Monday, 14 November 2016

The Four Essential Components of A Strong Company Brand

By Cristiane Namiuti

A well-positioned brand allows companies to grow and thrive. However, many struggle with creating the core components of a brand, lowering their brand’s ability to engage consumers and achieve their goals. The core brand components include the following:

1. Purpose

Statistics show that 45% of a brand’s image comes down to what it says and how it says it. If you don’t have a defined purpose in place you give consumers little reason to grow attached to the brand. You need to understand what drives you, the business and the people working for it and communicate that to others. Your purpose should be what sets you apart from other brands, so while your main aim is likely always going to be becoming profitable as a business, you need to work out what you have to offer beyond that and make it clear in your marketing materials.

2. Consistency

Think of some of the top brands in the world. One of the key components that you will note they all share is consistency in everything they do. Their logos will remain constant, as will the color schemes used in their marketing materials, the messages they send out and even the fonts they use for text. In the best case scenarios, these things will become linked to the brand so that people think of it whenever they see examples of the same thing. A lack of consistency leads to a confused message, which makes it difficult for consumers to engage in the brand.

3. Trust
Many companies survive on repeat business, which makes trust a key factor in brand building. However, an astonishing 54% of people claim not to trust brands at all. The reason for this is likely because they have interacted with brands that broke promises, offered poor services or failed to stand by the messages they conveyed. Everything your company does should meet the expectations set by your brand. By developing trust, you create loyalty, placing your brand in a strong position.

4. Flexibility

Stagnation in business leads to competitors overtaking your company. As such, brands need to be flexible so they can adapt to new technologies, scale as the company expands and react to their competitors’ actions. Effort must be placed into researching competitors so strategies can be altered accordingly. Brands also need to be aware of what consumers are saying about them. There are 2.1 million negative mentions of brands on social media every day, which is something successful brands can mitigate by refocusing their efforts and being flexible.

About The Author - Cristiane Namiuti is a brand marketing professional passionate about brand strategy and innovation.

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