Introduction: What Is A Framework
A framework is an overall system that aids the development of a product, project, or idea. It is a skeletal structure that helps to create something unique, new, and often very powerful. It’s similar to using the scaffolding of a house; you have an idea of what the final product will be like, but you need to put in the hard work before you can see any results.
So what exactly is this ultimate framework and why do you need it? Put simply: this ultimate framework will give your brand the best possible chance to succeed through innovation, utility, and simplicity.
If your brand is successful then it means people are connecting with it deeply and forming emotional bonds with your company or service. Emotional branding is incredibly powerful because consumers become loyal advocates for your brand which then generates more word-of-mouth about your business.
The Best Branding Example
Let’s look at Apple. Let’s say you want to build the world’s most successful brand and you see Apple, a brand that is so successful that it can actually create new markets and own them. How do they do it?
Apple has positioned itself as a technology company, a luxury company, and a lifestyle company and has created such an amazingly strong brand identity that people are willing to pay more money for their products just because of the Apple logo on it.
If you own an iPhone, people know that you have the best phone in the world. This is what makes Apple one of the most profitable brands in the world right now. They have figured out how to become a technology brand, a luxury brand, and a lifestyle brand all at once.
Branding Is All About Psychology
Branding is, essentially, the study of people’s behavior and mental processes. It is the practice of using that information to create a specific experience for those people. It’s about understanding what consumers desire and delivering it with a consistent and unique personality.
The psychology of branding uses psychology to achieve that understanding. Put simply, it’s about applying psychological factors such as shape/color theory (e.g., red evokes passion), symbols/icons (e.g., stars represent achievement), emotions (e.g., nostalgia), and even feelings we don’t always have words for (the feeling you get when Apple releases a new product) to branding efforts to get inside consumers’ heads and influence their decision-making process. As brands continue to compete in an increasingly crowded market, these subtle tactics become more important than ever before, because they distinguish your brand from all others by appealing directly to your target audience on a deep level.
By learning how psychology influences consumer behavior, you can use those same principles in your own business efforts to create a more effective brand identity.
The Ultimate Formula For Building A Successful Brand
- Choose your target audience.
- Identify your unique selling proposition (USP).
- Develop your brand’s personality and voice.
- Establish your brand’s visual identity system.
What Are the Ingredients to Build a Successful Brand?
A brand is your promise to your customers. It’s the message that you want to be perceived as. It’s a set of associations that you want to create in your customer’s mind. A brand is what makes you stand out from the competition and it should reflect the benefit that you offer to your customers, whether they are business clients or consumers.
Ultimately, your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room. You may think that it’s a logo or some marketing campaign, but it’s much more than that it’s who you are as an organization. Your brand encompasses everything about your company: its personality (is she funny or serious?), reputation (what do people say about her behind her back?), and even culture (what would happen if she went on vacation?).
What Is the Difference Between Marketing, Advertising, and Promotion?
While the three are often used interchangeably, Marketing, Advertising, and Promotion are three different things.
Marketing is a process that takes time and can involve hours of research in order to find out what method of advertising or promotion will work best for your brand.
The process includes:
- Research: Knowing your target audience, knowing what you want to achieve with your brand, and knowing how you want your target audience to perceive you is key to marketing success.
- Analysis: How has your market changed? How have demographics changed? What was popular 10 years ago may no longer be popular today (remember MySpace?). It’s important to know this so you can adjust your marketing accordingly.
- Rebranding: A strong brand will embrace current trends and the needs of its customers in order to keep up with the constantly changing environment around them. Rebranding doesn’t mean changing everything about who you are; it means evolving with time without losing the core essence of what makes you unique as a company or product.
How to Build a Successful Brand in Six Easy Steps
- Select your target audience
- Identify your unique selling proposition (USP)
- Develop your brand’s personality and voice
- Establish your brand’s visual identity system
- Distribute and promote your content consistently
- Nurture leads with email marketing automation
Step 1 – Select Your Target Audience
Before you start thinking about your brand, you need to think about who you’re going to sell to. Selecting a target audience (sometimes called a “target market”) is one of the most important decisions you can make as a company.
You can see why this is so critical by looking at two companies with very different approaches. One, for example, sells overpriced food and drinks in overcrowded outlets across the world. The other sells hipster clothes for quasi-intellectual no-hopers with too much money and not enough taste. Oh yeah, and their customers are willing to queue up from 3 am just to get their hands on the latest must-have fashion accessory. Can you guess which is which?
One of these companies has built an internationally renowned brand that commands respect around the world and generates billions in revenue every year. The other has built an internationally renowned brand that commands respect around the world and generates billions in revenue every year. These two brands have both achieved tremendous success, but they have done it using completely different strategies because they serve entirely different markets:
Step 2 – Identify Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Your *unique selling proposition* (USP) is the one thing that you do better than anyone else. This could be a product, service, process, or anything that sets you apart from your competition.
In some cases, this will be something that only you offer and in others, it may be something that other people offer but not to the same level of quality. The most important thing is to understand what your customers value and make sure that this is one of the first things they see when they visit your website.
For example, if someone wants fast delivery then put “We deliver within 24 hours” on your homepage! This will ensure that visitors don’t just browse through all of their options before leaving without making a purchase.
Step 3 – Develop Your Brand’s Personality and Voice
Now that you’ve identified your brand positioning and target audience, it’s time to define the person behind your brand. A brand personality is simply the human characteristics associated with a brand, such as being fun, serious, or trustworthy. These characteristics make up your brand’s identity and help make it unique from other competitors in your industry.
When developing a brand personality, think about how you want your audience to perceive your business. How do you want them to feel when they interact with your brand? Do you want them to relate to the voice of your company? Can they trust the information that you share? The purpose of a good brand personality is to engage with an audience in a way that makes them feel connected to a product or service. It helps build loyalty by making consumers feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves.
Determining the best personality for your brand takes research and testing. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different personalities until you find one that sticks (or mix and match pydots from multiple personalities). The important thing is that this identity aligns well with both your target audience and core positioning message.
Step 4 – Establish Your Brand’s Visual Identity System
Visual Identity System
A brand’s visual identity system consists of design pydots that you use consistently. They include:
- Colors
- Fonts
- Logo
- Images style (photos, illustrations, and icons)
- Typography style (headings, subtitles, and content)
- Design templates for marketing materials (infographics, presentations, and video).
Step 5 – Distribute and Promote Your Content Consistently
Distributing your content is a key component to success. Too many people publish their content and then sit back, waiting for it to go viral. But that rarely happens, so you need to get the word out yourself.
- Distribute your content on all channels. Share it on your blog, email list, your business’s social profiles, other people’s social profiles (via guest blogging or sharing), and paid advertising platforms like Facebook Ads and Adwords.
- Don’t be afraid to spend money on advertising – especially if you’re just getting started or have a limited audience reach. Be strategic about how you spend the money! For example, only advertise where it makes sense: if you’re a software company, don’t put ads in a parenting publication! Understand who you’re trying to reach before spending any money!
- Also, don’t forget about your email list: promote your content there as well (that’s why you spent time building one!). How can you promote it? Within each newsletter include links to one of your most recent blog posts or videos, or provide an interesting statistic from the article and ask subscribers to click through the link in order to read more. Another option is using email marketing tools that automatically send new blog posts to subscribers once they are published on the website.
- Finally, use social media as another platform for promoting your content; again this is why we suggested having a presence there even if you don’t plan on selling anything directly through these channels! You can also use social media as another way of engaging directly with potential customers by answering their questions or replying to their comments about your latest blog post (a good option for those who prefer not to engage with customers by calling them directly!). In addition, many companies are now hiring community managers whose sole job is managing social media profiles-so don’t feel like this step has been forgotten just because we haven’t mentioned it yet!
Step 6 – Nurture Leads With Email Marketing Automation
Email marketing automation is the hands-down most effective way to nurture your leads.
It’s the secret sauce that transforms a lukewarm lead into one that’s ready to buy from you.
What’s tricky about email marketing automation is that it requires a deep understanding of human psychology and behavior. You need to know how your audience thinks and feels at every stage in their journey. As you can imagine, this can be complicated!
Conclusion: Be consistent in your branding, from your messaging to your visuals.
Consistency is the key to success. You can’t be all things to all people. Your customers need to know exactly what they’re getting when they come to you, even if that means losing some potential business along the way. This doesn’t mean you can never change your messaging and positioning, but it does mean that you need to do so strategically and with purpose and that your messaging should remain consistent over time.
Consistency in branding also applies to visuals: if someone sees your logo in black and white, then sees your ad on Instagram using a different color scheme, it will make them doubt whether it’s actually from you or not. The same goes for those who are only familiar with your brand through its website; seeing an email newsletter from you with a totally different font may confuse them about who sent the email and why.
PS: If you need help developing a failproof framework for your business, kindly reach out to us today via www.ideaious.com/business or shoot us an email via [email protected] (We have worked with more than 50+ businesses from several industries over the course of 7 years and we believe we have what it takes to get you the results you want).
