As an entrepreneur, your business is like a child. It’s something that you have worked hard to build and grow into success. Developing a brand identity is essential to business success, so why not do everything you can to protect and defend that brand?
When establishing a marketing strategy for your brand, it is first essential to establish a brand identity. Knowing where to focus your marketing resources will be hard without brand identity.
Fundamentals for Establishing Brand Identity
Most entrepreneurs have an idea of what they want their brand to look like in the future, but there are many steps you need to take to get there. When first growing a business, establishing a brand identity is vital.
Establishing a brand identity can be challenging, so breaking it down into simple steps helps—first, assess your current position. Maybe you have a brand new business just starting or an established business and want to rebrand, assessing your brand’s positioning is a great start.
Whatever your position is, start by assessing where you’re at using a fundamental marketing analysis like a SWOT analysis, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This is a simple and easy exercise to conduct when analyzing your position.
Once you understand where you are positioned and know something you can improve on, you can start identifying and researching your target market.
Each business has a unique audience, and demographic they are targeting. Some have a broad or more generalized audience, and other businesses have particular target markets.
Once you have established your current position and your target market, it is much easier to focus on establishing critical aspects of your brand, like a brand voice, a brand logo, a tagline, and developing a style guide.
Brand Voice
When it comes to communication, it is essential to have a standard brand voice across all platforms. Whether for email marketing, social media, or other advertisements, knowing what kind of voice you want your brand to have is essential to successful branding.
Some companies like to adopt a more professional voice, while others like it to be more conversational. Whatever voice you choose that is right for your business, make sure it is consistent across everything you do. This will not only help establish a strong brand identity but will help with your online reputation and brand defense too.
Brand Logo
Logos are extremely important. Over the years, many brands have become so recognizable because of their strong brand identity. Think of Nike, Apple, and others recognized by their logo alone.
Your brand logo is one of the only visible parts of your brand identity, so it can be very beneficial to hire a graphic designer to help you create a few logos and test them with audiences to see which fits your business best.
Don’t be afraid to get creative with your logo, but keep in mind your target audience and what they will like and identify with.
Create A Tagline
Taglines and slogans are a lot like logos in that people can recognize the brand just by its tagline. When you hear “Save money. Live Better” or “Just Do It,” it’s easy to know which brand it is because of its great brand identity.
Your tagline should encapsulate your identity and what you want others to think about your brand.
Develop A Style Guide
Just like your messaging and communication should adopt a consistent voice, you should develop a style guide to keep everything consistent across emails, presentations, social media posts, and more.
You can also hire a graphic designer to help you with this. There is a lot that goes into color theory and the emotion of colors, so hiring a professional to help develop a style guide will help you establish a strong brand identity.
Now that we know more about the fundamentals for establishing a brand identity, we can focus on marketing your brand and defending the brand you have built as your company grows. Below are five tips to consider to defend your brand.
4 Tips for Defending Your Brand
1. Avoid Changes That Could Compromise Your Brand Quality
Changing your business is essential for growth, but change has pros and cons. Evaluate the potential harm a significant change could have on your brand image.
Sometimes change around your brand is inevitable. Something negative may be published about your business online, or an angry customer may damage your reviews or attack your brand on social media.
In the digital age, so much can change quickly; that’s where reputation management comes in. It can be daunting to know which changes to make and when, but hiring a brand management company with a team of brand defenders can help immensely.
Make changes with caution and ensure each change is calculated. Some changes can be detrimental to your brand, but many times can be great to help you grow.
2. Focus On Your Employees And Their Morale
Your team’s morale can have a significant impact on your brand. If your team’s morale is down, it can significantly affect your brand, especially if your team contacts customers or clients daily.
Be consistent in gaining team member feedback and implement it where you can. Keeping their morale high will help them be more productive, enjoy the atmosphere they work in, and boost your brand and business overall.
3. Stay Away From Arguing With Customers
As a business owner, your business and brand are your babies. It can be easy to get defensive when customers get upset with you online or leave a negative review.
Although it may be difficult at times, responding respectfully and helping the customer feel heard is one of the best things you can do to defend your brand and manage your online reputation.
Paying attention to customers’ needs will help them feel valued and bring trust to your business, increasing your reputation online and is a great way to be proactive when defending your brand.
4. Find a Greater Purpose
Connecting with your customers is a great way to connect with a greater purpose. Many businesses are integrating what’s known as corporate social responsibility.
Some recent businesses that focus on a greater purpose are companies like Toms, where they give a pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair that is purchased.
Giving away products isn’t the only thing companies do; Toms is just one example. There are many ways to get involved with a higher purpose, so find what’s best for you and your business. But whatever it is, remember the benefits it can bring in defending your brand and growing your business.
You can do many things to defend your brand and grow your business. We have talked about a few things, but research and find what is best for your brand and business.
If any part of branding is overwhelming, we have a strong team of brand defenders that can help with brand strategy, identity, or any online reputation management needs you may have.
Hiring professionals can help you get your feet off the ground and your business up and running so you have the best chance at success.