Building a lasting brand does not take place over night.
When building any brand there are always the same key ingredients involved.
For example, there are certain brands that are ingrained in every consumer’s mind: Coke, Colgate, Apple, Toyota, and Pampers just to name a few.
Each of these brands were carefully designed with one thing in mind: to last.
And as a smaller, non-public company – you can learn a lot from the branding techniques of big corporations.
So how do you build a brand that really lasts? Follow these guidelines.
Rule #1 – The Brand Is In The Consumer’s Mind
A lot of people think that the brand is in your logo, your slogan or your marketing materials. That’s so not true!
Your brand… and I mean your real brand, is in the mind of your consumers.
One great example is Kia, the car manufacturer. For most people, Kia in their minds is “the cheap, not very good car.”
It doesn’t matter that Kia runs thousands of commercials every year “branding” their cars as adventurous, reliable, etc.
Their real brand is still that they are cheap and most think it’s probably not very good car.
The whole point of branding is to deliberately construct the associations your customers have when they think of you and your company.
Rule #2 – Be Known For One Thing
Don’t try to be a generic brand and don’t try to be number one in everything.
Let’s use the auto industry as an example again. The auto industry is notorious for being extremely difficult to get into.
In fact, it would cost so much money at such a high risk to try to build a strong enough new brand to generate sales in the auto industry that just about nobody does it.
That’s why you hear the same five or six brands running commercials year after year.
When Tesla Motors came along, they didn’t try to build a number one car.
They didn’t try to compete with any of the large, more generic brands.
Instead, they set out to do one thing: to create the best luxury or sports 100% electric car.
Shortly after they launched, every Tesla dealership was backlogged with orders.
There are many examples of this. For example, “Miller Light” was a number one brand when they didn’t try to be a generic beer, just the number one light beer.
And the list goes on and on.
Rule #3 – Be Consistent With Your Brand
A brand that changes every year, or even every few years, is bound for obscurity.
A brand whose logo conflicts with its message, or a brand whose color is inconsistent with the brand’s emotions, is also bound for obscurity.
Your brand needs to be consistent throughout every part of your business.
The logo, the typography, the tagline, the “feel” of the commercials, the corporate culture and so on, should all be streamlined to one coherent message.
Coca Cola is a great example of this. Their brand is that no matter where you are, it’s cool and fun to drink Coke.
McDonald’s is a poor example of this because they’ve tried to position themselves as healthy by adding salads and running commercials, but everyone knows they’re not.
They try to position themselves as the place to take the family, but many parents now tell their kids not to eat at McDonald’s. McDonald’s has a confused brand, which has hurt their sales.
To create a brand that lasts, make sure you know what your message is.
Make sure that one message is clear and concise. Then make sure all your advertising materials and everything else about your company matches up to that branding message.
I hope that this information has been helpful to you and if so I’d love to hear about it!
Please leave me a comment letting me know at least one tip that you plan to use immediately because you’re know it will make a difference in your business.
Have an amazing day!
Pam Lawhorne
What is your brand saying about you? Take my FREE assessment to find out if your branding and business are in need of an online makeover.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Good advice, Pam. Great blog post, thanks.
I agree with all your points but would also like to offer an addition which is be really good at what you do. Whether you make products or supply services, be brilliant at it, do it with passion and be artistic (in the sense that Seth Godin talks about art being in everyone). This will strengthen your brand massively.
And, in accordance with your advice about being known for one thing, don’t compromise. At my company, we’ve done all of this, over the past ten years in building the brand for our internet radio station, http://www.radiomagnetic.com, which is niche but well loved by its listeners.
I think businesses can learn a lot from advice like yours. Hopefully my additions are helpful too.
Dougal Perman recently posted..Social Media Scheduling for Better Business
Dougal,
Your advice is excellent and very timely! thank you so much for chiming in! And yes – I agree. Be passionate about what you do. People will notice the difference and this is what separates you from the rest. I think this has been what has made me successful! Yes I am tooting my own horn because I absolutely love what I do and I just checked out your site and it seems you do too so toot toot to us both! LOL
Pam
Great points, Pam. I resonate with #3 – being consistent within your brand, especially if you are a small business or just starting out, is important. People need to be able to connect that dotted line between you, your message and your brand. Thanks for the insight!
Donina recently posted..The Situation in a Situation – Lessons on Bad Publicity
Hi Donina!
I couldn’t agree more! I try to stay as consistent as I can and I tell my clients to do the same. But some people just INSIST on being all over the place – and not in a good way either!
Thanks for the feedback! BTW – Great site!
Pam