Today's digital marketplace has more channels, but smart marketers know that the basics of branding have not changed. So here is a quick reminder of some of those basics to remember.
1. Building a strong brand identity still starts with knowing three basics - your target, your competition and the benefit(s) you offer that target in relation to your competitors.No matter how complicated or crowded the market is is channels or competitors, this is always the best place to start. I call it the "positioning triangle", and it is still the best way I have found to understand how to build your brand.
The first step in building your brand is to know your target audience, who they are and who they think they are. That's not always the same thing.
Then you must identify who your major competitors are, and the major benefit that audience. And you must also know more than the functional benefit of your product or service, but also the emotional benefit your brand delivers. Understanding and delivering on the emotional value your brand offers is the long term key to success.
2. Building a strong brand identity still means aligning your external messaging with internal awareness and action.
An important part of a strong branding strategy is to ensure that your
internal audiences are in sync with your external communications. Too
many marketers fail to nurture an internal awareness and passion for
that external promise. One great example of this are banks who want you
to believe they are friendly, but don’t deliver. When was the last time
you saw a branch manager rush out of his chair to greet you? Or had a
teller stop and smile and ask how you are doing today? Now I am sure
that there are some friendly tellers and managers out there, but if your
brand strategy is “we’re friendly and we care about you”, then your
customer interactions must live up to that claim. All day and every day.
If the expectations you create aren’t delivered, you may lose a
customer for life.
3.
A good branding strategy still addresses these four elements – it is unique; it is believable; it is relevant; and it is true.• Strong brands still must offer something unique or differentiating to their customers.Most
business categories have too many choices. Customers need to see you as
not merely a good choice, but the best choice to meet their needs. The
challenge of a good branding strategy is to find out what makes you unique, and then communicating that difference to your key target audience(s).
• Strong brands must still make claims that are believable to their audiences.Customers
should have permission to believe that your brand promise can be met.
Today’s consumer is more knowledgeable . . . and more skeptical, than
ever. Make sure you can give them enough logical rationale to justify
their brand decision, before, during and after the purchase decision.
• Strong brands must still be relevant to be considered.This
seems obvious, but this is often missed by marketers who forget to ask
these basic questions. Does this really matter to my customers? Is this
the most motivating way to present my brand? Being relevant becomes essential in a world with so many choices and opportunities.
• Strong brands still make sure that what they promise to deliver is true.Making
an unsupportable claim may get you a one-time sale. But if you don’t
live up to that claim, you will probably lose that customer. Plus all of
the others they will tell about their bad experience. A Yankelovich
study found that, on average, people with a positive experience tell
three others, while people who have a bad experience tell eight. With
the Internet’s easy access to thousands of potential customers, a bad
experience can be devastating.
Today's multi-channel, digital world has changed how we go to market. But, it has not changed those basics of how to build a brand. Whatever you do with your
brand, remember this: Brands that thrive reflect their core culture and
unique character, solve relevant needs, and provide a consistent
experience for their customers.
Good luck with your branding development. I hope these thoughts help you along the way!
