{"id":16181,"date":"2018-01-11T09:28:28","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T09:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/?p=16181"},"modified":"2018-01-11T09:37:11","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T09:37:11","slug":"building-a-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/building-a-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even the tiniest business needs a brand it can boast with to bring in the customers \u2013 something that a small business owner you may consider too challenging and too big an undertaking to pay attention to.<\/p>\n

Branding \u2013 and as we all know that means more than corporate colours and a logo \u2013 is essential though if you want your business to grow, so its worth giving your brand a kickstart in the right direction then paying attention to maintaining the momentum.<\/p>\n

What you are building when it comes to your brand is the customer\u2019s overall perception of your business. This covers every aspect of your business operations, from the quality of your product\/service and communication to your personality and presentation. It\u2019s a playing field on which, if you do it right, you can even compete successfully against bigger companies.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter whether you want to ultimately achieve a national or international brand, or are a trades person looking to be the \u201cgo to\u201d guy or gal in your local area, the process is the same.<\/p>\n

The main requirement for making your brand happen is patience \u2013 it is not something you will achieve overnight. Even when you\u2019ve developed a loyal following and a recognisable brand, you\u2019ll need to keep working at your customer relations and keep your standards up.<\/p>\n

CONSISTENCY IS KEY<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Another thing that is key in brand building is consistency. Everything has to match up in style, tone and quality from your reception desk across to your packaging, advertising, website, social media and of course, customer service. Your clientele expect certain standards and behaviour from you, your employees and your brand, and if those standards start to drop off, so will your sales and reputation. It is incredibly difficult to recover from a blow to your brand (remember that famous story last year when a United Airlines passenger was video-ed being man-handled off of a flight to make way for a free-loading employee?).<\/p>\n

The first step towards establishing a brilliant brand identity is to determine who your target consumers are, and then do some research into the target group\u2019s behaviour and lifestyle. This will enable you to build a picture of your typical customer, which will dictate what sort of media will best reach them, what type of voice would be appropriate to communicate with them, what sort of content will interest them, and so on.<\/p>\n

BRAND MESSAGE<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The identity of your target audience will also help you to tailor your brand message to appeal to that customer. The brand message \u2013 or mission statement \u2013 is all important, because it forms the base for all your brand building activities.<\/p>\n

TIP: YOUR BRAND NEEDS TO SUPERSEDE YOUR PRODUCT, OTHERWISE YOUR COMPANY WILL ALWAYS BE AT THE MERCY OF THE CONSUMERS\u2019 NEEDS.<\/em><\/p>\n

The heart of a brand mission statement needs to be why the consumer\/customer should find your products or services better than those of your competitors. It should define what\u2019s special about your brand and reflect your brand personality. This can manifest as a tag line (like Nike\u2019s \u201cJust do it\u201d) but it goes deeper than that, becoming the emotion and philosophy underlying all your marketing activities and materials.<\/p>\n

\"Quote<\/a><\/p>\n

TOOLS FOR BRAND BUILDING<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Your brand will continue to grow in strength and scope, ever evolving and doing its job of engendering loyalty, trust and new sales for as long as you continue to give it due attention.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about building a community around your business, and one of the best ways to do that is through use of social media. Don\u2019t spread yourself too thin across a host of platforms, however \u2013 your brand message should dictate which platform reaches your audience best.<\/p>\n

You can also use your own expertise and personality as an influencer \u2013 on a local or wider level \u2013 to spread your brand message. Invest your time and energy in the community, and make use of PR opportunities to put your business in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even the tiniest business needs a brand it can boast with to bring in the customers \u2013 something that a small business owner you may consider too challenging and too big an undertaking to pay attention to. Branding \u2013 and as we all know that means more than corporate colours and a logo \u2013 is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3192,2994],"tags":[2999,3236,3238,3237,3239,3122],"class_list":["post-16181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-development","category-marketing-advice","tag-brand","tag-brand-building","tag-brand-message","tag-identity","tag-mission","tag-small-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16181"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16186,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16181\/revisions\/16186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}