Keep your business brand healthy

I was reminded last week of the importance of a healthy brand.?Your brand is more than your logo, it’s the combination of your ‘look and feel’, messaging and actions. It is how the world perceives and remembers you.?

In a small business, a powerful way to create a unique brand is to use your personal attributes, history and skills to?stand out in the market. This way, you can?command a niche in the market, which because it’s built around your own unique characteristics, cannot be easily copied.?

For example, perhaps you are in the security business and want to differentiate from the big companies such as ADT. Looking into your personal history, you might see that you were once a teacher, and have a passion for child safety. You realise that you also have an extensive network in the school sector…out of this you decide to build a niche brand as the provider of security for schools.?

Or perhaps you are passionate about your cultural heritage, studied history at university, enjoy cooking and happen to be related to local royalty in your area. You decide to build a personal brand as the queen of cultural cuisine for your specific clan, tribe or region.?

The secret sauce is to combine your personal attributes to?match a small segment of the market to appeal to ‘your people’?– those who want to step closer and buy your unique products and services.?

The 3 signs of a healthy brand are those that deliver

1. Recognition.?In business, brand?recognition is strongly linked to the brand name, supported by visual identify and brand message. South Africa’s strongest brand MTN manages to combine strong visual branding with a simple, different and easy to remember name.??
2. Respect.?It’s important to build a brand that is?respected by your desired target audience.?Healthy brands consistently embody the behaviours, quality service, brand tone and voice that command respect and attract their target customers.?
3. Revenue.?Brands that?deliver on their brand promise and connect emotionally?with their audience are able to build lifetime loyalty. Apple for example has excelled in building lifetime customers who connect deeply with their innovative, cool, design-conscious personality. Brands such as PicknPay, Woolworths and Discovery do this through their loyalty programmes, which is another way to build lasting customers for your business.?

Perhaps this week it’s time to take a look at your brand. Is it delivering the?recognition, respect and revenue that your business deserves??If not, perhaps it’s time for a refresh, reviewing your brand promise and uniqueness. A healthy brand is the basis for a happy business.?

#BrandHealth #NicheMarket #FearlessLeadership

Read last week "The 3 Cs of Happy Teams"...

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About?Catherine Wijnberg

Catherine Wijnberg is a powerful advocate for change, for entrepreneurs, for Africa and the planet.

She is the Director and Founder of Fetola , the leading provider of world-class entrepreneurial support programmes for South African entrepreneurs, building businesses that last through scalable solutions that deliver social, environmental and economic impact.