Coca-Cola, Pampers, Louis Vuitton, Mercedes: what do they all have in common? They are brands and they are so successful! They are easily recognized, remembered and even revered by consumers. Sure marketing had a lot to do with it. But it all starts with a careful and strategic branding that made them stand out of the crowd.

There is a stark difference between branding and marketing. Branding is not just about the logo and design. It is communicating the product or brand’s character, core values and what it does not stand for. Marketing is the active promotion of your product or service. Branding comes much before marketing. It is also fundamentally involved in all marketing efforts of your product or service.

So what goes into the process of branding? What can you do to make your branding successful? Here is a quick five-step strategy to get branding to work for you:

Step #1. Know & Study Your Target Audience

For the product or service, you offer it is imperative to know your customers. What kind of audience will your brand cater to? Is your target audience is women? Then you need study the group closely to understand whether you need to focus on mothers or single women. You need to further divide the group to know if your target audience is working women or stay at home or both. The demographics will open the door to the problems your customers face. Solve the problems and let your brand be the hero!  

Step #2. Define Your Brand’s Position

Once you've identified the problem areas use it to build your brand’s position. What can you do to help your customers? For example, Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Think about the qualities or advantages your product or service wants to offer. For example, Apple is positioned to offer easy-to-use technology along with minimal and clean design. Your brand’s position then needs to be consistently involved in all your business decisions.

Step #3. Craft a Tagline & Create a Logo

Now when you know what you want to be or stand for as a business, it is time to bring those elements to life. The colours you choose, the graphics, the font, everything culminates to your brand's personality. Your audience will remember and recognize you from these physical elements. Perhaps you can say this is one of the most important steps. And so, you need to dedicate serious time (and money) in these areas. To make your branding successful, hire the experts, professionals or the best creative agency. They will help you get it all done in the right way. Doing this will also ensure your brand’s identity and personality remains unique.

Step #4. Blend it in Your Business

Your brand’s position and personality now need to be reflected in your brand’s voice. Would it be professional? Friendly? Informative? The way you brand talks will be heard by customers at customer service for instance. You also need to be ready with an “elevator pitch” which is describing what you do in just a couple of sentences. Once you've got your logo and creatives done, seep them into every part of your business. Get your personality visible in advertisements, business cards, coffee mugs, company t-shirts etc. Your brand needs to be seen by your customers and clients.

Step #5. Stick to what You’ve Created

Now that you have all the crucial elements in order, it is time to commit and be consistent with it. Consistency is key to any successful branding effort. Your logo needs to be the same colour, size, font... everywhere. Your voice needs to reverberate the same tone in all your communications. Any inconsistency thereof may confuse your audience. And on the flip side, consistent messaging gives your brand credibility.

On a side note, make sure that you are in the know about your competitors. It is important to know your competitor's strengths and weaknesses. Besides, whatever you do, has to be different than your competitors, right? A successful brand is unique and adds value for the customer. Isn’t it true? Comment or question below!

About the Author

Alice Clarke is content manager and a writer at assignment writing review. She is fond of jogging and writing catching pieces.