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You know that the key elements of building an effective brand are finding a vision and purpose, defining a mission, identifying your brand values, positioning your brand, and developing a brand personality.
You also understand the purpose of building a brand is to stand out in the marketplace. It’s not enough just to have an excellent product or service; you also have to draw attention to your unique identity to distinguish yourself from the competition.
Now, let’s take a look at the characteristics that successful brands have in common. What are some things they’ve done to create a positive impression on people who buy their products or use their services? Studying the characteristics of successful brands will help you to create your own highly desirable brand.
3 Highly Desirable Qualities of Successful Brands
Here are some of the common characteristics of successful brands that you should think of emulating:
1. Successful companies build trust and confidence
Successful company’s help people get to know about their company through content marketing and public relation campaigns. When people know more about a company, they also tend to like it. Familiarity increases likability.
In addition to getting known and liked, successful companies build up trust by doing what they say they will do. When they make a mistake, they admit it and do their best to correct it. They don’t try to avoid taking responsibility or mask their errors with a cover story.
However, despite all efforts to be known, liked, and trusted, all these hard-won gains can be quickly lost if there is a data breach and customers’ sensitive information is stolen by hackers. Consequently, successful companies take the best security measures they can. When employees access their network, data is protected by firewalls and security software. When customers use their website, SSL protection ensures that their credit card information is not hijacked. And when field representatives go out to meet clients, strong passwords and Secure USB flash drives protect data on their laptops or mobile devices against possible identity theft should the device be lost or stolen.
2. Successful companies use target marketing.
The top brands understand their audience. They have a fairly accurate idea about their demographics. By getting an intuitive grasp for their hopes and dreams, pains and fears, barriers and uncertainties, they are able to fine-tune all their marketing messages.
An example of a business that understands its target market is Scotts Miracle-Gro. It’s one of the best-known brands for lawn care.When it comes to lawn care, few brands are as well-known as Miracle-Gro.
In a WordStream guide on the concept of target marketing, Dan Shewan, explains how their website reveals essential clues that they understand their target market well. He says, “It’s obvious that Scotts’ target market is predominantly male, as evidenced by the messaging, visuals and content available on their site. We can also infer that another demographic within Scotts’ target market is homeowners, as individuals who rent are much less likely to be responsible for taking care of their property’s lawn. The NASCAR sponsorship indicates that many men belonging to Scotts’ target market enjoy sports, and are likely to use at least some of their disposable income to purchase new power tools to keep their lawn trim.”
The only exception to this rule of really knowing a target audience might be a mega chain that provides a wide array of goods and services to a wide assortment of people. An example is Wal-Mart. Since Wal-Mart doesn’t have a particular customer type, it focuses on a common denominator among shoppers– frugality — which is expressed in their more recent slogan, “Save Money. Live Better.”
Unless your business is as ubiquitous as Wal-Mart, making an effort to appeal to everyone is going to be completely ineffective. The concept of target marketing is an essential one to master. Unless you know your target audience, you can’t give them what they want or talk to them in a language that they respond to.
3. Successful companies have a distinct identity.
You need to be distinctive to attract attention.
Apple distinguishes itself by focusing on innovation, minimalism, and aesthetics. This image appeals to tech geeks who want to be seen as buying the best gadgetry.
TOMS shoes, by contrast, don’t try to sell you on the quality of their product at all. Instead, they appeal to your nobler motives. They focus on what they do with the money you spend with them. They give a child in need a free pair of shoes for every pair of shoes you buy from them.
Creating a distinct identity doesn’t depend on a remarkable idea that distinguishes you from everyone else. It just has to be interesting enough to appeal to a broad number of people within your target market.
Think about what your company can do to gain some recognition. What is unique and special about it? If there is nothing that distinguishes it from the competition, then invent something. While things like cheaper prices, higher quality, or faster delivery are better than nothing, try to come up with something that is less generic, something that other competitors in your niche won’t be able to do.
A Work In Progress
Branding your business is an ongoing process. There is never a point when the work is done. The more you learn about your audience and market, the more it will change. Branding, like personality, is something that never stops improving.
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