The Age Of Effective Branding

What is memorable about you, your business and your brand? When customers hear your name, what image do they conjure up in their minds? Is it positive, neutral or negative? Your business branding represents important pillars that will develop your company’s reputation on both traditional and digital platforms. The efficient use of branding unifies your assets, creates loyalty and manages public perception.

Is your brand working for you? Does it speak about what you do, how you do it and why you are passionate about it? Colour, shapes and language all play a powerful role in how you manage and control your brand. The tools available in design all work together to create meaning to your potential customer. Often, branding is not a process that is well thought out. It goes beyond finding a name that has a nice ring to it.

Connective Pros is proud to work with The Design Den that manages all the key components of our visual branding. Design is subjective and it is important to have differing views to discover the best design strategy. As Digital Marketers, we cannot help but dissect examples of corporate and personal branding. We have found that many do not follow the core tenets of design. Today we wanted to discuss approaches that will help you achieve memorability with your brand.

REBRANDING

Your branding does not only convert sales. Your branding captures attention! If you are not getting the attention that you deserve you must rebrand your business. Remember, your brand must have the power to infiltrate the clutter of advertising and promotions. It is a visual trigger that allows your potential customer to associate you with a sensory image. It gives your customer a holistic idea of your relevance and how you can benefit them. In today’s world there is an endless presence of retailers that offer a wide variety of products and services and you must be the business that grabs the attention of your particular market.

STRENGTH AND CONSISTENCY

Do not be weak and sporadic. The biggest challenge in managing a brand is consistency. How often is your brand seen and interpreted? Is it often enough for you? Do your peers have a good idea of what you do and how you do it? A brand that is consistent puts the customer at ease as they would know exactly what to expect when they engage your business. The brand represents YOU. You are the brand, your employees and your marketing materials are the brand. The strategy that you use must focus on the vision and mission of your company to achieve strength, position and authority.

BUILD YOUR BRAND

Many businesses overlook brand building because of fear and public criticism. Your brand must aim to be the authority within your industry. You must share your opinion on matters of controversy, problems and challenges that exist. These opinions must be well researched and understood before they are shared with your audience. Your audience will criticise your accuracy and sensibility and you must be prepared to defend your position.

Improving your brand also extends into research of your competitors. As a business owner, you cannot afford to operate within a bubble. You need to be aware of who your competitors are and their offerings. You must determine where they fall short, and where your brand can meet a need that your competitors are not fulfilling.

Several businesses choose to ‘hard’ sell their products and services. They advertise prices, sales and unbeatable discounts. We have found that using a softer approach that engages your audience on a human and relatable level can prove to be very effective. It may be wise to appeal to your audience on an emotional level, as the availability of information allows customers to scrutinize every dollar that they spend.

BRANDING TOOLS

Logo Concept & Design: Your logo is unique. It encourages brand loyalty and is the primary image that will be associated with your business. Your logo is made memorable through its shape, its colour, its creative concept and its tagline. The logo is a representation of the principles that your business embodies. The most memorable logos are simple and effective. Take a look at some of the local and international examples below:

Corporate Infrastructural Design: One of the first branded kitchen calendars was created by Coca Cola. The brand was also reflected on several household items so that housewives of the 20th century would see their brand consistently. Today the brand Coca Cola is international as a result of heavy investments into print marketing and advertising. Today Corporate Infrastructural Design can be seen on letterheads, business cards, apparel, vehicles, stationery etc. Marketers design branded promotional items based on what their target audience may be interested in. For example:

· It is no accident that beverage companies, such as Carib, make a variety of bottle openers for free distribution.

· Dairy Dairy, our local milk company has given customers free sweets during Divali and Eid-ul-Fitr as milk is a major component of many East Indian desserts.

· Crix would often partner with other consumer brands to illustrate the versatility of their crackers. They are often seen sampling these in groceries across Trinidad and Tobago.

Think about the branded items you have in your home? Did the marketers get it right? Do you enjoy the product shown on your cap, jersey or cup? All of these promotional items make up their Corporate Infrastructural Design. Companies decide the best place to highlight their brand.

Social Media Design & Marketing: The aim is to achieve the best traction, conversion, sales, visibility and engagement. This can only be achieved if you are consistent with brand building. What you post must be different, intuitive, creative and relevant. Relevance plays a very powerful role in your Social Media strategy. The agenda of Social Media users must be studied to produce content that aligns with their mindset. Globally many are concerned with the health and safety measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Are these measures being communicated to your audience? You must also balance the fact that many users are exhausted of the information as it relates to COVID-19. What messages are you going to send to your audience, while underscoring the importance of practicing physical distancing, hand hygiene and the wearing of masks?

Website Design and SEO Services: It has been argued that websites are becoming irrelevant with the increased reliability on Social Media. It cannot be denied that websites promote both ownership and credibility. A website provides one location to feature all the components of your business. It features all your products and services, as well as any other features of your business you wish to highlight or promote. It is also a cost-effective method to advertise your business as compared to traditional methods. The website provides a platform to promote your brand excessively. It also makes your brand adaptable. As other platforms change, your website can also change to feature components that are most important to your audience. This gives you the power to anchor your brand when the external

environment is experiencing drastic changes. Business owners who already owned a website were able to leverage its power during the COVID-19 pandemic to sell products and services remotely.

Branding is not as simple as it seems. It is carefully orchestrated. It is about strategy and receiving results. You must relate to your customers and determine their needs, wants and desires. Illustrate this in your branding and you can easily capture the attention that you deserve. Focus on your brand building and express your opinion. Get comfortable with public scrutiny. Criticisms will only help you grow and develop. We wish all our readers the best with their branding efforts. Now is the time to push forward and find your position in the local, regional and global market!

Our Connective Pros team offers several business solutions in Public Relations, Marketing, Media and Communications. When we provide tools to you, we want you to understand the most effective methods on how to use them. We want you to receive the best mileage from every product or service that you purchase from us. If you are still unsure you can always contact us via connectivepros@gmail.com and we will happy to provide you with additional details on all our services.

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