Make sure you have a cohesive brand strategy.
Developing your brand and keeping your everyday efforts in line with your overall brand strategy takes a lot of work. It’s all too common to see brand teams battling with their marketing teams and sales teams because each has their own set of goals to achieve, and each has their own way of getting things done. Long-term planning and execution should coordinate all of these efforts so that they work together — not against each other — to build the brand. That is brand management.
If you want to strengthen your brand identity, start by asking these questions:
01
Who are you, and what do you want people to know about your company and what it offers?
02
What are all of the mediums through which consumers interact with your brand? How is your brand identity similar across mediums? How is it different? Where it is lacking?
03
What can be done today, tomorrow and everyday thereafter to support the brand’s core message and further develop the brand?
Your brand identity is what people think about you — their impressions, attitudes and opinions.Brand identity begins with visual identity, where consumers engage with what they see, such as your logo, print ads and merchandising. But time also needs to be spent on audio identity, where consumers engage with what they hear. Audio identity is a strong component of digital ads, social media, radio, TV, brick and mortar, and more.
Most importantly, your brand identity needs to be consistent. Consistency in branding is how you develop trust and loyalty among your consumer base.It says that you are professional, focused and stable. This means that your messaging, tone and personality has to be identical across all mediums, including print and digital ads, social media, radio, TV, merchandising, point of sale, search, voice search and more. Consistent brand identity and brand development should take place across all mediums — anywhere a consumer can engage with your brand.
Unfortunately, a lot of companies either view this level of detail as a waste of time, or they simply don’t have the expertise to manage it. As a result, the investment they do make in their branding backfires, leading to confusion and undermining their consumers’ trust. They’re also prevented from achieving the level of success their competitors with more unified branding can. Ultimately, a lack of consistency in brand identity leads to a lack of confidence in your consumer base.
At Swizzle, brand identity is what we do. We are a small boutique firm fully committed to helping our clients as they build their brands and drive their message. When you work with us, we will sit down with you and your team to evaluate your brand’s short and long-term goals, and help you set up a strategy to achieve them. Then, we will go through all of your brand’s consumer touch points — one by one — to make sure that each outlet is consistently supporting your core brand goals.
Are you ready to build your brand?
If you want more help developing a unified brand identity, Swizzle is here to make it happen. With our brand management consultation, we can accurately assess the best ways to develop your brand into a unique, authentic identity that increases consumer loyalty while making you stand out from the crowd.
