How to Create Great Business Brand – The Ultimate Guide

Let’s do an experiment. Close your eye and think of the first word that comes to mind when I say Apple. How about McDonald’s? Prada? If your answers were something like elegance, Happy Meal and luxury, respectively, you understand the power of brand. A brand can create vivid images in your mind of a business. It can also create powerful emotions in people’s brains. No wonder large businesses spend millions in creating and protecting their brands. The brand doesn’t have to be the purview of large companies only. Small business can, and must, do everything in their capacity to cultivate and manage their brand image.

Just what is a brand?

Many people confuse brand with the logo of the company. While name and logo of the company does represent its brand, it is more than just that. A brand also has intangible element to it. It is the image and emotions that it creates in people’s mind, like our experiment in the beginning. In short, a brand is everything that your business stands for.

Cultivating a great brand can create significant value for your business in the long-term, which is why so many companies spend so much time, money and effort in brand engagement. A strong brand builds loyal customers as can be seen in the long lines at Apple Stores when they introduce new products. This makes it very difficult for competitors to get a foothold in your market. A strong brand can also help you increase your sales with word-of-mouth. Finally, a strong brand can add billions of dollars of value on your balance sheet. Don’t believe me? Just go and check out the balance sheet of the companies I mentioned in the first paragraph.

So how do you create a strong brand and manage it to ensure it continues to stand for what your company believes in? You need to take a holistic, multi-prong approach to do that. Here are some tips.

1. Make sure every strategic decision you make considers its impact on the brand. If your company stands for quality do not compromise it just to introduce a new product to the market faster. Similarly, do not lower your price to increase sales if your brand stands for premium. Apple never sells its products at a lower price even if it means losing the market share.
2. Ensure all your customer touchpoints send consistent message about your brand. This includes your products, marketing, customer service and so on. One bad customer experience can hurt your brand. Educate all your employees on what your brand stands for and ask them to take appropriate actions to protect it.
3. Keep your brand in front of your customers through various marketing activities. It is easy for customers to forget about you if they don’t see your brand for some time. Spend money on various marketing activities to keep the brand in front of your customers.
4. Protect your brand by all means. If someone is falsely accusing your company and your brand on social media channels rebut and provide facts to ensure everyone knows what your brand stands for.
5. Finally, be patient and perseverant. Building a brand takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. But all that time and effort is worth it for the long-term viability of your business.

What is your opinion? Which brand do you value the most?