Marketing products is an incredibly challenging endeavour. Even if you have a useful and affordable product that can benefit countless customers, getting them to notice it is the difficult part. This is where branding comes into play.
By creating a strong, cohesive brand, you can get your message across before customers even get to try your product. As you might imagine, the process is a lot more complicated than just simple logo design and messaging. Here’s what you should do to market your brand more effectively and reach a bigger audience.
Pick a tone and personality
The tone and personality of your brand have an enormous impact on how customers perceive it. While it may be tempting to try to appeal to every type of demographic all at once, it’s not exactly a good idea. People like brands that are focused and have a clear message. Knowing which demographic to appeal to with your products is crucial if you want to build a following, especially at the beginning.
Consider things like your positioning statement. These couple of lines stake your claim to a particular market and help customers get an idea of your goals. With the positioning statement and branding in general, you must choose your words wisely. If you imagine your brand as a person, what kind of vocabulary would it have? At the same time, consider what type of person your target demographic would like. Choosing your brand’s personality is immensely important, as it’s one of the best ways to attract the right demographic.
Get a business name that sticks
You might be wondering—how important is a business name, really? Well, the answer depends on quite a few factors. For some businesses, brand names are everything. They help attract new customers, and they also showcase the creativity of the company in one way or another. This is especially important for up-and-coming businesses that want to make a name for themselves. Choosing an actual name for the business is one of the biggest decisions entrepreneurs will make early on.
It should come as no surprise that brand names are so important in modern business. They affect everything from the brand logo and domain name to the marketing efforts and trademark registration.
So, how do you get one that sticks? For starters, you want to get a name that is different enough from existing brands to stick out. There are numerous ways to do this. Making up a word from scratch is a good option. Reframing an existing one can help you connect common words that are related to your company with the brand name. Acronyms are practical as well, though they depend on the full name you want to give your company. Coming up with a business name may take a while, but getting it right is worth the wait.
Research the market
We’ve mentioned that elements like business name and personality depend on a brand’s target audience. This begs the question—how do you choose an adequate target demographic for your business and its products? As is the case for many questions in branding, the answer depends on multiple factors.
Before you can start working on your business brand, you must get familiar with the current market. This includes potential customers that would choose your products or services and competitors in that market. It’s a complex bit of research that will occupy you in the beginning. One of the simplest ways to get to know the market is to search online for similar products and services and see where that takes you. This can give you insight into the most popular competitors as well as the customers that want the products you provide.
Choose unique designs
Visuals and designs are crucial parts of modern marketing strategies. This is evident when you look at how much businesses invest in logos, typography, and other visual elements. A good logo and product box design can catch a customer’s eye and bring them closer to your business.
Even the designs of your products can contribute to your company’s branding. Whether you want to go for something old-fashioned or slick and modern depends on your brand’s personality and previous designs. At the same time, you must consider what kind of look your customers want to see. Staying consistent with visuals influences customers significantly.
If other companies have similar branding ideas, you can run into issues with product designs and patents. Another company could have a relatively similar design, or they might be in the process of patenting one. To protect your intellectual property and brand reputation, you should always have a reputable patent attorney ready. They can help you with any legal issues that arise from patent infringement.
Keep your brand cohesive
One of the most crucial aspects of branding is consistency. If you can represent your business branding strategy in a cohesive way, customers may be able to recognise your products and services more easily. Think about some of the most popular brands in the world and how they achieve this. Apple, for example, has some pretty recognisable designs and messages that you don’t even need to think about. When you see them, you know exactly which brand they are, even if you don’t see the logo right away.
Ads, content marketing, and social media marketing should also stay consistent. Once you’ve chosen a tone and personality for your company, applying it consistently across multiple channels helps you keep customers engaged and interested in your products. This kind of brand cohesiveness shows that your business thinks about the small details, which can further entice customers towards your brand. Keeping the messaging consistent in every part of your branding is challenging, but it can benefit the company significantly.
Conclusion
Branding has become an integral part of modern marketing strategies. It can be just as important as the effectiveness of your products and services. Getting ahead of the competition is difficult without proper product branding, which is why businesses big and small invest so much into their marketing strategies. Consider some of the above pointers and see if there are areas of your branding that might need improvement.
