7 Tactics for Building a Valuable and Memorable Brand
You must have a more attractive brand image in a highly competitive market. But a solid and memorable brand is just the opposite. It's the key to your success and prosperity.
When you think about how people build and market their brands, you're likely to consider the big names in media, advertising, and marketing. While they may be the kings of building brands, they have a limited monopoly on the field. To prove it, we'll look at seven tactics that have helped other businesses and entrepreneurs build strong brands, and we'll tell you why they work. You don't need a big budget to start building a brand. You don't need a brand, but if you spend money on branding, this is where it should be.
Building a valuable brand is a lot like building a successful business. If you have a plan, your business will grow. You need to know what you're doing to save time and money chasing the wrong thing. If you don't have a good product or service, no one will buy it. But if you have a strong brand, customers will return for more.
This guide will show you the seven essential tactics for creating a valuable brand. I'll walk you through each one, explain why it's essential, and give you ideas about how to put it into practice.
I'll also give you ideas about building a brand people love and remember.
Table of Contents
Building a Brand: How Do You Go From Zero to Hero?
We've all seen the “from zero to hero” stories. Some become famous overnight and enjoy a celebrity life. Others make it big over time but still need help to gain traction. In fact, for many of us, the word “brand” is just a fancy name for being “known” or having “a following.” So how do you get to hero status, and how do you build a brand from scratch?
The first step in building a brand is to deliberate about letting people know who you are. A brand is built through consistency, so start creating content that reflects your values and beliefs. Be careful not to copy others—that's where your competitors will come into play. Create your voice and stick to it. Please don't fall into the trap of thinking that everyone else is doing it wrong.
Create a social media presence. Post about things that matter to you and encourage people to engage with you. You can even get creative, create a hashtag, and invite others.
Include a blog on your website and promote it to your social media audiences. Make it a place where your audience can get to know you better. Include a section on your website for your customers to share their experiences.
As you make these changes, your content should reflect the voice you want to establish as your brand.
What Does Your Social Media Audience Want to Know About You?
Your social media audience wants to hear from you, and they're looking for answers to questions about your brand.
What do you stand for? Why are you in business? How can I be part of your community? What makes your products or services unique?
Start with the easy stuff, and then move to the more complex questions that are more specific to your niche.
Be Consistent
While social media can be an incredible way to connect with people, you can still get followers or a brand. It requires consistent effort. You can't expect to post once and be famous.
To get the attention you need, post regularly on your social media platforms, whether on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or elsewhere. That way, your posts will appear at the top of your page and in people's news feeds.
You can also use social media to get more visitors to your website and drive traffic to your business. If you can get more people to know about you, you'll likely find more people to buy from or refer to your business.
How to Get Noticed?
Some tactics work better than others for building a brand.
Ask your audience to follow your business on social media. People like to follow the brands they like and respect, so getting a following that knows and trusts you will benefit your business.
Start a conversation with your audience on social media and answer their questions. This builds your credibility, and it helps you earn their trust.
Give your audience a reason to follow your business. Offer giveaways, discounts, or even freebies to your followers, and encourage them to share these with their friends.
Provide value to your audience, and they'll be willing to follow you. Share relevant information with your audience, and you'll be rewarded with followers.
Encourage your customers to share their experiences with you. For example, if your customers have a problem with a product or service, ask them how they're getting along with it. Or, you can tell them you're working on a solution for them.
Use your brand identity to make your business memorable. You can spend a little money or months developing a brand identity. Start by simply adding your name to your social media posts.
Consider your message, and then make sure it's something your audience can relate to and understand. When your audience connects with your message, it's much easier for them to remember your brand.
Why Branding Matters
Every brand is built to appeal to certain customers. When you buy a product, you want to know the company cares about its image and reputation—because it does.
Many companies spend thousands of dollars to design and print logos, advertisements, labels, and packaging. These images help the company's products stand out in the market, and they also help create a sense of trust in the company.
A logo represents the brand's value and personality. It lets customers know who the brand is, why it was created, what it stands for, and what it offers. The design should convey something specific about the product, like safety or quality.
Your brand identity should be consistent across every aspect of the company. You can see this on the company's website, advertising, products, and packaging. For example, if you visit a coffee shop to purchase a cup of joe, you expect to see the same design on the cup as you see on the barista's uniform, the bag the cup came in, and even the coffee machine.
You want to avoid walking into a store and receiving a completely different experience than you saw online. And neither do you want to give your money to a company that's not trustworthy.
A brand identity should work the same way. If a customer goes into your store, you want to ensure they experience the same product, services, and brand experience in each aspect. Especially if you provide custom products or services, such as custom cat paintings or special gifts, it's essential to give the same experience.
Why Is Branding Important?
Branding makes a company more recognizable in the marketplace. Your customers rely on the brand's identity to tell them who the brand is, why it was created, what it stands for, and what it offers. Your customers want to believe in the brand—that you can deliver exactly what you promise and that you care about them and their experience.
Your brand should be authentic, which means it's true to your company's values. It should also be consistent, meaning every aspect of your business is based on your brand's identity.
Does Your Brand Have a Consistent Identity?
Here are some questions to ask yourself to assess the strength of your brand identity:
- Do you own the brand name of your business?
- How long have you been in business?
- What is your company's mission statement?
- How did you choose your company's name?
- What do your customers think of your brand?
- Who are your biggest competitors?
- What distinguishes you from the competition?
- How do you describe your brand?
Why Is Your Brand's Image Important?
You wouldn't give your credit card to someone with a shady background or poor financial track record, so why would you hand over your business or hard-earned cash?
As a business owner, taking your brand's reputation seriously is essential. Your customers want to believe in your company's brand—that you can deliver exactly what you promise and that you care about them and their experience. Your brand should be authentic, which means it's true to your company's values. It should also be consistent, meaning every aspect of your business is based on your brand's identity.
You can build trust with your customers by proving that you're reliable, honest, and caring.
Is the Company You Bought From Staying True to the Brand's Image?
How would your customers feel if they knew the company they bought from wasn't genuine? Would they still trust the company and feel confident giving it their money?
The brand identity of the company you bought from reflects the company itself. The more you communicate your brand identity, the stronger the brand will become and the easier it will be for customers to buy from you.
Does Your Brand's Identity Match the Products and Services You Offer?
When you buy a brand-name product, your expectations must match the company's image. The more consistent your brand's identity is, the easier it will be to communicate that you stand behind your product. This lets you maintain credibility with your customers and lets them know that the brand is dedicated to providing an excellent experience.
Think about how your brand can influence your customers. Do the people you want to sell to perceive your brand as:
- Authentic?
- Consistent?
- Trustworthy?
- Customer-focused?
How Brands Become Enduring Brands
Brands around for a while typically have three things in common: a purpose, a mission, and a vision.
By having a purpose, brands become more than just products; they become ideas. They are about the mission to help consumers achieve something. And they have a vision — a long-term plan for how they want to operate.
These qualities create a brand that customers will identify with, becoming the foundation for loyalty and advocacy.
Brands that combine these three elements into their messaging and identity become enduring brands.
The Best Brands that Have a Purpose
The brands that have the most vigorous purpose are the ones that have a cause, a solution, or an idea to solve a problem. They're the companies that create products for their community, and they stand behind their mission and promise.
These brands provide solutions for a specific need, whether it's better healthcare, safer driving, more efficient cars, cleaner energy, or other issues. Brands like Nike and Procter & Gamble are leaders in their respective industries, and they've been around for a long time because they do something for the world and have a purpose.
Brands with a cause or a solution to a problem are a natural fit for endurance brands. They understand that consumers are looking for ways to be more active and healthy, and they help them live their best life.
Some of the world's most successful brands, like Nike, Apple, and Starbucks, have taken a purpose-driven approach to their businesses and are very proud of their accomplishments. Their products are designed to make people better, and they are a company that people identify with.
They have a Mission.
Brands with a mission are a great fit for brands that want to be identified as more than just a product. These brands are focused on changing how people think and behave.
Brands that have a mission are the ones that believe that what they're doing is making the world a better place. They want to change people's behaviour and provide the tools for people to live their best lives.
Today's most successful brands have a mission, and they understand that their consumers seek more meaningful experiences. The goal is to connect the brand with the consumer and create lasting, positive memories.
The brands that have the best mission are the ones that have a strong sense of social responsibility and are willing to go beyond what's required to be a trustworthy brand. These brands are genuinely interested in solving the world's biggest problems.
Today's most successful brands are those committed to being a positive force worldwide. Companies like Nike and Starbucks have made it their mission to promote health and wellness through their products and have become influential thought leaders.
And a Vision
Vision is often the hardest of the three components to define, but it is the most important. Without a vision, there is no reason to do anything.
A vision is what the brand is all about. It's about what the brand stands for, who it's for, and where it's going.
Brands have been around for a long time, but they sometimes need a clearer idea of what they're trying to accomplish. The brands that are the most successful today are the ones that know exactly who their customers are, what they want, and where they want to go.
With a clear vision, a brand can do something extraordinary.
Companies like Nike and Starbucks are famous for their unique offerings. They're also known for being more than just a product or company — they're a brand with a purpose, a mission, and a vision that's a part of their culture.
When you look at Nike, you don't just see the shoes or the clothing; you see the idea that “If you can run, you can fly.” The brand is about more than selling sneakers and T-shirts. It's about inspiring people to live their best lives, which is why people like to wear Nike apparel.
In the same way, Starbucks is more than a coffee shop — it's a community of people who want to be together in a space where they can be more productive and find inspiration.
Companies that are most successful today are unique and stand out from the crowd. These companies have a strong brand identity, a clear purpose, and a compelling vision.
7 Tactics for Building a Valuable and Memorable Brand
Create Value Through Customer Service
The customer service experience is one of the most critical parts of any business. It is also one of the areas that businesses often overlook, even though every interaction with a client can create lasting memories.
According to Harvard Business School, the average person spends 8 minutes on the phone with a customer service representative. That amounts to nearly 100 hours per year. That is much time to create customer loyalty. So why aren't customers more loyal to businesses that take the time to create a positive experience?
Research shows that the most effective strategies for creating brand value are listening to customers and finding ways to provide added value through the customer service process.
What is Customer Service?
Customer service is defined as the actions and processes of a company designed to interact with its clients and customers. This definition also includes employees and other agents of a company that communicate directly with customers.
As a business, offering services that exceed your customers' expectations is essential. But, to do that, you must understand what your customers want. For example, the customer service experience may differ between demographics and cultures.
As a small business owner, reaching out to all your customers and understanding what they want takes work. In addition, it's only sometimes possible to have the time or resources to build a strong relationship with all your clients. The solution? Leverage the power of social media to gather customer feedback and use that information to create personalized customer service experiences that create long-term relationships.
Best Practices for Creating Brand Value
1 – Understand the Needs of Customers
When you're a business, it's easy to forget that you are also human. As a result, you may assume that your customers have your exact needs. However, your customers have different priorities. If you genuinely want to understand your customer base, you must ask for help.
It's a mistake to assume that your customers know what they want. Instead, ask them.
Do a few quick interviews with your customers. The goal here is to get a pulse on what they want. Please don't force your customers to make decisions; listen to their answers and act accordingly.
Once you know your customer's needs, you can develop a strategy for offering additional services to meet those needs.
2 – Identify Problems and Offer Solutions
While customer service is based on helping customers, you should still solve problems. A customer service strategy should include a process for solving problems in addition to the delivery of value.
The key here is to identify the problems that your customers are experiencing. For example, if you're a retailer, you may find that customers are complaining about slow service or having difficulty tracking inventory.
You can help solve the problem by responding immediately and by providing solutions. For example, if you're a restaurant, you may offer to deliver a meal to your customer's home or in advance.
In addition, focus on more than just solving the immediate problem. Ask yourself how you can help your customer be successful in the future.
If your company offers a loyalty program, your customer service strategy should include a process that encourages customers to stay loyal to your company.
3 – Create a Positive Experience
Even if your customers know what they want, they may need a better experience. The best way to address that problem is by listening to customers and offering solutions.
As a business, it's important to remember that your customers are people. They don't want to be treated like a number. It would help if you made sure your customers feel valued, heard, and appreciated.
There are several ways you can help build a positive customer experience, including the following:
- Offer to respond to emails, texts, or calls within a reasonable time.
- Offer discounts or rewards that are specific to the customer
- Keep your social media platforms relevant and valuable.
4 – Track Customer Feedback
The best customer service strategies are designed to create value. They also incorporate customer feedback. If you don't listen to your customers, how will you know whether or not your strategy is working?
Customer feedback is often collected through surveys, but you can also use social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram to get feedback from your customers.
5 – Reward Good Service
Finally, when customers experience an excellent customer service experience, they want to tell others. This means that the best way to build brand value is to reward good customer service.
A customer service strategy that offers rewards may include giving customers discounts or special deals for repeat purchases or referrals. For example, if your business is a retail establishment, you may give customers a discount for their birthday or reward them with a coupon for a free cupcake after a purchase.
Keeping your customers happy and encouraging them to share their experiences is essential regardless of your business.
Create an Experience
There are two main ways to design a memorable experience. The first way is to create experiences that inspire emotion, whether positive or negative.
The second way is to create experiences that encourage consumers to share their thoughts and feelings about the brand with other people. When this happens, it helps to create a positive association with the brand.
In addition to positive and negative emotions, brands can inspire other types of feelings as well. For example, brands can be associated with fear, guilt, sadness, and joy. You can use these emotions to stimulate action in customers.
Creating an experience that inspires emotions can be accomplished through various methods. For example, the emotional impact of a brand experience can come from the brand's colour palette, the layout and arrangement of objects within the space, or the music that plays as the customer enters the store.
Another critical aspect of creating a memorable experience is designing the space. How does the physical environment affect the brand experience?
Brands can create memorable experiences in various physical environments, such as the workplace, the home, the school, and the gym. If you're designing a physical space for a brand, it's essential to consider the purpose of the space and how the customer will interact with it.
For example, if you're designing a workplace, it's essential to consider the mood of the employees. Employees who are happy and energetic will bring that energy to the workplace. When designing a physical environment, think about how the mood of the space is affected by the products or services in the space.
Build an Identity for Your Company
Creating a memorable brand for your company starts with your name, logo design, colour scheme, and tagline.
Once you've established the basics, it's time to consider your identity. This includes everything from your website to social media pages, your business cards, letterhead, invoices, and even your elevator pitch (a short story that explains what you do). These elements should complement your brand rather than compete for attention.
As you're developing your identity, keep these things in mind:
- It should be consistent across platforms—you want it to be on every site page, email, receipt, social media post, and printed material.
- It should be simple and clean but also fun and creative. Stay detailed; focus on the things that matter most to your customers.
- It should be authentic. If it's not you, it's probably not going to be effective.
- It should reflect your values.
- It should reinforce your message.
- It should be memorable. You want people to say, “I remember that place.”
- It should be unique. If your company is similar to another one, they'll know. If your company is like many others, it won't stand out.
If you're considering a rebrand, it's a good idea to develop a solid identity before you do. Start with your logo, and think about how your brand will look and feel. You'll also want to consider your name, slogan, tagline, colour palette, typefaces, and other visual elements.
Remember, you'll have to live with these elements daily, so they must be comfortable and compelling.
How to Design an Effective Logo
Once you've got the basics of your identity in place, you can start thinking about your logo. When creating a logo, you design something representing your brand and values. Your logo needs to be memorable and appeal to your target audience.
The best way to get started is to identify your target customer and see what they're already using. Ask yourself, “What do people associate with my brand?”
Next, consider how you can use the colours, fonts, and images you already know. Can you tweak them to fit your new identity? If so, great.
If you still need to, try to figure out what's missing from your existing design and how you can fill in the gaps. You can add a new element or change the font to make it more impactful.
Whatever direction you decide to go in, make sure you design a logo that stands out from the rest and complements your company's values.
How to Build a Memorable Brand for Your Company
If you're looking to create a memorable brand, it's essential to understand that it can be a little bit of money. You can hire a designer or spend little time on it. Instead, you'll want to start by asking questions and taking notes.
- Who is your target customer?
- What does your customer care about?
- What is the story behind your business?
- What is your brand's value proposition?
- What sets you apart from your competition?
- Where do you want to be in the future?
Once you've got this information, it's time to start brainstorming. Think about your audience. What is their life like? What are the problems they're facing?
Please list the issues your customers might encounter daily and note any ideas you think could help them solve them. Once you've collected some ideas, you can use them as the basis for your brand.
Now, you'll need to make some choices. You can either make one of these decisions or bring a small group together to help you make the best choices.
For instance, if your company's brand is based on helping people lose weight, choosing a font with a more weighty feel makes sense. If your company's value proposition is “the best place to find great deals on your favourite products,” it makes sense to choose a clean, bold, and eye-catching font.
The main goal is to create a striking design that fits well with your company's personality and is consistent across all your channels.
Find the Right Target Audience
A great way to get started with this question is to think about who you are, how you can benefit, and where you would like to grow your business. Are you looking to expand your customer base and reach new customers? Would you prefer to work with existing clients or new prospects? Once you've got a rough idea of your target market, it's time to find out where they hang out and connect with them through their favourite channels.
You can segment audiences according to demographics, behaviours, interests, locations, and many other categories, so the key is to find the right ones to get you started. Once you understand the target audience, you can identify their needs and create relevant content.
Choosing the right audience is crucial because it helps meet your customers' expectations. After all, if your audience is interested in something other than your product or service, you won't be able to promote it successfully. Choosing the right audience also helps you build trust, credibility, and rapport with your target audience, which makes it easier to develop relationships and convert leads into customers.
Grow a Community of Advocates
A successful brand, be it a business, political party, or movement, is built around a brand ambassador representing the brand and its message. This person often becomes the face of a campaign or movement.
As a brand ambassador, you must work hard to build your reputation. While that reputation is earned over time, it is also created and shaped by how you present yourself in public.
As your brand ambassador, you are often in front of a camera or microphone. It's a chance to speak to your target audience directly and share the values, beliefs, and experiences that make you who you are.
While you may have an opinion about the issues, there's no reason to say anything controversial. Be sure to focus on the positive aspects of your message instead. You'll naturally sound sincere, confident, and trustworthy when you do that.
What Do People Think About Your Brand Ambassador?
As you build your brand ambassador reputation, be careful not to let it get out of control. Some people will seek to undermine or destroy the brand. You can use social media to identify and address negative comments about your ambassador.
If you do hear something negative, respond with the facts. The truth is a powerful tool. If someone brings up a factually incorrect point, answer with the correct information. You might even ask them if they want to talk further or if they'd like to look into it further themselves.
Building your brand ambassador's reputation is an ongoing process. You must be prepared to continue to grow and refine your message and delivery.
Create Content That's Consistently Engaging
We all know content is king, but it's often hard to come up with that great piece of content, and it's even harder to come up with content that's consistently engaging to readers, which makes your site more valuable to them. In this case, you should combine your expertise with something that can entertain and inform your target audience. This way, the reader feels like they're getting both a “how-to” and an entertaining read, allowing you to gain trust with your potential clients.
There are plenty of ways to do this, so I've broken it down into four categories you should consider when creating content that entertains and informs your target audience.
You Can Provide Instructional Content with Humour
Humour is a great way to add value to your brand and encourage engagement on social media platforms, but it can also be effective in non-digital channels. By incorporating humour into your content, you can convey the information in a way that engages your target audience while still showing your expertise. For example, you could write a post called “10 Best Ways to Clean Your House” but then follow it up with an instructional video of how to clean your house, complete with funny jokes, animations, and music.
The key to successfully integrating instructional content with humour is to keep the humour consistent and in line with your brand. You want to stay within your brand voice.
You Can Offer a Service to Your Target Audience
Another great way to add value to your brand while providing an entertaining read is by offering a service to your target audience. If you know a specific problem exists in your target audience, offering a solution to that problem can build trust and show your expertise. You can offer these services by writing a blog post about how to do something or by recording a podcast.
The key to this type of content is communicating how it solves the problem and helps the target audience.
You Can Share an Expert Opinion
Another type of content that's a great way to add value to your brand while informing and entertaining your target audience is by sharing an expert opinion. Any of your employees or industry experts can offer an expert opinion—this is a great way to show your expertise and share knowledge with your target audience.
To do this, you'll need to find a source that will permit you to share their work, which may mean asking an influencer if they'd be open to sharing their expertise.
You Can Offer a Product That Helps People Reach Their Goals
If you have a product that helps people reach their goals, you can use this to add value to your brand and help people solve a problem. This type of content is very similar to the first two categories. It combines instruction with humour and service or expert opinion and provides a solution for the problem or goal you're trying to achieve.
The key to this content is that it must convey the information and solution in a way that encourages the user to purchase the product.
It's important to note that not all types of content are created equal. You can write a blog post that discusses a topic in a way that helps the reader, but it doesn't tell anyone how to do anything. It's essential to keep this in mind when choosing which content to create. You can always add your unique spin to your content, but starting with a general outline is a good idea.
Develop a Winning Social Media Strategy
Social media is a powerful tool that allows you to communicate directly with your customers in real-time. Using social media, you can share information and content with your audience in ways that would be difficult to do through other forms of advertising, like print, television, radio, or even mail.
However, an effective social media strategy takes time, patience, and a strategic plan. Here are five things to keep in mind before creating a social media strategy:
1. Understand your audience. Before you create your social media plan, it is essential to know your audience. Determine who your target audience is, where they are located, and what their interests are. This will help you determine what platforms are most suited to your business. You can find this information through various online resources or simply by looking at your company's marketing plan.
2. Create a plan. Once you know your target audience, it is crucial to create a plan. This should include the following:
a) A strategy for the frequency with which you will post.
b) A content strategy that will help your audience understand your brand and why it matters to them.
c) A timeline of when you want to post content. This should be based on your goals, such as increasing your page views or expanding your customer base.
d) An action plan to guide you in executing your social media plan.
3. Implement the plan. Once you have a plan, you can implement your plan by choosing the platform that best fits your needs. You can either pay for the platform or choose a free option. Once you have chosen your platform, you can start by creating a presence and content.
4. Measure the results. It is crucial to evaluate your results after implementing your social media strategy. You can continuously improve by understanding what works and what doesn't. This will help you achieve your goals for your business.
5. Make adjustments. Once you've implemented your social media strategy, you must make adjustments. This could be due to changes in your audience, changes in your business, or changes in the industry. The most important part of making adjustments is to be open to them and use them to your advantage.
Here is a quick example of how a company used their social media strategy to create a memorable brand.
The company provides custom embroidery designs for businesses that want to create a unique look for their employees. The company wanted to create a complete and memorable brand image for its customers.
The company decided to launch a contest on Facebook and Instagram to accomplish this goal.
The company posted two images of the design they were offering and allowed their customers to vote for the best one.
The company chose a winner and offered it to their customers, who loved the idea and chose the design. The company then created a product that matched the winning design and shipped it to its customers.
In doing so, the company created a strong, memorable brand image.
Wrapping Up
When building a brand, it's easy to focus on the visual side of things, but it's also essential to have a strong message and a consistent voice.
The first step to creating a memorable brand is coming up with a story. This should connect with your target audience emotionally and makes them want to know more.
Once you have your story, it's time to consider your brand's personality. What kind of tone should you use? How should you act in front of the camera?
Consider thinking about these questions long and hard before you start promoting your brand. This will make a big difference.
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