During the week, an invitation from the University of South Australia landed in my inbox. The event focuses on the role colour, sound and so on play in building a brand. I’m sure the event will be a worthwhile experience, however it got me thinking about how you build a brand that people trust.
It’s more than a logo
Ultimately, your brand won’t resonate with clients unless you’ve first determined why you’re in business. Once you have settled on the vexed question of “the why” you can determine what is important about your business, and consequently your brand.
Your brand should also influence your corporate culture, which you and your employees must stand by to enable your business to resonate with prospects and clients.
The truth is that many businesses believe they have a strong brand. However, after a gentle scrape of the surface, you’ll often find there isn’t much substance under a fancy logo.
Or even worse, the brand becomes mixed up with potentially ruinous issues and trends you weren’t planning for, or that are outside your control.
A brand is hard to build…
There’s plenty of advice about strategies for building a strong brand. Like many marketing matters, there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. However, there are some common factors to keep in mind when embarking on a brand building exercise, or protecting its hard-fought status.
For starters, a cleverly designed logo does not affect a strong brand. The best brands such as Apple, Samsung, Canon, Mercedes Benz, McDonalds and Coca Cola understand their clients.
Great brands are, well … great, because they connect their clients with positive outcomes. In other words, they reliably deliver their product and service promises. A consistent level of delivery builds trust – and consumers support brands they trust.
Brand loyalty is money in the bank
We’re all in business, and know it costs more to generate a new client than retain an existing one – some research sets the cost estimate at seven times more to find new punters.
Accordingly, building a loyal group of brand advocates is a sensible business strategy. To do this, you need to put your business in the shoes of your clients.
History is littered with brands that failed because they didn’t understand their client, missed a major trend shift that made them irrelevant, or did something stupid that led to a dent in the brand. At the end of the day, if you don’t live up to the promises you make, consumers will leave you … fast.
So, do colours, sounds, shapes and so on make a difference to a brand? Maybe. But alone they don’t make a significant difference.
Take Instagram, for example. There was significant noise back in May when the photo-sharing platform changed its war paint.
However, Instagram continues to roll along, as it knows why it’s in business. This intelligence enables Instagram to build a very strong brand that continues to stand out in the super competitive social media landscape.
