Building Your Identity / Branding
Build your identity into a brand that makes
you an opinion leader in your field or industry.
This is part of our
LEADERS ADVANTAGE PACKAGE
Revealing the Roots: The Process
of Building Brand
By: Beth Brodovsky
How is branding different than
marketing? Branding is not so much different from marketing as it is an
element of marketing. Brand is positioned as the basis for any
marketing initiative. Building a Brand involves a process that demands
attention to develop and diligence in carrying out to achieve results.
While this may seem difficult, the end
result of the branding process is the establishment of a system, and a
structure that actually simplifies the marketing process. Our process
serves to match the work a company does best with an audience willing
and able to buy, and proceeds to develop a program of visual and verbal
messages that reflect the experience the company wants to deliver.
Branding is about developing a pull
rather than a push, identifying a core value that resonates with your
audience and attracts the business that is desired. Understand the
current perception of your company: Effective brand marketing starts by
gathering information. What is known and thought now both inside and
outside your walls? Do you know who your competitors are and what their
brand is? Why do clients choose-or not choose-your company? What do
clients value most about your firm?
Both quantitative and qualitative
information is needed to get a clear picture of your company’s, and your
industry’s, place in the mind of your audience. Evaluate what you do
best, what is special and unique: Having gathered information, both
internal and external feedback is reviewed. It is time to compare the
needs that exist in the market with the strengths your firm has or wants
to develop. This process identifies the most marketable elements to a
given audience, the focus features. Align this strength with the
appropriate audience:
With a clear picture of the features
your company can deliver well, and an understanding of who would value
these features, key benefits are defined and linked to a feeling, the
core value, to create further focus. The purpose of brand is to create a
durable connection and build recognition, recollection and referrals.
Choose how you will show, tell, and
organize to convey the alignment: The visual image, verbal message and
experience that will be delivered must be developed to communicate your
brand perception. While staff, headlines and images may change from year
to year and campaign to campaign; this structure creates a stable base
that allows for flexibility without veering off course.
Deliver a well-defined image, message
and experience with diligence, consistency and repetition: Educate
everyone on your brand so that each staff member becomes a "Keeper of
the Brand." The biggest problem with maintaining brand is lack of
consistency.
When growing your brand, be thorough in
discovery, objective in the definition of position and consistent in
delivery, and the process of building brand will be time well spent in
attracting and maintaining the kind of clients that will grow and
sustain your business.
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