Building Successful Brands
Okay, before we get stuck in. If your reading this I am guessing you're either a business owner, want to start a business or looking to improve on your marketing skills. If this is true then you’re in the right place, my friend.
By the time you finish this short article, you will have a better understanding of why building a brand is paramount, the elements of branding and establish a starting point in order for you to build a successful brand. Sound good?
Let's begin…..
“It takes 20 years to build a reputable brand and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you will do things differently” Warren Buffet
What is a brand?
Branding, by definition, is a marketing practice in which a company creates a name, symbol or design that is easily identifiable as belonging to the company. This helps to identify a product and distinguish it from other products and services.
Why is building a brand important?
Branding is the true difference-maker in most businesses, good branding alone could bring in more customers than you could imagine. Bad branding can destroy your life's work in less than a day (slight exaggeration). It separates you from everyone else in the marketplace, it allows you to position your self as the preeminent player while leaving a memorable impression on what to expect from your company. Your brand is a true representation of who you are and how you wished to be perceived. Those of you who have a business and have neglected your branding have neglected your biggest asset, those of you who are looking to start their business should focus most of your attention to this single area. An ability to establish great branding creates recognition, increases your value, generates new customers, improves employee pride and satisfaction and creates trust within the marketplace. I can not stress this enough, BRANDS ARE KEY.
Starting
How do I start?
Start with why. Why did you join, start or create this business? Ask your self what does company “x” actually mean to you. For example, one of my companies “Ads4lawyers” is a marketing agency which deals with Law firms exclusively and prides its self on being the most knowledgable and results-driven company in the industry. In order to showcase this, I must demonstrate consistently that we are the best at what we do. Hence why I am sat here on a Wednesday night, with a black coffee to hand, demonstrating why branding is crucial. Your starting point is simply to ask the right questions.
1.Why did you start on this journey?
2. What differentiates you?
3.Who are your competitors?
4.What problem does your company solve?
5.What are the functional benefits that you deliver to your customers?
6.What are the emotional benefits that only you deliver to your customers?
7.What kind of personality will your brand have?
These are just some of the basic questions you must answer to gain a good starting point. I have created a basic template in order to help anyone who truly wants to make their brand better. Simply message me on Instagram @deepak_digwa or message @ads4lawyers to gain access to this.
Now that you have an understanding of why branding is important and have somewhat of an idea on how to start. Let's look at some of the elements required and exactly how to execute this.
Elements
Quick disclaimer, I do not expect everyone to understand what is mentioned below, but this is not supposed to be easy or a 2-hour job. To get really good at this, it takes time, constant attention and eagerness to learn. The rewards for this are limitless, on the flip side neglecting this is detrimental.
First, you must establish a brand identity. Brand identity consists of twelve dimensions organised around four perspectives, the brand as a product (product, scope, product attributes, quality/value, uses, users, country of origin).
Brand as an organisation (organisational attributes, local versus global)
Brand as-person (brand personality, brand-customer relationships)
And Brand as a symbol (visual imagery/metaphors and brand heritage)
Although, you must consider Brand identity traps, Brand image traps, Brand position traps, product attribute fixation traps and external perspective traps. While considering the value propositions, for instances functional benefits, emotional benefits and self-expressive benefits.
Okay, who am I kidding, 99% of you will have been completely thrown off or are still trying to google some of the terms. At this point in your journey, you are not expected to know these things. But imagine, if you were able to maximise all these elements and create a brand which throws all competition out of the water. A company which stands head and shoulders above everyone. Ads4lawyers is now becoming this type of business and the biggest problems we are facing is deciding between which client we want to work with and who is the best for fit for us. Aint that refreshing to hear, a business that has too many clients.
Here is a list of books for you to start reading, this will provide a solid foundation to start.
- How to build strong brands (David A.AAKER)
- Building a brand story (Donald Miller)
- The 22 immutable laws of branding ( Al Ries)
- Unconscious Branding ( Douglas van Praet)
ps. my favourite is… How to build strong brands.
Execution
Finally, execution. “Ever heard the saying there are plenty of educated idiots”?
Don't be that person.
You may have all the knowledge in the world but if you don't act you will not achieve. In all honesty, as much as I love marketing and creating brands and businesses. Writing articles at night is not exactly on my highlight reels, but I take action because I practise what I preach.
There are many areas to develop your branding, for instance, advertising, customer service, your logo, your products and your reputation. But I find the most effective way to achieve this is through social media marketing.
I am a visual learner and I would be doing the industry a disservice, by trying to explain exactly what to do step by step. As frankly, you are a human and will retain less information in comparison to having an expert showing you over video on how to do it. So being the generous nerd that I am, I have provided you with some of the mentors which have helped me personally. Dive straight in and get to terms with social media marketing.
- Tai Lopez (SMMA course)
- Gary Vaynerchuck ( especially his books)
- Andrew Stickel (Specialises in the legal industry)
- Neil Patel (one of the originals)
- Jordan Platten (youtube videos)
- There are many more but here is just a few in particular which have helped me.
Right, now that you have an understanding of why branding is important, a brief understanding of how to start, a taste of the depth of the elements and will be guided by the best to ever do it through following the mentors. You are now ready to start building your brand.
This brief article doesn’t intend to teach you everything, it acts as a starting point for all those who want to improve their branding and look at the bigger picture.
My Coffee is now finished and that is my cue to go.
If you require one to one help from my self, contact “deepak_digwa” on Instagram or call 07432019453.
If you're in the legal industry please contact “ads4lawyers” on Instagram or email me at deepak@ads4lawyers.co.uk.
Thank you for spending 5 minutes with me.
