Brand identity: All of the pretty things. A brand identity is comprised of the messaging (tone, word choice) and visual elements (logo, colors, font) that consistently represent your organization. Choose your employees wisely. The people who work for you play a key role in creating your brand identity. When employees treat your customers well and provide them with an amazing experience, it reflects positively on your brand. Hire people who are talented, intelligent, friendly, and committed to the success of your business. Customers are happiest when they can easily get the help that they need. According to the customer-based brand equity framework, two general approaches are possible: 1) Expand the depth and/or breadth of brand awareness by improving brand recall and recognition of consumers during purchase or consumption settings; and 2) Improve the strength, favorability and uniqueness of brand associations making up the brand image. This latter approach may involve programs directed at existing or new brand associations.
Now updated from 8 to 10 ways to increase your brand awareness, so you’re all set for an even more successful year!
6 Ways To Refresh Your Brand And Maintain An Identity As A
Now updated from 8 to 10 ways to increase your brand awareness, so you’re all set for an even more successful year! So you want to know how to increase brand awareness? Well, you’re in the right place, especially if you’re working with a limited budget, but need to cut through the noise and stand above your competitors. Mood board: Collect images that convey the feeling that you want people to get when they interact with your brand. Element 6: Brand voice. Writing style doesn’t always jump to mind when thinking of brand identity, but brand voice strongly affects how your audience feels about you. Brand voice guidelines from Skype’s brand book.
So you want to know how to increase brand awareness? Well, you’re in the right place, especially if you’re working with a limited budget, but need to cut through the noise and stand above your competitors.
Besides traditional advertising, what can you do to help put your brand name on everybody’s lips? We’ve compiled ten ideas to get people talking (plus, there are lots more peer-generated ideas for increasing brand awareness over on events industry forum EventTribe).
1. Take to social media
Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat and Whatsapp offer companies a great free-of-charge platform to promote themselves, build their brand and their audience.
Finding the time to feed your profiles and blog can be a challenge but if you’re going to do it you need to be active, which means posting and interacting several times a day. But what to say? Expertise in a particular area can make for a large following. Stay relevant and on-topic and you will garner a valuable and engaged audience.
Don’t forget you need to talk to others to grow your following, which means responding to comments on your social media pages in a timely manner and engaging followers in conversation. No time at all? Check out these 10 tools for automating your social media.
According to research carried out by Hootsuite in December, Starbucks is the best performing brand on social media, closely followed by Chanel, Friskies, and Urban Outfitters. So be sure to check out their activity for inspiration. Then read our guide to mastering social media for tips on how to become social champions too.
2. Hold an event
Whatever type of business you’re in, holding a live event is a great way to get the attention of clients and prospects. This could be a purely social summer barbecue or Christmas party or structured around business development such as the launch of a new product or promotion. You could even run a workshop to share your professional expertise.
Holding a live event gives you valuable ‘face time’ with potential customers and offers the opportunity for them to experience the look, feel and personality of your brand. You can always adopt a theme to add interest, such as a 1920s cocktail evening or a vintage tea party. Consider raising funds for charity at your event – it’s the perfect way to give back as you get.
3. Launch a PR campaign
Gaining press coverage is essentially like getting free advertising. But it’s actually better than that because editorial has more credibility and is more likely to convince potential new customers to check you out. The hard part is coming up with a newsworthy angle, and this will depend on whether you’re targeting local or national media, print, TV or radio.
Perhaps you have a great personal story to tell about why you started your business, maybe you’ve launched a unique new product or have identified an interesting sales trend? Conducting surveys in your specialist field and publishing the results can offer a credible line for journalists or why not try a spot of responsive PR, looking out for relevant journalist requests you can respond to?
Another top tip is to search Twitter for opportunities using the following hashtags: #pressrequest or #journorequest.
4. Exhibit yourself
Exhibiting can be a highly effective way to showcase your brand to hundreds of people in your target market. However, it can be expensive, so you’ll need to prepare carefully to ensure you realise the best return on investment. It’s not always a case of ‘build it and they will come’, you need to go further to attract people to your stand – and keep them there long enough to discover your brand and absorb your message.
Organising a competition or giveaway is a great way to attract attention. Who doesn’t like getting something for nothing? Quirky or useful branded gifts such novelty items that can be passed on to the kids, or food and drink, will always be well received. A promotional tote bag is another good idea – turning your recipients into walking billboards. If you’re not sure where to start, check out this advice on how to do brand activation at events.
5. Join forces with another business
There’s power in numbers – if you can identify other businesses targeting the same kind of customer like you, but not directly competing there’s an opportunity to join forces for mutual benefit.
For example if you’re a florist you can offer an exclusive discount for customers of the local bridal shop. For you, it’s a great way to attract new customers. For the established business it’s a way to reward their customers at no expense and with virtually no effort.
6. Sponsor something
Sponsorship of an event or product is another proven way to reach a target audience and increase brand awareness. Sponsoring an event can entitle your company to exclusive face-to-face time with attendees as well as overt branding opportunities.
But choose wisely – what you choose to sponsor should be relevant to your target market and ‘on message’. Be sure to steer clear of any PR disasters – Nestlé’s sponsorship of a health conference in 2014 led to the event being canceled after senior NHS figures urged a boycott over the food and beverage company’s promotion of infant formula in the developing world.
To help you make the right sponsorship choice visit Sponsormonster, a free to use service which matches potential corporate sponsors with sponsorship opportunities that meet their marketing criteria.
7. Organise an experiential stunt
For companies targeting consumers, there’s no better way to raise brand awareness than getting out on the street and engaging with potential customers.
Experiential campaigns can work for both B2B and B2C companies too.
From a pop-up on the street to hiring performance artists, organising a flash mob to engaging people with VR headsets, the only limit is your imagination. And if you’re not sure where to start, why not check out these 23 examples.
8. Invest in promotional merchandise
Small corporate gifts are a great way to thank customers for their business and reinforce your brand at the same time. You can provide branded pens for pennies and it will put your company name and contact details at your customers’ fingertips for months to come.
But don’t scrimp too much, cheap and cheerful can be a false economy. There’s no point giving a really cheap pen which is going to run out of ink really quickly – not only will your brand exposure be short-lived, giving low-quality items reflects badly on your company.
The more creative you can be with your gifts the better. Something unusual or personalised will delight the recipient and may lead to them posting about the gift on social media, earning your brand extra glory.
9. Tap into the power of video
6 Ways To Refresh Your Brand And Maintain An Identity Essay
Video marketing has continued to rise in popularity, with Facebook Live video now reportedly at 8 billion daily views, outstripping even YouTube’s massive 5 billion views per day.
With stats like that, the chances are your target audience is at least occasionally watching videos online, and with social networks competing for video views, they’re giving more prominence to video as a format on their platforms.
This means if you can great video content for your brand, there’s a good chance that a) you’ll have an audience that wants to watch it and b) the social networks will be happier to show it to their users.
10. Try content marketing
The idea of content marketing has been around for a number of years now, but there are still large numbers of businesses who haven’t jumped onto the trend yet. The benefits are numerous, from increasing organic search traffic, to generating more leads, to shortening the sales cycle, to becoming a thought leader in your industry.
If you’re looking to build brand awareness, then blogging regularly could be a tactic that works as well for you as it has for thousands of other businesses who are already actively content marketing.
In conclusion
These are just 10 ways to build your brand awareness! With a little imagination and an understanding of your customer, the sky (and your budget) is the limit when it comes to getting in front of your target audience this year.
Many entrepreneurs and owners believe that a company's ' is simply the company's name and . That's not true, of course: A brand is more than just its underlying company's name and logo.
Yet, it's also true that that a name andbusiness logo are key ambassadors for a brand, so it's important that both be strong.
Related: Top 10 Reasons to Rebrand Your Business (Infographic)
Your company's own brand is the sum total of the experiences your customers and prospects have with your company. A good brand communicates what your company does and how it does it. A good brand also establishes trust and credibility with your prospects and customers. And because a brand evolves over time, many companies, including some of the most successful ones, rebrand.
You may have noticed recent rebrands by Dunkin' Donuts, Weight Watchers, Uber,Unilever and others. That's why it's worthwhile to look closely at why companies rebrand and what your own company should know to successfully rebrand your business. When should a company even consider rebranding? Here are ways you can know when the time is right.
Companies should rebrand to better differentiate from the competition.
If your company name is generic and similar to that of other businesses, you’re hurting your brand. A generic logo will similarly hurt your brand. A related problem occurs when you use stock art in your or materials: You may be hurting your brand because everyone recognizes stock art when they see it; and those photos may turn up being used by your competitors.
This is where rebranding comes in: It can help your business stand out from your competitors' by showcasing the things that make your company different and better.
Even the best companies change their brand identity. For example, did you know that started with the name 'Backrub' or that started out as 'Andersen Consulting'? It's not unusual for a company to outgrow its name and look for a fresh, unique business name that can help grow its business. Maybe it's time that your company do the same.
Companies should rebrand to give new life to outdated branding.
It's possible that your Comic Sans font, flash-based website or 1990s color palette is dragging your brand down and making your business look outdated. What are you going to do? The answer is 'rebrand,' something even the most successful businesses do, as seen from the various iterations of the logo:
Smart companies rebrand because they know that good design can make or break a business, because they know they've outgrown their original mission. Maybe your business started off selling personalized t-shirts, but now you want to add customized coffee mugs. If your branding revolves around t-shirts, customers won't know that they can look to you for mugs, too.
This is a common problem,. and we always advise clients to make sure their business name is not too narrow or literal.
Related: 5 Signs It's Time to Rebrand Your Company
Companies should rebrand to outgrow their poor reputation.
Uber's recent brand overhaul was necessary to break ties with its bad reputation and visibly demonstrate a commitment to a new, improved culture. If your business is struggling to overcome a negative reputation, a rebrand can help consumers see you in a fresh new light.
Companies should rebrand when their business evolves.
Sometimes, a business gets the opportunity to expand or target a new market. When that happens, it's important to ensure that your new customers and prospects can connect with your brand. That's what happened with Pabst Blue Ribbon, a low-price U.S. beer popular with fraternities and hipsters. China’s version of PBR -- the stately sounding Pabst Blue Ribbon 1844 -- sells for$44 a bottle!
This happened because Pabst saw a chance to re-market itself to the Chinese craft beer market -- a market unaware of its budget reputation in the United States. By doing its homework, Pabst expanded into a new demographic and significantly grew its business.
6 things your company needs to know to rebrand successfully
1. Start by understanding your mission and values. Before you rebrand, it's crucial that you clearly understand your company's mission and values. Consider and assess what makes your company special. Why does your company exist, and what values does it have that are essential?
2. Develop a rebranding strategy that works with your existing branding. Many companies don't have the luxury of starting from a clean slate. If you're doing a partial rebrand, make sure to take the existing brand assets into account. BrandExtract, a branding firm with over a century of experience,explained why consistent branding is important, saying:
A consistent brand helps increase the overall value of your company by reinforcing your position in the marketplace, attracting better quality customers with higher retention rates and raising the perceived value of your products or services …. In contrast, erratic,
inconsistent behavior quickly leads to confusion and mistrust.
3. Consider the market and your competition. Before you rebrand, do your due diligence. Research what your competition does. Determine how you stand apart from your competitors, and what your true is. It's vital that your new brand be fresh and relevant, but not so of-the-moment that it ends up looking dated too quickly.
4. Collaborate with your team. Your brand may be one of your most important company assets, but just as valuable are the people that help grow your business every day. Include voices from across your company: Some of the best ideas and most valuable feedback come from departments you might not expect.
5. Manage the rebrand carefully. A rebrand is often a complex and lengthy endeavor. Without a careful plan of attack and a well-managed process, the rebrand can quickly go off the rails. Set deadlines and mitigate going down those pesky rabbit holes with a well thought-out project plan.
6. Launch your rebrand and tell the world. Even the most incredible rebrand is wasted if you never actually launch it. Make sure you plan your rebrand launch and be prepared to explain why you rebranded. Minimize the risk of customer confusion through a carefully planned launch that showcases the story behind the rebrand.
Related: Dunkin' Donuts Announces Big Rebrand. 3 Things to Know Today.
A rebrand is a declaration of your company’s commitment to upward growth. Change is never easy, but sometimes, as the song goes, a change will do you good.