Why build a Brand you ask?

Well the answer is simple …. because It’s the difference between success and failure!

When done right, your brand will work for you. Your brand holds your story, vision and purpose. It keeps your audience loyal and committed to you, no matter where life takes you.

A common misconception is that branding refers only to your logo, colours, fonts etc. Nothing could be further from the truth … branding refers to a much larger picture. It includes how your business sounds, what you value, how people perceive you and a whole lot more. The good news is that with a strong brand, you can make changes to your business and your clients will follow you because you’re YOU and they know that!

So Slow Down and Do It Right the First Time!

Going back later to fix a badly built brand is expensive, painful and messy. You need to know the building blocks of branding to determine if you have all the pieces in place and what might be missing or what’s weak and needs fixing. With the right knowledge of what you need to do and when, you can build a strong brand over time, because as you already know … Rome wasn’t built in a day.

“We can create what we need as we go along?” … But can we really?

Though the statement “The brand will define itself over time” can be true, you may not want to leave the core identity of who you are and what your purpose is to chance. What if it doesn’t “define” itself in the way you intended?!

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach works for Tech Star-Ups when it comes to digital products, but not so much with branding. If you don’t invest financially in the beginning, so as to build a thought-through brand foundation,... both in strategy and design, you will come to regret it at some point. Most companies end up spending so much more money to fix what they didn’t do right the first time. Would’ve been easier and obviously cheaper to start right … bigger companies get charged more. Keep that in mind.

If you think you don’t have competitors in your market you are dead wrong, it’s a crowded market out here, there are hundreds of companies selling what you sell. Even if you're in an innovation company and you feel like you're in a category of one with an innovative product or service, there are companies in similar categories competing for the same customer that you want.

The difference between companies that fail and the ones that succeed, 90% of the time comes down to their brand foundation and how solid it is. The companies that kill it right out of the bat will always stand out. So let’s talk about how you can actually build a strong brand and identity!

Step 1: Decide who you are and why you exist

Everything has a purpose. So do businesses, sometimes its founder’s origin story, or a problem’s solution just falls out of the blue and you say I have to make this happen. Developing a Mission Statement and a Brand Positioning Statement, two important tools for your strategy, are critical activities in the early stages of the companies’ creation.

These early definitions of the strategy behind your brand, form the foundation for everything that comes next. That means your Brand Personality, Culture, Ethos, from Product Development to Brand Design, Marketing for Customer Engagement everything.

Why?

Because strategy informs decision making. It is useless to shoot without a target; you need a way to tell if your decisions are the correct ones. Without a road map the end goal is never clear.

Step 2: Understand your Competition

It’s important to research, review and evaluate your competition. It’s always easier to do a SWOT analysis so you know who you are up against when it comes to:

• Customer target

• Products and services

• Visual and verbal branding

• Brand ecosystem

• Market

• Social Media activity

• Customer engagement etc

In conducting your Competitive Audits, it’s advisable to outsource your information so you can get unbiased information. The great thing about competition is you still get to choose what your competitive advantage is.

Step 3: Decide who you are helping

Define the problem you're solving.

Decide who your customer is, a Customer Avatar = Clear bulls eye for visual material etc.

What is their biggest Pain Point? Then meet those needs and desires.

You will want to keep solving their problem for the longest time possible. Knowing that Loyalty and recall is important, what impression are you going to make on them, because how you make them feel is very important. They will need to hear themselves in your communication, and be convinced you're the solution.

Step 4: Build your Products and services to suit your Customer

Have a clear target so you can be appealing to the right people. As long as your strategy and problem statement are solid then you're on the right track. It’s usually easier to create products that people already need, instead of the other way round. But maybe you do like a challenge.

Step 5: Build your Ecosystem

Now, how and where you show up is very important. Decide where you are to be found and what you want to look like. Brand design can make or break your brand, because unfortunately, or fortunately if done right, this is usually the first thing that your potential customers will see. First impressions do matter in business.

The goals of Brand Design are pretty simple. You want to be Recognised, Remembered and Revered! Kind of sounds like an online dating profile, except for your business. In order to achieve this, you will need to think about your:

• Logo

• Colours

• Iconography

• Photography

• Patterns

• Typography

• Tonal voice

• Sound etc.

But that’s not all, you’ll also need to consider the Real Estate of your brand – Where do you appear and where are you found be it Digitally, Physically, the various Communities and your Marketing. See, there is a lot to consider if you want to do your branding right the first time. A random logo created overnight may not be the perfect solution in the long run.

Step 6: Introduce the brand to all team members

On board and educate your team about everything regarding the brand and how it is to be perceived. Talk to them about the strategy, mission, personality, voice, customer avatar, standards, and everything so the employees can reflect the brand in a consistent way.

Nothing beats a cohesive brand DNA and culture. When everyone works together in reflecting the company brand, you have the best chance of winning!

Cheny Media is a Marketing & Creative Design Agency committed to meeting your brand’s needs! We are driven by the need to help businesses, organisations and individuals make the right moves for brand establishment and growth and we take great pride in the work we continue to do for our clients. Don’t hesitate to contact us today if you need any help creating and growing your brand.