Building a Brand: Five
Important Functions of Your Brand
Building a brand a solid
brand is a great investment for
any small business
Have you been building a brand that
delivers?
When building a brand for your business you create a valuable,
intangible asset that can't be purchased. However, it can be sold
quite easily.
A well developed brand will performs five fundamental functions for
your business. These functions add a great deal to all of our
marketing activities, no matter what they are and when you deliver
them. Let’s take a look at them in now.
1.
Delivers a clear and consistent
message to the market
Your brand communicates
to your prospects and clients what you do, what value offer, what
differentiates you from your competition, and why they should trust
you. With communication come awareness, knowledge, and trust. Your
message must be clear and consistent to create the conditions that
will lead to sales. Spend time to get to know your market and how they
communicate. It is worth the investment.
2.
Establishes your credibility
Credibility is essential
to building trust and advancing toward the sale. Companies that brand
themselves well are perceived to be a lower risk because prospects
assign greater credibility to companies they are familiar with. They
judge your credibility on the cues and information they receive from
your communications and the opinions of others. Your brand is the
primary tool you possess to develop a relationship with a prospect.
Remember they begin ignorant of your value and it is up to you to
establish credibility with a consistent and dialog.
3.
Emotionally connects with your
target market
As humans, felling rule
our decisions on almost every issue we face. This emotional connection
is especially true when it comes to purchasing a product or service.
Brands that make the prospect or client feel good about their decision
are the most successful. Human beings buy emotionally and justify the
purchase with logic. Logical facts and figures are often the most
vital criteria in a sale, but gut feelings based on a trusted
relationship is the deciding factor a vast majority of sales. The
perception of your brand is at the center of this emotional
connection. People buy brands that they admire or love. What is it
about your brand that will make consumers passionate about purchasing
it?
4.
Builds positive recognition of your
benefits
People buy the benefits
that you product or service provides, not the features. Everyone
enters the market looking for a solution to a problem or need that
they have at that moment. When they are motivated enough to take
action, they begin researching and assembling a list of possible
sources whose benefits meet their desired solution. The winner is the
product that has the benefits that alleviates or improves their
condition. They don’t care about if it is red, blue or green until
they are satisfied with the results they are purchasing.
5.
Nurtures loyalty within your
market
Brand loyalty is the
mark of excellence in the branding game. This occurs when you have
established a trusted relationship with your clients, delivered on
your promises, and added measurable value to their life. You want them
to love your products and services with a passion so they will tell
others of their experience. You achieve loyalty when they purchase
again from you and didn’t even consider another option during their
decision making process. Loyalty is the top of the mountain and it
takes time effort and planning to get there.
Your brand permeates everything about your business so you must master
these fundamentals to continuously grow. If you lack in any one of
these five fundamental functions you business will suffer. Make sure
that these are part of your branding game plan and review if you are
achieving them consistently with all of your marketing efforts
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Creating Your Branding
Strategy |
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1.
What's your Branding Strategy
A branding strategy is the most overlooked part
of a small business. Without a strategy, you allow your
competitors to dictate the character of your brand in the
market!
(more)
2.
Branding Strategy: Perception is Reality
You
cannot control your brand you can only influence it.
Ultimately, your prospects, clients, and customers control
the
success of your branding.
(more)
3.
The Branding Process
Successful small businesses approach their brand marketing as a
critical
process. What have you done to brand your business today?
(more)
4.
Elements of Your Brand
Your brand
identity consists of several key elements that define your
offering. It’s important to use these elements in combination to
appeal to your target market.
(more)
5.
Critical Branding Questions
Not
sure where to start when creating your brand? Answer these
important questions to help with your brand strategy.
(more)
6.
Brand Marketing Resources
Find
brand marketing resources that will help you create you create
brand strategies to help your small business marketing succeed.
(more)
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Coach Ron's Recommended
Resources:
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