Branding! A phenomenon that seems so simple to define but so hard to implement. Basically, be it a start-up or multinational company brand identity plays an important role in distinguishing every company out there.
Think about it. You went to a supermarket to buy a shampoo for hair but even after going through all the companies you finally ended up buying that particular brand which may have already had in your mind. Now, why is it so? Well, the answer is brand identity. No matter how huge the discount is or how low the price is of the competition you don’t go for
them instead of your preferred ones. Actually, in today’s competitive world, your brand should have that stand-out nature otherwise in no time it fades out into the ocean of companies already.
So, let’s take a closer look at some of the tips that help you to build a brand for your start-up or a company.
Understanding the terms
Before heading over to the tips for your next brand let’s understand and get some idea of few common terminologies. To start with this entire brand scenario is divided into three broad terms. They are
1. Brand strategy
2. Brand identity and
3. Brand marketing.
In fact, the entire division works in a flow. Actually, before starting a company, commonly referred to as a start-up, you have a strategy in your mind and answer few questions. Like what type of product or service are you offering, which audience you will be targeting, how far you plan to extend, etc.
Now that you have answers to all your questions moving on to the next one i.e., brand identity. Although you have developed a strong strategy for your company, it is still incomplete. And here brand identity comes in handy. We can put it in this way. Brand identity is the way or path you use to convey the strategy to others.
Let’s say you hire few individuals to start working on the company. In this case, brand identity helps you a lot. With this, you can convey all of your ideas and thoughts to co-workers. The conveying part can be done by developing appropriate content designing a logo or font, assigning the color model that helps people recognize you, etc.
After fulfilling all the above things, the final and most important is brand marketing. In other words, marketing is a tool that helps your company to reach people out there.
Unless and until no one recognizes your company all of your work is literally in vain. So, now that you have got a fair idea about how things work and what actually the terms brand identity, strategy and marketing convey let’s move further.
On a bit of a side note though, all of these terms sound similar and often are used interchangeably. With that being said, let’s continue.
An important note :
Indeed, only understanding the terms is just halfway. The real learning lies in the fact after you get its importance. So, the same holds true for branding. Let’s note some points on the importance of branding so that we can get the idea of branding even better.
1. Stand out of the competition
2. Convey the idea to the people
3. Highlight the uniqueness of your product
4. Stick to the main aim
Therefore, after going through the terms and also understanding their importance let’s finally list down five tips to transform your company into a brand.
1. Inspiration
First things first, these days there is hardly any category where you do not find a product in. So, with this in mind, your new company will surely fall under a category where already some leading companies exist. In these cases, seeking inspiration is an obvious thing. But do keep in mind that, inspiration does not mean coping with others. If you do so, then it is not doing anything good for you. This is why you need to present your company in a unique way.
Consider a scenario, there are two products for the same category with one coming from an established company and the other from the newcomer. There is a high probability that most of us chose the established ones. But that does not mean it is 100% correct. So, while starting a company look and list the competitors you have.
Also, review the pros and cons in each case. It may highly possible that some things one company lacks but the other are expert in the same. Hence, you need to figure out all the strengths, weaknesses, etc. of the competition and try your best to overcome them. And this is actually a good start to building your brand identity.
Lastly, be sure to understand the fact that there is a small line between copying something and building your own after seeking inspiration from the original.
2. Stand Out
Actually, if we sum up the entire need and aim of this brand identity thing then it is done nothing but to stand out of the competition. Now it is a proven fact that you will probably not succeed or experience the high number in the starting days.
It is important to realize that patience is a must-see the success path coming towards you. But many companies kind of overlook it.
Basically, the consumer needs to find a reason to pick your product over the tons of options available out there. Now, this may sound simple but in reality, it is not. To get that stand-out thing you can implement various ways such as attractive package design, highlighting the features, providing a lower cost, etc. And the methods to do so are endless.
It is so dynamic in nature that it varies from company to company and type of product.
3. Healthy Competition
After looking at how to build a stand-out feature for brand identity let’s cover another important aspect. To start with, competition is always there in the market be it small or big. And it is in fact beneficial for both the companies and the users. But there are cases where this competition leads to some problems.
For instance, consider a mobile company A launched its new phone and couple of weeks later another company B comes up with their answer. Now, both of these can definitely show that their product is the best but at the same time pointing out the other one and saying it to be not so good also bad at times is not a good sign.
So, this is where you need to think of. Competition is always good but taking that to next level of hurting others, pinpointing them, misleading their products, etc. is surely not encouraged.
4. Feedback
As a popular saying goes, nothing is perfect. Like you cannot assume that everything you work or deliver is absolutely correct. This is a big misconception. And this is where feedback plays an important role.
For any brand to maintain its identity among the users the feedback it seeks is vital in itself. In addition, not only taking feedback is enough but also implementing it and improving it in the future matters a lot. If you ignore this fact then you are missing out on one of the strongest points towards building a brand.
In past, there have been cases where the company failed to notice and understand its users’ feedback and it collapsed in the future. Therefore, constantly observe your user’s reviews and feedback and try to improve the same in further products.
5. Logo and Tagline
As coming after this long, all boils to down one fact that how will the user notice you and distinguish you from all the other competitors. All in all, one of the most effective ways of brand representation is logo design.
Now one thing to note before you start thinking of your company’s logo is to keep it simple and minimal. Actually, logos are the means to represent your professional brand identity. Give it a thought or surf through the net. There are cases where the company spends hundreds and thousands of dollars on professional designers for them to design the company’s logo.
Another important thing is to select an eye-catchy and appropriate tagline for your product. If you get an outstanding logo designed and mess up in the tagline then all of your work went to vain.
Finally, on that note, do consider heading over to www.dezineden.com and get yourself personalized logos and designing done for the company.
