2nd December 2020
It takes a lot of planning, coordination, and effort for a business to become a successful brand. Every successful brand out there had to take strategic steps and use its time in the most mindful way to get where it is now. So, how can you achieve an authority position in your industry – and more importantly, how is it possible to retain that top position? Whether you have a team of in-house branding experts or you are willing to hire affordable branding services, you are the one who has to make strategic decisions.
In this article, we will discuss a few steps that may help you with the branding process.
Each brand, just like people, has a personality. Your branding journey should start with you asking yourself a few questions: What is the purpose of your brand? How and who does it help. What problems is it going to solve? And finally, what emotions do you want to invoke in your audience when they see your brand.
Powerful brands focus on inspiring people with a brand message, which aligns with the customers’ values. For instance, Coca-Cola has introduced a ‘think local, act local’ marketing approach, even though it is a global brand that has a strong influence over different cultures around the globe.
You can understand it with a brand values pyramid. At the foundation of this pyramid are the functional benefits of a brand. The layer above the foundation refers to the emotional benefits, which have more to do with how your customers feel when they see your brand or purchase its product. At the top are the self-expressive benefits. This layer represents the customer’s self-concept.
If you want to make your brand successful, you are going to have to make self-expressive benefits a part of your brand values. You may need to discuss these requirements with any of the affordable branding services to improve your overall strategy.
You have to be unique to be noticed. Take the example of Adobe, which has enjoyed significant brand growth. This brand has reinvented itself over and over again during the 35 years. The most recent rebranding was in 2013 when it started using the SaaS model.
It is not to suggest you to start building a new Photoshop. The purpose of mentioning Adobe was to illustrate the importance of bringing uniqueness to your products and services to keep your brand alive. The rebranding effort can be as simple as updating your business logo design or as complex as changing your entire business model. It depends entirely on what you are in the need of at the moment. You may want to get help from affordable branding services in this regard.
To operate beyond boundaries, you have to make sure to use innovation and inclusion in your business and branding process. Employing different types of people can help your brand to operate in a much better way. The most significant advantage of this approach is that you can target audiences at different geographical locations.
Including people from different races and ethnic groups allows you to influence different cultures around the globe. You can take their input while making decisions to promote your brand among different cultures and geographic locations. You may also consider getting help from affordable branding services. This approach is helpful, especially when you are striving to become a globally recognized brand.
Customer experience is the most critical requirement of any brand. According to a few studies, investing in employee and customer experience can enhance the profitability of your brand 4.2 times compared to those who do not pay attention to this crucial aspect. It means that your interaction with your customers should be personalized and omnichannel.
You will not need a touchpoint to offer your customers a predictable and remarkable experience. Whether you are interacting with your customers online or in person, you have to make sure that the customer service you offer is seamless. Moreover, your repeated customers must anticipate what to expect from your brand when they interact with it, regardless of what product or service they intend to buy. Offering the same, impressive customer experience encourages your customers to try different products. To make this experience seamless, you may want to get in touch with affordable branding services.
Ensuring a positive brand experience across the globe requires you to pay attention to the culture and characteristics of each of the local audiences. The real challenge in this regard is to beat the competition at the local levels while making sure that your brand remains culturally relevant to the audiences you are targeting.
You may want to take Microsoft as an example here. This company has penetrated many cultures around the world. They are able to adapt their marketing strategies and processes to different regions, and it has allowed them to promote both global and local content at all levels.
Another example is Red Bull, which has a specific customer base around the globe. They usually reach out to their audiences by holding sporting events. They also pay a fair bit of attention to their blogs, advertisements, and social media marketing strategy. The business logo design they use makes them quite memorable.
The key is to choose your approach. If you want to target different cultures, languages, and infrastructures, you are going to have to take help from research and thoughtfulness.
The buyer’s journey has changed significantly over the years, thanks to the internet. The customer-centric journeys have resulted in digitally-empowered buyers who have access to a myriad of information. It means that today’s buyer is more educated and can make smart decisions while purchasing any product or service.
The way customers use the internet to go through the information before placing an order, it has become crucial for brands to give their customers what they look for. If you are a reliable source of information, and you show your customers a way to begin their buying journey on your online store, they are more likely to continue with you. Affordable branding services may help you build more impressive online platforms that you can use to provide information and sell your products and services.
You can join hands with several partners around the globe to set your brand for international growth. Those partners can help you with their knowledge of their respective cultures, allowing you to adapt your offering to those regions. This way, you can remain committed to the quality standards that you have set for your products and services.
You may want to partner with organizations that are ready to embrace your business values. Those partners will promote your business to a global or local audience. Those partners can also help you gain access to other markets, allowing you to expand your business even further.
If you want to be successful in the long run, you will need to be able to adapt to market requirements more quickly. To be able to go global, you have to make sure to invest in the groundwork required. This process can be long and testing, and it can be hard to admit if your plan doesn’t work. In that situation, you may want to rethink your business or branding strategy. Adapting to the requirements can prove to be a difference between failure and success in this regard, so you may want to discuss your branding and business strategy with affordable branding services.
Some opportunities do not seem quite attractive at first, but they become more lucrative once utilized. You will have to make sure to be open to such opportunities. It is all about identifying the potential.
You may want to look at some exceptional stories of brands that came into existence by mere luck or incidence. These brands include Craigslist and Twitter. You may have to trust your instincts in some cases to identify opportunities.
These are just a few fundamental tips to help you understand what it takes to become a global brand. Going down on this road can be a challenging endeavor, and it may require you to put in a lot of effort and resources, but you can get an unimaginable payback this way.
Remember, the key is to be unique to your customers. Make sure that your products and services are adding real value to their lives. Try to inspire their imaginations with your brand’s personality. Once you have a plan ready, strategize your entire process, and show your commitment to it.