An effective brand is the public face of your business and can drive it forward in sales, audience reach, and consumer recognition. Your brand is far more than just a logo or a catchy slogan. Your brand is the perception that consumers have of your business, products, and services. The right branding will enable your business to stand out against your competitors and will guarantee you the lion’s share of the customers in your industry. Successful branding empowers businesses to increase revenues while keeping manufacturing and marketing costs steady (or even reducing them). We all have our favorite brands that we have stayed loyal to all our lives, and which hold a special sentimental value for us.

To help your business create the same feelings in your customers, here is how to develop, spread, and track your brand’s success.

1 Decide Your Brand’s Message

Many businesses make the mistake of skipping straight to their brand’s visuals, but before you do this, you need to decide on the message you want it to convey. If you don’t decide on a clear message first, you will end up with endless rebrands in subsequent years because your original message was unclear and didn’t resonate with your customers. Think about the core values, principles, or products of your business, and work out a way to communicate them through the power of your brand.

2 Design the Visuals

Once you have the message sorted, you can then start designing the visual aspects of the brand. This is a really exciting process but it can be easy to get carried away, especially if you are new to brand design. Stick to simple, instantly recognizable shapes and a color scheme that incorporates just two or three colors as too many colors will muddy the waters of your brand. When you think of Coca-Cola, for example, you instantly think of red and white. This simple color scheme ended up being so powerful, it changed Santa Claus forever. There is brand portal software available now which can help you with every stage of the design. Always do market research and look at customer response after first designing your brand because there may be some tweaks needed before you settle on the final design.

3. Create a Brand Personality

Modern customers want to feel a personal relationship with every aspect of your business from your logo to your products. To create a brand personality you will need to look at it as if it is a person fronting your business. Is that person edgy? Are they arrogant? Friendly? Family-oriented? Consider the difference between a television commercial for Red Bull energy drinks and a commercial for Mrs. Butterworth’s pancake syrup. One has a high-octane personality, and the other is gentler and more homely. Create a brand that your customers feel represents them and which they can relate or aspire to. When implementing that personality, you will need to consider your marketing techniques. The biggest companies hire celebrities whose personalities reflect the personality of their brand to promote their products and services. Controversial celebrities become the spokespeople for edgier brands, while celebrities whose public image is more wholesome usually advertise more family-friendly products.

4 Identify and Reach Out to Your Customers

A lot of money can be wasted in a very short amount of time if you create a brand that doesn’t resonate with your target customers. Identifying those customers will help you with everything from choosing a color scheme to pitching the right tone for your copywriting slogans. There are many branding and marketing experts who can help you do the necessary research to find out who your customers are and exactly what they want. This will help you to deliver a brand that speaks to them and delivers a message they want to receive. There are various ways to reach out to the modern customer. TV commercials, social media, and targeted online advertisements can all be highly effective in reaching the customers you have identified. Make sure you always have a multi-channel marketing campaign in place so that you are reaching customers in every way possible.

A well-planned and executed brand strategy is a key factor in creating a successful business. It doesn’t matter what kind of product or service you provide, a great brand will guarantee customer confidence which will enable you to increase your revenues. Decide on your brand message, identify your audience, and reach out to them directly. Follow the steps laid out in this guide and you will have every chance of creating a winning brand.

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