Here’s a short story that reveals why every entrepreneur must pay attention to branding. Shortly after the lockdowns started, two entrepreneurs started the same company in the same industry. The first entrepreneur, a closed-minded artist, who paid no attention to branding said, “Hey, I’m a very talented artist, I already know the audience, and I already know how my art would be sold.” So she gets her canvas, palettes, and paintbrushes and begins working immediately, pulling ideas from countless templates, cobbling them together, and trying to fit her square peg copy into a round hole. In the end, she crafts a fairly decent piece. But the second entrepreneur takes a different approach. Instead of rushing out with what she thinks is true, she gets curious to learn more, asks her clients’ questions over zoom calls, and tries to find extra details about the market she’ll be selling to. She takes her time to effectively build a brand for her business. While branding, she discovers truths—little subtleties—that make her art resonate just a little deeper than the first artist. And trust us; it’s these little subtleties that made all the difference because her art took the market by storm, and people flooded her digital gallery, not only to see but purchase her masterpieces. While the first entrepreneur—lacking a digital gallery—barely had an audience in her physical store. If you don’t want your promising startup to end up like the first artist, then it’s high time you pay attention to building a solid brand for your business because it could be the difference between the success and failure of your dreams.
Here’s a reliable guide on how you can brand your business so it reflects the current needs of the market in 2023.
Why Every New Business Needs Branding
Courtesy: Unsplash
Before we get into why every company requires strong branding, it’s important to understand what branding is because many people still believe that branding is solely about logos, business cards, letterheads, and posters. Now, you must realize that your company is not the brand. Your brand is formed when customers get an impression of your business after making contact with your company or its products. When you hear the names Gucci, Starbucks, Adidas, Chanel, and Amazon, what comes to mind? The feeling you got right now are the brands of these companies, and branding was the instrument they used stirring those feelings within you. Branding is any activity that involves spotting and applying any unique feature that’ll make customers develop a positive attitude about your company. Branding can help your brand succeed by helping it:
- Stand apart from the competition
- Increase your customer base
- Create a positive image of your brand in the eyes of your target audience
- Create a loyal audience
- Lower the cost of advertising
If a startup in any industry tries to keep up with well-established businesses without first building a strong brand, it will fail. And that, my friends, is why you must develop a brand, and we’ve got a simple guide to help you.
How to Launch a Solid Brand in 2023
Courtesy: Unsplash The path to building a solid brand begins with:
1. Staying Up To Date
Take the time to update yourself on the most recent products available in the market. The goal is to figure out how to enhance them and set your items apart from the competitors. But while doing that, make sure you know your audience, what they want, how much money they have, and why they choose one product over another. Remember to thoroughly research your competitors because they may have more industry experience than you and a better understanding of your audience. Your competitors are sure to have figured out a few secrets that’d be beneficial to your business.
2. Building an Identity for your Business
The promise of your brand is its identity. And it’s the desire to fulfill this promise that should drive you to build a brand identity. Tesla promises to protect the environment, Coca- Cola promises to create pleasant moments, and BMW promises to create the definitive driving machine. But you cannot get a compelling identity for your business if you don’t understand its branding elements. So make sure you know the big ideas driving your brand, the emotions you want to stir in your audience, your brand’s vision, its story, and its value proposition.
3. Getting a Unique Brand Name
Courtesy: Unsplash Very few entrepreneurs truly understand that the finest marketing strategy a company needs is a great brand name. And that’s the reason why well-known companies like Coca-Cola, Amazon, and Apple thrive while their competitors fade away. Getting a unique, catchy, and memorable brand name that instantly puts your business in the minds of your audience is a guaranteed method to attract customers, and the easiest way to achieve this is by using a strong business name generator.
4. Getting Active on Social Media
Use online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube to build an online community. This won’t only provide an audience for your blog posts, email newsletters, and social media content, but it’d also build a family that supports your brand’s vision and goals.
5. Be Community Conscious
Your business must take an active role in its local community. Participating in community events would present your company as a brand that shares the values and ideals of your target audience, and also cares about the community.
Be Intentional
Business success doesn’t happen by chance, and even when it seems like it did, nature always finds a way to correct it. So make sure you take a deliberate stand to push your business to the top because no one else is going to do it as well as you would.
