Brand Marketing

The definition of "brand" seems obvious at first, but surprisingly, it can be misunderstood. Does the brand refer only to the company's logo, colors, and name? Or is the brand defined as the global identity of the company and its perception in the market? The irony is that all marketers know that their brand should be at the heart of their business, yet many cannot define clearly what a “brand” is. Before we dive into brand marketing, let's clarify exactly what defines a brand.

What is the brand?

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In the past, a trademark simply referred to placing a label on a product or company asset to indicate that it belongs to you or your company. Take Guinness, for example, one of the most famous brands in the world. They were one of the first companies to register a symbol, the harp, in 1876. The company realized that decorating beers with this image builds trust and recognition of their property, the beer. In 2018, the brand is still derived from the company's logo and name but has evolved into a dynamic and multifaceted one.

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Today, a strong brand requires a personality that resonates with your audience simultaneously, across all platforms, from social media to billboards to your packaging. Modern branding can be defined as the art of representing the identity of the company from its identity, what they do, the level of quality they provide, and its reputation.

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What is brand marketing?

Brand marketing promotes your products or services in a way that highlights your brand in general. The goal of brand marketing is to connect your identity, values, and personality to a personal and effective brand communication with your audience. Essentially, your brand is the bridge between your product and your customer. Brand marketing is not just about placing your logo and business name in as many places as possible in the hope of generating sales. Too often, the importance of brand marketing is overlooked because it takes time. Many marketing departments focus on short-term goals, rather than promoting long-term goals that affect the entire business, such as building a brand.

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The importance of developing strategic and consistent brand value

Brand ownership is useful in building your company's reputation, reliability, and market reach. Thus, your products and services will have a higher value. For example, why would customers choose the brand-name pain reliever, Tylenol, over non-branded options that would offer them more value? Because the brand is consistent, recognizable, and reliable. Having a strong brand allows them to charge more for the product and create brand extensions like launching a new product, Tylenol PM.

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Apple is an example of a company with enduring business value. He has built an authentic brand by positioning himself as an innovative innovator in the technology industry. Branding focuses on product quality but also uses different and innovative communications to promote both the sale of a specific product and the brand in general. When they launched the MacBook Air laptop, the announcement showed the exceptional features of the product through the distinctive Apple-branded lens.

How to build a brand marketing strategy that aligns with your business

When building a brand, it is important to create a long-term plan. All brand marketing strategies should be directed through creating a vision for the company, defining the target audience, creating consistency, and communicating feelings.

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1.???Create a corporate vision:

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Your business must first decide what it wants to be known for, and then devise a strategy to communicate that message across all available marketing channels. For example, does your company want to be known as a leading innovator in its industry, like Apple? Or perhaps a provider of joy and happiness, like Coca-Cola? How about an energy source for athletes like Nike? Or even an all-values provider like Walmart? Monster Energy, for example, has launched a marketing campaign for the brand that includes marketing of its drinks by famous Formula One drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Valentino Rossi. Monster wants to be known as the adventurous, forward-thinking energy drink that supports Formula 1 drivers. Fans of these champions will define their success through the energy drink.

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2. Determine the strategic target audience:

If you do not define your target audience correctly, your brand marketing efforts may not succeed. Your target market is much more than understanding basic demographics. Many marketers fall into the trap of saying “I will target anyone who wants to buy my product” or I will target every single mother in the UK. Instead, the target market should be segmented by psychographics and explained by creating purchase personas.

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For example, let's say you're an all-natural ice cream company. Rather than setting your goal as “mothers with young children,” it should be “dads of 28-38 with elementary school-aged children, who focus their purchases on sales and discounts, but value high-quality ingredients.” Products that are suitable for their children. “You should also have multiple people in that target market. Like moms who have different buying habits or feelings for the brand. Once you have a strong target audience, move on to creating a consistent brand.”

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3.???Be consistent

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How you interact with customers over time is a fundamental building block of effective branding. Your message, visual aesthetic, and tone of your brand should be recognizable and aligned in the long run. Consistency is vital to building trust and loyalty. McDonald's is an example of a brand that has maintained some of the strongest consistency in recent decades. When you see the infamous Golden Arches, you can almost taste the french fries or just imagine the interior of the restaurant. The brand is synonymous with cheap fast food and is easily accessible and quick to purchase. Although we are not all McDonald's, with consistent branding in any industry, your product or service can be well recognized and trusted.

One way to ensure consistency is to build awareness and trust online. Since most, if not all, companies use some form of online marketing, building brand consistency online can be the first and least expensive step in building a consistent brand. Although consistency is an important aspect of brand marketing, it can be difficult to monitor and measure.

Lucidpress is a tool that offers branded content marketing strategies to simplify the ongoing production of content, making it easy to create and maintain the look and feel of your brand. To enhance your brand consistency and overall trust, use branded links when sharing any links, whether online or in person. Links bridge the gap between brands and their audiences. When you use branded links, you are attaching your business name to every piece of content you share, which also leads to consistency.

You also need to make sure that your visual marketing is on branding as well. Depicting a consistent aesthetic of the brand online unifies the image seen by potential customers and builds authority and credibility for your audience base. One way to do this is to make sure that the way you present your photos and videos evokes your brand. Use a good image editing tool to transform content with colors, text, and borders that fit your branding criteria.

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4.???Make sure your brand marketing is actually delivered

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You can have the best brand when it comes to personality, design, content, and consistency, but if your product doesn't deliver on its promises to your customers, all those efforts may be wasted. Product quality should be the primary factor when looking for a strong brand. When you have a poor-quality product or service, it negatively affects your brand perception. In addition, you must ensure that attention to quality extends to all areas of the company's interaction with customers, including social media platforms and support.

Nordstrom Store is an example of a company that delivers on its brand promises. If you ask someone familiar with the store what Nordstrom is known for, they will immediately reply, "Customer Service." This starts on the first day of each employee. They have a rule, "Use good judgment in all situations." This confidence enables each employee to make the right decision. For this reason, there are extreme examples of employees going to great lengths to fulfill customer requests, from searching vacuum bags to find a customer's missing diamonds, to accepting tire returns (even though Nordstrom does sell tires).

On the other hand, Volkswagen is an automobile company known for producing affordable, reliable, and practical German cars. In September 2015, their reputations were damaged when it was revealed that they had lied in the emissions tests of their diesel cars. When a company lies or does not deliver on its promises, its brand marketing is essentially not in line with what it is actually selling, resulting in a lack of trust in its current and future customers.

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5. Draw the emotion

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The Coca-Cola brand is built on the foundation of establishing an emotional connection with consumers which is vital to its success. If you position your business as an indispensable brand and build a following, you will have harnessed the full power of brand marketing and benefit from it in the long run. Don't worry, emotional bonding can be done in other ways besides having the highest marketing budget in the world.

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By providing excellent customer service and surprising customers randomly with overnight deliveries, Zappos customers have established an emotional connection with the brand. Zappos is known for going out of their way for their clients, from sending flowers to a client recovering from surgery to handing out a free pair of shoes to a barefoot bridesmaid at a wedding. For this reason, Zappos has built an emotional connection with its customers, building loyalty that leads to repeat purchases and promotions.