What Does Your Brand Say About Your Business?

What does your brand say about your business?  You need to think and analyze what message your brand is sending to your potential customers.

Today’s business arena is extremely competitive and you need to stand out!  Find ways to make people think about you when they think about the product or service that you represent.

Sue Cyliax noted that there are ten questions you need to ask when establishing your brand.  Here is an excerpt from her article.

“If you’re serious about building a brand, don’t start advertising just yet. Marketing tactics are the last step. Building or re-energizing your brand starts with answering some questions about your product or business:

  1. Who are my customers?
  2. What customers do I want to have?
  3. Who are my competitors?
  4. What is my competitors’ brand position?
  5. What problem does my company solve? Does anybody care?
  6. What is my value proposition? Is it distinctive? Is it relevant to my customers?
  7. When people think about my company or product, what are the feelings and associations I want them to have? Are they unique? Can we “own” them?
  8. What are the functional benefits that we deliver to our customers?
  9. What are the emotional benefits that only we deliver to our customers?
  10. What kind of personality will my brand have?

The last two questions are critical if you really want to build a valuable brand. In his Top 10 Brand Precepts, David Aaker talks about the importance of getting beyond functional benefits. Emotional benefits are a much stronger way to differentiate your brand. How does someone feel when they buy or use your brand? Volvo, Hallmark and Crayola are all brands that evoke strong emotional associations. Brand personality can set your brand apart from the competition.

When you answer these questions, you will have the basic building blocks of your brand strategy. Although it may seem like a lot of work, the benefits of defining your brand identity will be more than worth it. Developing your brand strategy is much more than a marketing tactic. It’s a fundamental part of good business. Done right it becomes a powerful management and execution tool to help you develop stronger customer relationships, create effective, cost-efficient marketing campaigns and a more unified organization.”

You can read Ms. Cylax’s article by clicking here.

 

Branding – The Magic:

You need to take action and develop a brand for your company!  Your brand will help in marketing for your company!
Do it now!
Branding Iron image from fotosearch