Your brand, whether you like it or not, is a direct reflection of how your firm presents itself, but it is also how that image resonates in the hearts and minds of your target market. It can encompass everything that is your business. It can be impacted by how quickly you respond to customer inquiries. It can be a powerful asset, or negative associations can make it an albatross around the neck of a company. Essentially, if you were to relate a brand to a company the same way as you would relate a reputation to a specific person, you have a basic grasp of the concept. If a person were introduced to you as someone who has spent time in jail, think of how that would color your opinion of him. Negative brand associations are just as hard to rectify, which is why each touch point should be seen as an opportunity to strengthen the brand and to communicate its heart or essence to your target.
Those unique attributes that make up your brand, when executed consistently and correctly, lead to brand loyalty. When customers become loyal to your brand, price becomes less relevant. When employees buy into your brand promise, your turnover goes down. When your advertising reflects your brand personality consistently, you pull more ROI from your ad dollars. Creating a strong brand will have a substantial affect on your bottom line now and in the future - count on it.
You may ask, "In light of the current economic climate, how can I afford to spend money on branding?"
This is precisely when you should focus on branding. An effective brand strategy incorporates all elements of the brand. If all of your marketing and advertising reflects a focused brand strategy, the quicker your prospects will grasp your message an value proposition. As a result of effective branding, you can often times spend less on media and advertising, while actually increasing revenues.
Because there are more media outlets and more competitors in the marketplace, getting noticed is becoming tougher and tougher. A compelling and focused brand message concentrating on the benefits to the prospect will rise above the clutter and demand attention. Customer expectations are rising every day, and only those brands that communicate real value in today's world will succeed.
While a compelling brand is an essential foundation from which to build your marketing efforts, there is still more to consider. You can have an effective brand strategy, but if you don't apply that brand across all of your touch points, you risk diluting the value of the brand. Worse, without proper care and communication of what the brand represents, you risk damaging the brand beyond repair. Your brand strategy works like a road map - it only serves to help you if you follow it closely.
Does this mean that everything your customers see must look and identical to other pieces? No, but each of those pieces should seem to appear to share common themes, messages and aesthetics. Your website and your collateral materials don't have to be identical twins, but they should share traits that make it clear that they are part of the same family, and are conveying the same overriding message. A specific piece may be geared to a subset of your overall target, like the education or government markets, but the overriding messaging and branding impression should mesh well with a piece geared for the financial sector or to the consumer.
Effective branding can involve many aspects of your business, and it is easy to make a mistake that can negatively impact your brand. With this in mind, we've compiled a page with some common branding mistakes that can be avoided.
