You know branding allows you to stand out in the market, but when you want to start working on it, where do you begin? It’s a crucial element in your marketing strategies, as you will be using it in your social media platforms, website, packages, signage, and print collateral. Use Brandmaximizer’s guide to learn about what is branding and how you can create one for your business.
What is branding?
The promise you make to your customers, what they can expect from your business, and why you’re different from your competitors, comes with your branding. It is what consumers have to say about your company, as it allows you to shape their impressions.
1. Study target audience and competitors
Identifying potential customers will give you a target audience your business needs to focus on, to make sure your message is relevant to them. Avoid generalizing as it runs the risk of not being able to connect with consumers. Use the following characteristics to create a buyer persona:
- Income
- Location
- Gender
- Education
- Age
- Pain points
- Interests
Make sure you study how your potential customers speak so that you can connect with them.
Narrowing down on who you want to include in your target audience understands your branding message completely. Similarly, knowing about your competitors will give you marketing strategies on how you can differentiate your business from them. To identify their weaknesses, look at the quality of products and services, visual and messaging consistency, customer reviews, and advertising techniques.
2. Select a unique personality and tone
As part of the process of creating a brand, you need to make sure your personality is unique and resonates with your potential customers. It shapes the voice you will use on all your channels for communication, such as your website and social media platforms.
The personality you choose will determine the tone of your content. To make your branding unique, identify key qualities of your business. Why should consumers buy your products and services over the offerings from your competitors?
Focus on the value you want to provide your potential customers to improve their quality of life, such as:
- Increase productivity
- Decrease costs without compromising on quality
- 24/7 dedicated customer service
While you are creating a personality for your branding, you also need to choose your tone. It sets the foundation for communicating with potential customers and how they respond to your business. It isn’t necessary to be professional and serious, as the tone should resonate with your target audience
3. Write a tagline
When you think of top-tier market players, such as Apple, Coca-Cola, and Nike, what do you remember about their branding? The first thing that comes to your mind is their taglines. These slogans, despite minimizing the use of words, leaves an everlasting impression.
Don’t worry if you didn’t get them in your first few tries, as it takes a while to understand how to create effective taglines. Use the following tips, to come up with powerful taglines you can use in your branding:
- What is your mission statement? The purpose of your business’s existence will inspire you to create the best tagline
- Using rhymes will ensure your target audience remembers your branding tagline
- If you know about the attitude of your potential customers, create one using it to fuel your creativity
4. Customize your look
Visual elements such as the colors you choose to include in your branding will determine the effectiveness of the emotions you want to evoke from your target audience. At the same time, it helps maintain consistency in all your marketing strategies.
By studying your competitors, you can avoid using similar colors, to ensure you look unique in the market.
While you are choosing the colors for your branding, keep the following things in mind:
- Legibility of text on the hues you select
- Learn about the emotions each hue elicits from people
Spend time playing with different colors to see what you can make your branding stand out. Ask your employees, friends, and mentors for their opinions, to get a different perspective on how your business looks.
5. Create a logo
Your business logo is vital, as this is the face of your brand. The design you choose will determine whether your company leaves a memorable impression on consumers. As your logo is going to appear everywhere your business exists, you should make sure it is unique, scalable, and easy-to-identify.
When you are designing this element, you should ensure you can use it on all platforms. The colors you choose should be cohesive with the logo, ensuring they convey your branding message effectively.
Given below are popular styles companies use to create their logos:
- Abstract – Use creative freedom to come up with a unique design
- Emblem – Generally circular, they can enhance your marketing strategies when done correctly
- Icon – Related to the product or service you are offering
- Wordmark – A safe style, you can combine it with an icon logo to ensure it is legible when you scale it
6. Incorporate branding everywhere
Your branding won’t be effective unless you integrate into every part of your business. Whenever potential customers hear, read, or see about your company, your message should be clear. One essential rule about branding is that you should be consistent with it, as it has an impact on your marketing strategies.
Your website, social media pages, and all other types of digital platforms should feel familiar. It is crucial to your marketing strategies, as your voice, personality, and message will be clear and effective.
Whether it is your product packaging, advertisements, banners, posters, signage, business cards, or any other print collateral, your branding must be visible. Although you won’t be able to have control over how consumers perceive your business, you can make sure they are moving in the right direction.
As branding can make or break your marketing strategies, you should make sure you use only high-quality products for all your print collateral. If you need banners, posters, signage, or any other related products, get in touch with Brandmaximizers today!
