Whether you are still in the beginning stages in the creation of your brand or are looking to initiate a vital brand refresh, the fact of the matter is that there are some critical aspects of your brand that you need to think through and understand before launching anything. That is, if you want your branding efforts to be successful – which, presumably, you must.
Now, more than ever, branding is crucial for all businesses (no matter what size) as it is how you are going to carve a niche for yourself and attract the right customers despite the number of businesses that are already competing in your sector. Today’s consumers care about branding because it represents a business’s values, ethics, and principles, as well as gives your target market a purpose or lifestyle (including your services or products) to get behind.
In other words, it is crucial that you get the branding work right. To help you out, read on for the three essential elements of your company’s branding strategy.
1. Your Purpose
At the very core of your firm’s branding strategy is the purpose. While this can seem like an incredibly overwhelming thing to figure out and decide upon, it is crucial for creating a brand that makes sense and is cohesive across the board. Your purpose is the answer to the question, “why?” Why is your service or product necessary? Remember, too, that the actual offering is the answer to the question, “what?”
While identifying your purpose, make sure you are also paying attention to outlining your mission (what you hope to accomplish), vision (where your brand is going), and values (what your brand stands for). By taking care of these points, it will be easier to create your brand objectives in a way that they are aligned with your corporate mission as well as the core values which prevail in the company.
2. Your Positioning
To put it simply, brand positioning concerns knowing where your brand fits in the industry and how you are going to differentiate yourself. However, before you can distinguish your brand’s positioning, you first need to conduct research so that you know what makes your service or product different from that of your competitors.
Beyond simply looking inward, if you can, you want to also seek external insights by asking employees, prospects, or clients what they think about your company, its products or services, and what it appears to represent. The research should uncover your differentiators, as well as similar and contrasting internal and external perspectives.
Armed with this information, you can then start to position yourself in your sector. When composing a compelling brand positioning statement, it must include how you are reaching your target audience, the context, brand promise, and the reason they should believe in your company and what it puts out in the market.
3. Your Personality
Once you have settled on your brand’s purpose and positioning, you can then bring it to life through the brand personality. In other words, the brand personality is the persona that embodies your brand, and that reveals your intentions and values. There is a multitude of ways that the brand personality needs to be represented, specifically through design and communication.
This is where the importance of brand identity is thoroughly demonstrated, as it is essential that the market views your company as credible and authentic. Therefore, you want to be conveying a purpose, position, and personality that is consistent with your clients’ and employees’ experience with what your company offers.
If you aren’t sure how to translate your vision into a coherent brand strategy or need help laying it out, consider working with professional corporate identity design services whose job it is to build powerful brands through creativity, design, and strategic marketing and communication.
After all, to develop a strong brand identity, you are going to require artistic direction and other branding elements that are best done by professionals.
Are you struggling with creating a coherent brand strategy? If so, what are the significant challenges you are coming up against?
If not, do you have any tips to share with other readers? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!
AUTHOR BIO:- Grace Yacoub is the owner, founder and CEO at Zaman. She recognized the potential to develop brands in Dubai back in 1996. Amongst her first projects were to convert the local powerhouses of Etisalat and NBD into branded entities and engage the nation in the drive for modernity. She has since led projects across finance, family, industry, property, retail and all sectors to convert many of the region’s most important companies into powerful brands.
