Creating a brand that is recognized and admired by many, is no doubt, challenging. But it all depends upon how you communicate with your audience and execute your marketing endeavors. This is where brand marketing strategy comes into the picture.
Marketing your brand most uniquely, is the secret to grow a loyal base of long-term customers. As we know, a brand is the true identity of a company and represents its products/services, and helps acquire prospects. And that’s the reason why marketers in all kinds of businesses focus on a successful brand-building process.
But what should be the very next step that takes your brand to every corner of the world? Most importantly, makes it a household name for your target audience? And that is brand marketing. It is the process where you market your products or services in a way that they are aligned to your brand essence. And which eventually helps your audience understand your mission and vision.
Breaking Down the Brand Marketing Concept
If you want to go by definition, brand marketing is the strategic approach to creating a brand name and establish clear communication, sales, and other creative marketing activities that set your brand apart from the others in the market.
Just like we see celebrities who create a distinct brand around them and perform everything within the limitation of it.
The concept of marketing your brand spawned from the fact that consumers wanted to know what they were getting once they select a specific brand. And thus, it became a norm to implement strategic brand management strategies across all business activities.
The Evolution in Brand Marketing
There has been significant evolution in the manner brands were marketed and communication was done. Before the advent of the Internet, the process was rudimentary. The options were less, and demands were also fewer. However, just when the Internet became a household stuff, branding activities became stronger. And with social media becoming a rage, numerous new channels have erupted.
Online marketers now leverage the social channels to reach out to their audience and build relationships beyond business. Immersive digital experiences are more popular with the younger demographic.
For e.g., Adidas collaborated with Snapchat, the fastest growing and impenetrable social media platform, for their #myneolabel fashion campaign. This unique activity both amplified their brand recognition, as well as boosted customer loyalty.
So the modern marketers have taken it online to build their brand and extend their branding efforts.
Why is Brand MarketingEssential for your Business?
Why do you think these activities are crucial for your business? The answers are many, but let’s focus on the most vital one. To augment your brand’s overall business strategy and reputation, therefore increase your fleet of loyal customers. When you showcase your brand values and identity to your audience supported by a full-proof brand marketing strategy, you can achieve tangible results in no time.
When asked most of the consumers what attracts them most about Starbucks and McDonald’s, the first and foremost answer would be their collaboration in building environment-friendly coffee cups. Well, that’s brand marketing, you see. And the two fast food and beverage giants have nailed it.
However, there are still many beginners and start-ups who feel that investing in machinery, locations, furnishing, and intellectual property are the primary elements of creating a long-term brand. But what they majorly miss out on is, that these assets are mainly capital investments needed for the pretty dynamic company infrastructures.
These assets keep on changing according to several external factors. But your branding is one consistent asset that should always be consistent, come what may. And thus, investing in your branding and its marketing efforts has greater value. The investments made in marketing and branding eventually increase its value, solidifying growth and future sales.
For what kinds of Customers is Brand Marketing Effective?
Although it is for all your clients, both B2B and B2C, brand marketing is most effective for repeat business since customer perception is critical. Brand awareness makes it easier for prospects to decide about a brand and make the final purchase.
And these kinds of branding ventures are mostly the opposite of direct response marketing, where consumers are urged to take action immediately. Direct response marketers try to elicit an instant response from their customers with offers and other perks. They usually do not have any ongoing relationship with their customers. But when we talk about establishing a long-term brand, relationship-building is everything.
In this kind of marketing strategy, just ‘purchase’ is not the target. And as a result, marketers who practice marketing their brands survive generations after generations, while multiplying their equity.
How to Build a Brand Marketing Strategy that Aligns with your Business
Starting off initially, marketers often find themselves confused as to how to create a brand marketing strategy. Well, while developing a strategy document for your brand, the first and foremost thing that one must remember is increasing brand identity, like the logo.
Because brand identity is the ubiquitous factor for prospects recognizing your brand and making it familiar. Any brand marketing plan you form must have a clear objective to determine a qualified audience, create brand consistency and artfully convey emotion. Apart from these elementary factors, there are few other things to be considered.
Create a Robust Company Vision
What does your vision tell you? What does your brand aspire to be? What problems does it want to solve? Well, before chalking out a formal strategy, sit and decide what does your brand represent.
Does it want to be the leading IT consulting agency or the most renowned graphic design company? A leading eLearning software company? A sports gear manufacturer? Power supply, natural gas, and energy supplier? Or maybe a chain of FMCG providers? Well, for all the industries mentioned, we have the game players. And why do people trust them so much? Because of the vision those brands represent.
So, start figuring out a list of traits your brand wants to be known for; and develop a strategy that effectively communicates these traits to your prospects. You might be needing various marketing channels for this purpose.
Ensure to Build a Brand Consistency
Yes. And maintain it throughout your marketing and branding Collaterals. Come up with a recognizable logo with fewer embellishments but that conveys your nature of business perfectly.
If we talk about the Nike ‘swoosh’, that is probably one of the most simple and minimal logos the world has ever seen. Astonishingly, the logo was made only for $35 by Carolyn Davidson, and this $35 logo has created wonders!
So you see, a minimal logo can be the most recognizable and bring you more leads. Think of a color that people associate your brand with. For e.g., whenever we see a black and yellow tinge, subconsciously, we think of Western Union.
Or if there’s a mesh of blue, green, red, and yellow shades, it must be Google. Dark green with white – Starbucks, deep blue with white – Facebook, black and deep red – YouTube, so and so forth. Remember, consistency is the key when you are marketing with your brand.
Define a Strategic Target Audience and Demographics
Any kind of branding effort only becomes successful when the audience it is targeting is well defined. Dig deeper into the inner psyche of your audience and try to tap into their psychographics.
Identifying their emotions and what exactly drives their purchase decision will not only help you generate more revenue, but also will elevate your brand positioning within your niche.
Establish Genuine Emotional Connection
There’s no brand that doesn’t utilize the emotional quotient to sustain itself in the market. Without drawing real emotions,a brand can’t be a household name.
Take for example, Coca-Cola; why has it become so popular across countries since the 1800s! All because of its emotional factor that the brand successfully leverages.
Coca-Cola is one of the many brands that connect with the public, the ultimate end-users, on an emotional scale. Their “Choose Happiness” campaign was a great success owing to this connection and unflinching brand loyalty.
Abide by a similar rule, and you can duly strengthen your brand with your marketing strategy that connects people across borders.
Ensure your Branding Essence and Quality is Carried in Real Life
You might make a lot of promises while you market your brand. Brand consistency, quality, customer service, brand personality, and many more. But often, brands fail to live up to these promises made and become haywire.
Maybe the customer service dwindles, or the brand identity becomes confusing. Or the tonality changes. And once such incidents of broken promises happen, it negatively affects your brand, and as a result, your customers and prospects lose faith in you.
Know your Competitors
This is similar to identifying your target audience. Knowing your competitors and what kind of marketing message they are conveying, is entirely a research-oriented task that you must complete beforehand.
Delve deep into the market you target and try to understand what is making a particular brand popular. What’s so different in it, that is lacking in you. Is it the quality, or the customer service, or the longevity of the products; whatever it is, focus on the difference that your professional rivals are making. And then work upon this difference in building a brand strategy for your business.
Over to you now!
So that’s what brand marketing is all about. Its importance for any business success is unparalleled; the more you are thorough in your execution, the higher is your chances of acquiring new qualified leads. Apart from lead generation, your branding activities also have a major influence on the marketing funnel and the entire customer journey.
Keep your consistency the same over the years while making subtle on-brand improvements. There’s no mandatory rule to reinvent your branding wheel everytime you create a new campaign. Because frequent changes and inconsistency can alienate your audience. The tips mentioned can only guide you to a certain level of product development, but the rest of the work needs to be done by you to establish a trustworthy name for yourself.
If you are a novice in the industry and starting fresh, reach out to the brand professionals who can create a consistent, robust, and emotional brand marketing strategy for you. So what are you waiting for? Step out, and start making your very own brand!
