KNOW YOUR TARGET MARKET
Before you start working on the design, you must do the home work. You need to know everything about you ideal customers. What makes then tick, where they live, what they like to do in their spare time, what brands do they associate with and so on. The more you know about your target market the greater the chance your brand will resonate with them.
What you need to show in the design and who you want to attract with the same.
ENSURE IT’S WEB-FRIENDLY
In this day and age, if you want your business to flourish, you have to have a great web presence. Therefore, you have to ensure that the brand name you create is “web-friendly”.
You need to ensure that prospects and customers will have few issues finding and accessing your website to gain information about the business.
This means registering a domain name that is distinctly associated with your business, you should choose a URL that people can easily remember rather than something complex and meaningless (it is a good idea to look into SEO when choosing your url).
Given the growing importance of social media sites, you should check that your chosen name is available, again this makes it easy for people to find you and prevents the dilution of your brand.
ALIGN YOUR BRAND AND BUSINESS PROCESSES
If your business is going to talk the talk, you should be prepared to walk the walk. Everything from business processes to customer service should represent you brand.
If your message is that your product or service is easy to use or access then you better make sure it is. Likewise if your business states “quick service” you should never keep customers waiting.
CREATE EFFECTIVE BRAND POSITIONING
Stellar brand positioning is of paramount importance as it determines the unique position you occupy in your prospects and customers minds.
Brand positioning refers to “target consumer’s” reason to buy your brand in preference to others. It ensures that all brand activity has a common aim; is guided, directed and delivered by the brand’s benefits/reasons to buy; and it focuses on all points of contact with the consumer.
It is more than simply a way to tell your customers about your product or service, it defines your relationship with the customer. Good positioning is always based on solid market research and goes hand in hand with knowing your target market.
BE CONSISTENT
Consistency in itself ensures you are always delivering on your brand promise, and also enables consumers to form a solid opinion/relationship with your brand.
Branding consistency doesn’t mean that all communications from a brand should look identical, but there should be a number of standards in place that help to ensure that both your key messaging and visual branding is clearly and consistently applied.
