Infographic: 9 Tips for Serious Brand Optimization for Businesses |
Posted: July 2, 2014 |
Take Your Brand Seriously: Why You Need to Optimize Your Brand [Infographic]Having a brand is beyond having a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these to identify products and services and to differentiate them from others. Having a brand means having a set of values or associations that your target customers make with your company, products and services. First question: What set of values does your target customers associate with your brand? Second question: Do they even know your brand exists? You need to pay attention to this, and you need to start today. Because if you're not taking your brand seriously, how do you expect potential customers to take your business seriously? In today's competitive market, you just can't let that happen, can you? That’s why we put together an infographic and listed eight tips you can start using today to build your brand. So… are you building your brand every day? What benefits do you stand to get? What challenges will you face? Discover the answer to all these questions and more below. See our Infographic:Know your Target Customers and Build your Brand’s Personality around ThemLike humans, brands also possess or project a certain type or a mix of personalities. In “Dimensions of Brand Personality,” a study published by the Journal of Marketing Research, Jennifer Aaker, now a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, summarized brand personality into five dimensions: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. In the infographic, you’ll see defining characteristics for each dimension. For instance, a brand that imbues “sincerity” is perceived to be honest, domestic, genuine, and cheerful. Therefore people who value these characteristics tend to prefer brands with this personality. The idea here is to identify the personas of your target customers, and identify your brand as well, using a mix of these dimensions. Then, build and shape your brand around this mix of dimensions. This way, you’ll be able to align your brand persona with your target customers or identify what customers to target based on your brand personality. These dimensions are helpful, especially for small businesses that are just beginning with the creation and strengthening of their brand. Build your Brand Slowly but Surely or Fast and Strong. Either way, You have to Build itAccording to Millard Brown’s Brand Dynamics Pyramid, the value of a business is directly proportional with the value of the brand. If you want to grow your business, you need to build your brand. Analyzing five years of stock market data, the company found that strong brands are more likely to increase their share price than companies with weak brands. “Strong brands are more likely to grow,” the report stressed. What’s more interesting here is Millard Brown’s pyramid relates how brand strength affects consumers’ expenditure for that brand. This time, brand is inversely proportional with “share of wallet,” or share of category expenditure. For instance, brands at the bottom of the pyramid or those with “presence,” eat up only 12% of spending for that category. On the other hand, those at the peak of the pyramid, or brands with bonding with consumers, account for 40% of wallet share. You need to move your brand from merely having presence in the market to be performing and eventually having a bond, which is the peak of the pyramid. By moving it up the pyramid, you are also raising the value of your business. Connect Your Brand to Your CustomersYour brand needs to be able to reach out to your customers and connect with them. Only then will you be able to benefit from it. The biggest benefit perhaps is customer loyalty. According to Nielsen, 62% of your potential customers prefer to buy new products from familiar brands rather than switch to a new one. Be a familiar brand and your customers will stick with you. Having a connection means being aligned with your customers’ beliefs and earning their trust. According to Edelman research, 92% of global online consumers want to do business with brands that share their beliefs. Customers also want transparency on how products are made and sourced. Will they trust what you say? Put your brand on the line, and they will. Some 69% of global consumers trusted product information on branded websites in 2013, up from 60% in 2007, according to Nielsen. You Need to Market Your Brand TooWhile focusing on other aspects of online marketing (search engine optimization or SEO, paid advertising, etc.), is necessary to market your products or services, you cannot take branding for granted. You also need to put focus on marketing your brand as well. Businesses seem to be getting this right as “brand awareness” is the No. 1 goal of today’s content marketing initiatives. Some 79% of respondents agree, according to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs. It’s not surprising that business owners are spending more to build their brand. A survey by the CMO Counciland Vizu, a Nielsen company, found that indeed 63% of marketers planned an increase in their online brand advertising budgets. Some 20% said they will raise their brand spending by at least 20%. Despite this budget trend and brand marketing benefits, many owners still struggle in adapting. Brand-building Challenges Businesses FaceAs mentioned earlier, the primary purpose of content marketing for majority of businesses is to build brand awareness. Business owners understand that for them to build their brand, they need to reach out to their target market with engaging branded content. But why are they struggling implementing this? According to a research by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute, there are a number of challenges that marketers face in effectively using content for marketing. The biggest setback is lack of budget, with 52% of marketers citing this reason. Producing enough content (51%) and producing the kind of content that engages (49%) complete the top three challenges. Twenty percent of businesses are responding accordingly by raising their budgets. They are realizing the necessity of branding. As for the other two challenges, they are outsourcing. Writing (64%) and design (54%) are the top services outsourced. 9 Tips On How to Seriously Build Your BrandIf you are serious in building your brand – and with all honesty, you should be – you need to start today. Don’t know where to begin? Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Take Your Branding Seriously… Today!If you have been neglecting your branding because of budget constraints, lack of guidance or as a matter of choice because you don’t think it’s necessary, then you need to rethink this. Branding allows you to connect with your target market, convert potential customers into actual buyers, and earn their trust and loyalty. You need to take branding seriously. You need to start today. We will give you free consultation (a $247 value) on our brand optimization and marketing services so you'll know how you can seriously build your brand and benefit from it. Call us now or send us a message so we can schedule your free consultation.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|