The branding process involves three main parts:
First we will do a market research to understand your target customers and competitors. We have some techniques to understand what your target customers care about. Knowing that will help us shape our brand positioning.
Brand positioning helps you discover and clarify your brand’s advantage in the market. This is the part where you define what sets your brand apart from competition.
Brand identity is the execution of your brand strategy. It’s the way you present your brand positioning. It includes both tangible elements like logo and colours, and intangible elements like brand voice. This step makes your brand recognisable and influences customers to view your brand as appealing.
Two principles to keep in mind:
Just as you can tell in a movie whether an actor is ‘breaking character”, you can also tell if the branding is not consistent.
Consistency is key to a strong brand. Branding needs to be consistent over different areas (touchpoint) of your shop.
A brand that is not consistent will confuse customers, and possibly planting doubt in their minds which makes them less likely to buy.
Brand becomes weaker as it expands and lose focus.
Some of the strongest brands in the world are laser focused and built the whole business on one concept. For example, Apple has a relatively small product line and all products/services are modern, approachable and powerful. Another example is Subway; their focus on sandwich and subs makes the brand recognisable and memorable.
In the next sections, we will look at how we can develop a focused brand positioning and present that consistently throughout your business.