Legendary companies like Apple, Nike, and Amazon, have one thing in common: Exceptional Branding. It is the most important ingredient for penetrating the market, winning the hearts, minds and monies of your customers, and nurturing a loyal following around your products. At the core of every thriving business is successful branding.
Think about the brands you know, like, trust and love today. They didn’t stumble into your heart by accident. They took intentional steps to win your loyalty.
Are you thinking about how you can win the hearts of your customers? Keep reading to unravel the subtle science of successful branding.
But first, let’s define Successful Branding.
It is the intentional crafting and consistent delivery of a meaningful narrative, a meaningful story, that resonates with your target audience, differentiates you in the market, and ultimately inspires customer loyalty.
How can you intentionally craft a meaningful narrative that resonates with your target audience, differentiates you in the market and inspires customer loyalty for your products? How can you also consistently deliver this meaningful narrative across all your communication channels?
We have the answers for you. Here are the scientific processes of building a successful brand for your business.
- The Science of Compelling Authenticity and Differentiation:
You can think of authenticity and differentiation the same way as cultivating self-awareness but for your business. Knowing what differentiates your products from your competitors is the backbone of successful brand building.
Have you met people who have a deep sense of self-awareness? They deeply understand their strengths and their weaknesses. They are true to themselves and their giftings. So competition is not in their purview.
To cultivate a strong business awareness, here are five guiding questions:
- What specific problem does my business exist to solve?
- In what unique ways does my business solve that problem?
- Who are the people my business exists to serve?
- What are the core values of my business?
- What do I want my business to be known for?
Answering these questions will deepen your brand authenticity and clarify your differentiation factor.
Look at Patagonia, for example. They are different from other outdoor clothing companies. Why? Because the business is built on the environmental activism foundation. Also, their brand authenticity shines through their commitment to sustainable practices which is a reflection of their brand’s core values.
2. The Science of Storytelling and Emotions
Do you know that a brand is a living thing and that it goes beyond the logo, the packaging or the advertising? According to renowned author, Simon Sinek, “A brand is the sum total of a customer’s experience with your company.”
You are not a business owner running a lifeless company. When your customers interface with any part of your business, like your customer service arm, for instance, they leave with an experience, positive or negative. Your job is to ensure they leave with a consistently positive experience. This is how you forge strong emotional ties with your customers.
To resonate with your customers on an emotional level, think about the specific emotions you want to evoke. Start the thinking process by asking this question: What do I want my customers to feel when they think about my brand?
When you identify the emotions, use the power of storytelling to draw out the identified emotions you want your audience to feel when they think about your brand.
Brands like Nike have leveraged storytelling to build a loyal brand following. Beyond sneakers sales, Nike tells stories of overcoming challenges and pushing boundaries. This resonates with athletes and everyday individuals, inspiring them to “Just Do It”. So when people buy a Nike product, they are pushing boundaries.
3. The Science of Community Building
Community building is the pipeline for deploying brand evangelists. Brand evangelists facilitate an organic reach for your products by word-of-mouth referrals, amplify your brand voice and increase your brand visibility.
Community members also generate user-generated content which helps to further establish your brand identity in the minds of potential customers who might be skeptical about your product offerings. What is better than saying your product rocks? Having other people talk about your great products!
Let us talk about how community helps to foster continuous brand innovation and even grow a sense of ownership among community members. By directly communicating with your community, you are able to feel the pulse of the people you are serving. This can lead to an eruption of new insights in the form of new product offerings, creative marketing campaign ideas, and new functionalities or features to be added to your products. Collaborating with your customers to build your brand is a strategic investment in your long-term success.
How can you get started with community building? You can learn from this brand: Traeger. Traeger, an innovator in grills, built an online community, or “Traegerhood,” of over one million people with 350,000 user-generated posts across social media.
Building successful brands goes beyond logos, brand colours or fonts. It is about understanding the science of compelling authenticity and differentiation, storytelling and emotions, and community-building. The scientific processes highlighted in this article are becoming essential as AI continues to evolve. Therefore, the future of branding belongs to the storyteller companies that can craft compelling narratives about their products, trigger emotional connections and win the hearts, minds and monies of the customers in a crowded digital space.
Here is a little reminder: You don’t have to build your brand alone. You can always partner with agencies like Wolfer Digital. At Wolfer Digital, experts are available to craft meaningful stories for your brand intentionally and to build your website and innovative campaigns designed to stand your business out and inspire customer loyalty.