“Ubiquitous” would be the place on an imaginary brand awareness scale where you might quantify the presence of the Coca-Cola brand. Coca-Cola was the first beverage to be consumed in space, and more recently, it was the first beverage to be publicly derided for having too much sugar by well-known soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo. One of the most successful FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) brands in the world, if not the most, is The Coca-Cola Company. However, it goes far beyond Coke. Let us dive deep and see how to build a powerful brand identity.
How can a small business develop an effective brand identity
The brand identity should be well thought out because every marketing element and method should reinforce the basic principles and goals of your company. Involve your current customers and employees in this process: they are in a good position to tell you exactly whether your brand identity and services are effective or not
You can use a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to accurately define your business niche. Strengths: Think about what you do better than your competitors. How does it benefit your business?
Weakness analysis involves Thinking about things that make your business less attractive than competitors especially when it comes to location and range of products or services available. Opportunities: Consider evolving changes in your industry and customer needs. Are there new opportunities to conquer new markets? Threats: Assess the barriers to the performance of your business. What factors threaten your ability to meet consumer expectations in the future?
Once you’ve defined your niche, start developing the elements of your brand identity. Think about the type of customers you want to attract and the impression you want to make on them.
Are you looking for space-conscious customers? Price-conscious customers? Experience? A tradition? Fashion? Answering these questions will help you choose the right language, tone, and pitch to win over your audience
Know Yourself Better
Are you convinced that the product or service you are selling is revolutionary and that it alone has all the means to seduce consumers? This type of thinking may have been true decades ago, but not today. Prospects and customers are looking for something different.
In addition to buying a product, they want to have an inspiring shopping experience and build relationships with companies that share the same values. This is mainly explained by the concept of the Golden Circle. However, without a deep analysis of your existence, it is difficult to make people understand and share your identity.
Therefore, your work begins by asking yourself these first questions: Why did you start this company? What’s your story? What are your values, ethics, and company culture? What is your value proposition? How is it different from your competitors? (Competitive benchmarking and market research are probably needed here.)What is your key message? What is your communication style?
By answering these first questions, you can define yourself as a brand. This is the first building block of your strategy.
Know Your Audience and Create a Meaningful Brand Identity
Now that you know who you are, further explore your goals. Who are your future modeling clients? The ones you can easily earn and keep? The best way to identify the typical profiles of your best customers is to build a marketing staff. With these imaginary customer bot portraits, you can ensure that your brand identity aligns with the desires of specific consumer segments.
If you understand your goals in detail, you will be able to align your sales and marketing strategy with their expectations during the purchase process (design, packaging, advertising, after-sales service, content strategy, distribution and communication channels, etc.).
The goal is simple: instead of flooding the market with audience targeting without real differentiation, you directly reach the prospects with the highest probability of conversion. This is how you increase the profitability of your activity. If your brand identity is easy to understand and strong, you also have a better chance of uniting your audience around your values and maintaining their loyalty in the long term.
Conclusion
It is interesting to use the prism of French brand expert Jean-Noël Kapferer to create a strong brand identity. It has six aspects:
physical: logo, pattern, color
personality: character (dynamic, honest, sociable, etc.)
culture: country of origin, values
mentality: the goal that the consumer is aiming for consuming this brand (social status, commitment, belonging, etc.)
reflection: the typical consumer that is portrayed for the brand
relationship: this is the relationship that the brand holds with the consumer
Finally, to achieve a successful brand identity you must remember the purpose of your brand. Why did you create it? To whom? Always be aligned with your purpose, project, and values. All elements of your brand should move in the same direction.
