How can you inform potential customers about your business? How can you create an image in the mind’s eye of your customers, which they can readily associate with your business? Simple, by giving your business a personality, through effective branding!
There is a lot more to branding than public relations, colors, sponsorship, events and advertising. It is important for brands to be associated with a human face. While I am not downplaying the value of any of these marketing tools, there is inexplicable something much more obvious and potent and it most time overlooked. Never underestimate the power of presenting a ‘human side to branding’.
Branding Effectively
Your ability to connect with your customers is extremely important to the success of your business. Research has shown that the purchasing decisions made by consumers are highly emotional and as a result, persons become attached to particular brands based on some personal connection or need being satisfied. Your brand should be a representation of who you are, what you are about and what makes you unique from all the other millions of companies vying for your customer’s attention. Your brand should be comprehensive and include your physical address (if you have one), your web address, your advertisement and anything else remotely associated with your business. Even if you are an internet business with no physical address, a consistent image is still necessary.
When people are searching for a particular product or service, they want to be able to identify exactly whom they are dealing with. If you have a solid business personality then it will be clear to potential customers, who you are and what you can offer. Developing a personality through branding is not an exact science, and no one can do it for you. The personality your business will portray is dependent on the need you seek to fill and the image that you desire to have. Therefore your brand requires your input.
Defining Your Brand
Branding your startup business is all about what you stand for, the promises you make, as well as the image that you transmit. Try to personalize your brand as much as possible; think of your brand has having a distinct personality from those of your competitors.
- Identify the traits that you want to represent you, and convey these traits in everything that the business does and makes.
- Select color themes which reflect your personality when creating templates for websites, letterheads, advertisements, etc.
- Craft positioning statements or stories around the image you wish to portray and ensure that it is circulated on all company materials. A brand building strategy which incorporates an interesting story will appeal greatly to prospective customers.
- Ensure that the way employees interact with prospective customers is of such, that the ‘personality’ of the brand is maintained at all times.
Consistency is key in creating successful brands (I know I mention it often, but it’s very important and I want you to remember it). Be consistent with the personality which your business communicates to the general public. Remember what you are ultimately aiming for is instant brand recognition based on a certain image, therefore, the more consistent that image is the more likely it will be remembered by prospective customers.
