What is the brand or the branding of your business? It goes far beyond a logo or a name. A brand is a sensation. It is about creating emotions, communicating, getting in tune with your target from the first moment.
It is much more than the “physical” and observable image at first sight of your project. The brand is you; it is how your company is dressed and presented, what communicates in 360 degrees, is everything. It is about making this a memorable memory for anyone who discovers it.
But the brand is not made that easily. Only Effective branding strategies can make that real.
Effective branding strategies: How to initiate them?
Today we want to tell you about the process of creating your brand and its evolution as well. We want to show you ten basic principles so that the development of your brand is active. It is at this point where everything starts: your project, your company, you yourself are already a brand, take it this way.
1. Be analytical
The evolutionary process of any brand is behind analysis at all times. You will never, never, never finish, this is very important to be clear from the beginning.
What is working for you? What has gone wrong? These are vital questions to ask yourself from time to time so that you can audit your brand and know how it is behaving to develop it.
We are often concerned with being efficient rather than being effective. We keep looking at the market for emerging opportunities. We do not realize that whoever speaks to us is our brand.
2. Be aware
Being aware of the current moment for your company, for your project is critical. Know how to analyze how your target moves at a particular moment and, if your strategy works or not, is main at all times.
Observe your company from the skin of your clients, and you will be able to obtain many conclusions. This exercise can generate unique points of view of your brand, especially to understand your terrain from an emotional point of view.
3. Be curious
The fact of keeping you questioning your project is very rich in results. These are some of the questions that we recommend from time to time:
- How can I favorably alter my value proposition?
- How can I improve the personality of my brand or image?
- How can I generate more expectations?
- What is currently happening in innovative advertising associated with my brand?
- What approaches from other brands, not associated with mine, can be reinterpreted and applied in my field?
4. Be an observer
Is your competition better positioned in the groups or, does it perform better when it does so independently? What are they appealing at this very moment? How do the consumer groups to which you belong define your brand? Is your storytelling in touch with the feeling you want to communicate?
These and other questions are super important when looking at your environment to capture your own and grounded ideas.
5. Be human
This point is super talented and has so much to offer.
Your brand will always work to make an impression to build an image. Through your branding, you are in charge of projecting a “face” for your brand; that’s how communication works in these cases.
Do they see you as a company concerned about their target? This is essential. Taking care of your clients all the time is way more important than any other strategy.
There are human attributes such as the warmth that must be present in the whole story you tell, in your products, services, etc. And with kindness, we mean closeness, having connection points between both accounts: yours and your clients.
6. Be creative
The elaboration of the image requires going beyond pure logic. Creativity has to start from imagining the future you need with the creation of this brand, what you want to achieve and, establish connections.
To expand your business branding, you should also think about the opportunities you aspire to. Concept generation workshops like brainstorming are very productive.
There are brainstorming tools that could be very helpful, such as:
- Get out of your creative comfort zone: office, computer, home, etc. and go to another place where you connect externally with different elements.
- Try to think about something else for a while: what are you going to eat tonight, where are you going to go next vacation, etc. and then resume work.
- Think as if you were a child.
Do not rely on creativity rules to generate concepts; let yourself go.
You will see how, after all this brainstorming, you can link concepts that will land on what will be on a creative level.
7. Seek for the integration of possibilities
Communication is always improvable regarding the actions you take.
Think of one thing, how can you extend the activity of your business not only based on your current product? And more, have you noticed that large companies do not depend solely on a source of income? Does any of these sounds familiar to you right now?
Seeking integration means not staying in one common thread but looking for ways to branch out the essence of your company, even in different sectors of activity.
8. Tell a story
It is the most direct connection you can establish between your clients and yourself as a company. The most significant schedules start from a storyteller.
9. Be realistic
No business or product is at the center of any consumer’s life, as is. Your target does not depend on you to cover their needs; it is you who will make them believe that this is so. May we explain?
However, this assumption is almost always confused with the research projects of any company’s target. The context is essential to analyze from exploring the needs of that client, how he moves, what he seeks, how he searches, and where he does it. Nothing else. You will analyze their behavior at a general level without thinking that you are the “center” of their world: because it is not so.
10. Be patient
Businesses, companies, projects are in constant motion. The more evolutions, the more mature you will make your brand. It takes years to decide your role accurately, and even defining it can vary consistently. Be patient and everything, all the time, listen to your target. Be patient and not careless. Do what your market dictates and not what you want just for the sake of. You are talking to innovative societies and very rapid cultural changes.
Finally
Think that you are always talking to your target, that will be your most trusted meter and from which you will get exciting results for the growth of your brand. Get to create a story and manage to move the feelings of your customers; this is how it works best.
Now tell me, have you tried any of these 10 effective brand strategies in the development of your company? Do you follow current trends when you intend to make changes to your brand, or do you follow other parameters?
