You are thinking of going into business? Still deciding on whether you want to go into retail or more of a service-oriented business? I am sure it must be a scary experience because you have been used to the structure of an 8am to 5pm job and are clueless about whether or not you have an entrepreneur’s streak within you. People get into entrepreneurship for many reasons, the most common being financial freedom, flexible work hours and just that exciting feeling of being your own boss. Entrepreneurship is definitely for those with a brave heart.
Brand building is a process you undertake to communicate the value of your product or service to customers. It is quite an intense, thought-provoking process that, if pursued well, can ensure a successful launch of your product or service in the market. The truth of the matter is that people love brands that they can emotionally connect with. This means that in the brand-building process, you have to think about how your product or service will make people feel better. What is its overall benefit to your consumers? How will their lives change for the better?
One essential benefit of brand-building is that it builds confidence in your customers with regards to your product or service quality. This is done through the process of product recognition and identification to determine the value that you envision to create when your customers purchase or rather, experience your product or service.
Brand building is a strategy that you need to implement whether you are launching a small business or a large business. It is the determining factor in creating brand loyalty and ensuring that you successfully compete with other similar brands in the market. When you are brand-building, you need to do market research to find the gaps in the market and how your product can be able to fill those gaps. An effective brand-building strategy will ensure that you are soaring into profitability.
Case Study
When Kate started exercising and keeping fit, she began to think about a business idea. This was largely through her experience whereby she was always in search of fitness accessories to make her feel more comfortable when she was exercising. She thought that there was a huge gap because it would take her a lot of trouble to find feminine accessories in the market.
Kate thought to herself that it would be a great idea to start an online business selling fitness accessories for women. She had tucked away some savings over the past couple of years and perhaps this was the ideal time for her to launch her own business on a part-time basis. She started researching on the best strategies that she could consider in launching her business. Since Kate is a techy, she loved the idea of purchasing project management software that had awesome features such as Task Management for marketers.
She felt that procuring the software would help her manage her online business and start earning profits. Kate had already engaged a supplier in China who had sent her samples of some of the accessories that she was interested in selling and she ascertained that they were of good quality. She was ready for this new venture.
Kate made her first purchase of accessories and her intention was to sell the products online by creating a Facebook page where she would simply post the pictures and prices of accessories. She called the business page Kate Fitness Accessories.
Kate started posting pictures of her products. However, in the first four weeks, she had just made ten sales which was something she did not understand. She rarely used the project management software and started doubting whether she had made a good business decision.
If you were Kate what would you do? Well this is an ideal situation where you would have to consider going back to the drawing board and start with the basics of brand-building. Here some insightful tips you need to consider if you want your new business to be a success:
You need to define your brand
It does not matter what you are selling, be it a service or a product you need to define its character. As earlier stated, you need to create that emotional connection between your brand and customers. Therefore market research is your friend as it gives you great insights into the gaps in the market and also an analysis of your customers’ emotional and rational needs that you can tap into when launching your product or service.
Put a face behind your brand
You need to build the character of your brand, what values does it have? How will people recognize your brand? What does your brand stand for?
Create strong relationships with your customers through honest branding
It is never wise for you to raise the expectations of your customers beyond the reality of what your product or service quality is. Trust is a key principle in business and one way to build is by being honest about the qualities of your brand.
Be consistent when you are communicating about your brand
You have to let customers know exactly what they should expect from your product or service and this has to be consistent across the board.
Create a mystery behind your brand
Especially when you are launching a new product or service, do not be quick to blurt out everything about it. Create some mystery, get people talking about it and trying to figure out the pieces of the puzzle.
Brand-building strategies can create success for your business if you are able to clearly communicate to your customers the value of your brand and consistently demonstrate what it stands for. It is also important to note that brand building is a continuous journey highly dependent on market needs.
About the Author
Selina Jenkins is working with Chicago SEO, as an expert. This revolves around marketing and customer services on various social media platforms. She has gained enough experience and written many articles on customer services including this very elaborate piece. To read more, visit the website.
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