There's a great deal of difference between setting up a business and creating a brand. The latter will certainly provide you with more success, that's for sure.
Brand strategy should be the first thing you're thinking about before you've even registered a new business.
A recognisable brand will keep customers coming back for more, build a level of trust and make your business instantly recognisable through a logo or even person associated with the business.
Of course, that doesn't come easy. There are plenty of aspects you need to put in place when building a brand strategy, from creating an ethos and mission statement, to designing a logo and marketing to the right people in the right places.
If you're looking to build your brand, take a look at our top tips to get your brand on brand and have all avenues of your business singing from same hymn sheet.
Create a Brand Ethos
Before you start your business venture you need to build clear goals and set out the key values you wish to follow on your journey to reaching those goals.
A brand ethos will offer the key messages you want to deliver to your target market. These should remain with you throughout your entire journey as a business and should be reflected in your products or services, website and social media, adverts and most importantly brand logo.
Every brand will offer up a Mission Statement. For example, Starbucks' values include creating a culture of belonging, challenging the status quo and connecting to its customers with dignity and respect.
Connecting these values across every aspect of your business will help develop your brand and offer a consistency that is associated with all the biggest and best brands.
The Importance of a Logo
A logo is such a huge part of a brand, offering a first glimpse of what a business offers, their personality and who they are targeted towards.
Creating a good logo is absolutely key and shouldn't be taken lightly. The process should be rigorous and ensure brand values are met within it.
A simple design is often the most successful. Think of the likes of Nike, Pepsi and Walmart, they all have incredibly simple logos and yet still offer up insight into the brand.
In the case of the former, the famous Swoosh suggests movement and speed, two traits very much needed within the sportswear market. This is of course backed up further with their Just Do It slogan.
Colours also play a major part when designing a brand logo, with various colours offering different meanings.
Below you'll find a series of colours alongside their meanings within brand logos:
- Black: Serious, sophisticated, exclusive. Examples are BBC, Gucci, and the New York Times.
- Purple: Wise, luxury, success, royalty. Examples are Cadbury, Hallmark, and Monster.com.
- Blue: Stability, calm, logical. Examples are American Express, Ford, Twitter.
- Green: Freshness, health, eco-friendly. Examples are Starbucks, Tropicana, Spotify.
- Pink: Femininity, energy, warmth, fun. Examples are Barbie, Baskin-Robbins, and PINK.
- Yellow: Happiness, caution, optimism. Examples are Nikon, Caterpillar, and Hertz.
- Orange: Excitement, creativity, playful, warmth. Examples are Harley Davidson, Timberland, and Amazon.
- Red: Power, passion, energy. Examples are Lego, Time, Coca Cola, and NetFlix.
Engage with Social Media
A large part of how brands deliver their key values and messages these days is through social media.
Naturally, there are two sides of the coin, social media can be a nightmare for brands but if you use it correctly it can be one of the easiest and most effective ways to build a brand from scratch.
Engaging directly with your customers and potential customers can help build a fanbase, while you can push out marketing content such as teaser trailers through Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
There are tons of tools to help with social media these days so you can continue to keep on top of your accounts, respond to customers and continue to build your brand and help promote your company ethos and build brand personality.
You should build a social media strategy on top of a brand strategy in order to keep your brand on brand, while choosing the best platforms in line with your user base is key.
Think About Brand Voice
Within your social media strategy, and indeed your brand values you should think about how you communicate with your audience.
Dependent on your target demographic, you should think about how formal or informal you are and what sort of content you can push out. Is viral marketing an avenue to explore on social media, or would your audience be more engaging with an informative white paper?
Are you the cheeky chappy or the authoritative expert?
Research, Research, Research
It's pretty likely you won't be the first business within the field you're looking to build a brand, so researching the market is an absolute must.
Of course, you don't want to simply be copying what other brands are doing but analysing where they are successful, where they are failing and ultimately how you can do things better is vital in planning your own strategy.
The end goal will be to offer something different to the competition and give customers a reason to choose you.
Exploit the areas where your competitors fail and build a brand that offers consistency right across the board.
Be Consistent
We've mentioned it once but can't emphasise it enough, be consistent across all platforms within your business.
This means getting all members of staff on board, decorating your office, shop floor, any type of workspace to fit in with the core values and having a constant brand voice across all platforms.
As well as this, you should ensure your logos, fonts and writing and marketing style remains the same across all tangible pieces of material or platform you have.
Do this, and you'll be on your way to creating a successful brand that is engaging, trusted and a market leader.
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Personal brand is important, too. Find out more about personal brands on this Ms Career Girl article.