Hi, we’re the Brand that you want to learn about. We have the greatest product ever! Check out all the reasons why we are the best! Now, that is basically what every brand is saying. However, they never say it quite like that. Most of the time there is a lot of garbled up jargon that goes in to marketing a brand’s image. Entrepreneur Magazine had a great article about finding a voice for your brand a few weeks ago. Here is what I gathered from it.
Whom to Target
Your brand needs to target the right people to catch some buzz. If you have a brand that is really popular with the big meat heads at the gym, by all means, don’t try to market your brand to the gamer who’s sitting on his couch going to town on their headset and talking about how they just took out their friend with a headshot. This is really important to know who exactly you’re speaking to. If you get it wrong, you’re going to have a much harder time correcting the mistake. Rebranding is one of the hardest things to do. Most companies don’t ever recover unless they have enough money to throw at the issue.
The Message to Your Targets
Talking to the right target is going to be the lifeblood of your brand. As I mentioned above, you don’t want to rebrand yourself. It is essential to your business to get the message right the first time. Most likely these customers will give you business for years to come. If you have the wrong target you may not get the revenues you’ve been looking for, you may have less customer loyalty, etc. Be sure to always have a plan for your targets.
Be the Voice in Your Head
Would you really want to hear what you’re saying? Be honest with your brand. If you don’t think that you would want to hear the message, it’s probably a bad message. It’s a perfect way to figure out the important questions in your brand message.
Consistency Is Key
Don’t confuse your audience. Being confusing is the best way to lose your base. If you keep mixing up your messages people will lose interest in your brand. Make sure you’re consistent so you have less to worry about. Oh, and it makes it so your audience doesn’t think you’re bi-polar.
Authenticity Is Huge
Your message needs to be sincere and real. Don’t lie to your audience or try to fib about what your brand is all about. Deceptive practices really hurt brand perception. Just like what our parents have told us all along, if you don’t have anything nice authentic to say, don’t say it at all.
Bold Flavors
Don’t hold back once you have the right target audience and have a authentic message. If you hold back, you hold your business back. The bottom line, why hold your business back just to play it safe. Be your brand. If your brand is about not caring about offending someone because you know that you’re right…go for it! When I write this blog I am following this. I know I don’t mix with everyone when I give them advice, however, I give it to the best of my ability. I don’t curse but I mix my humor and quirkiness in my writing. It’s my voice. Use your voice too!
Listen To The Client
Well, here is the most important step. All of this means nothing if your audience is a client. If everything that your brand is doing is failing, do something else. Make sure that you follow what the audience and market are telling you to do. If you don’t, the you’re going to be wasting a huge amount of resources and money.
* Photo Credit Brandship: the digital path between brand and consumer by Stefano Maggi on Flickr.