3 Key Factors When It Comes to Brand Development
Target’s bullseye. McDonalds’ golden arches. The Olympic rings. What do all these brands have in common?
They’re recognized worldwide at simply a glance.
The message there is that your brand is the face of your organization. It’s the first thing people see and what they’ll remember. Let’s look into the key factors of effective brand development that will get you noticed.
Assess Your Current Brand
Before you begin making changes you need to know what areas are currently working and which aren’t. To do so you’ll need to audit your current brand. The goal of this process is to find out how you’re currently being perceived by your audience. This means you’ll need to rely on external factors for honest, unbiased responses.
Consider:
Surveys
To get fair insight into what your current brand perception is, you’ll need to send out surveys to both customers and employees. Questions should include items like:
“What does our company do?”
“How is our company perceived?”
“What do you not like about our identity”
Their responses will show you what needs to change and what you’re doing right.
Your Creative Brief
This is a roadmap that will help you dig deeper into your brand research and help in developing your strategy. The creative brief should outline items like your mission statement, branding budget, brand perception per survey results, and your unique voice.
Conduct Market Research
In addition to what your current employees and customers think about you, you’ll also need to hone in on how you’re targeting your audience. Whether you’re doing a brand overhaul or creating a brand from scratch this step is essential.
It involves:
Developing Buyer Personas
A strong brand knows its ideal buyer persona and that’s reflected in its success. A buyer persona outlines your ideal customer’s age, income, education, and location. Knowing these details will help you create a strong marketing plan that you can use to personalize your messaging and truly speak to your prospects.
Assessing the Competition
As important as it is for you to know your ideal customer, it’s just as important to know the competition. The goal is not to imitate them but to be aware of what they’re doing well (and wrong). This knowledge will help you differentiate yourself and help you stand out.
Start Applying Your Brand Strategy
Your creative brief outlined the areas to focus on when you start developing your brand strategy. Now, in this stage you’ll want to start building out those key aspects:
Your Mission Statement
Your brand identity is something that your company stands for. This needs to be shared internally and externally. Put it on the “about us” section on your website and in your employee handbook. Make sure people know where to find it.
This mission statement will be the result of your research and will showcase your brand’s purpose to the world.
Your Brand Voice
Your survey results will give you insight into “who” your brand is. You see, your brand voice already exists, you just need to find it and hone it so you can start applying it purposefully.
Refer to your survey results, talk to your team and audit your existing content. Find the commonalities and use them to identify your unique brand voice so you can apply it.
A Logo that Reflects Your Brand
Now that you know the ins and outs of your brand, the culmination of that hard work is a logo that reflects who you are. The logo is crucial in that it’s the first thing your audience sees and will become the most recognizable aspect of your company. This free logo maker can help you get started.
Reaping the Benefits of Effective Brand Development
Your brand is your reputation. Once you develop it using a strong strategy you’ll need to be consistent in all marketing efforts–from social media to your website content and blogging. The brand development tips we covered will help guide you toward success.
