Branding Essentials for Startups & SMEs 2022

I was invited as a guest speaker on the topic of SMEs and Digitalization 2022, focusing on the fundamentals of brand management.

Webinar hosted by?Angel Khangale?Founder & CEO of futech.io

Below are the points which we discussed and you should know about them if you are planning to launch your service / product.

1. The fundamentals of brand management

Brand management is actually a function of marketing where we uses techniques & strategies to increase the perceived value of a product line or brand over the period of time. Effective brand management enables the price of products to go up and builds loyal customers through positive brand associations and strong awareness of the brand.

If we narrow down, these are the basic points that you need to know,

1. Competitive strategy – market share
2. Financial accounting – goodwill
3. Psychology – customer perception
4. Customer engagement – digital, social media and more

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2. How to bring your idea alive through creative design?

Ideas always comes from the brainstorming and when it comes to design, it should have a following key points which need to be followed;

• Always follow the brand tone and key message.
• Always follow the branding colors, theme and style.
• Always showcase your key differentiator in your creatives.

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3. Branding essentials for Startups & SMEs

There are many key points when it comes to brand essentials but below are the basic and major essentials,

1- Define the Product / Service:

When you are planning to start a product / service, you have to be very clear about it, there are three levels of product,

Core Level: It defined as the benefit that the product brings to the customer.

Actual Level: It refers to the tangible object and relates to the physical quality and the design

Augmented Level: The augmented product adds features and services that distinguish it from the same or similar products offered by other sellers. Product augmentation doesn't change the actual product, but instead, adds value to the purchase.

2- Identify Your Target Customers:

You have to define your targeted, actual and potential customer very clearly like,

• What are their needs and wants?
• What are their demographics and income range?
• How they think and what are their opinions about the products already exists in the market.
• Define and design your buyers persona, you can make a persona card for understanding.

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3- Brand Positioning:

This one is the most important part where most of the people / businesses fails, below are the some positioning strategies,

• Positioning based on product characteristics, features.
• Positioning based on price.
• Positioning based on quality or luxury.
• Positioning based on product use or application.
• Positioning based on competition.

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4. How design starts with great branding?

A good brand has always a clear focus, knows their target audience, has a defined mission, knows their competition and key differentiator, can identify their key values, tell their story and have a brand identity reflective of these goals, and does all of this consistently.

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5. How we landed more than 500+ customers in 6 months

Curious to know about this ? :)

Great, let me tell, there are many marketplaces where you see a lot of potential jobs / customers who are posting their requirements, below are some of them,

• Upwork
• Freelancer
• Bark

Last but not the least, you should have a very solid, realistic and working marketing plan which helps you to boost your website to your targeted customer, You know what? our most of the customers are coming through our website, referrals and direct phone calls and these are the very best way to acquire a new customer and build a good relationship with them so they can refer you in their business lobby.

I believe, the whole guidelines and webinar will help you to understand and take major actions for your branding strategies.

Would love to see your feedback on the comment section - Feel free to DM for further assistance :)

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