In today’s world the most important thing you can do for your business is build a strong brand, one that resonates with your audience and reflects your core values. Strong brands know who they are and how to create meaningful, lasting connections with their customers. As a result, strong brands outperform weak brands by up to 20% . They attract and retain customers because they build trust through purposeful brand communications.
At THIEL we achieve brand strength for our clients through Focused Creativity™. This 4-step process builds powerful brands that inspire long-term relationships with their customers. This post will show you how we Analyze, Verbalize, Visualize and then Realize brands to their full potential.
Analyze: Discover Opportunities
Whether or not you realize it, you have a brand. There is an existing perception of your business and its value. Without a clear understanding of that perception you leave your brand’s reputation in the hands of others and miss key opportunities to engage customers meaningfully. Take control of your brand by performing targeted perception and benchmark research. This research will allow you to clarify perceptions, define expectations and discover opportunities.
Perception Research
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, famously said “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Do you know what are people say about you when you’re not in the room? Perception research targeting both customers and employees uncovers the hidden truths of your brand. It clarifies your strengths and your weaknesses so you can set the course for powerful brand communications.
Benchmark Research
A thorough analysis of your competition’s best practices will give you key insights into what works in your industry and what doesn’t. Does your competition have strong engagement on Twitter? Then your customers must be on Twitter! Do they offer a service that is enticing customers away from you? Find out how it’s meeting their needs. Benchmark Research gives you a clear vision of the industry landscape and helps you decide where you fit into it.
Verbalize: Define your Voice
Once you have a clear picture of your business, it’s time to define your voice. Put your brand into your words. At THIEL we call this the Brand Profile™. It establishes the essence of your brand and paints a verbal picture of who you are.
The content of your Brand Profile™ is as unique as your brand. While there is no one formula for a successful Brand Profile™, some examples of what you should include are:
- Your mission and vision
- Your unique value proposition
- Brand architecture
- Key messaging
Keeping a clear picture of your verbal brand in one document gives form and voice to your communications, provides structure to your selling story and establishes a tone so your customers will easily recognize you. It also allows you to create the vocabulary you want the marketplace to use when communicating about your brand.
Visualize: Design your Communications
When you understand the tone, architecture and messaging, you can strategically build your Brand Identity. This is your distinctive look and feel. It’s the visual expression of your brand — your logo, website, literature, ads, social media presence, billboards — every touchpoint in which you’re visible.
Each visual space in which you exist should look like you. Creating clear and consistent messages and visuals creates long-term impact. Customers learn to recognize you in the cluttered marketing landscape, much like how you recognize a friendly face on a crowded street.
Realize: Connect with your Audience
Now that you’ve have purposefully designed your brand, you’re ready to connect with your audience. It’s time to take each of the elements you’ve created and put them in front of your customers. You will go into the market with a clear sense of direction and every.thing you need to create a strong brand.
