Brand Secrets To Standing Out In A Crowded World

[jakaria]

These days we live in a world of infinite supply… With just a few clicks, anyone can start a business. Anyone can create products, build an online store, post ads, and reach an online audience. This means that every market is flooded with companies offering similar products, features, and solutions. So to stand out, you need to have a brand that your customers connect with and care deeply about. In this article, we'll share some tips and strategies to help you grow your brand. This information is all from our new podcast series - it's called Breaking Brand and you can listen to it right now . What exactly is a brand ? Before we dive into some strategies and tactics for creating a brand that will really interest your customers, let's first take a look at what exactly a brand is. The word “brand” is used a lot in marketing today. But what exactly does the brand mean? This question that may seem simple… but is actually quite complex, and there is no single answer. David Ogilvy describes a brand as “the intangible sum of a product's attributes”. Marty Neumeier, author and speaker who writes about branding and innovation, says, "A brand is how a person feels about a product, service, or organization." And Camille Baldwin, one of the founders of Pattern Brands and star of Breaking Brand, says: “To me, the brand is an identity. These are all the things that make up identity, your values, your principles, who you are, your characteristics and your intention. Brand for me is identity. These are all the things that make up identity, your values, your principles, who you are, your characteristics and your intention.

Camille Baldwin, Vice President of Brand, Pattern BrandsSo to sum it up… Your brand is the identity of your business and how it makes people feel. Now, let's dive into some Breaking Brand takeaways to help you create a trending brand that stands out from your competitors. 4 ways to create a memorable brand 1. Know what interests your consumers Most people are very good at explaining the “what” and “how” of their business. For example, let's say you are an accounting firm, describing the what and the how is quite simple... What you do is help individuals and businesses ensure their finances are sound. How you do this may vary, but it usually involves some form of account management where you help with billing or balancing the books each month or quarter. And what will help an accounting firm stand out from its competitors is moving from the what and how to why. The “why” is what will make a potential customer choose your business over another. The “why” is your differentiator. In general, consumers aren't too concerned about how you do your job - the fax number list tools you use, your internal processes and things like that. What matters to consumers is “Why is this company important in my life? »And going back to the accounting example - we've already explained the what and the how - but the "why" may not be so obvious. For example, if an accounting firm primarily serves small businesses, the “why” could free up time for the business owner to spend with family and friends. So how do you find your why? Customer research is a great place to start. At Buffer, we often conduct research interviews with customers to learn how our product helps them and to better understand how they describe the benefits of Buffer. Teammates have even spent the day with clients in their offices to see first-hand how Buffer fits into their routines and workflows. And in Breaking Brand, Emmet Shine, co-founder of Pattern Brands, talks about the importance of knowing the customer when it comes to building a brand that consumers will care about. Prior to starting Pattern Brands, Emmett helped more than 50 companies get to market, and one of those companies was Sweetgreen, a restaurant chain selling healthy salads and cereal bowls. Working on the Sweetgreen brand and trying to understand its customers, Emmett and his team have spent countless hours at Sweetgreen restaurants. They watched how staff prepared salads, listened to how customers placed orders, and immersed themselves in the workings of the business.

Basically, they were trying to figure out every little detail of what made Sweetgreen unique and special. This allowed the team to create a brand that really focused on what customers were looking for at Sweetgreen and helped them find their “why”. Today, Sweetgreen has over 75 restaurants and is believed to have generated over £100m in 2018, so they clearly have a brand that matches what consumers are looking for. 2. Find the technical, functional and emotional benefits of your businessOnce you've done your customer research, you can start thinking about the different types of benefits your business offers to consumers. In the first episode of Breaking Brand, Pattern's VP of Brand Camille Baldwin explains how the brand pyramid framework can help you define those benefits. Brand pyramids have been around since the late 90s, but still play a key role in branding. The pyramids help you answer fundamental questions about your business and its place in the market. Here is an example of a brand pyramid from Insead Knowledge:Three of the key elements of any brand pyramid are the technical, functional, and emotional benefits your business provides to consumers. Technical advantages At the bottom of your pyramid, you think about your brand's technical benefits (labeled "Features and Attributes" in the image above). Essentially, it will help you define what you do as a business. At this point, you'll want to ask questions like: How does this company benefit consumers? How will he make money? What do we offer? For example, at Buffer, we could say that the technical advantage of our product is to manage all your content and social media profiles in one place. Functional advantages Then, with the technical benefits of your brand defined, it's time to look at the functional benefits you can offer consumers. Functional benefits are basically what your customers get when they buy your product or service. Functional benefits tend to focus on things like how a product can enhance your life, help you stay connected to others, or help you progress.