Understanding the basic principles of brand development can give you a better position to evaluate your brand and your marketing plans.

Here are the 3 key elements to a brand development strategy:

1. Who are you?

This seems like it would be an easy assignment, but for some companies, this is a hurdle they don’t even want to think about.  Companies evolve over time and who your company is today may not be who it was at its inception, or who it may be in the near future.

Companies evolve to improve efficiency, increase their relevance with their target market, or to zero in on a totally new type of customer.  Although it is essential for the longevity of a company for this evolution to take place, it is equally critical that the brand reflects these changes.

The first step in developing a brand is to clearly define your brand and what it stands for. After all, how can you communicate the value of your brand if you don’t have a solid understanding to base it on?

2. Who needs to know?

This is another way of asking “Who is your target market?”.  I prefer to ask “Who needs to know your brand’s message?”.

When I ask companies about their target market, I get far too many broad, all-encompassing nets thrown out.  “Everyone” is not an acceptable response to the question.

Create a “perfect customer” profile.  When developing a brand, it should be crafted to speak to this perfect customer.

Write down every relevant element of this customer’s persona.  Age, sex, ethnicity, education, are all common attributes, but each industry will have a few additional criteria that may come into play.

Don’t leave out any detail in your initial assessment.  You can always refine it down later. Also, keep in mind that you are only profiling one perfect customer.  It is ok and normal to have more than one customer profile, just be sure that you have separate profiles for each customer persona.

Each different persona may be attracted to your brand for different reasons and may be seeking different benefits from your offering.  Knowing your different customer profiles will allow you to craft messages that speak directly to them, and will enable you to showcase the relevant valuable aspects of your offering to different customer personas.

3. Why should they care?

Well, now that you know who you are, and who your perfect customer is, it’s time to figure out the last piece to the puzzle; what’s in it for them?

Take a look at your different customer personas.  What motivates these people to buy? Write down every purchase motivator you can think of for each persona.  These motivators should be at the core of every message to that group of potential customers.

Some motivators are more powerful than others.  Finding the most powerful motivators to focus on is paramount.  The best way to find them is to use real data.

Make a list of some of your best existing customers that match each persona.  Create a survey for each group and let your existing client base lead you to what actually made them select you over your competition.

Final Thoughts:

Now that you have these 3 key elements outlined, it is time to make a plan to tell your perfect customers who you are and why they should care.  Partner with a marketing company that will take the time to learn about your brand and help you implement a plan that uses the correct tools to speak to your market.

Your brand represents a unique promise that you make to every single one of your clients and potential clients. It’s the consistency of this promise that will encourage your clients to be loyal to your brand. Getting your clients to become loyal to your brand is the only real way to make your brand successful.

But for your promise to be effective and spectacular, it must be distinct and clearly distinguishable from the many other promises your potential clients will encounter.

• What kind of promise is your brand making?
• Who is your brand making this promise to?
• Why is your brand’s promise different from everyone else’s?
• Why should anyone believe your promise?

At a glance, the task of defining your brand may appear quite simple but please don’t be fooled. The golden arches of McDonald’s and the Nike swoosh didn’t become what they are in a day. These and other successful brands are the product of careful research, distinctly defined boundaries and a comprehensive Marketing strategy.

The result of all this hard work is that each client and potential client knows exactly what these brands represent. Have you ever walked into McDonald’s to order a Pepperoni pizza? Would anyone in their right minds drive to Nike to pick up a pair of ruby red stilettos?  Of course not! That’s because these brands have carefully made sure we know exactly what to expect and what these brands can deliver.

Clients are far more likely to be loyal to a brand that sends a clear message or has a distinct voice.

Let’s cover the 3 Ways To Create A Spectacular Brand with starting with … What Is Your Business Good At Doing?

You can make use of S.W.O.T analysis to outline the major strengths and weakness of your business. It goes without saying that your brand should represent the strengths or core functions of your business.

This will require some amount of honest self-evaluation. Some entrepreneurs fall into the trap of aiming to be good at everything or doing too many things at the same time. Even worse is trying to make a ‘universal’ product or service that has no specific target audience.

The result of this kind of strategy would be a brand that is not well defined and will not encourage brand loyalty.  Trying to target everybody and doing everything will force you to spread your resources too thin. Choose The Right Marketing Tools. The marketing tools that you choose to make use of should then emphasize the core focus of your business. In doing so, your marketing strategy should also emphasize what your business is not and thus make your clients see that your focus is not on getting their money.

This is an easy way to highlight the difference between you and the competition. A memorable brand is not worth the effort if you are not earning any money and the easiest way to make money is to be better than your competition.  Three Simple Words That Represent What Your Business Does Well.

Think of it this way, which three words would you want your clients to use to describe your brand if your brand was a person? This will require that you and your team carefully define the mission and vision statement of your business as well. Your next move should be figuring out how to communicate these attributes to your target audience with the utmost simplicity. One core principle that never fails is to focus on quality and convenience.

The identity of your brand should be carefully tied to adding value. Make your clients think of your product or service as being of the best quality, the easiest to use, the most affordable or even the most durable. Selling hype will not get you very far.  Finally, remember that your aim is to give your brand a pleasant voice and a distinct identity.

The aim is to get the voice of your brand off the website into the mind of your target audience. Your message should make such a deep impression on your target audience that purchasing your product or service should seem like the only sensible choice.

===========If you are still struggling with creating a brand that gets you noticed & paid?  Good News, this will help:

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NAVIGATE YOUR BRAND MINI-WORKSHOP

Many small business owners try to build the identity of their brand by imitating other well-established players in the industry. This strategy will prove ineffective.

If you are struggling with creating your own brand unique brand identity, my first suggestion is to turn to your existing clients. You would be surprised how much you can benefit from some good old-fashioned research.

Carefully assess what clients currently think about your brand and what they think it represents. You may be quite horrified to realize that your clients have completely misunderstood the voice of your brand. Also, take the time to find out how they think your brand fares against the competition.

The key to getting the right information is to ask the right questions. Ask clear, simple questions that get straight to the point.
Now that you have asked the right people, the right questions and have gotten into the minds of your clients, it is time for action.

Try to identify any common themes in the responses of your clients. Bear in mind that some of these responses may be aimed at improving the quality of your product or service. Use the information to guide your brand identity strategy.
All your time and resources should be focused on removing common road blocks from the minds of existing clients and potential clients as well. Be sure to also reinforce the positive aspects of your brand that your clients identified.

Now that you know what to do, it is time to learn how to do it!

Building the identity of your brand might take some amount of time, but aimlessly spending money is never the solution. Now that you are armed with all the right information, it is time to carefully plan your brand identity strategy.

Designing a good strategy means you are setting yourself up for success! Your strategy should be as SMART as they come. By SMART, I mean Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.

Here are 3 Simple Strategies to Establishing the Identity of your brand:

1. Optimize Your Business Website
Your website should be loaded with useful content, easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing. There is no bigger turn off than a website that takes decades to load or isn’t mobile friendly. A website is one of the few points of contact that you have full control over and it is best you use this to your advantage.

2. Develop a Logo and Other Creative Basics that Compliment Your Brand
Developing a logo is the first aspect of developing your brand’s visual vocabulary. In addition to the logo, you will need to create a specific look and feel for your brand that will be consistent throughout the various platforms you will use to promote your brand.

All successful brands are associated with a specific blend of colors, fonts and slogans. For your creative elements to resonate with your target audience, you must be consistent. Every aspect of business, your website, your social media pages and even your business cards, should feature the same creative elements.

3. Amp Up Your Social Media Presence
What good will it do if you build an outstanding brand that no one has ever head of?
Social media allows you to reach the right people, with the right message all the time. Additionally, social media is one of the most affordable options to reach your target audience.

So why not make full use of it? There are so many social media platforms just waiting to help build your brand. In fact, all the successful brands have invested heavily in creating a strong social media presence and so should you. All you need to do is post the kind of content that will lure in potential clients.

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Building a Brand for your business should be fun, not frustrating. If you’re stressed out and overwhelmed, take an hour off to join me here:

NAVIGATE YOUR BRAND MINI-WORKSHOP