Starting a company, rebranding an existing one, or merging with another?
A branding strategy is a marketing tactic designed to build reputation, brand loyalty, and brand awareness among customers, which in turn drives sales.
In the modern marketplace, brands command a considerable amount of investment both in time and money. While some of them perform for the benefit of consumers and others serve as powerful marketing tools for organizations, there is no denying that they have tremendous effects on brand perception. Several components go into creating a successful branding strategy for small businesses.
Here are four, crucial components for every brand.
Brand Equity: This refers to how consumers perceive your brand. It can be determined by conducting qualitative research or focus groups that collect information from consumers regarding your business and its offerings. This information helps you understand and ultimately shape your brand strategy so that it addresses the perceptions of your target market. Consumer awareness is essential if you want to successfully compete with other brands, even in the B2B space.
Brand Identity: This is the backbone of your brand strategy. It represents your business vision, ideals, values, and goals. It informs what consumers think about your company and what they need. Carefully construct it to ensure that all the components work together to strengthen your brand identity and deliver positive results.
For example – Duluth Trading Company
“The company stands by its identity as a relaxed brand for hardworking people. The jokes are just jokes, and Duluth customers — whether they’re male or female — have a sense of humor,” Connolly says.
- Vision: Provide hardworking, rugged individuals with clothing products that last.
- Values: We stand by the craftsmanship and durability of our products. After one year, we will also consider returns for items that are defective or don’t perform as designed. No Bull means if something goes wrong, we will always treat you right.
- Goals: accelerating retail expansion and growing the women’s business
- Pillars: Solution-based design, humorous and distinctive marketing, and outstanding and engaging customer experiences.
- Target: Our customers are men and women who are hands-on, value a job well done, and are often outdoors for work and hobbies.
Consistency: Your branding strategy should be consistent with the overall business objectives. Developing a consistent strategy builds trust with customers, including B2B consumers. Consumers want to engage with organizations that they can trust. If these goals cannot be achieved, it’s unlikely that they will buy from you. Therefore, consistency ensures that your small businesses remain at the top of the game.
According to a Nielson survey, 59% of consumers prefer to buy new products from brands already familiar to them! The Ultimate Guide to Building Your Brand
Brand Awareness: The best way to build brand awareness is to take actions, which are consistent with your marketing plans. These could include offering free products or services, sharing information, creating YouTube videos and Instagram posts, providing content, and engaging in social media networks. All these actions build brand awareness among users on social media networks. It is important to engage users by providing useful information through the different platforms. Once users become aware of your brand, they will likely share this information with their friends or recommend it to others
Putting it all together.
A brand style guide, including:
- The history, mission statement, and personality of your brand.
- The tone of Voice. The way you speak to customers or messages you want to communicate.
- Logo treatment. The size it should appear or where it should appear on a page or email.
- Color palette. PMS, CMYK, RGB, and HEX.
- Typography or font. For use in emails, print, or websites.
- Image styles. Such as the photos you use on social media.
- Design styles. For things like office stationery such a business cards or letterheads.
Looking for inspiration? HubSpot has brand-style guide templates and examples.
Additional Resources
Branding Gone Wrong: Vegetable Jell-O and Zippo Perfume
10 Personal Branding Tips Using LinkedIn
Personal Branding for the Small Business Owner
3 Fun Ways to Announce Your Brand to the World
Catsup Versus Ketchup – How to Stand Out from Your Competition