Its quite a grilling process indeed, to predict, process, and analyse the nuts and bolts of a brand-building activity. Terapods, in this blog, tries to simplify the process for a better understanding and more straightforward implementation for you all, who are aspiring or already in the process of creating a strong brand identity. We hope you get a better insight and experience throughout our journey.
For any piece of work, there are minimum of three steps: Pre, While, and Post (PWP) and in each step there are a couple of heads that are to be dealt with. We at Terapods believe the same PWP concept to work for brand building too (See also our blog on the 5Cs of Brand Building).
Let's see how and why is strong brand identity important?
The PRE-Stage of Brand Building
KISS (Keep it Short and Simple) is a well-known concept in communication be it through the channels of face-to-face, audio-visual or electronics. It would be best if you kept all your communications within the ambit of simplicity, self-explanatory, and comprehensibility for the brand image. Anything abstruse is obtrusive, and anything simple is ample. While zeroing on the brand name, logo, design, tagline, and everything that is needed to build a brand, you need to be just on the dart-point.
Name Game
How many of the customers or target audience would feel comfortable pronouncing a name like 'Otorhinolaryngologist'? It is nothing but the disease related to Ear, Nose, and Throat. God! The word is so difficult, why should wordsmiths have all the fun! "Disregard any names that qualify for the SCRATCH standard. SCRATCH stands for Spelling-challenged, Copycat, Random, Annoying, Tame, Curse of Knowledge, and Hard to Pronounce.
Company names with any of these characteristics will turn off potential customers and may affect future sales" (Courtesy: Wikihow ). Check also 30 Brand Names that you are Probably Pronouncing Wrong (HubSpot). So why to have some name which fails to catch the attention of your customers or can put them in utter shame while pronouncing them.
A simple name can be enough. Google, Microsoft, Reliance, and Terapods are all simple names, easy to pronounce and easier to remember. Hence choosing your brand name wisely or changing the same to a simple version, if it is already a difficult one, would be your first step towards building a strong brand identity and being on a path to a good brand-building process.
Sell what Sells
Don't always try to think out of box. Sometimes, following the trend can be the best saviour. We don't advocate cliche, but being innovative also doesn't mean being singular and isolated, is what we believe. Before putting your products on the stand, you must know the market in-and-out.
A product must pronounce the customer's requirements and will always resonate with their needs.
Understanding your prospective customer segment, their interests and concerns will help you frame your company image and help build congruence between your personality and the outer sphere of your business world, the end-users.
Segmenting a product is very important. So deciding your product, keeping in concern the company-competition, product-competition, and customer-competition, without compromising your core values and expertise is your second step to build a great brand.
Contend with Agility
A frog in a well is the king of no clan! Though it believes to be one! Keep your eyes and ears open. Look around to see what your competitors do: similar products in the market, strategies of promotion and placement, platforms for propaganda, and be vigilant to every move they make.
Only when you are aware of what others are doing, you can decide on your steps.
Keep pace with competition and try to take some advance steps so that you can stay ahead. Coca Cola and Pepsi have the same range of products in beverages. A 1litre bottle against a 1litre bottle, a 200ml against a 200ml. They thrive because they compete.
The similar competition is in other segments as well. Tetra-pack of a product gives a push to other tetra-packs, and likewise, the vibe reverberates across the spectrum.
Prior knowledge of the competition will help you strategise your moves. Not only this, at the same time, you need to keep yourself abreast of time and race. Your agility of thought, plan, and action can help you become a frontrunner. Before jumping the gun, you need to understand all that is required for any business to start, run, and flourish.
The WHILE-Stage of Brand Building
Brand Story
Stories are powerful. They are engraved into the culture of every country. Storytelling is a great way to contextualise a crowd to a concept.
So weave a unique story around your brand and tone of voice of the brand which we call brand voice. Not typically with product specs, that are too technical to remember, but a personalised plot that goes well with your product and creates a lasting impact.
Look at the following ads: And the Story they depict.
Emotional Associate
While into business, think of creating an experience worth remembering and cherishing. Customer-Connect is essentially crucial for any company to sustain and succeed. Even the first and single interaction should be able to create such an impression that is strong enough for an everlasting alliance in developing a brand and building customer loyalty.
People love to be cared, respected and expect a personal approach to their needs. If they go back satiated, with a smile on their face, your business is going to stay long.
Personalised connections can do wonders. And can be established in multiple ways:
If you are running a physical store, take maximum advantage of your interaction with your visitors. Tap into their emotions with your behaviour, desk deals, selling experience, and even while seeing them off. Of course, your product basket will have to impress them with packaging, look and feel, price and discounts, and so on and so forth.
If you are on an online platform, interactions can never be more exhilarating than being created on a virtual mode. Your offerings are plenty, ranges are vivid, and you have on display anything and everything that you can offer. And most importantly, you find there all the buyers either buying, window-shopping or trend-updating.
If you are into the services sector, your weapons of warmth are your works and words. Your brand performance and your brand involvement can create noticeable space for mutual growth and satisfaction for both the company and customers.
Look at the following ads and how they try to emotionally connect
Count on Consistence
Keep up consistency, no matter where your brand appears. Your personality will reflect the same attributes on all forms and forums.
All successful brands are very consistent. One finds the same tone, approach, design, typography, one-liners irrespective of their geographical or domain variance. Even the product range must deliver equal delight across regions.
Just imagine, KFC offering different tastes at different places - would never have made it such a loved brand in the world. Besides, the quality of the product or services should never be compromised.
Quality Consistency is a Cash-Cow!
The POST-Stage of Brand Building
Play your Trumpet
You are the best ambassador of your brand. So wherever you go, take it with you. Highlight your achievements, talk about your talented teams, innovative product range and quality, and how the same is impacting hundreds and thousands of users.
Share the customer feedback with others which can help you build trust. When you table it with honesty, it is well accepted.
Put your achievements on all platforms: print media, social media, and electronic media. Let the entire advertising spectrum see your brand presence. Your omnipresence will help you consolidate your recognition and also can rev up your business manifold.
Expand your Horizon
Reach out and reach beyond. Encash your connections with customers in spreading out to a broader audience. Work out on your customer-connect policies and strengthen them by sending wishes, letters, communications, offers in regular intervals, not intruding their personal spaces nor intimidating their individual times. Creating a base of happy customers is like a chain reaction, happiness spreads and expands with it the number of joyful faces which in turn scales up your business.
Checklist to Build a Brand Identity
1. Prepare the detailed plan: Keep the Name and Logo Simple
2. Brain-ström your brand plan: customer centrality and your expertise should go hand-in-hand
3. Recognise and be ready for the other rats-in-the-race
4. Write your creative card and Verify your visuals
5. Establish the emotional connect with your customers
6. Draft your brand Directive and follow it religiously
7. Talk about what you do and achieve
8. Make unknown territories your own
Building a brand, sustaining it, and subsequently making it a successful one is, though tedious, an exhilarating journey altogether. On our way, we learn, unlearn, and relearn things that mould our perspectives and direct us into strange and adventurous alleys. So, please don't waste time on the dilemma, write to us to know more about it, and be ready to create an experience worth sharing
Create a brand identity for long term using high quality visual representation (visual elements) of your brand which includes your brand name, logo, brand story and corporate materials like business cards, brochures, presentations and other marketing materials.