Developing a brand from scratch takes time, strategy, and precision. Here at Create Build Optimize Inc., we have a strategic plan for helping people develop a brand that will help me stand out in the marketplace, build brand loyalty, and create a brand really creates long-lasting fans.
3-stage brand process.
We believe there are three stages to having a successful brand: brand creation, brand development, and brand communication.
STAGE 1: BRAND CREATION
The first and most important stage for creating a successful brand is creating your brand.
Do you know the difference between your brand and your branding? If the answer is ’no’, don’t beat yourself up. There are many within our industry that doesn’t seem to either. We have lost count of the number of websites we have visited where someone is offering to design your brand. Brands can’t be designed. They can be created, extracted, or defined, but not designed.
Brand creation is about really understanding your business by ascertaining who you are, what you do, how you do it, and, most importantly, why you do it.
Creating a brand is about creating an emotional connection between you and your customer. Human beings make decisions using the emotional part of their brain (the amygdalae, that forms part of the limbic system), so if you can’t make an emotional connection with your customer, you are relying on their cerebral cortex making decisions and that is not what it is best at doing.
We can help you create your brand, by extracting what is unique about your business (your DNA). You may provide the same products and services as your competitors, but there will be something about how or why you do what you do, that will be unique to your business. If we can work out what that is and work out how we can best tell that story to your customers, then we will have completed the first stage of creating a successful brand.
You don’t need to be a new business to go through this process. We have taken businesses that have been trading for 10-15 years through it, all with the same reaction – “We should have done this years ago!”.
STAGE 2: BRAND DEVELOPMENT
From our experience, this is where most SMEs start. They get themselves a logo, they build a website and they start telling the world about themselves.
But having missed out on the first and most important stage of creating their brand, they can find it more difficult to differentiate themselves from their competitors. And, they can find it more difficult connecting with their customers. If this sounds like you, don’t worry, we can still help you create your unique brand.
The brand development stage is where we help you create your branding. Your branding is the visual part of your brand, basically, everything you do that your customers will see. This includes your brand identity (or logo). It includes the colors, typefaces, and imagery your brand uses to tell your brand story. Brand development also includes the key messages and the tone of voice you use in your communications.
And these days, developing your brand will almost certainly include designing and developing your website.
The most important part of developing your branding is consistency. This is especially important for SMEs who’s exposure to their customers is limited. Consistency helps with recognition and familiarity. Familiarity builds trust. And trust is one of those extremely important emotions that you want to be triggered during decision making.
STAGE 3: BRAND COMMUNICATION
Your brand resides in the hearts and minds of your customers. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions. You don’t have control over all of these, but there are some you can influence.
Stage 3 is the day in, day out part of building and maintaining a successful brand. Brand communication is the combination of activities under your control that influence your customers’ opinions of your company and its services/products. It is your marketing and advertising. It is all your design requirements, from marketing literature to vehicle livery, from packaging to exhibitions. It is how you portray yourself on social media.
Having completed the brand creation and brand development stages will make brand communication much easier. It will help you make sure that all your communications are ‘on brand’, which will help you make sure your marketing budget (and time) is spent in the most effective way.
Here at Create Build Optimize, we offer many ways for your brand to stand out in the marketplace. Here are some ways to stand out.
