Guidelines on How to Do Branding

Pay attention how you present your brand, because this defines how your audience perceives your products and services.

Analyze carefully what image you want to project to the outer world, if necessary, you can hire a specialist company to build up your brand online and offline. Below you will find guidelines for a proper branding strategy of your company.

Give Something Back

Brands are an integral part of the communities they work in and an effective way of showcasing your values and principles is by demonstrating a sense of corporate social responsibility.

Look for local and national charities in need of help. By lending a hand in form of financial aid or some practical way, your brand will make a difference and will differentiate itself in the eyes of the community. This in turn will lead to an improvement of your image and reputation.

Appeal to Emotions

Brand images need to invoke human emotions in order to engage as many people as possible. Trustworthiness is often associated with how relatable the image you are projecting is to your audience. Customers will favor human interaction over emotion-less corporate standardized communication.

Developing a specific narrative with an amicable, genuine tone for your marketing and communications will reap you long-term benefits. On social media speak to people as individuals; try using humour and engage in a genuine way. Brands like Dominos and Innocent have seen their popularity grow when they started using social media in a light-hearted but efficient method to communicate with their customers.

Likeability has a huge impact on customers’ buying decisions — around 70% of consumers will avoid buying products if there is a company behind it they don’t like.

Be an Exemplary Employer

Your employees are the ones who help you mold the business you have, therefore happy employees means effective employees. Additionally they will help you build a responsible image of your brand as an employer.

There are a lot of places online where employees will have a chance to discuss their employer; like Glassdoor that invite people to rate the companies they work for. This is a medium to project your brand image and if you have a good reputation, your business will only have to gain from it.

Within Your Industry

Enhance your reputation within your industry by making the first step and being actively involved in new developments. You can join relevant online and offline networks, attend industry-related events, share your knowledge and create new connections. LinkedIn is one of the online channels to help you do exactly that.

Similarly always be correct with your partners and suppliers. Try to associate yourself with trustworthy partners and you will see a compounding effect on your business’ reputation.

Use your own personal and professional network to share expertise and reach out to larger audience of people. Improving your reputation and gradually extending your network will lead to your business being more often recognized and will fortify your place in the industry.

Sustainability

Always try to think how you can grow your business using sustainable methods. Taking into consideration major problems like climate change, waste and inequality, while scaling your business; will send a signal to your audience that your brand is focused on its long-term contribution. This will be a long-lasting effect for customer acquisition.

In recent years, major firms like Walmart, Starbucks and Ford have made public declarations on how they are working towards a more sustainable development of their businesses and this will pay dividends in the long run.