There comes the point in business when startups and emerging companies are at the growth point, and it is a critical business need for them to take a strategic approach to brand development. However, often the whole process and course of action will begin and end with a shiny new logo and redesigned website. While it’s understandable that entrepreneurs and marketing teams will place a large amount of importance on the visual components of brand development, this approach is erroneous. As essential as these components may be in defining and expressing one’s brand, they’re not the foundation of what defines and characterize a successful brand strategy and development initiative.
If you’re an entrepreneur at the beginning stages of thinking about your company’s brand development in a more dynamic approach – and you would like your efforts to be perceived as more than the shiny new car – allow me to recommend seven ideas on how you can ensure your brand strategy and development initiatives will prepare your company for a phenomenal and unparalleled future.
Brand Strategy and Development is an Executive Choice.
Buying into a branding program or employing a branding firm is nowhere near enough for proper brand strategy and development; entrepreneurs must lead the whole branding initiative. This is true for startups, emerging companies, and established global corporations as well. Brand building is about the quality of your presence and eminence in the defined marketplace. Without the whole effort being championed and led by the founders, CEO’s, and entrepreneurs the process will break down in the organization and the ideas will die in the marketplace. Rarely are such endeavors like brand strategy and development delegated, due to the critical business decisions required. Brand strategy and development is also not a democratic process. If you have a committee with lots of opinions to accommodate, chances are the whole endeavor will get watered down, take twice the time to complete, and be half as effective.
Brand Strategy and Development Begins with a Clear Meaning of Purpose and Intention.
Every entrepreneur and company are in business to make a profit. Brand development is about defining the purpose of why the brand exists beyond profitability. A phenomenal brand exists for something more significant and transcends above the features highlighted in product development and the transactional nature of marketing and sales. Why your brand makes a difference to people must be manifested in the stated purpose the brand declares at its inception.
Brand Strategy and Development is about the Ability to Sacrifice.
The value your brand embodies must be placed in the minds of your target audience with exact and meticulousness precision. Brands reside in the mind, and the typical human mind has a limited capacity to remember anything complex or protracted. Brands that endure can exhibit a singular, simple concept that is inspiring and conclusively relevant to the target customer. If your brand doesn’t stand for one particular ideal, it will not represent anything to anyone.
Brand Strategy and Development is about What You Execute, not What You Verbalize.
Simply verbalizing something doesn’t make it so. How a company delivers on its promise to customers is more than creating charming taglines, flashy ad campaigns, and brochures. The entire company’s personnel must be informed and aligned with the guiding principles and beliefs of why the brand matters. Personnel must adopt and embrace the company’s beliefs and guiding principles as if they were their own and conduct themselves accordingly, whether inside or outside of the company. Brand strategy and development is about integrating the true ideal of the company’s brand purpose into its daily performance in the marketplace.
Brand Strategy and Development is not about Logo Creation.
Some early-stage entrepreneurs can get over-involved in the excitement of logo creation. However, this is a shortsighted mistake to avoid at all costs. If your brand strategy and development initiative begins and ends with a shiny new logo, you have failed to comprehend the entire point of branding. Logos are essential; however, they’re not the sum total of the brand. The right guiding principles and brand voice must be clear and stand behind the symbols that display the brand’s value. Logo creation is considerably downstream in the brand strategy and development value chain.
Brand Strategy and Development Initiatives Should By No Means Be Accomplished In-House.
I recognize this section may sound a bit self-serving being said by a brand professional; however surgeons don’t conduct operations on themselves, and you should by no means choose to conduct a brand development initiative in-house for the same reason. Many early stage companies believe they are saving money, but it’s a penny-wise and pound-foolish decision to tackle a brand strategy and development initiative in-house. Brand strategy and development is a highly specialized discipline that’s far different from advertising and marketing. If saving money is the rationale and motivation you have in thinking you can undertake this alone, think of it in this respect; what price would you pay to ascertain a successful outcome for increasing the brand value of your company in the future?
Brand Strategy and Development Initiatives Must Measure for Success.
It’s not sufficient to develop and execute a brand strategy and development initiative and then wish for great results. You must understand that it is a continuous process that will continue for the life of the brand. How your brand is delivering and performing against the outlined success criteria that were established at the start of the brand strategy and development initiative process is critical for enduring success. This will require you to acquire insights from the marketplace all along the way, and incorporate that feedback into your brand where appropriate.
Developing a brand can be exciting, as there is often an abundance of creativity and tangible results that are created from the concepts that are important to the founders and executives. The development process becomes a way in which the ideals of the company come to life in a visible way. By ensuring you have an understanding of these keys, you will have success in any brand strategy and development initiative that your company takes on.
