses face precisely that. Some customers may struggle to remember where they've made purchases in the past or to determine what sets one company in the industry apart from another.
When you have clear branding, on the other hand, it can be much easier to establish who your business is—and let customers know when they're dealing with you.
2. Your brand helps make more customers aware of your business
At the top of the funnel, during the awareness stage, customers are just starting to look for more information about solutions to their problems. You want them to find that information from you, and you want them to know that you were the one who provided them with those answers.
Suppose, for example, that a customer is looking for more information about a specific type of technology or a clear technological solution. If they find the answers on your website, you want them to become aware of your brand as a key part of that solution. Clear branding can go a long way toward helping your business stand out from the pack.
3. Branding is part of establishing who your business is and creating that vital relationship with your customers
Today's customers are savvier than ever before. They have a strong understanding of what drives the market and often vote with their spending, choosing to support businesses that believe in the same things they do.
Does your business believe in ethical sourcing? In sustainable labor practices? Making that an essential part of your brand can help you develop a relationship with your customers based on those critical factors of who you are and what your business represents.
4. Branding can make your products memorable
Clear branding can help lay out why your products are different. Sometimes, that's in the big things. Other times, it's in the little ones, including aspects like customer service, personality, or voice.
With clear branding, you can make those key differences stand out and increase the odds that potential customers will remember you.
Beginning Your Brand Development
The branding process for your business is ongoing. It's not something you can simply throw together. Branding your business correctly may mean constant attention to all those little details that matter most to your customers.
You may need to consider several key elements as you begin developing your brand for digital marketing and beyond.
Your Color Palette
Using the right colors for your brand can be essential. Colors can evoke specific feelings for your customers and often have strong associations. For example, if your business is very eco-focused, using a lot of greens and blues in your color palette can go a long way toward evoking those associations for your customers. White may create a sense of cleanliness or freshness, while red often projects an aura of power and confidence. Blue may feel safe and stable to your customers. Make sure you think through what your colors might say about you.
In addition, you may want to take a look at the colors your competitors are using. You want your brand to stand out, not fit into the crowd.
Your Voice
What does your brand voice sound like? Are you fun and exciting? Stoic and businesslike? Many businesses make a name for themselves with a hint of sarcasm or humor: Wendy's Twitter account, for example, is often a bit sharp and sarcastic, which has substantially improved its following and generated more interest in the brand.
Your Branding Guidelines
Your brand guidelines will contain a great deal of information about your brand, including your colors, your preferred fonts, what type of images you use, and more. Comprehensive branding guidelines are critical to setting your business up for success.
What specific illustrations do you approve of using on your corporate accounts? What about your logo: what does it look like? How does it reflect your brand? How should workers using those accounts communicate with customers? The clearer your brand guidelines, the easier you may make it to provide your customers with a consistent experience no matter how they connect with your brand.
Branding That Works
Does branding provide benefits to your business? Consider these examples of brands that accomplished their goals and saw real results due to their continuous branding efforts in traditional and digital marketing.
Apple
The Apple line of products stands out as one of the most compelling examples of branding success. People tend to feel very passionately about Apple products. They see the brand as high-performing and higher-end.
Casper
Casper, a mattress company, has a strong brand and substantial online presence. Casper focuses on neutral shades and soothing images in all of its marketing. Thanks to those efforts, Casper has become increasingly memorable, and customers looking for mattress options are likely to consider them an expert in the industry.
Chobani
Chobani yogurt and dairy products have embraced its corner of the market and used its powerful branding to clarify what the company stands for. Chobani uses a signature green packaging to display its commitment to natural ingredients. In addition, much of the Chobani imagery includes bright images of fruit that stand out. The company's social media pages include fun images and collages to help make the brand as memorable as possible.
Chipotle
Once, when you wanted inexpensive Mexican food, you thought of Taco Bell. Chipotle's branding campaign, however, has changed all of that. Chipotle has become synonymous with convenient Mexican food designed just the way you want. It features fresh, locally-sourced products as part of its branding and offers a "handwritten" look that makes the brand feel casual and comfortable, helping draw in more traffic.
Wrapping Up
Branding is a critical part of your business's future and its success. By building a solid brand, you can establish brand awareness, stand out above your competition, and help your customers recognize exactly who you are.
Before you begin selling your product, consider the points made in this article and develop your companies brand and tone guidelines to ensure global success.