The development of a branding strategy must begin with identifying the brand’s (the business’) core values. These are qualities, which an organization deems most important. For instance, an organization or business may identify its core value s to include – honesty, integrity, excellent communication, and client satisfaction.
Though these values are usually never revealed to the public, they are evident in every aspect of the organizations’ business routine, from customer service, to direct marketing, to website design, to teleconferences, to the treatment of its employees and strategic partners. This conveys a consistent perception to the target audience in every medium of communication that is used.
Consideration for these values should not be taken lightly for these values represent the “creed” for the business and become the cornerstone for developing the brand’s proposition. And though the brand’s proposition may change from time to time, the brand’s core values should never change.
Great Strategy Begins with Great Research
Once the brand’s core values have been identified, the road towards effective brand proposition development begins. To ensure a successful outcome, comprehensive and objective research involving at the minimum, the brand’s strengths and weaknesses, the target audience, and the competition will be conducted. If the resources are available, research should also involve extensive observation into the brand’s industry, its history, the current market picture, and potential growth and direction.
The Target Audience Holds the Keys to Your Brand’s Success
If I had to choose only one area of research to focus my efforts on, it would be to identify first who the target audience is and second, what their needs and desires are. This information should be as comprehensive and exact as possible. Applicable factors such as; age, gender, income, and shopping habits (online and offline) are good places to start. Of course if your target audience is another business, your research will involve different factors.
Truly understanding your target audience, in addition to having a realistic assessment of what your product offers, is invaluable in assisting you in the development of a successful brand proposition. This information will also provide insight into how to convey this message in an engaging, relevant, and consistent manner.
Developing a Brand Statement (Brand Proposition)
From the research, development of the brand statement, often referred to as a brand proposition, commences. The brand statement is a promise. It states that if you use our services / products, we promise that this or that will occur, whether it is the satisfaction from wearing well designed clothing, to the comfort of choosing the services of particular financial planner. The brand proposition must be clearly understood, engaging, presented in the right context for relevancy, and offer a solution to the target audience’s current wants and needs. The brand’s promise is easy to understand, engaging, unique, relevant (to the target audience), and consistent.
A Promise is a Promise – of course all of these promises are just that, promises. If the company’s products, services, and customer support didn’t support these promises, the initial surge of new customers would quickly come to a screeching halt and the brand would fade into obscurity along with the company.
Providing a Brand Proposition that is engaging, is easily understood, and offers an emotionally positive solution to needs and desires only serves to enhance the current customers’ perception of the brand and will get new customers to look your way. Following through with an excellent product/service and customer support will put an indelible mark in the memory of your existing customers; one that will create brand loyalty through good and bad times; a sure sign of a brand’s strength.
Deliver the Unexpected – When developing a brand proposition, never let your brand’s promise be one that is already expected; this is a sure way to NOT stand out from your competitors. Advertising efforts that utilize adjectives like “good”, or “nice” are sure to fail when seeking to be both engaging and unique.
Remember, you must convey an engaging, unique, relevant, and consistent message to your target audience. Consumers already expect “good service” from you. This isn’t an engaging message nor is it unique. This message doesn’t lead towards a strong positive emotional relationship.
Winning Hearts and Minds – An important aspect of brand development is to create a positive emotional attachment to the brand, which creates a response in its audience without the audience seeing the product or directly experiencing the service. Think of Amul for a moment – the very name, perhaps even the logo, conjures up an image of sinful indulgence. Yes, it represents chocolate or ice cream, but it is the feeling and the anticipation of that feeling that the brand conveys most compellingly.
Positive emotional bonding comes from a mutually beneficial relationship built on intrigue, trust, understanding, and support. These are qualities that often separate colleagues from friends, and friends from family. Build your brand promise on the basis that your product will deliver positive, relevant, and unique emotional qualities.
Your brand proposition should convey a message that is –
- Aligned with the brand’s core values
- Clear, Engaging, Unique, and Relevant to your target audience
- Able to incorporate an element of positive emotional attachment that is better than just “good”
- Echoed within your business, internally and externally Consistent across multiple marketing and advertising mediums (print, online presence, etc)
- Continually reinforced within the organization so that your employees consistently deliver what is promised
- Echoed by strategic partners
- Able to adapt to a changing marketplace
