Five ways to build a stronger brand image for your company

Branding isn’t what it used to be.  

Thanks to the evolution and dominance of the digital landscape all around us.

Building a brand no longer begins and ends with a corporate standards manual. It now involves much more than choosing company colors, standardizing layouts and designating “logo police.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just that these actions are no longer enough.

Today, branding is more about creating an overall brand aesthetic and making sure all touchpoints with your key audiences are aligned for a consistent overall experience. No matter if they order a product from your website. Receive an email from your organization. Follow you on social media. Or hear about you from an influencer.

So how can you build a more consistent, more powerful brand image…when the number of touchpoints with consumers keeps mushrooming as social media, online and ecommerce behaviors become more prolific? And how can you make the entire process less about maintaining consistent “logos” and “colors” and more about values and experiences?

Here are just a few tips you can use that can help prospects gravitate toward your company, build preference for it and remain loyal to it.

1. Focus on building brand identity, not just name recognition. 

Of course, you want prospects to remember who you are. But most importantly, you need them to understand what you can do for them. So keep all your communications focused on making those benefits tangible for your customers.

Creatively, your advertising can still be out-of-the-box. But strategically, it must be on-target. If not, then you’re simply building buzz for your campaign, not brand equity for your company.

2. Fine-tune your brand voice.

With dwindling emphasis on the print medium to reflect colors, logos and layouts, honing an authentic brand voice has become an even more important element of crafting a strong brand image for your company. Thinking about how your brand sounds at different touchpoints, and what will ring true with constituents, will not only help you decide what that means for your company, but it will also help communicators both inside and outside your organization speak with one voice.

3. Clarify your brand purpose.

The fact is today’s consumers want to associate with brands that have the same values as they do. Recent surveys show:

•  Sixty-three percent of consumers said they prefer to purchase products and services from companies that stand for a purpose that reflects their own values and beliefs…and will avoid companies that don’t.
•  Eighty-three percent of millennials say they want to deal with brands that align with them on values.

Even more importantly, today’s consumers want to know that a brand stands for something beyond profits. So honing in on the distinct purpose your company embraces is at the very heart of brand positioning. How do you do that?

One approach we’ve found helpful is to compare “internal” versus “external” brand perceptions. We start with the insiders: management, marketers, salespeople, service reps, etc. Through a series of exercises, we help them articulate a firm’s points of parity — and points of difference — with its competitors. We then compare the customers’ view of the same questions. Where there is consensus, there is brand equity. Where there are contradictions, there are opportunities for greater clarity…and better communication!

4. Be careful when forming brand partnerships.

You’re definitely known by the company you keep. So be careful not to align with strategic partners or influencers who may do more harm than good. Evaluate both the risks and benefits of any brand partnerships by probing for answers to questions like these:   

• How well do products align with your customers’ interests?
• Can the potential partner extend your brand into other geographic regions or strengthen ties in your established markets?
• Will it help you appeal to target demographics or engage new audience segments?
• Will any past associations or collaborations reflect negatively on your brand?
• Do audiences have a positive, negative or neutral feeling about a potential partner?

5. Strengthen brand strategy capabilities.

If the recent pandemic taught us one thing, it’s that brands must make their products and services available virtually so that their target audiences can access them from any place, at any time. And that means they must find effective ways to engage with their customers whether from live, in-person events, or if those opportunities are not possible, from online or digital channels. Take a fresh look at your customer journeys to see if there are any new opportunities to fortify your strategy.

Here’s the bottom line. There is only one way to maximize your company’s return on its marketing investment. Make sure that all connections with your customers convey a singular point of view about your company.

Comments