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Suck at Branding? 7 Keys to Building a Successful Brand

Most brands fail at branding. Many are also clueless as to what branding is; some may say it's "the logo." But a logo is just the beginning of...

Most brands fail at branding. Many are also clueless as to what branding is; some may say it’s “the logo.” But a logo is just the beginning of a brand’s visual aspect. More importantly, your brand’s visual elements are only half of the story. Less tangible assets such as corporate culture, how your executive team (and even how employees) conduct themselves are all part of your brand’s DNA.

With that in mind, here are seven keys to building a successful brand.

 

  1. Create the right tagline.

    Your tagline is important. As Copyblogger.com explains, “Nike said, ‘Just do it.’ Nortel told you to come together. Timex said it takes a licking and keep on ticking. And GE mentioned that it brings good things to life.” Spend a full day asking yourself (and your leadership team): How do you want to be perceived in public? What is the emotional reaction you want your audience to have when engaging with your brand and what do you want them to remember? Develop your tagline based on this discussion.

  2. Stand out from the crowd.

    Think about your audience. What are top competitors doing in terms of their company website look and how they are expressing themselves? Look for core commonalities, and simultaneously prepare to identify where you can innovate and differentiate.

  3. Develop your company culture.

    And then do all your hiring and your onboarding with this culture in mind. Don’t bring on people who could destroy client relationships you spent months or years to cultivate. Miller Felpax CEO, Steve Blue, points out in his book, The Ten Million Dollar Employee, that it only takes one customer’s bad experience with one bad employee to sabotage a multimillion-dollar investment.

  4. Be patient with your brand.

    Take on every new outreach initiative with care. Think of it as your baby. Just as you wouldn’t start feeding solid food to a 3-month-old, don’t rush outreach activities, whether they be PR, advertising, or marketing.

  5. Be consistent.

    Think of your outreach as being interconnected, like a body. The brand is the brain. Public relations, advertising, marketing, and sales are all extensions of that brain, and they must be coordinated and aligned. The copy, design and language your team uses is must always coordinate with your brand. If possible, don’t use multiple designers or multiple copywriters. Find people who capture the essence of your brand and use them consistently.

  6. Get branding help.

    Branding isn’t easy. If it were, there would be a much greater number of stronger brands in the small business community. The reason the Nike’s, Lexus’s, and Target’s of the world can have strong brands is because they have the dollars to spend on it. But they weren’t always conglomerates; if they can achieve brand success, so can you. First, you have to nail down step one: your brand! A professional can take you through the process so you see things more clearly, get a different perspective, and go about branding in a way that will allow you to reach your market more efficiently.

  7. Put people first.

    Your brand is more than the company. It is the executive team’s and the individual employees’ personal brands as well. People do business with people. A strong CEO brand, executive brand, or personal brand helps build a positive reputation overall. Nearly everyone prefers working with businesses that are people-oriented and actually care about their customers. Be that company by embodying a people-first attitude in all that you and your employees do.

Rushing to get websites up by programmers who have no design skills and are using canned templates, bringing in the cheapest employees possible to do core functions such as customer service, picking generic business card templates with little thought, and running disjointed advertising, PR, and marketing initiatives all lead to brand stagnation and even death.

While talent can help you get your business going, your brand is what will sustain it. How does yours stack up?

 

This article has been edited and condensed.

Raoul Davis specializes in helping CEOs increase their visibility, revenues and industry leadership status through a proprietary CEO branding model. He is a partner at Ascendant Group, a proven top line revenue growth strategy firm through utilizing the power of CEO branding. Ascendant integrates brand strategy, PR, speaking engagements, book deals, social media and strategic networking to accelerate visibility. Connect with @Ceo_Branding on Twitter.

 

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