Brand Building: Building your own brand

In order to tie customers to your company and your products, it is now more important than ever to give your brand a face. This brand building consists of various elements such as corporate design, logo, slogan and some more. Used correctly, these building blocks create a brand identity that clearly demonstrates to customers the value and quality attributes of your product or service. The value of a brand is often based on design, psychological, and functional attributes and inspires desire, trust, or identification in the consumer.

Since it is becoming increasingly important for retailers to stand out these days, especially in the vastness of the Internet, in this article we take a close look at the topic of brand building and tell you how you can build your own brand in just 5 steps.

What is Brand Building?

Brand building is the development and optimisation of a brand's identity or image. The aim is to make the brand stand out from the crowd so that your products are more likely to be chosen by potential customers than those of your competitors. Another aim is to give the company a certain recognition value. What a successful branding can look like is illustrated by the following examples, which you can try out for yourself:

• How a successful branding can look like becomes clear in the following examples, which you can try out for yourself:

• Which sporting goods manufacturer comes to mind when you read "JUST DO IT." read?

• Which fast food company do you associate with a yellow M on a red background?

• Which social media platform do you think of when you see a blue bird?

Advantages of Brand Building

Brand building brings the following benefits:

• it creates a brand identity, authenticity and trust

• it encourages people to buy

• it makes your products or services stand out from the crowd

• brand building is important for brand positioning and extension

• it suggests reliability

Brand building: these are the goals

The primary goals of brand building are to increase sales and attract new customers. Furthermore, with Brand Building:

• a better image can be generated

• remain in the minds of customers through strong positioning

• trust can be built

• increase brand awareness

• achieve that the own brand stands out from the competition (brand identity)

• establish the brand (if not already done)

What does brand building involve?

1. Brand story

To give your brand an identity, you can't miss a story, your vision, a message. So tell your potential customers who you are, how your brand came to be, what your goals are and what values you want to convey. For people who haven't met you in person yet, this is a great way to get to know you and your brand better and build some connection and trust. It also gives you the opportunity to create content that is aligned with your company.

2. Logo

You may have already noticed how important a logo can be during our little experiment in the previous chapter. In order for your business to stick in the minds of your target audience, you should design a unique, identifiable and scalable logo. Always remember: this little image will be seen everywhere your brand is to be presented and will thus become the face of your company.

3. Colors

Color triggers emotions and is therefore an important factor for the logo and texts you want to place.

Note:You should always keep your target audience in mind, especially when it comes to colors, fonts and font sizes. Some nuances and a small, squiggly font can be very disadvantageous for older people or children.

4. Fonts

Your brand bible should also capture all of the characteristics of your typeface and alignment so you can always use them consistently. As indicated in point 3, always pay attention to your target group when choosing your typeface.

5. Pictures

The brand story and your target audience will often dictate which images best represent your brand. So it's important that your staff knows what imagery to use in relation to your brand. For example, should it be colorful illustrations or would you prefer photographs? Add a few examples to your style guide for good measure.

6. Tonality

Wherever you address your new and existing customers (e.g. in your online shop, blog or on social networks), you should always use the same tone of voice. For example, decide whether you would prefer to address your target group using the first or last name, whether you use anglicisms, foreign words and special technical terms and similar. Of course, all of this must also be geared towards the target group and fit your product or service. We recommend that you record everything in a style guide and check it regularly and amend or adapt it if necessary.

Tip: With an authentic and emotional tone, you can shine especially with your target group, as this creates trust and thus they are more likely to make a purchase.

Brand building vs marketing: what are the differences?

Brand building and marketing are closely linked concepts, but they have different goals and processes.

While brand building and marketing have different goals and methods, they complement each other and are both crucial to the long-term success of a brand. Brand building creates the foundation and identity of the brand, while marketing uses this identity to achieve specific business goals and raise brand awareness.

Brand Building: How to do it the right way – 6 steps

Brand building is not just something for the big corporations of this world. Quite the opposite: You, too, should make your brand your flagship. To help you do this successfully, we have summarized the 5 steps to brand building in the following in an understandable way:

1. Determine goals

To successfully build a brand through marketing, your first step should be to consider what specific goals you want to pursue with it. For example, do you want to build a better image, stand out from the competition, both, or do you have a completely different intention? Only when you are clear about what you want to achieve can you go about things the right way.

2. Define target group

The second step is to define your target audience. Only if you know exactly who you want to address can you successfully align your brand building measures with them. The best way to do this is with a so-called buyer persona, a fictitious person who represents your typical customer and with whom you can best understand the wishes and needs of your target group.

3. Build a brand story

As mentioned earlier in the blog post, a brand story has a great impact on brand building. It acts as a kind of link between you and your target audience and supports the recognition value of your brand.

Tip: When setting up your brand story, you can take a similar approach to writing a novel: Tell something about yourself as a founder, a problem you encountered, and finally name the solution you developed for that exact problem. In this way, you convey a certain expertise and build trust with your prospects.

4. Know your competitors

Just as important as knowing your target audience is knowing about your competition. So find out who your competitors are, what you should include in your strategy, if any, and how you differ from them. The latter is particularly important for brand building, as you can build on the differences to communicate to your target audience what makes you stand out from the crowd.

5. apply branding across the organization

Once you have gathered enough information about your target group and competitors and have written down all brand guidelines, it is time to apply branding throughout your company.

A consistent design and tone of voice ensures that you do not confuse your target group, but that your brand always remains recognizable. The basic rule for brand building is that it must not lack a precise direction, so it must be clearly defined and designed for the long term. Short-term goals are less relevant.

6. present the brand personality through targeted marketing.

The final step in successful brand building is external communication and interaction with potential customers and employees. This step requires careful planning to precisely address target groups and minimize wastage.

The key to success lies in building a loyal follower base online and addressing the needs of the target group. The core of the brand message is based on the brand vision, mission and values. Trust, built through social proof on social media, and the authority the brand embodies in a given field are critical elements. Successful brand building therefore requires the provision of relevant content tailored to the needs of users.

Examples of successful brand building

ooia

Originally born from an idea at a dinner party, ooia has now evolved into a renowned period underwear brand that specifically targets women. Their goal is to help women make more conscious and sustainable choices for both their health and the environment. This message is conveyed by ooia in a transparent way in their online store. Appealing storytelling and comprehensive education in the store round out the brand's overall image.

Live Fast Die Young

Live Fast Die Young (LFDY) is a brand that has grown from an independent and self-made approach. With its roots in constant change, the search for new frontiers and a passion for freedom and loyalty, LFDY has evolved into a unique identity. LFDY's goal is to be a brand that defines today's generation, never standing still and always forging its own path. This brand embodies a constant and fast movement, a progressive mindset and a passionate lifestyle. LFDY remains independent from the start and redefines the rules of the industry. LFDY's collections are inspired by texts, shapes, materials, urban street culture and the great personalities that have shaped the world. In everything they do, LFDY stays true to the belief that it's about being unique and standing out from the crowd.

Asphaltgold

Asphaltgold, originally a small store at Friedensplatz in Darmstadt founded in 2008, has developed over the years into one of the leading brands in the sneaker and streetwear sector. Since then, Asphaltgold combines aesthetic and contemporary fashion for different target groups with the fundamental values of sneaker culture in the Rhine-Main area. Their store at in Darmstadt is imbued with the values of culture, aesthetics and commitment down to the smallest detail. Asphaltgold strives to always offer their customers and the community an inspiring space and present their assortment appropriately. Away from the big brands like Nike, Adidas, Reebok and New Balance, Asphaltgold is always stocking new brands, especially in the apparel sector. They recognize trends early and attach importance to fair and sustainable productions.

Conclusion

Brand building requires a clear strategy, and branding should be applied over the long term wherever the brand communicates to the outside world. So although it should be aimed at a longer period of time, it is still important to consider brand building not as a one-time task, but as an ongoing process. After the initial brand building, work must always be done to ensure that image and reputation are not damaged. So your reputation in particular goes hand in hand with building your brand. So it's best to continue brand management, constantly improve the quality of your products and services, stay on the ball with marketing, and do detailed reporting.