There is more to creating and promoting a brand than making a pretty logo and tagline. In fact, a logo and tagline are just representations of your brand. Following are several rules to help you create, promote and maintain your brand.
1. Be Specific
Know what your brand stands for, and know what your brand promises. Your brand promises should be precise and attainable, and you should be able to communicate them clearly. For example, don’t just say your brand stands for quality. That’s a broad statement that any company can make. How does your brand specifically live and breathe quality? Those specifics are what will make your brand stand out from the competition.
2. Be Authoritative
Once you know what your brand stands for and promises, don’t be afraid to flaunt it. You need to make everyone else believe you’re the leader and authority in your area of expertise and specialization. Don’t meekly communicate your message. Say it with powerful words and conviction. This applies to both your spoken words and your copywriting!
3. Be Consistent
Get your brand message out there and don’t waiver on it. I’ve read statistics in the past that state as soon as you’re tired of your message, your customers are just starting to recognize it. A consistent message and customer experience are critical elements to building your brand.
4. Be Honest
In today’s world, people welcome honesty and your business will be rewarded for it. Don’t offer promotions or guarantees you can’t deliver. Instead, admit your fallibility and deliver on your promises. Integrity goes a long way.
5. Be Relentless
Get your brand message out there. Then get it out again and again and again. People are inundated with a myriad of messages each day. It’s not only critical that you try to stand out from the competition but it’s equally important that you’re not forgotten. Don’t drop the ball on communicating your brand promise and building your brand image. Your efforts will be rewarded in time.
3 Steps to Brand Building
The rules described above apply to company, product, and personal branding. They are simple, basic rules that are critical to your brand’s overall success. They also tie directly into the three primary steps of brand building:
- Consistency: You must consistently represent your brand to consumers so they develop appropriate perceptions and expectations for it, and you must meet their expectations in every interaction. Brand inconsistency leads to confusion, and confusion is the number one brand killer!
- Persistence: Brands aren’t built overnight, so you must be relentless in your efforts to build brand awareness, recognition, sales, loyalty, and brand ambassadors.
- Restraint: It might be tempting to expand and extend your brand by pursuing every opportunity that presents itself, but don’t do it! A focused brand is a strong brand, so stay focused at first and expand later.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”2 keys to brand building: 1) Confusion is the #1 brand killer and 2) A focused #brand is a strong brand. That means you must be consistent and exercise restraint!” quote=”2 keys to brand building: 1) Confusion is the #1 brand killer and 2) A focused #brand is a strong brand. That means you must be consistent and exercise restraint!”]
Originally published 2/2/2009. Updated 5/11/2018.
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.
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6. Focus your efforts to your specific market, (and that is?) and avoid mass marketing. Who are you selling to?
7, Have a marketing plan. Are you the low cost leader; or the higher priced super dependable, great warranty, etc. You’d be surprised how many salespeople are selling one, and are actually the other one!
8. When you find a plan commit to it, and stay the course!
9. Believe in yourself, if you don’t your prospects will smell it a mile away.
9. There’s at least a hundred more great one’s, I’ll leave some for someone else. Great Blog!
Ps, come see us once in awhile Susan, you have great Idea’s!!!
Great additions to the list, Bob! I promise to come visit soon. I’m just digging out from writing my latest book, which I put in the mail to the publisher today. Once I catch up on everything else I’ve been putting off, I’ll be back among the living and blog-hopping again! Thanks for sticking with me even though I’ve been a bit MIA lately. 🙂
I’m an Identical twin. My mother has some great stories. I can’t even Imagine Triplets! We’re looking forward to your next book!
I feel that Video Branding is a great way to connect to a NEW customers, you are not hiding behind the computer screen but putting your face in the public eye, and hopefully building a good reputation and following, and we are also getting lazy. meaning people would watch a video explaining about a product or showing them how to do something, than spending time reading.
Thanks, Susan for the helpful piece of article. These rules are basics for any business who wants to become a successful brand and also important factors to keep in mind.