A brand transcends a simple slogan or style, encompassing a company’s overall image, emotions, and reputation. Effective branding can propel a company to success, while poor branding can alienate customers. Understanding brand management and developing a strong marketing strategy is crucial.

This article provides branding guidelines and strategies for new entrepreneurs, emphasizing that a brand sets customer expectations and differentiates a business from its competitors. It emphasizes the significance of understanding your target audience and the role of a logo in communicating brand identity.

Brand strategy & equity

Your brand strategy encompasses how, what, where, when, and to whom you plan to share and deliver your brand messages. Where you choose to advertise is part of this strategy, as are your distribution channels. What you communicate, both visually and verbally, also falls under your brand strategy.

Consistent, strategic branding cultivates strong brand equity, adding value to your company’s products or services and enabling you to command higher prices than unbranded equivalents. A prime example is Coca-Cola versus a generic soda. Due to its powerful brand equity, Coca-Cola can charge a premium, and customers are willing to pay it.

The additional value inherent in brand equity often manifests as perceived quality or emotional attachment. For instance, Nike aligns its products with star athletes, hoping that consumers will transfer their emotional connection from the athlete to the product. For Nike, it’s not merely the shoe’s features that drive sales.

Defining your brand

Defining your brand is akin to embarking on a journey of business self-discovery. It’s a challenging, time-consuming, and sometimes uncomfortable process.

At the very least, it requires you to answer the following questions:

1. What is your company’s mission?
2. What are the benefits and features of your products or services?
3. What do your customers and prospects currently think of your company?
4. What qualities do you want them to associate with your company?

Conduct thorough research. Understand the needs, practices, and desires of your current and potential customers. Don’t rely on assumptions — get to know their perceptions.

Your target people is the group of customers most likely to purchase from your brand. Identify your target audience by understanding key attributes like gender, age, location, and more. Conduct market research to determine your potential customer demographics. The more you understand your target audience, the better you can market to them and meet their long-term needs.

Given the complexity of defining your brand and developing a brand strategy.

Once you’ve defined your brand, how do you spread the word? Here are some simple, time-tested strategies:

1. Get a great logo. Display it everywhere.
2. Document your brand messaging. What key messages do you want to communicate? Ensure every employee is aware of your brand attributes.
3. Integrate your brand. Branding should permeate every aspect of your business—from how you answer phones to what your salespeople wear on calls, to your email signature.
4. Develop a brand “voice.” This voice should be evident in all written communication and visual materials, both online and offline. Is your brand friendly? Be conversational. Is it luxurious? Be more formal.
5. Create a tagline. Craft a memorable, meaningful, and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand.
6. Design templates and establish brand standards for marketing materials. Use a consistent color scheme, logo placement, look, and feel throughout. Consistency is key, not complexity.
7. Stay true to your brand. Customers won’t return or refer others if you fail to deliver on your brand promise.
8. Maintain consistency. This is the most crucial tip and encompasses all the above points. Without consistency, your efforts to establish a brand will falter.

Crafting your brand’s style

Your brand’s visual identity is crucial in enhancing brand recognition, so an appealing yet clear brand style is essential. Let’s delve deeper into some of the key elements mentioned earlier.

For instance, your logo should be unique, iconic, and reflect your brand’s mission or products. Incorporate an aesthetic or stylistic aspect of what your brand represents into the logo. Don’t hesitate to hire a talented graphic designer to create an outstanding logo from scratch.

You have one chance to create a memorable logo that resonates with your target audience. A well-designed logo can help attract new customers and persuade your target market to consider your offerings. Additionally, it serves as effective branding on product packaging.

Similarly, carefully select your brand’s colors, fonts, and other stylistic components. Specific colors or fonts can attract or repel customers depending on your industry. For example, if you’re launching a line of power tools aimed at women, red or violet might be ideal, while pink could be perceived as overly traditional for your audience.

Consider how your brand’s voice aligns with its overall style. If you run a B2B company, communicating primarily with industry peers, avoid condescending language or catchphrases. Instead, use technical, informative language that establishes your authority and expertise. Conversely, if targeting the general public, ensure your content is simple and accessible for maximum clarity.

Promoting your brand – ensuring consistency

Creating a strong brand style is just the beginning. It’s crucial to maintain brand consistency across all marketing materials, including those produced by freelancers or third parties.

To achieve this, consider developing a style guide for your brand. The guide should outline all the information discussed, such as logo design, color schemes for marketing materials, and the brand voice for written content.

Distribute the style guide to every marketing professional collaborating with your company, including those handling social media typography and messaging, as these platforms are vital for engaging loyal customers.

Adherence to the style guide is imperative for everyone involved, including internal team members. Why?

Consistency in your brand creates a lasting impression in consumers’ minds, making it more memorable. A chaotic or disorganized brand identity can lead to confusion, diminishing brand recall when customers seek your products. They might even perceive it as rebranding, causing them to question your brand’s values.

By maintaining consistency, your brand can become synonymous with the services you provide or the products you offer.