Branding is critical to the success of a business. While it is important to remain consistent with branding strategies, how would a start-up or a company that did not develop a brand establish itself in the Indian market and beyond? Here, we highlight some core approaches that assist you in creating a world-class brand.
- Identifying the target audience: Firstly, it is essential to understand the segment that your brand should be targeting. This is a critical element in creating your brand’s imagery, iconography, and messaging that is specific to the audience identified. It would be a mistake trying to reach out to everyone as the relevance of the branding initiatives will be lost. Ideally, a business must select a couple of crucial demographics and expand from that point. To establish a robust brand image, it is essential to understand who the target audience is and what they like.
- Evaluating your competitors’ brands: According to Entreprenuer, it is important to understand your competition’s products and marketing strategies as already established brands. How are your competitors branding their products? What does their logo signify? Who is their target audience? It is not recommended that you copy their brand values rather you should take cues from competing brands to develop your unique branding initiatives.
- Story-telling: Most great brands worldwide are built around a story. In establishing your brand, it is important to create a narrative that customers can understand at an emotional level. The story must communicate your company’s and product’s philosophy to consumers. It is vital that you understand your inherent brand values and create ways to ensure that the target audience can connect to these attributes. Further, a brand must have a logo that reflects its inherent values. That doesn’t mean that you necessarily need a designer though!.
. With significant budget constraints on startups, entrepreneurs can make a logo with Tailor Brands. A brand fulfills aspirational needs in a consumer, and this creates customer loyalty and retention. To understand your brand’s values, you can visualize it as a person rather than a logo or a product. The answers to what your brand would be like as a person, and in exploring this facet, you can gauge the exact feel for your brand. - Brand association: After identifying the core values of your brand, it is important to create a connection between your potential customers and factors that are relatable to them. This can lead to instant brand recognition and credibility. Aligning your brand with an established organization comes with a certain amount of risk as it is dependent upon another business. Nevertheless, it is a highly effective strategy to establish your brand in a short period. A case-in-point being the sale of Chinese smartphones Xiaomi on the Indian e-commerce site Flipkart which led to the faster establishment of the brand as Indian consumers trust the Flipkart platform.
- Effective communication: Understanding how to grab eyeballs is an important part of establishing a brand. Consumers today face an onslaught of information, and it’s not easy to create brand awareness on a startup budget. The way to reach potential customers is through identifying creative methods to market your brand. The use of social media is a great way to engage the target audience and disseminate your brand info. An efficient manner to use this media is to connect with local social media celebrities to promote your brand. The use of local influencers will help your brand garner attention and credibility while not burning a hole in your pocket.Further, a brand must have a logo that reflects its inherent values.