Branding is the art and science of building a strong and distinctive image that represents a company, product, or service. It is an important part of a brand marketing strategy because it creates recognition and awareness.
A good branding strategy should be simple, memorable, and consistent. It should also be in line with the company’s values.
A product or service that is well-branded will have a better chance of standing out in the marketplace because consumers will recognize it more quickly than other products. A brand can also convey information about quality or price to consumers before they even buy the product.
But how can you ensure that you’re getting the most out of your branding strategy? In this guide, we share the five keys to more effective branding – all so that you can take advantage of all their benefits.
Companies with strong brand marketing strategies
We learn from the best, don’t we? Let’s briefly go through some of the world’s best branding strategies before we reveal how you can build a solid brand. Can you notice what makes their branding so effective?
#1 Apple
There is no better example of a strong brand than Apple. Apple creates beautiful, innovative products that are unlike anything you’ve seen before and markets them in a way that resonates with consumers.
Their branding communication emphasizes the same qualities in their consumers as they do in their products: being an Apple person also means you’re inventive, imaginative, and creative. This company’s marketing efforts clearly bring great results – their products almost always sell out the minute they’re launched.
#2 Nike
When speaking about effective branding, you can’t forget to mention Nike – a world-famous sports brand.
From the very beginning, Nike has focused on innovation and performance – and that’s exactly what they communicate. Waffle shoes were their first innovation, and the brand has been successfully targeting serious athletes since then.
Their most popular slogan is “Just do it,” which is not associated with any other brand in the world.
These days, they offer products that go beyond shoes, such as athletic clothes that can enhance performance while maintaining a strong visual identity recognized worldwide.
#3 Coca-Cola
Effective branding cannot be discussed without mentioning this soft drink industry giant – Coca-Cola. They have demonstrated how consistent quality and outstanding marketing can keep the same product on top for decades.
During the 1980s and 1990s, when the company was starting out, standardized products and messaging led to a backlash against American imperialism. In order to increase local pride, Coca-Cola introduced its “Think Local, Act Local” marketing strategy in 2000. This strategy strengthened their brand and helped them grow into one of the world’s most famous brands.
The company promotes universal values like happiness, family, and sharing while localizing messaging and products.
How to make your brand marketing more effective? 5 top tips
A lot goes into branding. If you think that brand marketing is just your company name and logo, you’re wrong.
Don’t worry, though: improving your branding strategy doesn’t have to be that difficult.
Define your target audience
For your marketing strategy to be successful, you need to clearly identify your target market and audience. In other words, who’s your ideal customer persona? It is essential to find out what they want and what they need in order to provide it.
While this may be a challenging task, it is also necessary if you want your brand marketing strategy to be successful and effective. Your target audience will determine the type of content you create and the type of marketing channels you use.
The data used to define target audiences usually includes:
- age
- gender identity
- education background
- social class
- location
- purchasing power
- consumption habits
and more.
To help you find out your unique target audience, you could use one of the useful frameworks like this one:
source
Going one by one will ensure that you don’t miss any aspect of your target group. Make sure you cover your target audience’s geographic, sociographic, demographic, behavioural, and psychographic aspects. This will allow you to correctly describe the people that your brand is made for.
Here’s an interesting example of what your target audience could look like:
Choose your brand marketing communication channels
Once you have defined your target audience – the people your brand will cater to most of the time – it’s time to decide on the communication channels you’re going to use.
Communication channels are the ways in which a company communicates with its customers and potential customers. The type of channel used will depend on the company’s marketing strategy, and there are many different types of channels.
Marketing communication channels are an important aspect of any brand marketing strategy. They are the best way to reach out to your target audience, get them engaged with your brand, stay in touch with your loyal customers and provide customer service.
Some of the most popular ones include:
– Social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter (for instance, Instagram influencer marketing)
– Email (more specifically email newsletters)
– Advertising
– Blogging
– Traditional marketing methods (TV ads, print ads, etc.)
Each channel has its own set of advantages and disadvantages that should be taken into consideration before choosing one for a specific marketing campaign or project.
The first thing to consider is the cost involved with each type of channel. For example, email is typically less expensive than social media advertisements because there is no cost for sending an email, but there is a cost for executing paid campaigns on Facebook or Instagram. On the other hand, social media might be great for targeting young audiences, while traditional marketing, such as TV and radio, might suit older generations better.
- Think about the message you want to communicate
To properly design your branding strategy, you should determine what your short-term and long-term goals are. What is it that you want to communicate to people?
What do you want people to think when they see your brand? Do you want them to remember it as high-end or low-priced?
If you are not clear on what message you want to communicate, your branding strategy will be ineffective.
To communicate with your audience, you can use slogans, which are highly effective, catchy, and memorable descriptions of brands.
Some of the most popular slogans worldwide are:
- Red Bull – Red Bull gives you wings
- AT&T – Your world delivered. Connecting you to your world, everywhere you live and work
- De Beers – A Diamond is Forever
- Nike – Just Do It
- Coca-Cola – Open Happiness
- Wendy’s – Where’s the Beef?
If you’re yet to come up with your slogan, consider letting a branding agency design it for you or using a slogan generator tool online.
- Work on your visual identity
Once you know what you want to say, who you want to say it to, and where you’re going to say it, you can start working on the visual marketing side. This includes things like your logo, business cards, colour schemes, style, fonts, graphic elements, music, and much more! As a business owner, it’s imperative that you take note of these aspects, as they are your biggest assets.
A good logo should be recognizable in any size, colour, or orientation. It should not just be a picture of your company name because it needs to represent what your company does. Your logo should also be able to stand alone without any text so that people can recognize it from afar.
When you’re choosing the colours for your brand, keep in mind that every colour or group of colours has its own set of meanings:
For example, if you run a company that wants to be seen as sophisticated and mysterious, using black will be a good idea. On the other hand, red should be chosen by anyone wanting to build a brand characterized by bravery, romance, and boldness.
This is when your branding starts to become more effective. You know your values and the message you want to communicate and you show it through the visual identity of your brand. All of it creates a coherent and cohesive brand identity pack.
Implement your improved brand marketing strategy
Now it’s time to implement your improved branding strategy!
Everything you’ve done so far – deciding on your colours and logo, figuring out your audience, adjusting the right channels for marketing – now needs to be put together and presented to the world so you can reach your current and prospective clients.
This is when you start producing relevant content that sticks to the guidelines and business strategies you’ve prepared for yourself and share it with the world.
Whether it’s video advertising on social media, TV advertising, email newsletter, or radio, don’t forget to regularly monitor their effectiveness to make sure you’re reaching your ideal customer and audience.
With social media, you could get a social media management and analytics tool to stay on top of all statistics.
With email newsletters, be sure to check things like click-through rate, open rate, link clicks, and more. You could also conduct market research or survey your target customer base to seek their opinio on your new branding.
Only by analyzing your efforts regularly will you get an indication of whether your new, improved brand marketing strategy is working.
Get your branding right with SociallyInfused Media
Ensuring that your branding is done correctly can be time-consuming. After all, there are a lot of things to be looking out for if you want to meet all of the new and relevant business trends.
Fortunately, you can stay focused on your core business tasks without dedicating too much time to designing your branding thanks to marketing services like those offered by SociallyInfused Media and their experienced marketing professionals.
SociallyInfused Media is a company that offers creative solutions for businesses wishing to step up their branding game and marketing plan. It specializes in:
- Website design: SociallyInfused Media builds custom-tailored, optimized, and mobile-friendly websites that unite your business goals and boost your digital advertising efforts.
- Social media marketing: It’s not too late to start your marketing activity on social media! Our strategic social media management skills are designed to help your brand quickly gain awareness. We can design a solid brand marketing strategy that will build customer loyalty.
- SEO: Through vigilant keyword analysis and research and a strictly white-hat SEO approach, SociallyInfused Media can improve your organic rankings and boost visibility in Google’s search results.
- Effective brand building: Our outside-of-the-box thinking and unique ideas for marketing messaging can take your branding to the next level.
Moreover, we have loads of satisfied customers who got their branding done right!
Contact us now to have a chat about your brand and its goals: we will definitely be able to help you!
Start your journey with effective branding
Now you know what makes Apple, Nike, Coca-Cola, and thousands of other successful brands recognizable. It’s all about people, place, your message, and how you present it.
Branding isn’t about just designing a logo and coming up with a slogan or two in the hope they’ll do all the work. It’s a process that requires thought and careful preparation.
We hope that this article has given you some insights into what it takes to create a strong brand marketing strategy.
We know it can be a laborious activity, which is why we recommend reaching out to a digital marketing agency like SociallyInfused Media.
With the right approach, you can start seeing results quicker than you can imagine.
You will never know if you don’t try, so what are you waiting for?
