Branding
This post is very close to my heart since marketing and branding is the field I work in full-time!
Small business branding is more than a good name and an eye-catching logo. Your brand identity and how you present yourself to the world should be a carefully thought-out cohesive package that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. The last thing you want is for that puzzle to be missing pieces! This applies for brands and businesses of all size. It could be your own personal brand as an influencer, a small company, or a large business. This applies to pretty much all branding!
Creating compelling and genuine branding requires careful planning from the moment you bring your idea to life. This does not mean only creating a design and logo you like, but thinking about the bigger picture. This can be anything from knowing who you want to appeal to, sharing your message in the right way and getting your brand our there. For example, if you are a local independent brand or store, or maybe an artist, you might want to create a new and eye-catching logo and get this out in front of everyone you can. Perhaps creating business cards or stickers and using an online printer to add this to anything and everything!
This is just one of the many tactics you could use to get your brand in front of the right people. This post will explore how small businesses can create the best branding possible and elevate their business and public perception.
Know Your Target Audience
Your target audience should be a key part of the brand image you’re trying to create. Who is your ideal audience? What do they like, and dislike, and what motivates them? Where do you fit into the picture? You need to be able to appeal to and resonate with your target audience, so before you jump headfirst into creating your brand image, try to answer these questions and use them to pull everything together.
Create A Recognisable Brand Identity
A brand identity is something that people use to recognise a brand. A tagline maybe, or an identifiable colour scheme or symbol that is uniquely yours. Add this after the sentence: High-quality images, like those produced by Narrative Studios, play a crucial role in this identity, creating a visual narrative that effectively communicates your brand’s message and values. Your brand identity is how you expect to be known. It’s what you want to put out so people instantly think of your company. This breeds familiarity, which 81% of consumers rely on to make decisions; you want your brand to be the instantly recognisable one that feels familiar to them to secure the sales. Don’t forget it still needs to represent your ethos, too.
Identify Your Brand Qualities and Values
Again, your values need to present who you are and what you’re about. These should align with what you know about your target audience and what they seek. Brand values need to mean something and be synonymous with what people can expect when coming into contact with your brand.
Look at what you want to be known for and what you want others to think of your business, and ensure that everyone involved in the company is aware of and adheres to these values. It can also be things that convince people to choose you over other alternatives. Iceland is a good example of this. They are just one of many food retailers, but they pride themselves on offering mostly frozen food and at low prices, as well as next day delivery. This is something none of its competitors do quite as well, and so Iceland has become known for these values.
Know Different Brand Strategies
It is worth taking some time to look at all the different branding strategies and techniques so you can determine what will work best for you. There is no one right or wrong approach to choosing the type of branding that will work for your business. Simply find something that fits and that you love!
Be Unique
It is always a good idea to look at other businesses and see how they’ve branded themselves and what options they included in their branding. You should never copy something because it works well for others. Instead, look at other companies, identify elements that work for them, and see how these different options can be implemented into your own strategy. You need to be clear on what you are doing, and your branding needs to be unique to your company.
Improve Employee Culture
This obviously only applies if you have a team working with you! When it comes to branding, you cannot just talk the talk. You need to be able to prove that you can walk the walk, too. This means that you should practise what you preach and ensure that your employee culture matches the brand image you portray.
There shouldn’t be a public and an in-house image; it should all be one and the same, so treating your employees right and ensuring they are on board with your values, agree with them, and are indicative of their working environments is paramount. People want brands to do better for their employees. Companies with a strong employee brand will not only attract 50% more applicants for job roles but be perceived higher in public opinion, too. No one wants to buy from a brand that treats employees poorly, so don’t be that company.
Be Consistent
Lastly, you must be consistent with every aspect of your brand image; even one step out of line can impact what you’re trying to build and send everything tumbling to the ground. So, while it’s a good idea to believe in your brand identity, you also need to make sure it’s achievable and attainable, too. This way, you are consistent across the board and can put control and measures in place that ensure consistency happens—well, consistently!
Creating a brand image is about more than the font and colours you use on your logo, although these are important, too. It’s about what your brand is and what you represent. The more you know about who you are and what your customers want, the easier it will be to create an image that resonates with them and becomes instantly recognisable as your company.
LL x
*This is a contributed post. As ever, all opinions are my own.
Leave a Reply