Imagine that you no longer rely on running sales-oriented campaigns to sell your products; People willingly buy them and spontaneously introduce them to others.
The dream of every business is to reach this stage one day. A stage where a part of the marketing of their products is done by people and they don’t spend all their money on persuading them to buy. In this case, they will have more time and money to focus on other sectors; They can expand the portfolio, improve their internal processes or design more targeted campaigns to retain their existing customers.
To realize this dream, your brand and product must become the queen of the audience’s mind and reach a stable position among them. This is possible only with branding strategy and brand building. In this article, we will explain to you what branding means and how to go through the steps of branding successfully.
What is branding?
Branding refers to all the actions that businesses take to create a prominent image of their product, service and collection in the minds of the audience. This strategy gives companies a human identity – with their own behavioral and appearance characteristics – and forms a sensory connection between them and customers.
Note: The stages of branding a product are different; Because when branding a product, you place a specific product at the tip of the arrow of all advertising and marketing campaigns; But in corporate branding, a wide range of products and services are included in the name of the provider company.
First, let’s review the steps of branding and then how to implement product branding.
Build a successful brand in 9 steps
It is not possible to build a brand overnight and you may need to spend years and money on it; But wherever you are along the way, one small mistake can destroy everything you’ve built and send you back to square one. In the worst case, you will forever lose your support and standing among the people.
To avoid this happening, you need to build your strategy on a solid foundation and take the initial steps of the branding process correctly. In this case, you will build a strong brand that will be resistant to any earthquake and will not be destroyed easily.
Therefore, let’s go to the introduction of branding steps:
1. Determine the purpose of your business
Every successful brand has a strong and focused purpose. This goal always forms the basis of business efforts and activities, does not allow it to deviate from the right path, and affects the attitude of customers, employees and the market towards it.
If you are confused about your goal, use Simon Sinek’s golden circle and answer the following three questions:
- What: What features does your product or business have? And what value does it offer to the customer?
- How: How can you be different from your competitors? What is your competitive advantage and point of differentiation compared to them? And why should people pay attention to you?
- Why: Why was this collection formed? And what problem does he want to solve?
2. Know your competitors
By knowing your competitors, you will understand your position in the market and where you need to reach; Also, you will discover your points of distinction and strength and you can maneuver on them to convince the audience. To do this, first check the following questions:
- Which companies are your main competitors?
- What successes and failures have they had?
- What are the characteristics of their products?
- What are customers and web users saying about them?
- What offline and online channels do they use for their marketing?
Enter the data you get into a table and make a comparison between them and the information in your collection. Which customer concerns are neglected in this market that your product can answer?
3. Determine your target audience
Your entire business revolves around your audience; Your mission and message will be determined by his behaviors, needs and lifestyle. It is not possible to consider all the people and the market as our customers and to satisfy all of them; So you have to choose a market segment.
Consider different brands of dishwashing liquid. They have the same product; But each of them has focused on a different segment of the society:
- With the slogan “It smells clean” and the character of Aunty, Dorto has chosen people who care about the cleanliness and shine of the dishes.
- With the slogan “paraben-free”, Ash goes to consumers who are concerned about their health and avoid chemicals and toxic substances.
- Peril also says: “Just one drop is enough” and there are users who value the product for whom it is a priority.
You can create your ideal audience. Ask yourself who you want to be your customer and what characteristics and behavioral habits this person has. Then, based on this persona, formulate your marketing strategies.
So far, you have learned about the 3 stages of branding. The continuation of the path is tied to the correct completion of these 3 steps; Therefore, we recommend you spend a little obsession and do not skip them.
4. Define your mission and vision
Having a clear vision and mission will help you make the right decisions and define more targeted and effective processes.
- Vision:
In a long-term goal perspective, you define a dream or an ideal future that you want to achieve one day. This goal can be ideal and emotional. For example, Disneyland has defined its vision as follows:
May all people be happy
Vision motivates employees to work harder and perform better and makes them committed to their work.
- Mission:
Mission refers to the things you are doing and should ultimately lead you to your vision. In other words, the mission specifies how and by doing what you will achieve your vision.
Let’s go back to Disneyland again; The company’s mission is defined as “entertaining, informing and inspiring people around the world with the power of storytelling, creativity and new technologies”. The mission of this collection can be clearly seen in its products, services and advertisements, and all of them end with its vision of making the audience happy.
5. Find your brand voice
The voice and tone of the brand determines the way it communicates with customers. Your voice evokes the personality of your business; A kind, witty or powerful and serious character. This voice should be consistent in all media; In such a way that when a user sees your content or advertisement, your personality is formed in his mind. Just like when we call our friend with an unknown number and he recognizes us from the voice.
To find the sound of your collection, make a list of its features; how old are you? Do you like adventure? Or are you very kind and caring and constantly participate in charity events?
Among these features, you should specify the tone of this character’s conversation in different channels. Does he tell his stories to clients on Instagram and teach the audience educational tips on LinkedIn?
For this voice and tone of your choice, prepare a document of your brand’s personality traits, words, sentences and suitable scenarios and provide it to different departments of the organization.
6. Create your character’s message and story
Creating the message and story of your character is considered one of the stages of branding, which has a lot of ambition. Your company story should be a coherent and emotional narrative of a hero, and its content should include the following:
- What type of personality does this person have?
- How did the initial idea form in his mind?
- What challenges has he faced to bring the collection to the current point?
- What feelings has he experienced in facing different situations?
In the end, this hero tells the message of the story and explains what he learned from all these ups and downs.
One can take the story of the TOMS brand as an example, which all started from a trip to Argentina; Where Blake Micosi encountered children who had no shoes. In the same trip, Blake decided to establish a company that would not only benefit him, but also help the poor; So for every pair of shoes that Toms sold, a pair was given to a child. It’s not bad to know that they gave away 100 million shoes to needy people by 2020.
7. Create the visual identity of the business
What visual elements and graphic elements do you want customers to recognize you with? At this stage, you create the face of your identity by designing the following components:
- logo;
- selected color palette;
- typography and font;
- Photography style and images.
These elements should be used in all parts of your business; From the website, social pages, online ads and videos to brochures, printed banners and reports.
8. Do an integration
Reflect your brand identity and image in everything you expect customers to see, read or hear. for example:
- In the store, he will see your logo and corporate color, hear your voice and participate in your mission.
- can read your vision, mission and story on the site; Also, let him see your visual elements in front of him and find out your tone by reading the content.
9. Stay steady
We shared with you all the stages of branding; But always pay attention to one important issue:
You should be loyal to the concepts and characteristics of your brand and not change them constantly. This inconsistency confuses your customers and makes branding more difficult each time.
Your employees also play an essential role in this stability. The manner of chats, telephone or face-to-face conversations, content creation and process implementation, all reflect the company’s culture and identity. If the customer receives a different message in each part, he will be confused; For this reason, harmonizing and bringing them together is considered an important part of the branding and stability stages:
- Create guidelines for your branding process and distribute them internally. Every employee should use it as a reference for evaluation while performing their duties.
- When hiring employees, make sure they fit the culture of the organization. Familiarize the new recruits with the mission, vision and values of the group.
- Encourage company employees in various ways to align with brand concepts.
The branding process is over; But for product branding, what steps should we go through? First, let’s see how product branding differs from corporate branding, and then we’ll go through the steps.
The difference between product branding and corporate branding
There are similarities between product branding and corporate branding; But there are many differences between them that cannot be ignored.
Corporate branding – as the name suggests – involves the entire business and does not focus on a specific product that you offer. In fact, every piece of your business puzzle is important; So a small problem in any part of your business can damage your brand.
If your customers are not satisfied with a product, your brand will be questioned; Even if you have 10 pure products! On the other hand, good customer service can increase your credibility and reputation.
But in product branding, the branding strategy is formed around a specific product instead of the entire company. To better understand the difference between the two, let us ask you a question:
Did you know that apart from soft drinks, Pepsi also produces other products such as chips, orange juice and breakfast cereals?
However, these products are separated from Pepsi’s core product; Because each brand offers something different and is focused on a specific product.
Pay attention to the difference between organizational branding and product branding; Because each of them pursues a different goal. Branding a product allows you to branch out to provide services to customers who are not in your main target audience group and promote several different lines with a specific product.
Among the other benefits of product branding, it can be mentioned that it makes it easy for the consumer to make a decision about purchasing the product; Because he is no longer faced with many and different choices.
In other words, the consumer knows what problem he has and what product he is looking for to solve it. Even in specific product categories, the product brand conveys the message to the customer that you are the best option.
For example, in food products, branding a particular product around health and wellness separates that product from unhealthy foods.
Now you are ready to review the steps of branding a product together in the last part of this article.
How to implement product branding
When you offer a wide range of products, it is difficult to respond to the needs of different groups; But in product branding, you target a specific group and you can easily communicate with all target customer groups with the right strategy.
For product branding, follow the steps below:
1. Goal setting
Before you start branding your product, it is very important to define your purpose. Which customer need do you want to solve? Is there a similar product on the market? You can’t build a strong brand until you know exactly what your product is and who it’s for.
2. market research
After you have a good understanding of your product, you should move on to market research. You should get enough knowledge about your customers and competitors at this stage. In fact, you need to make sure that your target audience chooses your product.
That’s why at this stage, you find out what your target audience wants. Check out their reviews of similar products and see what they like about that product. In other words, what made them choose this product. On the other hand, you should know what they consider when buying a product and on what basis they make a decision.
Additionally, see what other brands are operating in your target market and how they have succeeded.
3. Determining brand identity
You already know what your product is and who you are going to target; So it’s time to identify it.
First of all, you need to define the brand name. Choosing a name is a difficult, complicated and time-consuming process. When choosing a name, pay attention to your target audience and make sure that your choice is attractive to them.
The second step is logo design. A logo is a very important element that should be kept simple. Too much complexity of the logo leads to not conveying the message. The logo should clearly show what the product does.
In the next step, specify the assignment of the color palette. You must know what colors to use to attract the attention of the target audience. Your color palette should match what you’re presenting.
Finally, you should think about the design and shape of the product packaging. Of course, if you don’t have a physical product, you don’t need to worry about this part.
Simple things like the shape of the bottle or the materials used make your brand identity stand out. For example, using recyclable materials in packaging can be a clear indication of your values.
4. Advertising
everything is ready? What is your plan to attract customers? In fact, it is at this stage that you should think about creating and increasing brand awareness, attracting interested customers and ultimately, sales.
Marketing and advertising campaigns help you to be seen and known. Don’t stick to frameworks to attract more audience attention.
Of course, pay attention to the fact that you must offer the same thing in all channels; Integrity is important here, just like what we said in the steps of corporate branding.
Branding will be the stepping stone of your business
When you build a successful brand for your business, your products will find a stable place among people and you will be introduced to others through word of mouth advertising. In this situation, you will have more time and money to develop other departments and you can be more creative. That’s why you should take branding seriously.
In this article, we got acquainted with this strategy and explained the stages of corporate branding as well as the stages of branding a product. These steps form the foundations of your brand and you need to build them correctly to create a strong and resistant identity against various challenges.
Have you missed anything? Share it with us in the comments section.
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