6 Steps To Build A Solid Brand

Instructions

• 1

  Brand As An Image
  
  The image or visuals you chose to give your brand should represent the business in every way possible, in the best way possible. It should stand out and be able to run miles ahead of you. From the advertisements your use, the medium you use to broadcast your information, the logos you choose plus any other tool you use to develop a brand image must be carefully chosen.
  
  It is important to plan and visualize how you want your brand to be and feel like and how you want the world to see it. As Jeff Bezos puts it : “your brand is what people say about you, when you are not in the room”.
• 2

  Appeal To As Many People As You Can
  
  A good brand has something that motivates people, whether it’s a sense of belonging to some exclusive club, a feeling of loyalty or just a means to achieve their dreams and express themselves. You need to be able to get people excited about you brand by appealing to what exactly they need. This will help you stand out from your fellow competitors thereby reinforcing your brand image. It could be a phrase, a motto or an aim that indicates your position. Something firm but relatively ambiguous that can be interpreted by a million people to mean a million “true” things all at once.
  
  This “something” should be able to draw people towards the brand, a common phenomenon that people can gravitate around and that shows that it is worth fighting for, a just cause to propel people to you. It’s a call between you and society. It is also what defines you as your brand, what defines you as an individual, where you stand in the equilibrium of the world and where you intend to take the people to if they follow you.
• 3

  Honesty
  
  A brand that is based on lies cannot stand. The same goes when you consistently fail to follow through on your promises. There should be transparency between you and your customers, you do not want to be known as the black sheep in your industry because if you do not do a good job of tarnishing your brand your competitors will happily pick up the slack if given enough material. If a negative reputation based on facts is formed about your enterprise, it could cost you much time and effort to clean up your brand
• 4

  Communication
  
  When building a brand, communication is everything. Whatever way you chose to create awareness and explain the purpose of your brand, do not underestimate the power of communication. If you do not monitor the lines of communication and maintain a passive stance, you are basically relinquishing your future profitability to the wind. Brand management is about putting your best face on every single time. Companies with solid established brands are always struggling through one issue or another. Whether it is an internal business issue or terrible external market conditions, these businesses actively communicate with their stakeholders thereby managing and interpreting the information to favor them.
  
  In order to persuade your investors to invest in you or your customers to buy from you, effective communication should be able to bridge the gap between your business and other essential second and third parties.
• 5

  Design
  
  The way you present yourself to should be of impeccable taste and outward appearance. Everything you do should look appealing to the eyes of consumers. You could have best product or service that has the potential to beat your competitors, hands down. But without the right package or the little service extras, you will not get customers or clients excited at all. And if people are not excited about what you do, they will certainly not care about what your “brand” represents. Everything should be detailed, neat and well packaged. An example would be Steve jobs branding of Apple.
  
  He said it himself that the difference between him and the rest of the technology world is branding.
  
  “Design is not how it looks like or feels like, but how it works”- Steve Jobs
  
  Your brand’s design should work for you even when you are sleeping. Even an items as simple as a business card can be designed to make a lasting impression.
• 6

  Consistent Performance
  
  Nothing destroys a brand quicker than unstable performance. Consistent performance allows people to form positive expectations about you. This means you still remain relevant and people are just itching to see what you are going to do next. And when you can make people rely on you, your products or services that translates into cash flow. As a business, you need to hold market share, engaging your customers to understand their needs today. This is the reason we say the customer is always right. Creativity also helps to deliver consistent performance but be careful to make sure the market i.e. your customers, are ready for it.
• 7

  Branding is not a day’s job but with dedication and hard work, it can take your business  places. Just remember to be consistent and be truly dedicated to the customers.