Brand Strategy
Most companies and entrepreneurs start out trying to be all things to all people. It’s easy to assume that “everyone” will like your new idea and buy your product, however that’s a long way from reality. It’s critical that new and growing firms segment their market into identifiable and reachable audiences. They must then create a brand that appeals to this segment and gives these customers compelling reasons to purchase your brand over your competitors.
Other benefits of a strong brand include:
- Influences choice: customers remember strong brands and the reasons they purchased your product or service. This forms repeat purchase behaviour.
- Creates loyalty and advocacy: we all have brands we know and love. How would driving a Ferrari make you feel? A Hugo Boss shirt, with a Rolex Watch? Engaging customers emotions is much more powerful and memorable, and creates brand advocates, who influence many others through word of mouth and peer recommendation.
- Enables you to command a price premium: A strong brand encourages your customers to pay for the intangible benefits they get from associating themselves with a brand that makes them appear cool, fashionable or clever.
- Provides a vital differentiator, especially where the basic product or service is widely offered: The fact that a brand is based on emotional, intangible benefits means that those facets of your business are much harder for your competitors to replicate.
- Provides a platform for growth: A strong brand will act as a launch pad whenever you expand your business operations.
- Recognition: of what a brand stands for can be transferred to new products and new markets much more easily than starting from scratch with each new development.
Companies who develop an effective brand strategy and segment their markets into identifiable, reachable and profitable segments succeed.
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