Without a clear brand identity, it’s hard to establish your place on the market – perhaps even impossible. At the end of the day, your brand is your ID. It makes you original and separates you from your competitors, driving brand recognition and helping you craft unique customer experiences.
But originality requires more than plastering your logo over every piece of content and last-minute messaging. Behind every logo, there should be a well thought out and defined identity, brand strategy and a story.
Creating and defining your brand identity and identifying core strategic measurements is a major assignment and includes a range of different tasks. In this blog, we’ll take you through why effective brand communication will improve your brand marketing, and look at why a powerful brand management platform should underpin your efforts.
What is brand communication?
In everyday life, communication is more than words and text. Communication encompasses how you act, dress, move, face expressions and what you do. Great communication helps build a great reputation. The same applies to branding.
For your company, a well-built brand with a good reputation is an essential intangible asset. How your customers feel about your brand, how they talk about it, and the position it occupies in their day-to-day lives, matters.
Underpinning this are the ways you communicate your brand. The look and consistency of your brand assets, your tone-of-voice, your customer engagement, social responsibilities, your values, your pricing, store location and more, all fall under brand communication. Said differently, every part of your branding processes is about communication. It’s the different approaches and methods you choose to use your brand and build brand awareness.
Establish effective brand communication
You have established your brand identity and your branding strategy goals are defined. Now you’re ready to tell your audience that you are here. It’s time to get to work.
The first thing you need to do is to acknowledge that nothing should be set in stone. Your audience and the market are destined to change, and you and your team members have to be prepared to adapt. Next, you need a communication strategy to keep you focused and aligned with the brand strategy.
Define your communication channels
You know who, but what channels and sources do they engage with and trust for their decision-making? Don’t limit this in the beginning. Most likely, marketing teams need to test and experience how your audience reacts to your brand before you narrow down the most effective communication channels.
Remember, just because a channel exists does not mean that you need to use it. It’s not about the channel, it’s about your audience. There’s little point in focusing too much effort on a social media platform like TikTok if your target audience isn’t using it – or indeed any effort at all.
Identify what your audience is looking for and is triggered by
Unfortunately, what you want to be acknowledged for and what your audience looks for don’t always match. You need to know these details when creating marketing strategies. Otherwise you’ll be spending a lot of time and resources shooting blanks – it’s ineffective and pointless.
Be flexible and adaptable with your message
“One voice – one brand” is a key attitude when building a brand, but don’t mistake this for one message. You need to acknowledge that your audience is varied and consists of different personas.
The better you meet your personas needs, the more relevant you’ll be with your message and the more precisely you’ll hit home with the target audience(s). It’s all about adapting to what the audience wants, but remember to be honest, reliable, and relevant. If your audience catches you lying or feels you’re wasting their time, you’ll lose them.In other words, don’t use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Effective brand communication occurs when you use your resources wisely and meet your target audience with what they want to hear. The smarter you are about it, the less money it will cost you and the more successful you’ll be at building your brand.
Unleash your brand with a brand management platform
With the above in place, it’s time to initiate your strategy and build your brand. Through your website, chosen social media channels, a blog, advertising or any other channel or platform you see fit, you’ll present your brand.
Bear in mind that a hectic work life puts strains on your ability to deliver on demand, and if you have limited resources as well, you may get careless with your brand assets. We’re only human after all, and inconsistency is a fact of life.
Unfortunately, inconsistency quickly undermines your brand equity – the perception customers have of your brand, and the trust they place in it. Any ground lost here is very difficult to recover.
A brand management solution is a life saver. Great brand management tools will provide all you need to create memorable brand experiences, while also establishing clear brand guidelines to ensure 100% consistency in everything you do. It’s no use going to all that effort to create great brand communication, only to drop the ball on the touchline due to human error. With brand management software, you can be sure that your work will be embedded in a powerful platform that everyone in your organisation can trust and rely on.