By Cheryl Goldsmith
For most start-up businesses, it has taken impressive entrepreneurial spirit, not to mention blood, sweat and tears to make a success of it. They have overcome obstacles such as raising the capital to get started, defining their product or service, building a team and staying driven.
However, identifying and understanding exactly what your brand is and what it stands for is critical to ensure ongoing success. Any marketer will tell you that a brand tells consumers what to expect from you; does your branding appear luxurious, or shout eco, or convey reliability?
Once customers know what they should expect from you, they are able to form an opinion on whether you are meeting those expectations and then begin to form a relationship with you. As soon as this relationship is underway, provided it is a positive one, these consumers will be able to distinguish your brand from your competitors and recognise what it is that makes you the best choice for them!
Developing a brand identity
This refers to developing the visual aspects of your brand, everything from creating and designing a logo, to the chosen packaging for a brand’s product portfolio or how a service is presented, the selection of brand colours, and even the selected font and the tone of voice with which the brand communicates to its customers.
At SCS Marketing & PR, we follow the three principals of appropriateness, simplicity and memorability! In other words: Does your brand say what you do? Is it simplistic enough to work in all formats? Is your brand distinctive enough so it can be remembered?
Raising brand awareness
Some brands have become so well-known, they have replaced the generic terms for similar products in our language.
Just a few we can think of include ‘Post-it note’, ‘Onesies’, Jacuzzi’, ‘Jet Ski’, ‘Tupperware’, ‘Scotch Tape’, ‘Rollerblades’ and more!
Raising brand awareness is the first step before building brand loyalty. After all, customers cannot love your brand until they know and recognise it. Once you have established your brand voice (tone), brand aesthetic (colour, font, social aesthetic) and brand values (what you stand for – and these MUST align with your target audience) you need to agree on your brand story, mission statement and if you have expertise look at sharing them through social for some brand ‘added value’!
Once all of this is ready, create oodles of amazing content and share it on your social platforms, through paid advertising, using contests and prize draws, on TV and Radio and all across your digital content hubs – from e-commerce websites, to podcasts, to blogs!
Developing brand loyalty
Once there is a relationship in place with your customer, it needs nurturing, and you as a business should always keep one eye on the competition.
Look to the future. Can your brand be replicated at a cheaper price? Are you ready operationally to cope with demand? How can you be so good that your hard-earned (and hard spent for – using Marketing acquisition budget!) customers continue to use you and aren’t tempted to go elsewhere?
This is partly achieved by making sure the brand delivers on its promise, but can also be helped along by strategies aimed at repeat purchase, such as incentives or rewards.
Gathering brand ambassadors
As anyone who has ever bought a product online will testify, the power of reviews can be enormous. That is because these are people who have considered the same purchase decision, made their choice, and can feed back on their experience.
Potential customers want to know that their investment will not be wasted and that if they too choose this brand, their experience will be a good one.
Backing up your ‘brand promise’ by showcasing the positive experiences of others is what has led to the huge upsurge in popularity of influencer marketing. Potential customers can get real life feedback from others they either consider their peers, or admire for their choices and values – all of which puts these brands into their evoked set and ultimately helps their own purchase decision.
About Us
SCS Marketing & PR was founded in 2011 with the principal of nothing is impossible. Based 30 minutes drive from London, our organisation is a full-service Marketing & PR agency – with specialisms in PR, SEO and Social Media Management.
If you would like to speak to someone from the SCS Marketing & PR team on Influencer Marketing or Brand Marketing, we would be delighted to talk you through our offering, what sets us apart and how we measure success.
