What is a Brand?
A brand is an image that shows up in people’s head when they think of your company. It is a representation of everything you are to the public. A brand is a name, symbol or design that represents your company and should be easily identifiable.
From it, they understand who you are and what you do, from the gathered information they form an associated image that is based on both truth and emotions.
Brand Importance
You might be asking, why should you have a brand? Is it important?
It holds a certain level of power within the public’s mind and distinguishes you from others. With a solid brand identity, you become more visible and easily recognisable. This means that they will see you as an appealing option and will look for you when buying, giving you greater profit than if you did not have a brand or your current brand is weak.
Do you have a solid brand identity? Ask yourself these questions.
What am I providing to people?
Whether it’s a service or a product, you must know exactly what it is you’re selling and your brand should be able to reflect this in some way. Looking at your brand should give a potential customer an idea of what you’re selling. Your visual identity, message and overall marketing should make it very clear the value you’re providing.
Your current customers vs. your target customers
Knowing your audience is important because it allows you to know who you are already appealing to, who you want to appeal to and it allows you to figure out how to better appeal to your target audience and get them interested in your product.
Are your current customers the type of customers you want?
Let’s say you’re trying to expand and sell a higher-end product. Would your current customers buy this product? Can they afford this product? As a business owner, you have to decide on either trying to convince your current market or attract a new more appropriate market that would pay for your new product.
Does your identity match your goals?
Once you know your target audience and the product or service you’re selling, you want to know whether your brand accurately depicts this. Depending on just what you’ve chosen, you might want to look at whether your logos, slogans, design and name are accurate. Your current image should properly reflect who you are and what you do, and if they don’t, you should consider rebranding.
Why would someone choose you over others?
What is your advantage?
This is a difficult question to ask and it deals a lot with your uniqueness, not only in what your company does but how it looks and your ideals. People will always want your product to look good and having a strong brand associated with the product helps it look good in their eyes, ensuring that whenever they think of a relevant situation, your brand comes to mind. A unique brand is capable of being distinguished from its competitors and cements itself in their mind as something important.
Your brand holds power!
Remember, a strong brand alone increases your products’ or services’ understood value. It increases your business’ value and gives you more leverage in the industry. Your leverage is the amount of power you have over others and represents how desirable you are to people. More leverage means that you will have the ability to seize bigger and better opportunities, and having a strong brand gives people something to associate that power with.
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