Creating a strong, differentiated brand is the key to attracting clients. But your brand is much more than your company logo, your brand is how people feel about you and your services and offerings. Brands are a lot like people, each has it's own purpose, personality and voice of its own. Here are 7 reasons why you should build a brand and not a business...
Brands provide peace of mind
Brands save decision making
Brands create difference
Brands provide safety
Brands add value
Brands express who we are
Brands give consumers a reason to share
So how do you build a better brand?
In two stages.
Stage one is to create a strong differentiated brand, that appeals to your target audience. This is your brand strategy.
Stage two is to communicate your brand to your target audience continually and consistently. This is your marketing strategy.
Your brand strategy
There are four parts to this. Your brand foundations, your brand essence, your brand messaging and your brand identity.
 YOUR BRAND FOUNDATIONS |  YOUR BRAND ESSENCE |  YOUR BRAND MESSAGING |  YOUR BRAND IDENTITY |
1. YOUR BRAND FOUNDATIONS
Your brand strategy is the foundations from which your business will grow. Think about why you are in business, your vision and values, your story and what emotional connectors you have with your ideal audience.
Your purpose
This is your why. It's your reason for being and the things you stand for. Your why should be about your ideal customer.
Your vision
What are your long term goals you strive for? What does the future look like for your business? Where do you see yourself in 1 to 5 years time? When you are clear on your vision you can build your business around it. And it helps guide your decisions in ways that are better for your people, your business and the future.
Your mission
What are we here to do, how do you serve your audience, and how do you create the future? Your mission is action orientated. It may shift over time as your business grows and redefines its goals.
Your values
How do you behave and act as a business? Where do you source your products? How do you treat employers and suppliers? How do you operate and earn money?
2. YOUR BRAND ESSENCE
This is how you express who you are. This is your personality, your brand voice and your attitude. These things shouldn't be manufactured, they need to be authentic and real to be believable and to build trust.
Your personality
If your brand were a person what would its human characteristics and attributes be? When you have an understanding of your personality it can infuse into every aspect of your brand. Its this personality that can differentiate you from your customers and build relationships with customers.
Your voice
How does your brand sound and speak. Think about how you want to speak and how your customers want to be spoken to. Your brand personality will influence your brand voice, but its important to articulate it so you can communicate it consistently.
Your attitude
Your brand voice is how you talk. Your attitude (or your tone) is how you talk to customers in different contexts and how you make people feel. You always use the same voice, but the attitude may change depending on who you're talking to.
3. YOUR BRAND MESSAGING
Your brand messaging conveys who you are, what you do and why people should choose you over the competition.
Your superpower
Your superpower (otherwise known as your proposition) is a succinct explanation of both the functional and emotional benefits of your product or service to customers. it what you do and how you do it differently, but also how you solve your customers problems and why they should choose you over the competition.
Your tagline
This is a sentence of phrase that summarises your position.
Your messaging pillars
These are the key stories you want to tell about your brand. What makes you unique and different. These may be your brand promise, your story, your manifesto, the origin of the brand or the founder.
4. YOUR BRAND IDENTITY
This is your logo, colours, fonts, imagery and other elements that make up the visual identity of your brand. You identity should be created for the future - so it should be flexible, comprehensive and intuitive.
Your logo
To be impactful, this should be simple. Always consider how people visually process and assign meaning to images and shapes to avoid making mistakes.
Your colours
This is one of the most powerful elements of branding. It's a tricky science, but it can affect everything from brand perception to purchasing intent. Colours are subjective though, and now everyone associates the same things with the same colours.
Your fonts
Your choice of fonts are an extension of your logo. It's super important as people consume words in multiple mediums and a font that works on your packaging might not work so well on your website. So it's always important to consider where your brand will be used.
Your imagery
As your brand will be consumed through visual media, imagery is super important these days. It can be photography or illustration or a combination of both, but it should all align to your brand.
YOUR BRAND GUIDELINES
Your brand foundations, brand essence, brand messaging and your brand identity make up your brand guidelines. Brand guidelines serve as a playbook for how to use your brand, specifically in the marketing, content and communications you create. Consistency is the key to building brand trust, so your guidelines are a document you can share with others to empower any creator to produce work that strengthens your brand.
Communicating your brand
Stage two is to communicate your brand to your target audience. You will grow your business by doing this continually and consistently.
To request a find out more about how Avens Marketing can help you with your brand strategy, click here.
Avens Marketing- experts in generating high-quality leads to achieve short-term sales targets and growing brands for long-term growth success.
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