Branding

The essence of branding is the feeling that people have about your product or service. It represents perceived personality, which includes your customers' total experience with your business or product. Branding is more than your logo, a clever name or just a look, although those can be elements of it. Your brand communicates a personality to which customers are attracted. Only your customers' viewpoint matters, not your own perception.

Your customers are going to form an opinion about you one way or another - good bad or indifferent. So, it's a good idea to guide this perception and remind them of all the reasons they buy from you. The process of branding starts with a thorough positioning of your product or service, so you understand who your customers are, the reasons they buy from you and why you are their best choice. Then you can effectively communicate that back to them in the form of the most persuasive colors, images, sounds and words.

You can't begin to build a brand until you understand your buyers well enough to speak their language. Don't fall into the common trap that your competition is in by touting useless minutia about your own product's attributes.

It doesn't make sense to try to communicate any message without a clear understanding of the benefits your customers find in your product.

A successful brand has comparable or better benefits than your competitors'. It must perform. To develop any kind of loyalty, a brand has to offer drivers, intangible benefits beyond your product. The drivers help make up the personality of your brand, and therefore must be consistent and clearly communicated.

Drivers help describe your brand's personality. For example, a product for hunters may use words like rugged, tough, outdoors, manly, durable or reliable, which appeal to that specific buyer. Remember though that your brand's drivers are useless unless they represent the values sought by your customers. Remember that it's not about your perception of your product; it's about your customers'.

The bottom line is that all purchases are made based on customers' perception of value for dollars spent. When you have something that your customers value, and that your competition doesn't offer as well, you have the makings of a solid brand.

When the drivers of your brand define the right personality and distinguish it from the competition, and you know your customers well enough to communicate in a way that appeals to them, you are ready to start designing your brand's logo and creating all of the appropriate messages. - more