How to Build a Strong Brand from Ground UP

HOW TO BUILD A STRONG BRAND FROM GROUND UP.

Brand without any doubt has become the most valuable asset of any organisation.

Though intangible, it is a most significant driver of business growth, profitability and the premium a company can earn from its products or services.

Every day, we are bombarded with myriad number of brands, from the waking moment to bed, everywhere you turned, on the street, there are countless number of various brands begging for attention.

But in the midst of this race for attention, some always stand out and ended up getting more responses. It is not just their beautiful imagery or logo, but the subliminal meaning of their offerings.  That is their promise and consumers experience with them.

Every businesses endeavor to make a name for themselves, having a strong brand has become crucial differentiator that set them apart from competitors and help in the consumers choice making.

Building Brand for Self or Others

Either it is yours or as service to clients, it’s important to first understand what a brand is and what it takes to build a formidable one that can stand in a highly competitive market.

Brand is a promise of value that a company or an entity made to its audience – That’s as simple as it could be

What Brand is not

There are lot of wrong perspectives to what a brand is. Some believes it is the look or image, while some even confusing it with its logo, slogan, colour or font. That is like saying the painting of a house or its exterior is the house.

It is much more than the visual identity. The brand is the physical, mental, and emotional core of a company, its set of objectives, vision and mission that establish its reputation among its audience and in the marketplace.  To get a better idea, let’s say the company is a person; the brand design, look and feels is the clothes that make him or her to be noticed and recognized from afar.

As beautiful as ones clothing may look, you agree with me that it’s not the real person. Outward appearance could be deceptive. Like the popular saying, ‘Big cloth is not big man’. The brand is the real person, his traits, emotion, behaviour and mannerism.

A brand is like a flower that is meant to be loved, at least from the expectation of the owners. Just like any other ‘living being’. It is born, it grows and transforms. The brand can be felt and touched, desired, and loved and could be disliked. Just like every other living being, it may also wither and die, especially when it doesn’t get enough nourishment.

It has become so important that every member of the company from the CEO, line managers, customer service and even Janitors have to be involved in its building, growth and sustainability.

Brand is the first rung of the ladder in the establishment of a business that is meant to stand the test of time and become profitable.

The following conversation between two partners in a growing and successful company, really expressed the value of the brand.  After an argument between the two, one told the other… “Take all our assets, funds, machineries, building, products and services, everything, but give me the name (brand) alone” He concluded, “I will be bigger than you in 5 years”

I had to go this far to drive home the vital role brand play in the corporate build up and the need to start it or rejig existing ones for proper nourishment.

What then is it?

For the purpose of this introductory part of the series, the brand is what you are really selling, or put in other way, It is what people are really buying, not just the products or services. Hope that is clear?

It is therefore essential to build strong brands, a strong and solid brand identity for a business to succeed. This is what leaves the right impression on your customers long after you’ve made the sale. Brand identity is the process of influencing that impression.

Here are 7 key points to building a brand from ground up. And for existing brands, these points could help you rejig towards achieving a stronger brand, which can also earn a premium over the times

• Define Yourself And Brand Purpose
• Define Your Audience And Focus on a Niche
• Research Competitors
• Choose Brand Name
• Create Attractive Look And Feel
• Brand Integration
• Stay True To Your Brand

1.              DEFINE YOUSELF & THE BRAND PURPOSE

The first thing should be a self-analysis. Who you are, what’s your areas of strength and how you would like to be perceived by the audience? It will be difficult for a naturally no nonsense person to make a brand proposition of ‘Pampering every child’ in his kindergarten or care giving services.

Let’s face it, what you don’t have you can’t possibly give. Your personality and or what you want to be known for will affect the kind of service you would offer.

A self-analysis of what you are good at and certain qualities you have will really help in this step. You can do with in few words, using the right adjectives like:

Detail, Honest, Neat, no bullshits, cheeky, geeky, no nonsense, actionable, result oriented etc. that defines your likes, capabilities and interests.

After defining yourself, your brand need to have definite purpose. All successful brand has a purpose behind it. Why does the brand want to exist, even if you are pioneer in that industry?

Purpose is the reason a business exists more than the products and services and making profit. And it has to be definite.

“We are the best”, or “the sweetest”, “the cheapest beverage sellers in town” – sound too generic, everyone would say that. It has to be definite.

Let us take an indigenous brand for example, Slot, one of the biggest mobile phone and devices outlets in Nigeria. According to the founder, Nnamdi Ezeigbo, he said, ‘we aren’t selling devices, we sell peace of mind” on their website, you will see, “much more than phones” So, that’s the thought in the mind of every member of staffs and that’s what they want their customers to always think about them.

The brand purpose is what you (and the entire company setup) wake up to do for your customers on a daily bases through the products and services you offer. Without a well-defined purpose, the business wouldn’t really fare well. “Purpose and profit go hand-in-hand”

You need to make your brand humane and relatable- This helps in purpose description. You need to write down some few characteristics that can be used to describe you and what you want your brand to be known as. Remember, the goal is to positively influence the audience thinking about you, by making them to think or perceive you the way you would like to be perceived. That is branding.

There are basic questions to help in adequately defining the brand purpose:

See a self-analysis questions and answers of a newly formed brand with purpose below

Above is a snippet of a new roadside assistance services answers on purpose. So, it put you in no doubt of what they stand for and represents. So every day, every member of team understand what they are waking up to that day and are all aligned to it.

The answers to these questions is the foundation of your business existence and what inform your vision, mission, tagline or slogans, value proposition, stories etc.

Research shows that more and more consumers now buy based on brand value and impact. Even though, buyers are often impulsive in decision making, the brand purpose or proposition is what justify their decision. That is the WHY- which is your brand story.

” People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it”

Simon Sinek in a Ted Talk said,“ People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. The goal is not to do business with everybody that needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.”

What different you made, could be your personal detail touch to every product delivery, could be the exceptional customer services or quality that you offer better than competitors. This becomes your difference and a unique selling point, USP.

2.               DEFINE YOUR AUDIENCE AND CREATE NICHE

After a proper definition of yourself, and brand purpose, the next is knowing who your audience are. This should be the next thing that comes to your mind or the first task when you decided to start a business or helping another to achieve stature. You can’t serve an audience you don’t know. It starts with a truthful definition of who, where, what, when and all the important Ws of him/her, just as we did in the case above.

Your audience will determine your visual cue, messaging, and the overall marketing strategy. This is particularly easier when you narrow you offering to a niche. Say you are introducing a new male singlet for example, you could target a particular categories of male with stated reasons for their choice. That doesn’t mean other couldn’t use it, but those are your main market. And everything is built around them. If you’re trying to satisfy a large category of customers when starting a new business project, then you might have a difficult time.

In a proper scenario, you need to create an imaginary audience and describe their traits.

• Demography- What is his age or age bracket, gender, education, ethnicity, location, recreation, religion believes, income level, job designation and any other interest that suites their personal.
• Emotion- What are his needs, desires, likes and pains. By understanding their displeasure, your products/ services could just be the solution. You can easily empathize with them when you know their frustrations. By knowing their likes, you could also help in celebration. This help in building strong bond.
• What does he care about or Recreates: Remember, this is building a relation you intend would last between your audience and the brand. Is he a social person or reserved, a sport enthusiast a computer geek or movie freak. Perhaps a social media personality. It’s very important also to know how he talks, society he belong etc. When you definitely defined their demography, it become easier to generally describe their recreation.
• Daily Routines: You wouldn’t have to chase shadows when you launch or excessively spend on advertisement if you could spend a bit of time to role play your likely audience. Be that person for a day. It depend on your product or service, but try to wake up like him, go through your normal daily routine from morning till evening and define each aspect of the day. The likely website or social media platforms he visits and maybe his biases. With this, you know how to communicate with him and at what point to hit the best and make him a fan. Trust me, you spend much less on advertisement, but achieve far greater results.

One other point that might help to easily identify your audience is knowing your competitors, what they offer and their target audience. How do they reach, attract and retain them. This is a very vital information that can actually shortened the entire process, when done properly. We talk more on this on the next point

3.                RESEARCH COMPETITORS

Even though you should never aim to imitate your competitors, however, you should be well aware of what they do well, or their likely limitations. The aim is to distinguish yourself and your offerings from the competition and show the WHY a customer need to consider you. To stand out, you need to know what is already available. There are lots to be learn from their habit, setups, and displays. Point of sales, websites, advert and offering patterns. The truth is, there is hardly anything you want to do or are doing now that someone else hasn’t done or even done better. Wisdom demand that you learn from the success and failures of the existing brands.

Now you need to look at things that differentiate you from them and what you can do differently. This become the Unique Selling Point (USP) that keep brings the customers.

“Brand doesn’t end at the promise level. It is a promise delivered”

Please see the table below as a guide on competitor’s comparative analysis on this wise.

From the table, you can know if their delivery is consistent with the quality of delivery as experience by consumers, if the virtual identity or the message across various channels is in synch with actual experience and also idea some areas of failures.  Remember that brand doesn’t end at the promise level. It is a promise delivered

4.                       CHOOSE A BRAND NAME.

Choosing the right name may be daunting most times, however, right choice of name could have great impact on the overall impression about your brand, especially in your early stage.

Aside from suitability of names, you also need to look its availability – in terms of domain name as well as social media. If yours is a local business, say a local cooling van rental, without national or global appeal, there may not be much need for all the trouble, but since we are talking about strong brand here, it’s assumed you will be going national, at least.

Please follow these suggestions for a name that work

• Short and sharp, easy to spell – Make it short enough, possibly one syllable word (that’s almost impossible now though). But whatever you do, audience don’t have to struggle to spell it- Globacom, Microsoft, Toyota, Slot, Stallion, Ecobank, Uber etc. They are also smart to pronounce and easily remembered. You get it?
• Avoid names that could limit your business as it grows: Imaging if Konga Shopping is called ‘Lagos shopping’, though not a bad name, but its limiting in perceived scope.
• Ensure your chosen name is available for both domain name and social media. You don’t want to have a brand name with different domain and social media handle, that is a minus for the brand. There are various free online tools like namecheckr.com to easily crosscheck domain and social media availability. In fact do this before business registration with the corporate affairs.
• You may consider using a more meaningful Name: Even though you can use abstractive names that don’t directly relate with your product, for example, Patricia- which is not related to crypto currency, Yahoo that is in no way related to the internet, but I wouldn’t really advice this except you are like a pioneer in the particular industry, where your brand becomes synonymous with that service, or else, it will cost you more money. Unlike names like Airtel – A tele-communication brand or, piggyvest, a saving and investment firm that uses an abbreviation of Piggy and investment which is exactly what they does

5.                  CREATE ATTRACTIVE LOOK AND FEEL

Whenever you hear a company (brand) name, the logo or color often come to mind as the facial that is attached to the promise, just like you would when you hear a person’s name. The aesthetics communicate your brand attributes non-verbally. Your look and feels including the logo, color, typeface, images etc. How you make this depends on your audience, brand purpose, the environment and other factors as described above.

A comprehensive brand design for good feel and importantly uniformity should include your logo, color, typeface, banners, other marketing materials, website, menu, uniform, and physical space – all in uniformity for identity. Lets run through some of the important items.

logo

The logo, the main symbol of the company style, is often the most prominent and visual representation of the brand’s image and the foundation of an effective marketing strategy that works. The rule thumb of logo now these days is simplicity. Gone are the days of bogus images that need time to explain or understand. Most prominent brands now uses their names as the logo. Look at Julius Berger, Jumia, Shoprite, Zenith Bank, Remita, Google, FEDEX, Seplat, RAINA. Why complicated what can be simple and more effective?

And please don’t be too artistic with the name logo too, like these, which are regarded as failed – 

You see why brands like Dangote, Microsoft, Apple at one point or the other had to make a redesign to simpler, mostly alphabet based logos- belfore and now logo versions.

• color palette

These are handful of shades you’ll use on all of your branded assets. They ensures unified stylistic impression across all information platforms, including signage, logo, website, business cards, banners, and products and services packaging. And this greatly enhances brand visibility. Human are naturally sensitive to colors, because colors are suggestive. For example, blue means trust worthy and relaxing, red means bold and passionate. Black is elegance, deep or mysterious, green means new beginning, natural, blooming etc. For more on brand color choice, please check www.99designs.com

• typography

A lot of logos are created using typography or contain fonts, but typography goes beyond that. Correspondence, banners, business cards used by the company must also include elements of corporate style. Designers often create exclusive fonts for companies to make sure they stand out even in the smallest details. Experts can also help select a combination of common fonts best suited to a particular brand that users will have no trouble remembering.

You would requires the service of a good design agency to make a meaningful logo, because your logo is what people sees mostly.

• Tagline/ Slogan:

A catchy motto or phrase that is meant to serve as a permanent expression of your company’s greater purpose is a nice to have asset. Even though it is not compulsory, a good slogans really work for easier and better communication.

It is something short and illustrative that you can put on your website headlines, social media bio, business card, and anywhere else where you have limited space to make a big impact.

A catchy slogan, or right tagline that defines your brand and help to solidifies it in the minds of your customers is an essential part of the brand building process. It should always evoke the right emotion on their minds

Following the following steps for a good slogan

• Make it brief and on point- Open happiness
• Make it yours- Unique to you- Share a coca cola
• It has to reflect your greater purpose- Your promise- Open happiness
• Highlight a key benefit –
• Could be actionable – Just do it
• It definitely have to evoke emotional response
• Could be rhythmic
• No negative connotations
• Web elements and other digital platforms

Your website, your virtual office is mostly the first point of contact with customers. It is a must for any company seeking to establish itself in the marketplace. The website is mostly where people first encounter brand face-to-face.

A google study show that over halve of online shoppers base their impression of a company solely on its design. 67% said they would be more likely to make a purchase on a website that is mobile-friendly. 52% declared that a bad mobile occurrence will make them less likely to engage with a company.

Alongside, harmonise the same with your social media presence for mass appeal and in order to adequately drive home the point on all fronts.

 6.                       BRAND INTEGRATION

Once the aforementioned are properly done and you have taken control of the aesthetics, its time to integrate the brand into your business.

Use every opportunity to make your brand noticeable and reflected everywhere that your customer can see, read, feel and hear.

Strategically position all your assemblages across all touch points, from your physical offices, business cards, brochures, products designs, websites, social media paged, banners etc.

Shout it on the roof top, tell all potential customers, use every relevant opportunities to show yourself.

7.                               STAY TRUE TO YOUR BRAND

Just like the most popular brands of the world, you need to stay true to who you have defined above and stay consistent. As an entity that need to be trusted, you brand need to stay true to its promise. This results in brand integrity.

Stay consistent with your branding wherever you have customer touch points, both online and offline.

It may require revisiting these occasionally and a personal assessment to ensure you follow true to the latter.

And lastly, remember that you are building a relationship (fan base) which is intent to last, as you progress, there definitely be the need for occasional rejig according to the market dynamics. You test, tweak and grow. But regardless, make your brand evolves as business grows

In those 7 steps, I have been able to show, with example how to build strong brand that last. Now is time to get to work. Take cues from those points and build a strong foundation for your business.