Branding without a strategy is like a dream without action —meaningless. Our Advisors are here to help you turn your dreams into reality through marketing-focused branding that gives your vision shape and meaning. Brand design requires a strategic plan that shapes the steps needed to grow a brand forward. Strategy drives a brand's meaning, shaping the efforts necessary to present themselves to the world and interact with society.
In addition to strategic planning, a brand's visual and spoken manifestations extend a bridge to new audiences, new opportunities, and building relationships with people and businesses. Branding is not just an exercise of finding your true identity within but also a way to look outwards and understand the big picture.
Brand Strategy can be a bewildering challenge for many business leaders either because they don't completely understand its benefits or assume that branding solely consists of items like name, logo, and graphics --but it involves much more. To enable growth, we must focus on building a transformational product, establishing the company's voice, and framing how consumers want it to be perceived. Often, branding is not seen as a top priority for businesses, and understandably so, as it is easy to see the product itself as the most critical priority. In reality, having a sound brand strategy is vital for a company of any size.
In this post, we summarize the top five misconceptions about branding as perceived by business leaders, along with suggestions on how it can revitalize business growth at any stage.
5 Common Misconceptions About Brand Strategy:
1. Branding is Only About the Name and Logo – Smart branding goes beyond corporate identity. It is strategic and involves an explicit promise to the consumer, making an impression distinct and providing relevant evidence in its delivery. The brand promise is at the heart of marketing, and even sales, providing an essential framework for building a solid relationship with customers in all interactions when appropriately managed.
2. We Don't Need Branding Because We Have a Great Product – Many companies begin with a novel idea. Still, this product obsession often overshadows the need for active customer research and validation of its traction. Understanding your client is essential for positioning the brand to gain traction and, in turn, build the business. Further, effective branding assures that your great product is easily identifiable in its respective market, showcases its significant benefits, and connects it with potential customers.
3. Branding Can't Motivate nor Engage Customers – An efficient marketing strategy is ultimately about influencing the target market's behavior. A brand will far more inspire customers they connect with and offers relevant content with an emotional promise and appealing personality. Likewise, implementing an insightful brand strategy starts and ends with the target customer and is crucial for targeting today's audiences who are not as responsive to traditional advertising approaches and product pushing methods.
4. The Brand and The Business are Two Different Things – We live in a digital world where consumers can easily express their opinions on a brand's performance and products and readily share it with the world. Thus, the authenticity of any promise declared by a business is crucial. The emotional connection with a brand depends on the customer's needs, though more than ever, trust, authenticity, and credibility are critical in fortifying this connection. Delivering on the brand promise with consistent evidence and obvious cues is crucial. In the end, the connection between the brand and the customer will be efficiently reflected in the following three areas of a business: marketing, sales, and service. It will also demonstrate through the values and actions of the company.
5. We Don't Want to Constrain Marketing with Brand Limitations – The marketing plan begins with a well-researched brand positioning that is genuinely relevant and differentiated for the target audience. In addition, it uses brand identity to guide the development of creative content, marketing programs, and tactical initiatives. Nowadays, marketers have many traditional and modern platforms to choose from. However, it is best to use vehicles that connect and strongly communicate emotions while simultaneously engaging with a unique point-of-view. Transitioning from analysis to execution is easier with a comprehensive brand strategy to guide the marketing plan. A good brand strategy is a doorway to endless opportunities.
To sustain growth in any business and differentiate ourselves from the competition, we must be more open-minded and add an out-of-the-box dimension to our marketing plans to connect with customers effectively. A well-defined brand strategy can catalyze new ideas inside the company, whether implemented from the business's onset or when faced with new challenges.
Are you ready to enable a brand strategy to optimize your business's growth? It is essential to start working on a solid brand on the right foot.
DuartePino is a management advisory firm that combines in-depth customer knowledge with practical expertise in marketing to help clients create sustainable business growth. We can provide your organization with a fresh perspective, a proven process that invests in the outcome, and the tools for successful execution. From Fractional CMOs to business advisory services, contact us to learn how our team can help with growth strategies for your organization.
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