Five Key Principles to Build Your Brand
Your brand is the core of your business. It’s a promise to your customers that invokes powerful images, feelings, and expectations. With so much noises and increasing tactics to help you maintain such a promise, to name a few, email marketing, mobile marketing and social media, managing a brand has become a confusing task. However, no matter what tactics you use, you should not ignore the following five key principles to build your brand.
1. Catch Unique Consumer Engagement Opportunity
Your brand needs to engage with your customers in a deeper level than just the place where they look for something, be it service or goods. Nowadays, technologies have made it easy for you to reach your consumers through all kinds of digital platforms. However, many companies use these platforms to broadcast their messages instead of truly caring about their customers. Sometimes, a hand-written thank you note, or a free valuable gift, works better than a tweet.
2. Establish an Easily Relatable Identity
Your brand should convey a clearly defined, core image that is easily relatable to your customers. This identity is like your brand’s personality. It’s the way that you want others to perceive your business. For example, when people think about Apple, they think about its innovation, design, and user experience. This identity should be reflected in every aspect of your business, such as product development, customer service, and your overall messaging.
3. Inspire People with Lifestyle and Emotions
A brand is more attractive when it symbolizes a desirable lifestyle or invokes positive emotions. For example, H&M shows that everyone can live a fashionable life on budget. Another example would be Coca Cola. It reminds people of holidays and happiness. Lifestyle and emotions appeal to people because they give them something to look forward to.
4. Continuous Innovation
A brand needs to continuously innovates itself to stay ahead in the game and keep up with the new trends of customer behavior. Yes, developing a brand identity is hard, but it’s even harder to update it. Taco Bell made a good move when it launched its breakfast menu in March as its clientele care more and more about healthy living.
5. Promote the Genuine Spirit of Giving
The spirit of giving must be a central part of every business’s DNA. Today’s brands have a much deeper responsibility to the society, its community, and customers. Companies should give back to the people that have supported their growth. If you have budget, support a cause or organization, big or small, and actively participate in it. If you don’t, show your gratitude and thank your customers for their business on holidays and brand anniversaries.
