If you have just started your business or planning to launch a startup, then its best that you get familiar with the term business branding. Branding is a marketing tool, that lets your client recognize your business with, this is the face of your business and it needs to be the best.
Now, don’t worry about not knowing how to start branding the business, this article here will give you five pointers, that will help you kick-start the branding process.
Let’s look at the beginner’s guide to build a brand from the scratch:
1. Simplify your products for the clients
The product/services you are going to provide must have been analyzed thousand times by you but before starting branding find answers to these questions:
- What is this product and what are its qualities?
- Who and why will people care about buying this product?
Once you are clear about the product and buyers, you need to jot down the points that best describe your product in simple terms, keep making it simple but best until people are able to understand it, for this you can talk to your friends and family.
Once all this is done, and you find the best quality of the product that everyone understood, make it your USP and promote it on every platform.
2. Research the competition
The biggest blunder you can make is starting a business without knowing who and what the competition is. You need to thoroughly analyze the market before launching as without this you will just be wasting your time and money.
Here are some points on how to research the competition:
- Direct competitors– if you want to know who is your competitors, just Google the best words that describe your product and look through the results. You will find the competition.
- Offer on products– now find out how are they selling the product? What is their USP and what all offer or special terms are they providing to sell their services?
- Looks-find out how their product looks are there any specific design or some generic design that most of the competition is using. If so avoid that.
- Check reviews- find out what people are saying about the product, this will give you an idea about what to improve.
3. Find the right clientele
After you are done with the above two steps, next step is to identify the target audience. Every product can’t be targeted to every person, so you need to find the right people for your product. Right clientele will help you sell it more and achieve a greater ROI.
Take time figuring this step out as this will help you figure out what the audience cares about and how your product can help them.
4. Finalize a name for the brand and gets it domain
The brand name will be for the long haul, so make it something that is worth your product. So finalize a brand name and get yourself a legal domain so, that your audience can trust you. Here are some tips that will help you with this:
- Relationship with the products: don’t just choose any random name that comes into your mind; select a name that resonates with the quality of your product. Also, make sure the brand name is flexible so that if in the long run, you want to expand your startup, the brand name can cover it like “My Flower Shop”.
- Easy to pronounce and remember: the brand name should be such that people find it easy to pronounce and spell. So make it effective by keeping it simple and short so it’s also easy to remember.
- Check trademarks: brand name is unique so make sure that your brand is not similar or used by someone else. Checking trademarks will help you in this and keep you safe from any legal issues.
- The name should be available on the social media: social media is a must platform to promote your business so make sure before finalizing a name that it is available on the social media.
5. Create a story and visual identity for your brand
Every new employee and customer would like to know more about your brand, so have a story about- Who as a brand you are, how you did achieve the success and what you care about that you designed this product. Also, let people know the aim and vision you have for the future of your brand.
This makes a personal connection with the consumers so don’t skip this step. Now after all this, it’s time to give a visual identity to your brand which can be given by having a logo that symbolizes its quality, a tagline, colors, website theme, visiting card etc. This can be done very easily using Canva logo maker tool. For rest of the things too, you can trust on this tool.
These steps will give you push towards business branding but it doesn’t end here. Depending upon your venture, there are many more steps towards branding it.
#6 Come up with a logo that represents your brand well.
A logo is an integral part of your business’ identity, and helps shape how you will be perceived by prospective customers. Many iconic brands have logos that carry a hidden meaning, an interesting story, or sometimes, even puns.
In coming up with a logo, there are many things to consider. One of the most major aspects is your color choice. A logo’s color contributes to the recognition of your brand, and helps shape many visual decisions that have to be made for the business. Often, brands base the colors from the product or service they’re offering.
Before you decide to create a logo, make sure you do sufficient research so that you come up with something that will appeal to your target market. Consider looking into color psychology, as this may help trigger emotions and behaviors that will hopefully help your business succeed.
