Even though branding seems to be a popular topic, only a minority of small businesses actively work on their branding. Understandably there are so many other things to be taken care of in a business, so creating an effective brand can easily move to the bottom of the pile. Plus a lot of people probably don’t know where to start.
So, in this article I’ll share three tips to start creating a popular brand.
What exactly is branding? Branding is usually defined as a name, logo or symbol that is associated with a company, product or service. I believe a successful brand is much more than that. It is your business identity which is built on different ingredients such as your tone of voice, the font, colours and images you use, the way you do things, your client experiences, your reputation…
A brand is what people are drawn to and connect with when they are out to buy something.
Given all of the above, a strong brand will no doubt help you attract more customers. Convinced branding is important? Ok, let’s have a look at three key ingredients to creating a successful and memorable brand with a great reputation:
1. Consistency
Brand consistency is key. Consistency = familiarity = trust = more sales
It might help to work with a graphic designer who can make recommendations and help you choose your branding colours, fonts and designs. And then you just have to apply this consistently across the board.
So for example if your branding colour is blue, you might not want to suddenly use pink for your website. Make sure the ‘look and feel’ of your brand is consistent.
It might be time to do a bit of a ‘branding clean out’. Look at all your different pieces of marketing materials and see whether anything needs to be fixed in regards to consistency.
2. Feelings are important
I don’t want to get emotional here, but in our world, consumers often buy products and services based on feelings. We are pretty spoilt and it makes sense (to some) to spend thousands of dollars on a Gucci handbag when we could get a similar bag at a much smaller price. Not very rational, right? A lot of our buying decisions are based on emotions.
So you need to find out what kind of feeling you want to evoke with your brand and work towards that. For example if you want to come across as funny or adventurous, start incorporating that into your branding.
3. Being different
Stop trying to please everyone, I know it’s hard, you want to be everyone’s favourite… but you can’t! If you want to stand out from your competitors, you have to be unique, take a point of view and stand by it. This will not only help you create a unique brand but you will also attract more of the clients you want. Being authentic and real helps (you are unique!).
Let’s get started with these three tips and let us know how you go!
For a visual experience and some great branding examples, watch a short branding tips video here.
Please share your branding tips below.
