5 Steps to Branding a Start-Up
Building a clear brand identity is key in differentiating yourself from your competition. It’s also a major reason why some start-ups succeed and why others fail. Beyond coming up with a winning business idea, your start-up needs branding. This is how you will connect with your customers, build trust and get them to buy in to your yet-to-be-tested offering.
Here are 5 ways start-ups can use branding to show the world they mean business!
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Get To Grips With The Target Market
You should have already completed this step when you came up with your entire business concept. However, it’s important to understand who you want to reach from a branding perspective too. Who do you want to engage with?
Everything you do in terms of branding needs to link back to that answer. Your ideal customer needs to become a part of your start-ups brand identity. They are the cornerstone to you succeeding. Failing to connect with them by building a brand that doesn’t resonate with them, will set the business up for failure.
A great way to make sure branding is on the right track, is to regularly conduct an audit. Surveying customers to find out how they perceive your brand is a good way to gauge sentiment.
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Sell Through Storytelling
We’re sure you’ve heard the buzzword – brand storytelling. Without a brand story, you’re just a faceless organisation trying to push their products and services down the throats of consumers. A story at the centre of brand development, however, will not only help keep the focus on moulding the culture and identity of the business, but will help customers identify with your business on a personal level.
The key takeaway is to shift focus to selling an experience, not a product or service. Any business can do that. Your story is what sets you apart. The core story needs to be woven into the make-up of the brand – the colours, the fonts, the voice and the key messages it puts out.
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Create A Strong Voice
A brand is much like a person…it needs to reflect a personality. This will have been formed through the brand story and it needs to now be translated across all mediums. Working to refine a brands voice and tone is an essential step in keeping customers connected to the brand. Keep it concise, clear and consistent to stay credible.
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Give Them Something To Remember
Create a brand experience that is hard for customers to forget – don’t be afraid to stand out from the crowd! Perhaps you’d like to veer in the direction of being a cause-driven business? Or maybe you’d like to become known for tongue-in-cheek, somewhat risky ad campaigns ala Nandos? Weave that brand personality into all aspects of the start-up and you’ve got a winning formula.
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Be Seen
No fledgling business can survive by focusing on one marketing channel alone. Leverage multiple mediums for maximum reach and impact. Make sure your marketing activities happen when and where your target market will be, or you’re wasting your time.
Integrate the digital channels with the product and/or service by having social links or campaign messaging on product labels or business cards. This way you’ll be leading your market to the brand’s social pages where they can follow you, stay connected and build a strategic relationship with the brand.
The Takeaway
If you carefully link your target market, brand story, brand identity and campaign messaging, creating marketing material such as labels, stickers, decals, flyers and banners will be that much easier!
StickerAndLabelSA offers:
- Full colour printing of labels, stickers and custom decals
- Any size, shape and quantity welcome
- Conveniently upload artwork on our website
- Safe and secure online payment
- Delivery to your door
