Ways to Build a Desirable Brand

A Desirable Brand Emanates From a Customer's Positive Experience

A Desirable Brand - Knowing Yourself

Whether you are an existing business or in a set-up situation, something must have spurred you into action originally. It may well be an incident in a previous employment, a monetary need or a passion that you have always wanted to explore.

You might simply be basing your business idea on particular strengths that you have amassed or inherited. Whatever the motivation, try and visualise how it might be infused into your brand.

When attempting this, one thing to be conscious of is the personality trait that your business ‘idea’ will require – if you don’t match personally, join with somebody that does. If you’re lucky, your personal story can be brought to the brand, to make it more human and interesting.

A ‘beating the odds’ story, your training, your experience, specific talents, your personal background are all good places to start. Ask yourself, does your experience ‘fit’ with the brand you can visualise.

For instance, between Aidan, Christina and myself (MX3), we have over 50 years practical experience in the communication business. Aidan specialises in creative concepts and marketing management and my background is in brand management from a client's point-of-view. Christina has built up an in-depth knowledge of working with SMEs and start-ups.

When the original businesses of O'C&K (Aidan & Jim) and TML (Christina) merged, we agreed that our hands-on approach and experience should be, what attracts customers to MX3. It was only after this self-reflection that we could agree on the actual service we could offer, our goals and our message.

A Desirable Brand - Knowing your Audience

Here is a list of characteristics that you might use to build a profile of your audience. Gender, age, generational values, income levels, where they live, marital status, children and their interests.

If they are online, any blogs they read, websites they visit, TV shows they stream and social media activity. It would be great if you could determine career/education levels.

Only face to face contact may be able to determine the following, but it can be researched if your audience is active online - know their frustrations, their hopes, why they might need your service, where they ‘shop’ and is there anything that you have in common with them already.

A Desirable Brand - Knowing your Competition

There will always be someone in your niche that offers the same service or something similar to you. All you have to do is know who they are.

When you do – then just apply the same questions to them as you did to yourself (see above), to determine how much of a competitor they really are. For example, how do they describe their offering, is it the same in price and quality?

Are they better at something, are they chasing the same audience, is their identity professional and are they online? What is their marketing activity like, their tone, their colours and their style?

Are you hearing anything about them from your audience? Are they catering already for the same need that you have identified and in your opinion, are they a desirable brand?

A Desirable Brand - Knowing Your Brand Experience

I have said in many posts to this blog previously that branding is way more than a nicely designed business identity. In our most recent post, here, it was emphasised that it is the participant’s experience before, during and after an event that drives return business.

Similarly, it is the experience that your audience encounters which creates the ‘desirability’ of your brand. You must build the goodwill if you want WOM promotion by your customers.

Tips and Timesavers

Here is a sample checklist of some elements that may form part of your planned brand experience:

• being accessible – opening hours include being online.
• keeping your word – doing what it ‘says on the tin’.
• making them feel special – delivering more than they expect.
• helping people – being informative and a good citizen.
• being honest and gracious – seeking feedback and acting on it if appropriate.
• having fun – looking after the customers that ‘look after you’.
• being accommodating - being consistent and reassuring

Only when you have decided on your values etc. and what your customer is going to experience, should you embark upon creating a business identity and how it will be used.

More than likely you will employ an outside agent (you should) to do this, and MX-3 are very well equipped to help you with this should you so decide. Basic elements would include a logo, an ID package (design style, colours etc.) and a web presence. Please resist the urge to go overboard with the design element and bear in mind that you will probably be adapting to your audience as your business grows.

Two final things, 1) give your brand a face and preferably one that is recognisable, be that yourself, an employee or a mascot and 2) infuse everything you’ve decided upon under ‘knowing yourself’ above, into your brand.

When all is said and done, a business that delivers on its promise and a community-like understanding that, ‘we are all in it together’, will be seen as an authentic and desirable brand to do business with.

Stay Safe - Jim