Competition among small and large businesses has never been higher. The pandemic has caused this competition to reach a fever pitch as both traditional stores and online retailers hustle to compete for every dollar and customer they can. With competition being as fierce, and purchase behavior altering over the last year, businesses are backtracking and taking a look at their approach from the top down.
They’re reconfiguring their brand and assessing what it means to reach customers and be a force within their lives and minds. In other words, they’re creating entirely new brand identities in order to acquire more of the market and stay afloat. There’s a number of ways they’re recreating themselves but there is a process. Here’s a brief guide to recreating (or creating) a brand identity that customers can identify with.
Know Your Brand’s Purpose
Every brand has a purpose that coincides with their strategy for growth and success. This purpose should aim to gather customers and be a force for good in the community. Start by asking, why does your company exist? What makes you different from your competition and what problems are you trying to solve for your customer base? Identifying and answering these questions is the first step toward creating a brand which people can engage with and that they feel closer to.
Nearly half of all customers surveyed on a global survey said that they buy products and services based on the values of the brand they buy from. Customers today like to know that the brands they use are doing good in the world and have established a core value set.
Know Your Customers
Every business wants to have a widespread or global customer base, but this simply never happens. Different customers are looking for different functions in a brand and have a different outlook on the world which leads them to buy from different companies. The question you must answer is: what is the world outlook of my customer base? This is a deceptively tricky question to answer because there are a multitude of components and psychological factors to consider.
What is the average age of your customer? How much money do they make? Are they single or married? Why are they shopping with you and not a competitor, or vice versa? When you answer these questions, many opportunities open up for your brand, both from a marketing standpoint and a product and customer service quality standpoint.
Know Your Competitors
Acquiring and retaining customers isn’t the only thing you have to worry about. Your competitors are constantly on the lookout for ways to undercut you and bring your business to them as swiftly and efficiently as possible. You should know who else is in your industry and identify what makes them successful. Of course, it’s usually counterproductive to copy them outright or lift too many of their traits, but this research will help you know exactly what other customers in the industry are looking for.
How does your competitor message to your industry and what are their core values? What sets them apart from you as a brand? Answering simple questions like these will give you a leg up on your competition and help your company be more well-rounded within your field.
Stress Creativity and Outside the Box Thinking
Your brand is a multifaceted and complex entity, made up of more than just your values, product, or service. Your brand’s identity is your marketing, it’s the way you look and feel, both to yourself, your employees, and your customers. In order to properly know your brand, you have to develop the creative elements within your company. Everything should be done with purpose: your social media presence and messaging, your packaging, your mission statement, your advertising, even your physical location if applicable.
Much like a film director composing a shot, every element to your company should be meticulously thought out and cultivated, lest it just be more wasted space. You can also partner with entities within your industry, such as journals and magazines, to spread the word about your company and keep your customers up to date on the objectives and activities within your company.
