{"id":4158,"date":"2018-05-02T13:38:28","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T17:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/?p=4158"},"modified":"2019-06-20T14:08:45","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T18:08:45","slug":"why-branding-is-key-to-success-7-elements-of-a-strong-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/why-branding-is-key-to-success-7-elements-of-a-strong-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Branding is Key to Success: 7 Elements of a Strong Brand"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In a competitive small business environment, it\u2019s not enough just to have a phenomenal product or service. Your widgets may be the best widgets east of the Continental Divide, but without a compelling and consistent brand, longstanding success will be hard to come by. Yet \u201chaving a strong brand\u201d is one of those concepts that, while every entrepreneur knows it\u2019s important, for many the details are fuzzy.<\/p>\n

What goes into a brand, and why is having a strong brand marketing strategy critical to a venture\u2019s success? A simple way to think about your brand is that it\u2019s how people perceive your company. A brand elicits emotion, often subconscious. And it\u2019s your business\u2019s job to craft a strong brand strategy to tell your customers–and a world full of potential customers–how to feel about you. When they see your logo, hear your name, or read a tweet, it will bring up a picture of what kind of company you are.<\/p>\n

These seven elements of a strong brand<\/strong> will help you cultivate a strong, positive brand image to tell the world the right story.<\/p>\n

     1. Purpose-driven.<\/strong> A strong brand knows what it is–and what it isn\u2019t. Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, it knows its purpose and mission, and spends all of its energy working toward being exactly what it was designed to be and solving the specific problems it was designed to solve.<\/p>\n

     2. Unique.<\/strong> Good brands know their value proposition and can quickly articulate how they stand out from the competition. They don\u2019t jump into an over-saturated market and ride on the coattails of existing brands–rather, they distinguish themselves through a brand message that frequently references the particular functions and features that set them apart–above and beyond.<\/p>\n

     3. Knows its target market.<\/strong> A thriving brand is acutely tuned in to who is most likely to buy their product or use their service. All brand messages are designed to appeal to this carefully researched market. It\u2019s OK if a brand doesn\u2019t appeal to people who are quite unlikely to become a customer.<\/p>\n

     4. Stays on-brand at all times.<\/strong> Strong brands must clearly and consistently communicate who they are (both features and personality) in every single <\/em>official communication from the brand itself. This definitely doesn\u2019t mean a brand has to be overly serious–unless that\u2019s part of its brand personality! That also means its OK to be funny, clever, or cheeky, but only<\/em> if a brand calls for it. This means every press release, memo, tweet, and Instagram post need to be considered through the lens of the brand\u2019s personality, and every brand representative needs to be acutely aware of when and how they represent the brand across all marketing, PR, customer service, and social media.<\/p>\n

     5. Authentic.<\/strong> Brands that stand the test of time don\u2019t try to be something that they\u2019re not. While this is similar to being purpose-driven, it\u2019s more nuanced. Being authentic means that not only does a brand stringently define who it is (purpose), but it ensures that \u201cwho it is\u201d is really who it is.<\/em><\/p>\n

     6.Thick-skinned.<\/strong> Every brand will get negative feedback, no matter how perfectly that brand is strategized, defined, and executed. Some of the feedback is legitimate, in instances where a brand has made a mistake or needs to right a wrong. Sometimes, \u201chaters are just gonna hate.\u201d Never more so than in the very public realm of social media, a comprehensive branding strategy needs an on-brand plan for managing customer disappointment, responding to negative press and negative feedback, and correcting mistakes.<\/p>\n

     7. Visually striking:<\/strong> Strong brands have a logo and colors that are unique, instantly recognizable, and congruent with the brand personality. And it needs to be visually consistent absolutely everywhere. This type of \u201cpicture\u201d will speak a thousand words about a brand, and any small variation will at best be confusing for customers, and at worst make it look like the business doesn\u2019t take itself seriously.<\/p>\n

Does all of this feel like a tall order? Keep two things in mind while creating and defining your brand. First, hire a professional to help you solidify concepts of your brand<\/strong>–and absolutely hire a professional to <\/strong>select colors and design logos<\/strong><\/a>. This is undeniably an investment in your business\u2019s longevity and bottom line. If you don\u2019t know your brand, you can\u2019t express it. And second, be proactive about controlling the message<\/strong> as your brand launches and grows. In order to maintain consistent control over visuals and messaging, don\u2019t bite off more than you can chew. If resources are thin, a very well done website<\/a> and Facebook presence are far superior to a stew of poorly executed blogs, irregular podcasts, and social media overreach.<\/p>\n

Happy branding!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a competitive small business environment, it\u2019s not enough just to have a phenomenal product or service. Your widgets may be the best widgets east of the Continental Divide, but without a compelling and consistent brand, longstanding success will be hard to come by. Yet \u201chaving a strong brand\u201d is one of those concepts that, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":701,"featured_media":6005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-4158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4158"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7450,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions\/7450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/risbdc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}