How to Build a Brand in Five Steps

Building a brand is setting up an outward perception of your company. It is creating an impression for everyone who comes in contact with your services and products whether you are there or not. Building a brand is developing an entity that can thrive even in your absence, it is having someone in Liberia, Kenya, London or New York trusting you, your 'brand' even as you are situated in Nigeria.

Branding is far more than having names, logos, and slogans on different items, while that is an aspect, it is a deliberate internal action in passing positive messages to the public to engender good perception and value.

How then do you build a brand? After you must have done the basics like designing a logo, picking a slogan, below are 5 steps to building a remarkable brand.

1. Choose your focus

It is very important that you figure out the exact service(s) you want to offer. If you are in the fashion sector, do you want to sell just fabrics or also sew fabrics? Are you going to be offering services to just one gender? To successfully build a brand, even if you can render countless multiple services, it is necessary that you streamline your services to include only the services that meet the demands of your already observed target audience. After you must have gained the trust of your customers, you can expand the services you offer.

2. Research your Competitors

The next step to building your brand after deciding on an area of focus is to research your competitors who offer the services you are set to offer. Try to figure out their strategies, find out what attracts your clients to them, and every other information that would help you develop a unique brand.

3. Build your brand identity

While researching your competitors, you must have noticed what unique things they do that attract clients to them, find out what they are not doing that could attract clients. Build your identity tactfully with what they are not doing. Write down your values putting in mind that they must be observed not just written, develop a mission and vision statements for your brand.

4. Be consistent

Many of the big brands around the world like; McDonalds, Coca-cola, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and others achieved their brand successes through consistency. To build a brand that would break boundaries, you must be consistent in your theme, colours, quality, customer service and other attributes that clients will know you for.

5. Market and Advertise

It should shock you that the biggest brands in the world are the brands that still engage more in marketing and advertising while smaller brands who need these more are relaxing and waiting for clients to come their way miraculously. On TV, radios, billboards, social media, press, you would always come across the adverts of these large brands...ALWAYS.

You would also see how these brands collaborate with other brands to increase their revenue, no wonder you will buy a pack of Domino's Pizza and receive a pet coke bottle. These and more are ways to build your brand and keep it growing for many years.

Vert Idee

Creative advertising agency based in Lagos, Nigeria. We specialize in brand activations, outdoor advertising, media production, and experiential marketing.