The brand development process for a company goes beyond the logo, tagline, or brand colors. To help your business develop a strong and cohesive brand strategy, identify your target audience and define your value proposition.
Branding is the process of influencing customers’ perceptions and expectations about your company.
How can your company create a memorable brand, represents your mission and reflects what you do?
Brand development involves strengthening and creating your professional brand.
Your company’s uniqueness can be showcased through a coherent brand development process and the assistance of a branding agent.
These 5 steps will help you market and develop your brand strategically.
- Determine your unique selling point (USP)
- Make a brand positioning statement
- Create a brand story
- Create collateral that promotes your brand
- Your brand is the center of your marketing strategy
1. Your company’s USP
Finding your unique selling point is the first step to branding. Your unique selling point is what you have to offer that others don’t.
In 2009, Uber was the first company to launch. It changed the way people view travel and greatly impacted the taxi industry.
Similar to Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak also created the first personal computer. This was a breakthrough in the electronics industry.
These high-profile examples show how brands differentiate themselves. However, most brands don’t disrupt entire industries.
Your USP is often a unique quality that distinguishes you from others.
- Family-owned business
- Products sourced locally
- Excellent customer support
Talk to your customers if you’re not sure what your USP is. Why did they choose you over other competitors?
2. Make a brand positioning statement
Before you begin designing logos or writing taglines, you need to create a brand positioning statement.
Your brand positioning statements should refer to
- Industry/niche
- Target audience
- Value proposition
After you have identified the elements, make a statement using this formula.
Starbucks’ positioning statement is an example.
Starbucks provides the highest quality coffee and espresso drinks to customers who demand perfection and premium ingredients. Starbucks values each interaction and strives to provide the best coffee in the world.
It identifies the benefits (great espresso drinks and great coffee), target audience (consumers who have high standards and want premium ingredients and quality), and USP (unique interactions with the highest quality coffee).
After your brand position has been established, you can start to develop your brand.
3. Create your brand story
Storytelling has become a popular branding technique. Stories build trust, connect people and engage customers.
A brand story should be more than an origin story. It should include:
- Events formed your brand
- The lessons learned from the experiences and conflicts you have encountered
- How did you find your mission?
- What can you do to continue working towards that mission today?
It’s easy for brands to get overlooked with the advent of social media and the many choices available. Brands don’t want to be forgotten.
It is why it is important to create a brand story. A strong brand story makes staying power.
The story is what makes you memorable to consumers. This leads to tangible benefits too: If people resonate with your brand story, 90% of consumers prefer to purchase from genuine brands.
How do you prove your brand authenticity? How can you show consumers that you are the person you claim to be?
Honesty is the key. Do not try to portray yourself in a way you don’t like or that isn’t true to your values. Your brand must reflect your values: who and what you are.
Your brand should reflect the values that you are most proud of. This will allow you to be authentic and consistent and will ensure that you attract the right people.
4. Collateral with Design Inspiration
A key part of branding is creating traditional elements such as a tagline and logo. Too often people reverse this process and create a logo, or choose the colors for their brand, then attempt to establish the brand.
It should be the opposite. Your brand story, your USP, and your target audience’s pain points (as well as the way you offer solutions) should be first. Once you have established your big ideas, it is time to start implementing specific elements in the brand development process.
To help you find those elements, use what you already know about your brand – who you are, how you serve others, and the story that you want to tell.
Your target audience should be represented in every element of your brand, including your logo, brand colors, and tagline.
Consider what your business offers. What problems can it solve? Who will be most affected?
Clarifying the purpose of your brand will save you time and money. It also makes branding more efficient.
Starbucks, for example, uses this tagline on its social media.
To encourage and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time
It is clear that this reflects their brand positioning and aligns with their vision.
This is evident in all their collateral and social media channels.
Your brand should be consistent, identifiable, and cohesive. Each element is meant to show who you are, your work, what you stand for, and the people you serve.
5. Your brand is the center of your marketing strategy
Your brand strategy should be at the forefront of your marketing efforts. A digital marketing agency in new york can help you to use your brand story and position statement to create marketing elements such as info sheets, pitch decks, videos, or info sheets that align with your brand.
Marketing is the way you test your brand strategy. Your brand does not have to be fixed in stone.
You might find that your product or service resonates with a different audience as you market. You might discover that customers appreciate something about you that is your USP.
Be true to your brand identity, but be flexible enough to adapt to changes and move in a different direction if necessary (or consider a redesign exercise).
Create a brand that reflects your values
The brand-building process will change the way customers see you. It must be present at every stage of your business.
It is not an accident that great branding happens. It is essential to look at your brand from a bigger-picture perspective. This will ensure that each step matches your vision and that everything works together.
You can achieve differentiation and success by following a five-step process: defining your company’s USP, developing a brand positioning statement, and creating consistent branding collateral.
