Brand building is the process of promoting a company and generating brand awareness through an advertising campaign. (Brand awareness is measured by familiarity and brand recognition.)

Brand building is a marketing strategy that brings consumers closer to the brand by letting them know the benefits and feel the brand's experience.

Brand building is no easy task, especially if you're starting from scratch. You need to stand out and find a way to resonate your brand with the target audience.

This article will tackle brand building as a marketing strategy, brand guidelines, and the secrets of acquiring a strong and successful brand name that resonates with the target audience.

What is a brand?

Brands are unique. Even people have a personal brand - such as name, style, and way of communicating. These traits create different impressions on people - that makes each one of us unique.

To build your brand, you need a name, personality, voice, style, and other demographics to help throughout the process.

You are mistaken if you think that a brand is just a logo that distinguishes you from the crowd. The true meaning of "brand" is how people perceive your business - it includes the impressions that you can and can't control.

There are factors that affect how we perceive a brand, such as names, products, logos, colors, fonts, voices, and reputation.

Consistency is crucial to building a successful brand. It starts with establishing consistency and the feeling that you want to evoke from the audience. At this point, emotional connection is your way to connect with the target audience.

10 Easy Ways on How to Build a Brand

Here are ten foolproof ways to building a strong brand. It is essential to follow the steps correctly to successfully build your brand and let your brand personality shine through.

#1 Research

As a marketer/business owner/influencer, you must understand the market, potential customers, and current competitors before deciding to build a brand or market new products.

Here are ways to do it:

• Hit Google to search for your product or service category and analyze your competitor.
• Reach out to people who are part of your target market. Survey the brands that they buy - from there, and you'll get an idea of how you can connect with the target audience.
• Check out the social media page your target audience follows to gather other details.
• Get a feel for how your customers buy or browse products and services.
• Analyze all data gathered and integrate it into your brand strategy.

As you go through the research, it is also important to note the following demographics: the customers you can easily get to, the top brands in the market, and how your customers talk about your business.

Various research tools can be used for research, such as Google Keywords Tools, Google Trends and Questback. These tools can help you gather details that can help in brand research and building your brand.

Every successful brand has a purpose. And so should you. So, you should define your purpose before starting the brand-building process.

#2 Determine your target audience

Keep in mind who do you want to reach. Fine-tune your message and tactics to meet their needs and attain your business goals.

Be specific. Learn more about the behavior and needs of your target audience.

Narrow your focus to ensure that your brand message is clear and intended to the recipient.

Learn to create a brand the target audience can relate to.

It is essential to define your target audience because you want the right people to consume your content and click ads. As a result, the target audience supports brand name and authority.

#3 Choose a brand name

As mentioned, the brand is more than a name. Personality, actions, and reputation make a brand in the market.

I know you're wondering how Nike, McDonald's, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, and other high-end brands come up with such a name.

Well, they all have a story. Nevertheless, they are all successful brands.

The company's name is probably one of the most significant commitments for small-scale business owners as it impacts logo, domain, trademark registration, marketing, and even visual identity.

When choosing a brand name or store name, pick a name that can't be imitated easily and quickly remembered by the target audience.

You can use a business name generator to help you arrive at unique brand names.

It is also important to consider the brand name since it will affect the website's domain name/URL.

#4 Design the logo and template

After researching, finding the target audience and choosing a brand name, you can now bring your brand to life by designing a logo and template for the business.

The logo is not exactly the brand identity, but it is an important element in the brand-building process. It appears on your website, business cards and online ads. With the logo, your brand can be easily identified by people and potential customers.

But...

It needs to be cohesive in terms of form, color and type, templates, flexibility, consistency, and document.

The way you present your products affects brand identity. Visual presentation creates brand familiarity, consistency, and an excellent first impression. For example, Mcdonald's uses the iconic letter "M" to represent their business. And now it's highly recognized by people all over the world.

The color palette can enhance visual identity. It allows you to create a design for the business while maintaining brand identity.

Templates can also help your business achieve a credible and professional look and feel.

Consistency and flexibility are essential because it maintains a strong brand identity and boosts brand personality.

Related: Logo design principles that seamlessly match your brand

#5 Decide on the tagline

Write a slogan that you can use as a tagline in your social media bios, website header, and business cards.

Think of something descriptive and catchy. Don't overdo it as you can always change the tagline as you go along.

A business slogan should be short, catchy and should make an excellent first impression. Marketers use different tactics in creating a slogan, such as using metaphor, describing the product literally and using rhymes. There are also slogan makers online that can help you brainstorm your ideas and play off the positioning statement.

Related: 100 effective company slogans for inspiration in 2020

#6 Establish the brand mission statement

The brand mission statement states what your company is most passionate about - the reason why you get up every day.

Before you build your brand, you must know the value of your business. In that way, you can define the brand mission statement and be the best influencer for your brand.

The tagline, logo, voice, message, personality, and other aspects of the business should reflect that mission.

You should learn to create a brand vision and mission statement with impact - that's how you'll answer if people ask what you do.

Start small and focus on your target audience niche. Your brand loyalty will grow as you expand your rich.

#7 Outline the qualities and benefits of your brand

Dig deeper into what you can offer to the target audience. Give a reason why they should choose your brand amongst others.

The qualities and benefits of your company make the branding unique and distinctive.

It is important to understand that it's not enough to list your brand's features and benefits. Show the customers the value of the brand and ways it can help improve their everyday lives.

Learn to create your value propositions to attract the right people.

Value propositions refer to what the company can deliver to its customers if they choose to buy their products.

A successful value proposition should be persuasive and can turn a prospect into real customers.

#8 Form a brand voice

The brand voice could be professional, authoritative, friendly, promotional, conversational, service-oriented, etc.

Ideally, you want to choose a brand voice relevant to your products and resonate with the target audience.

Forming a brand voice is a crucial part of the brand-building process because it's how you communicate to the customers and how they respond to the brand campaign.

It is important to choose the correct brand voice to connect with the target audience, especially when publishing blogs and social media posts.

The consistency of your brand voice can help the brand image to be recognized equally on multiple channels.

#9 Let your brand personality illuminate

Let your brand personality illuminate as a part of the brand-building strategy.

Be consistent across all points of contact.

It can be as simple as using a conversational tone (I, you), describing product details, and telling real-life experience.

If you let your brand personality shine through, it makes it less advertising, sets you apart, and allows your passion to come through.

Forget about advertising. Focus on your brand's benefits and qualities and find an effective way to let the target audience know.

Your brand personality sets your brand apart - it differentiates you from your competitors.

Anyway, it's not about not sounding like your competitors but engaging with your customers. Think of something that will make your customers share your content across platforms. That way, you can also drive traffic to your business website.

Let your passion shine through as a part of your brand building strategy. If you're passionate about what you're doing, you'll say the right words, and other people will remember you quickly.

#10 Tell customers who you are through brand story and messaging

Tell the customers succinctly who you are through messaging and brand story.

Your messages should be associated with your brand and conveyed consistently. Define who you are, what you offer, and why people should choose you.

With the brand story, you can communicate to the people on a human level and establish an emotional connection.

So, it is crucial to choose the appropriate language to maintain the connection with your audience.

Tip: When creating a brand story, do not emphasize what the product can do, instead emphasize its importance to the customers.

There Ya Go!

Brand building does not end after designing the logo, creating a tagline, publishing a brand story, and getting a response from the audience.

Consistency is vital across all points of contact. Your brand's value will continue to evolve as you go past every limestone of the brand-building process.

It is also essential to understand that you can never control how people perceive your brand.

But...

You can take customers in the right direction, make an excellent first impression and manage your reputation.

So, put your best foot forward to build a successful brand with a powerful identity.

And create your brand guidelines to convey the message to the target audience.

Remember:

A brand style guide should include :

• Brand Identity (core values, mission statement, voice, pitch, etc)
• Brand Assets (logo, templates, color palette, typeface, background, etc.)

Brand guidelines are essential in rebranding and starting a new business as a part of your brand building tactic.

Now:

Off you go! Let your brand dominate the market.

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