Creating a Brand: What You Might be Forgetting
Creating a successful company and recognizable brand takes work. You need a great product, reliable staff, effective sales channels, and creative marketing. But the list doesn’t stop there: numbers need to be crunched, applicable laws need to be followed, human need should be resourced. With so much going on, it’s easy for things to slip through the cracks and have a major impact on the success of your brand.
These three details can often be overlooked, but will make a world of difference when creating a brand.
1. A Target Consumer
We all have high hopes for our brand. We dream of the day everyone knows our name and our brand becomes the name used for all similar products (like Kleenex). If we love our brand, how could anyone not love it? Unfortunately, “every person on earth” is not a good target market. Narrowing down your audience might seem counterintuitive at first (a bigger target market equals more potential customers, right?), but it’s actually your best bet for building a strong following.
Having a precise target market allows your brand to make a strong connection with the consumers who will really love your product. Instead of spending your valuable advertising resources on consumers who may only be mildly interested in what your brand has to offer, your company can put the full force of its efforts into the consumers who are just itching to discover your company.
2. Colors and Shapes
Picking a logo and color scheme for your brand is more than just a matter of personal preference. All too often, logo design and color scheme are done on a whim, based on nothing more than a 15-minute meeting and some help from your friend’s daughter who has done a bit of graphic design in school. This is a huge mistake!
Color scheme and logo design are a great opportunity to enhance the strength of your brand. Different colors and shapes can communicate to your tribe on a subconscious level and can evoke different emotional and psychological responses. Depending on your target consumer, a logo can portray strength, trust, masculinity, or femininity. Don’t overlook the power that logo design and color scheme can have for your brand.
3. A Plan for Growth
When you’ve got your nose to the grindstone taking care of day-to-day operations, sometimes you forget to think long-term. It’s important to take the time to develop a plan for growth and the future. Sometimes company owners can fall into a comfort zone, doing the same safe routine month after month. But while you’re staying the same, your competition is looking for ways to catch up and surpass you. It’s important to always be looking for the next way to expand your brand’s reach and success.
Managing a brand takes hard work and sometimes we get wrapped up in the day-to-day operations or try to market our brand to the entire world in hopes of finding a new customer. Remember to take a step back and pay attention to these often overlooked elements of running a successful business. It will pay off in the long run.