BRANDING
A Guide to Building a Winning Brand
If you have a business you have the opportunity to build a winning brand!
Winning brands are the obsession-worthy brands. They have effectively communicated their purpose, and won over their audience to a fan level status.
Think Nike, Starbucks, Uber, etc.
Have you ever wondered why? What makes their brand so popular with its audience? Why do people choose them when there's a perfectly good product right next to it that's even cheaper or may even look better?
Well, to put it simply they have a winning brand.
They have established their brand's purpose, created an intentional experience for their audience, and effectively solved their audience's problems both on a functional and emotional level.
Let's talk about how you can take your business and build it into a winning brand.
Your Brand is About Your Audience...
The core foundation of every business exists to serve its audience.
That's why you sell that product or service. At the end of the day, your company is there to sell to your audience and ultimately solve a problem for them to make money and do it all over again.
When it comes to your brand you must get in the mindset that it is there to create a stellar experience for your audience. By stepping into this mindset you begin to make decisions for your brand that will change the trajectory of your business. When your audience is served well by your brand at every touchpoint, they begin to level up to that fan status creating a winning brand.
Let's use Starbucks for example. They know their target audience and they have done an amazing job at creating successful touchpoints.
Let's dive into touchpoints for a moment. This is any area that your audience comes in contact with your brand. From the chairs and tables, they sit at, to the employee they speak with, it needs to be intentional.
Back to Starbucks, if you've ever been to a location you've seen the minimal coffee shop vibe to the customized ordering process. They have successfully coined their cup size as a differentiating factor from other coffee shops simply adding to the customer experience.
It's all about the customers' experience! If Starbucks had done things differently and decided to make their coffee shop with a Tuscan theme because the owner liked that decor best then Starbucks would not be the successful brand it is today.
By understanding what their audience would respond to best, what would get them through the doors, and what would keep them there day in and day out has allowed Starbucks to scale to the winning brand that continues its success around the world.
Branding the Customer Expereince...
One of the key factors we walk through with our clients is branding the customer experience.
This takes us back to those touchpoints we talked about above. When you begin branding the customer experience you're able to create a unique experience that sets your company apart from the competition.
This branded experience is there to help you stand out and build brand awareness. Having a branded experience allows customers who come in contact with your brand either on social media, driving down the road, or walking into your business they are then able to recognize it as your brand.
Here are our favorite ways to create a branded customer experience.
First, it's so important to walk yourself along with your team through the customer's experience to find the unique areas you're able to add intentional branding.
The best example of this is Disney World. Disney has one of the most successful business models in the world and a major element of their success is its brand experience.
When you come in contact with Disney you are automatically met with a world chalk-full of intentional decisions to make your experience the best possible.
As a customer, you may not recognize the immense amount of intentionality behind their brand but when you look a bit closer you begin to notice just how detailed it is.
At Disney, you'll never see a character with its head off...no seriously, the characters in the big costumes like Mickey Mouse or Tigger will never break character and will not be seen in anything less than their full costume.
Why?
Because Disney doesn't want the magic to be ruined for its customers.
This is one out of the many intentional decisions behind this amazing companies brand experience.
As you can see the small details matter and when you hone into them you're setting your brand up for success and the ability to stand out within your industry.
Once you've mapped out your customer's experience make notes of how to create intentional brand experiences at every touchpoint.
It can be as simple as your email sign-off. Here at Dear Brunch, we sign off with "Cheers" because we want our clients to feel like they are talking with a friend over brunch to make work feel a little less like work throughout their day.
Make it custom to your brand by staying true to the tone and style set out in your brand strategy. It's important you create a sense of consistency within each touchpoint.
Retention is Key...
Once you've branded the customer experience you're not done yet.
There's one last important element to this puzzle which is retention.
Ask yourself, once your customer has bought from you or a customer has shown interest, how are you continuously serving them in a way that brings them back?
Retention is key because this is where you're able to nurture the customer-brand relationship.
We like to think of this part in dating terms. If you go out with someone once what would make you want to go out with them again. If they never talked you, never communicated, or have anything to offer you in terms of what you're looking for then you're probably never going to see them again, right?
BUT if they go the extra mile to make you feel seen, heard, and understood. Communicate with you in an intentional way, and offer something meaningful to your life then you're most likely going to see them again.
It's the same with your customer-brand relationship. Once a customer buys from you or shows interest you know they are looking for what you have to offer which opens the door to building a relationship that serves them well and leads them to become a raving fan of your brand.
Building a winning brand is something that takes time and is something that can always be improved. Want to dive deeper into how you can build a winning brand?
If so, let's chat
