A good brand holds desirable properties, because it evokes recognition, sets your business apart from the competition, sets expectations of quality from the service or product, inspires its employees, and generates loyalty and referrals.
Imagine your employees and customers are not only loyal to your business, but actively advocating its growth and fortune.
How do successful brands do that? With a lot of planning, hard work, and good CX, another topic in business development I will cover later. OK then, how do you build a brand from scratch?
Well, the first steps are critical. If you are just starting out, there is no brand, no recognition, no customers. Perhaps there is a business but it has a weak brand, ie it does not hold the above desirable properties. There may be customers, but high churn and no loyalty. Many times a new brand identity helps businesses reset – in fact, customers have new expectations of improvements and changes when they see a business re-branding, and if it’s done right, a business can create better associations with the new brand in the mind of their target customers and discard the old ones.
Below I have gathered the important components that make up a good start for a brand. It’s not a checklist exactly. Think of it as a list of attractive ingredients and you can recognize which ones make a tasty brand for your business. Most apply to the name itself, but let’s not forget the business concept, which is why number one refers to the origin of the idea.
If you are just starting out, you may already have an idea for a brand identity that means something to you. Your idea in conjunction with the above principles ensures it best represents your business. For those who want to go a little deeper on each attribute, you can download 'Branding 101', a useful, free e-booklet here.
Whatever you do, know that the vital branding for your business deserves extra attention. A good brand communicates to the customers the ‘why’ you’re in business. The concept of ‘why’ Simon Sinek shared with his golden circle, “people don't buy what you do; people buy why you do it.” The above seven attributes include the steps to declaring the elusive ‘why’. If it works for Apple and other market leaders, it can work for the rest of us.