Building a powerful brand through the use of a consistent marketing strategy is absolutely essential to running a successful and profitable small business.
A powerful brand identity can influence your customers to buy your product or service over your competitors, even if they have to pay more for it! A powerful brand can influence your customers to think that no one else except you or your company can provide them with the quality or benefits they want.
By building a unique brand identity, you can have the most powerful business advantage that your competitors can NEVER take away from you!
The problem: Your customers are constantly bombarded with marketing messages from your competitors. It’s hard to stand out and get your own message heard. Try to get an edge by having a great product or service. But your competitors keep creating a similar version of your product or service… or even a better, cheaper version.
The Solution: How do you gain a business advantage that your competitors can never take away from you? Building a powerful brand! Having your own brand identity will maximize the effectiveness of your marketing. The brand helps your company by simplifying the decision of your customers: when they need your product or service… they only need to think of you.
Building a powerful brand identity for your small business doesn’t have to cost a lot of money
Do you think you would have to have a lot of money to build a powerful brand identity for your small business? This is a common mistake. When we think of brand, we often think of IBM, BMW, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and the millions of dollars they spend to build their brands. But there are creative ways to build a powerful brand without spending a lot of money.
Before you begin to develop your brand marketing strategy, you need to understand what a “brand” is and how it can affect the profitability and success of your business.
What is a brand?
A brand can be a name, a phrase, an image, a symbol, or a combination of things that tends to identify a company’s products or services as unique or different from those of its competitors. A brand can represent something intangible about your company, your product or service. It can be a combination of feelings and perceptions about your name, image, quality, reputation and personality.
At its most powerful level, branding creates in your customers’ minds the perception that there is no other company, product, or service like yours.
A powerful brand can influence your customers to buy your product or service over your competitors, even if they have to pay more for it! A powerful brand can influence your customers to think that no one else except you or your company can provide them with the quality or benefits they want.
Why is the brand important?
* Your personal reputation or brand can attract and repel opportunities. It has a powerful effect on people’s opinions and actions.
* The most powerful marketing you can have is a positive reputation or brand. Your customers will either be attracted to what you have to offer or they will avoid it.
* A good reputation or brand name can generate repeat sales without advertising… while a bad one can cause a business to fail.
* People will pay more for a brand they trust.
* Having a strong brand or reputation can influence people. You can influence people to buy. You can influence people to choose you over your competitors.
* When you’re attracted to opportunities and don’t know why, it’s often your personal reputation or your brand at work.
* A good reputation or brand builds a customer’s trust BEFORE making a sale.
* Do everything you can to protect your reputation and brand. Even if it took you many years to build it, it will only take a few seconds to destroy it.
* The most successful companies are not necessarily those with the best employees, products or services. They are the ones with the best brand due to the constant application of the best marketing strategies and the best brand management.
How to develop your own brand identity?
Make a decision about your brand building goals before you start developing your brand identity. You want to be clear about what you want to achieve with your brand… what “image” you want for your brand. Once you have a unique brand identity, you will need to consistently and repeatedly communicate your brand across all of your marketing strategies.
“To establish a well-defined, favorable brand personality with the consumer, the advertiser must be consistent. You can’t use a comical approach today and a white-coated scientist tomorrow without spreading and damaging your brand personality.” –Morris Hite
* Make a list of things that are unique about you, your company, and your products or services. Based on the information in your list, create your unique brand identity. Your brand identity should help you find good answers to the following questions:
1. Why would someone use your website instead of your competitor’s site?
2. Why would someone buy from you instead of your competitors?
* Select the best marketing strategies that can create more awareness of your unique brand identity in your target customers. Communicate your brand across all of your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly marketing strategies…consistently and repeatedly.
* Communicate what is unique about your brand as often as you can. As your customers’ awareness of your brand increases, your sales should also increase.
When you create a powerful brand identity, you will create a shared awareness. It’s not just the best competitive advantage you can have…it’s the most powerful business advantage your competitors can NEVER take away from you!