Brand Building: How to Build a Brand that Matters in 8 Steps

A?Nielsen survey ?found that nearly 60% of buyers prefer to purchase new products from a brand they know. This indicates just how important building a brand is – if customers don’t know about your brand, they aren’t likely to buy products or services from you. Preferably, they’d choose the brand they already know.

Many people think a brand is simply a great, attention-grabbing logo or an ad that’s been well-placed on a website or billboard. Your brand is so much more.?Building a brand ensures your business grows.?Let’s look at the steps to brand building so you can stand out, grow your business, and build a loyal customer base.

What Is Brand Building?

When you build your brand, you are creating awareness about your business, what it’s all about, and what products or services you offer. Thus, brand building includes campaigns and strategies you employ to create a lasting, unique, and?authentic image in the marketplace .?Brand success means that customers view your brand in a positive light and you stand out amongst your competitors.

Brand building is grouped into three parts:

1. Brand Strategy

The first step to building a brand is brand strategy. This is where you discover your brand (what makes it memorable), do competitor research, and?find out who your target audience is . You also create your brand voice, message, and story.?

2. Build your Brand Identity

Your brand identity is the visual identity of your brand. Think about your logo, the colors and fonts, icons and patterns, advertising, web design, and more.?

3. Build Brand Marketing Awareness

How you market your brand brings awareness to your business and helps you solve pain points. You can look at email marketing, social media marketing,?search engine and content marketing , and more to boost brand awareness and business growth.

8 Simple Steps for?Successful?Brand?Building Process

Below are a few steps to help you start building a brand that’s successful. We’ll also look at creativity and innovation in branding.???

1. Nail down the purpose of your brand

What is the purpose of your brand/business? To find this out, you need to know what problems you solve and why people should care about your brand. Also consider what makes your business different.?Your purpose forms the foundation of your branding. You’ll use this in most of your branding elements, from the slogan and tagline to your voice, messaging, and value proposition.???

2. Check out what your competitors are doing

You should most definitely know what your competitors are doing. Understand what they are doing well so you can beat them. Notice what they aren’t doing so well so you can take advantage of this.?Look at how they are marketing their brand. Do they have a consistent visual identity and brand messaging across all their platforms? Read what their customers say about them online. What is the quality of their services and/or products???

3. Figure out what makes you stand out

Determining what makes you unique may require some creative branding. You need to look at what your business offers customers that your competitors don’t. However, don’t just focus on the tangibles like the actual products and services. Look at the intangibles too.?Think about Amazon. What’s one word that comes to mind? How about?convenient??Some brands just own certain words. What word or phrase can yours own??

4. Know your target audience

You can’t be the business everyone goes to. Not everyone drinks Coke, right? There’s Pepsi and loads of other soft drinks that are similar across the world. Each of these brands has its own audience that it targets.?You should do the same. What are your target audience’s lifestyles and behaviors? How can you capitalize on these to set yourself apart and convince these buyers to buy from you?????

5. Create your brand voice and personality

Creative branding comes into play here. To create your brand personality (aka brand persona) and voice, you need to describe who your ideal consumer is. This is the person you are targeting and who you want to convince into buying from you.?To create your ideal customer, look at general things like their gender, age, income, education level, and location. Dive deep into their motivations, pain points, fears, desires, goals, brand affinities, influencers, and more.??

6. Design a great logo?

Many business owners want to start here when they start with brand building. However, logo design is one of the last steps in brand building.?Logo designing can be fun. You get to think about fonts and colors and graphics. But ultimately, your logo should tie into your findings about your ideal customer since your logo needs to grab their attention. And then your brand story and messaging will do the rest, convincing them to buy from you!?

7. Be consistent

Consistency and flexibility go together here. Quite the conundrum, we know.?Think of it this way: reputable and recognizable brands are consistent in how they do things. Every aspect of their brand strategy speaks to their brand. Yet, brands also need to be flexible to stay relevant.?This is where you need to think about creativity and innovation in brand building to ensure continued growth.???

8. Make sure every aspect of your business reflects your brand

Your brand should encompass your whole business. This means that your branding should align with your business purpose, mission, vision, and values. Your creative branding should reflect your ideal customer, your brand positioning, and your brand identity.?Moreover, the core messaging of your branding should be consistent with “who” the business is. The language and tone you set help emphasize this.

Final Thoughts on Brand Building

Brand building is a key building block as you establish your business. Your brand is who you are and it is what tells your target audience who you are too. It is what they identify with and what convinces them to choose and buy from you, or not.

A creative agency like Rule29 can help you develop your brand.?Contact us ?today and one of the R29ers will be in touch to help you on your journey to success.