Building Your Business Brand in the Marketplace

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room”
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon

A Brand is much more than a logo. It is the perception of a company, product and service in the mind of a consumer; it is a collection of expectations, memories, experiences, feelings, and stories that influence a consumer’s decision to choose a product or service over another. A brand is built using a combination of what a company actually does or produces, with supporting elements like language, visual components, and other aesthetic components.

Branding is a sustainable marketing tactic used to influence and manage the way consumers perceive and respond to a brand, with the goal of making a business memorable and recognisable.  It is the process of strategising what a brand should be and implementing different components to achieve brand goals; it is an active process of engaging in marketing efforts to establish, shape, reinforce and reinvent a market identity.

Brand Development Strategy

A widely-recognised and trusted brand is one of the most valuable assets a company can own, and a specific, achievable brand strategy focused on long-term goals and sustainable growth, while leaving room for flexibility, is an essential component of any business. Below is an outline of what a typical brand development strategy involves.

For your Brand:

  • Identify what qualities, values and experiences customers associate with your line of business
  • Consider your main competitors, and how you can Differentiate your Brand from theirs
  • Define your Brand Story: Who are we? Why are we here? What do we care about? What do we do? Why does it matter?
  • Outline your Brand’s key qualities & benefits
  • Determine your Brand Goals

For your Target Audience:

  • Identify your Brand’s Target Clients: their demographics & psychographics
  • Highlight their values & interests, experiences, needs & priorities
  • Determine what kind of message resonates with them, to create an emotional connection; to gain their trust & retain their brand loyalty
  • Define an inspiring Brand Mission Statement. Some notable examples include:
    • “To make it easy to do business anywhere.” (Alibaba Group)
    • “To connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.” (Linkedin)
    • “To build the Web’s most convenient, secure, cost-effective payment solution.” (PayPal)
    • “To enrich people’s lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.”(BBC)
  • Create a bold and distinctive Brand Logo & Tagline
  • Create a set of consistent brand messages focusing on the qualities & values that resonate with your Target Clients
  • Leverage on advertising, social media, websites, blogs to communicate your Positioning & Messages to your Target Clients; to boost Brand Presence & Perception
  • Apply your branding — aesthetic components & brand messages, to all advertising & marketing materials
  • Get legal protection for your visual branding and any distinctive phrases
  • Promote your branding through a marketing campaign that includes press releases, PR and advertising, special offers and promotions
  • Monitor changes in Market, Clients and Competitors
  • Track and Adjust your Branding Strategy through Metrics Analysis. Baseline Metrics include:
    • Relevancy – how relevant are your services to clients?
    • Value – how valuable are the services you provide?
    • Delivery – how well do you do what you say you will do?
    • Loyalty – how likely are your clients to work with you in the future?
    • Referrals – have your clients referred your firm?
    • Reputation – how good is your reputation in the marketplace?
    • Visibility – how visible is your firm in the marketplace?