Your company brand is much more than just the look of your logo or a fancy tag line. It represents your promise to your customer, what they can expect of your product or service, and why they should choose you over your competitors.
As an example, compare the brands of two clothing stores, Ralph Lauren and TJ Maxx. Both at opposite ends of the scale, these two companies have branded themselves very differently to attract different customers. Is your company a high cost or low-cost option? Can customers expect experience and consistency from your company, or innovation and cutting edge?
Branding provides an edge in an increasingly competitive market and the very foundation of this is your logo. You need to look at ways of communicating your brand to your customers using your website, packaging and promotional materials.
Strategy
The strategy behind branding looks at the how, where, when and to whom you plan on communicating your brand to. You will need to decide the best medium to advertise your company in order to effectively get your brand across to the right audience for your business. Careful selection of distribution channels along with what you will communicate visually and verbally to your target audience is paramount to the success of your brand, as is consistency across all your communications.
Having a strong and easily identifiable brand brings added value to your product or service. Powerful brand equity means you can charge more for a similar product. Take for example Trex Outdoor Kitchen’s luxury outdoor kitchens. They have specifically branded their products for the high-end market and are therefore able to charge more for their products. However, the key to the continued success of this kind of branding is that your product must meet up to the expectations of your brand.
How to Identify Your Brand
Firstly, you need to establish your company’s mission. Will you be supplying quality and luxury outdoor kitchens to those that can afford it, or will you be supplying budget BBQ’s for the masses? What are the benefits and features of your products or services and what sets you apart from your competitors? It is good to gain research into the current perception of your company and establish how you can change or highlight this perception to focus on the qualities you want associated with your company. Research is key at this point and it is prudent to look at your competitors’ branding in order to assimilate a way to stand out in your marketplace.
How to Communicate Your Brand
At the forefront of this is your logo. This needs to make your company easily identifiable at a glance. Decide your logo and message and then weave this into all communications, thus creating a voice that reflects your brand. The most important thing you can be is consistent in your voice, tagline, templates and delivery in order to cement your brand in the minds of your customers, both present and future. Your brand will then start to work hard for your company.