Author Irene Floridia, Content Creator
Thinking of starting your own business? Looking to improve your customer satisfaction or ensure customer retention? We have a guide on how to improve your branding efforts and new ways to enhance brand awareness in the fast-paced environment of consumerism.
What is Branding?
Branding is the process of researching, developing, and applying a specific set of criteria to an organization so that consumers can associate the brand with the product or service.
Branding is generally an action taken before the launch of a brand to ensure there is a cemented identity and to then establish standards for the product or service provided. This action also helps determine who the consumer for this product or service is to then tailor marketing efforts so as to target a specific group of people.
The Importance of Branding
The importance of establishing a brand is arguably the most important first step in starting a business. It gives your organization an identity, it makes your product or service memorable and it encourages consumers to support and trust your business. Being able to define your business and its purpose can have a big impact on the ability to build a consumer base. Most often, branding can be the deciding factor for consumers when they make a purchase decision.
In a 2015 global Nielsen Survey, almost 60% of shoppers said they actively buy from brands they know, and 21% said they bought a product because they liked the brand.
How To Create A Brand Strategy
Establish Target Audience
Branding leads to awareness, recognition, and revenue; this outcome stems from customers. The first step in constructing a strategy, as a business, you will need to understand who your audience is and that is how you will understand what will resonate with them. Who does your product serve? Who is your ideal customer? Read about what is Brand Awareness.
Mission Statement
To establish a mission statement you must ask yourself ‘why did I create my business?’ Answering this question will help you write your mission statement, which defines the purpose of your brand. Check out ‘How to Define Inspiring Mission and Vision Statements”
Define Features and Benefits
There are most likely other businesses or services in your industry, and it’s important to set yourself apart from them to engage consumers and convince them that you are the best option. Ask yourself, what is the one thing that your business has that no one else has? take some time to write down unique values, benefits, and qualities that set you apart from the competition. Read “How to Develop a Unique & Memorable Brand Identity”.
Create Visual Assets
Some will argue that this is one of the most important steps when building a brand. People are attracted to well-thought-out designs, this means having a good logo, color palette, attractive typography, iconography, and other visual components. To create these elements, building a brand guideline is helpful to create a composition and use of your visual assets.
Find Your Brand Voice
How your brand communicates with the consumer is important, think about what this voice would sound like if it were a person. The brand voice is particularly important for a well-rounded marketing campaign, social media, blog posts, and your brand story. How you communicate with your targeted audience sets a tone and should be consistent throughout all of your written content.
How to put your branding to work
Social Media
All posts, cover art, and branded imagery should reflect your brand. Using your logo as your profile image will make it easier for customers to recognize your business. All of your content such as blog posts, product copy, captions, and videos should reflect your brand voice.
Packaging
If you have a physical product, your packaging should reflect your branding - this means, design, color pallet, fonts, size, and feel. Detailed packaging helps build confidence with consumers as it reflects on how much you care about your product. Packaging also assures the buyer that they have purchased something that is high-quality and this way you can build brand trust and loyalty.
Businesses like Family Industries can help create packaging with logos and preferred color pallets as well as fulfill your orders directly. Not only is Family Industries a screen printing shop, but they offer a variety of different services from branded apparel tags, to stickers and soft enamel pins to be included in your package.
Marketing
Marketing such as advertising, both digital and print, are tools used to establish brand awareness and introduce consumers to your brand, therefore, it is critical that they reflect your branding. All this work on your brand identity should make the marketing ads creation process easier - by following your brand style guide, you will already know how your ads should look and what type of copy to write.
Pro Tip: Overall consistency is key to brand recognition, brand trust, and loyalty.
For questions, send us an e-mail at quotes@familyindustriesla.com, or give us a call at 323.227.1547 and we'd be happy to help.
Our showroom at 2755 Fruitdale Street, Los Angeles, CA 90039 is open by appointment only from 10 am - 4 pm Monday through Friday.
Author: Irene Floridia - Content Creator
