Let’s continue discussing “The Essential Business Branding Step by Step” – By following the steps that you have read, you will be able to build a brand that is a leader in the category that you choose. Consumers will want to be aligned with your brand and will seek it out at their local stores.
Consumers will feel that they have made the best decision they could make for themselves and their families when they purchase your product. When customers feel this way about a product, they are bound to become repeat customers, which will give you a sustainable market for years to come.
This will give your brand the jumpstart that it needs to garner the largest market share in its home country and give it the best chance to expand into the global market. Do not forget that when your brand reaches a leadership position, it is almost impossible for it to be replaced.
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Here Are All The Essential Steps You’ll Ever Need to Know When Branding Your Business – Part 2
Be Authentic
Consumers are people, and people are guarded by nature so no matter how well you try to get your message across through advertising, consumers will naturally question some of the claims that you make. This is why the claims that you make in your advertising message have to be true and be able to be backed up. This will bring your brand the credibility that it needs to reassure consumers that your brand does what it says and is of the quality that the advertisement says it is.
Once you have established this with consumers, they will be more apt to tell other consumers about your brand and how it backs up its claims. This could very well lead to your brand expanding in the marketplace leading to higher revenues and profits. Remember, expanding in the marketplace is a good thing; it is not the same as expanding the brand.
Being authentic in your advertising and being able to back it up will help your brand maintain leadership in the marketplace. In addition, it can also bring you free publicity. Being an industry leader and with good brand recognition, media outlets will be more likely to come to your company to do a story about your industry. This allows your brand to become a spokesperson for the industry, which will lead to your brand becoming more recognized. Consumers, seeing your brand being featured in a news story will give it more credibility, thereby increasing the chances of your brand being able to expand in the marketplace.
Being able to gain the lead with your brand is the most important thing that you can do as a business owner. Companies and products whose brand is the leader in the market have a hard time being replaced. In fact, a recent study of companies that were leaders in the marketplace in the 1940s showed out of the twenty brands that were researched only three were not in the leadership position today. Leadership means long-term success, so strive to be on top.
It’s not all about Quality
Having the best quality in a brand or product does not necessarily mean that is destined to be number one. There are many brands that you can point to make this point. Just because a consumer paid a lot more for their Tag Heuer watch does not mean that it will work better or tell the time more accurately than a Seiko. Additionally, paying thousands of dollars more for a BMW over a Toyota does not mean that the BMW will have fewer mechanical problems than the Toyota. Paying more for a designer t-shirt does not mean that it will have longer wear time than a t-shirt purchased at a discount store. In almost every industry, the leader in quality does not translate to the leader in sales.
Having the perception that the brand is quality is what you want in the minds of consumers. You can do this by becoming a brand that specializes in the market. If consumers see that the brand is focused on just one area of a problem, the brand will be perceived as having more knowledge about the problem and therefore a more quality brand. Another way of having a brand has the perception of quality is if it is more expensive than its competition.
This gives the consumer the psychological contentment that they brought the best quality brand because of the price tag. It also speaks to a consumer’s status. Consumers do not simply buy a more expensive brand for themselves; it is to show the people that they come in contact with that they can afford it.
When offering your brand for a higher price than one of your competitors it is best that when the brand first comes to market it already has the higher price. This gives the consumer the impression that your brand is superior to the others based on price alone. Introducing the brand at a competitive price and then raising it makes it look as if you’re trying to price gouge consumers.
However, when you do offer a brand at a higher price than your competitors you must ensure that there is something with the brand that gives it that extra quality. It could be as simple as having better packaging than your competition, but something has to justify the higher price. Remember, having brand quality means that you have to specialize in a given marketplace so your brand will have the most recognized name and you will be able to charge more for it.
Category over Brand
You have already read that by specializing in a market you will be able to increase brand awareness. Now try to think even further. You should try to narrow your focus until you are able to create your own category. This has happened many times in the business world. When Apple introduced the iPad, a new category was formed for handheld devices. The same can be said for Atari, when they introduced the Atari 2600 they put into motion a completely new category of home gaming that continues to thrive.
To be able to create your own brand category there are some steps that you will need to accomplish. First, when you bring the brand to the marketplace you must do it in a way that makes it appear that yours is the first brand to do what it is you want to do. This gives your brand the perception of being the leading authority in this area. Second, it is up to you to advance this new category in the eyes of the consumer. Here it will be a greater benefit to your brand to promote the category and not the brand. Promoting the category will promote the brand at the same time.
When you have created the new category and it is successful, there will be competitors that will come racing into the marketplace trying to profit from your foresight. Do not concern yourself too much with them, do not try to diversify your brand to counter act their coming into your territory. Continue with what has worked for you and promote the category over your brand. By being first in the category, your brand will remain to be seen as the most knowledgeable, with the best quality, and your brand will dominate the marketplace. Go back to the example of the iPad, while other companies have entered the category, the iPad is the clear leader and more consumers choose to purchase them over their nearest competitors.
The Importance of a Name
It might be the most important decision that you make when you bring your brand to market, is what the name of the product going to be. In the long run that is what branding comes down to is the name. Having long-term stability is the most important factor of the name. This is because after the initial push to get the brand to market and then the inevitable appearance of competition the name will be what sets your product apart from them.
This goes back to being the first brand in your category. Your brand’s name will have a higher recognition value than your competition. Giving your brand name the ability to be seen as the leader in the category that it is in as well as being an authority in its given category. If this is the case, when they return to the store they will look specifically for your product avoiding your competition.
When you are thinking of names for the brand, you need to take into account what the product does, and the age range of the target market. The name should be kept as straightforward as possible so that it is simple for consumers to remember. Stay away from names that could be perceived as negative, the name should evoke something positive in the mind of consumers when they hear it or read it. By doing this the consumer will want to be identified with your brand and your product. In the best-case scenario, being seen as a quality product and brand will increase your product’s market share leading to more sales and greater profits.
Keep it Simple
Keep focused on keeping your brand special and limited. The easiest way to devastate a brand is to broaden the product line too far. More and more manufacturers are extending their product lines and weakening their brands. However, not only does this weaken their brands but it takes power away from the manufacturers and gives it to retailers. This is because retailers have a limited amount of shelf space and with many manufacturers extending their product line retailers can charge more money to the manufacturers for that space.
For a prime example of this visit your local supermarket and go to the aisle that sells beer. Is there really enough demand on the planet to have over five variations of Miller Beer? You would think that regular and light would do the trick. Having more varieties of the same brand of beer does not increase sales or consumption it just leads to more production and distribution costs. How many times have you as a consumer been in front of a shelf looking for a specific product where there were so many choices that it was difficult to make up your mind? This is the whole point of keeping your brand focused and specialized.
When consumers see over five varieties of a product line of one brand but then see that there is just one of yours for the same thing they will know that your brand is not trying to be all things to all people and be more likely to choose yours. This is a pitfall that you have to try to avoid with your brand. Many companies believe that when they see their initial brand do well it gives them carte blanche to expand their product line as quickly as possible to cash in. While this might boost sales and revenue in the short term, it will destroy your brand over the long haul because you have weakened it too much. Additionally, expanding your product line weakens the first product that brought you success in the first place. This is not a winning proposition, therefore keep it simple and specialize and your brand will be able to succeed for many years.
