Brand Development Process: 6 Steps to Get Started
What is Brand Development?
Brand development is the process of maintaining the quality, distinctive marketing assets, and consumer trust of a brand. Brand development is an ongoing process of serving consumers.
A brand development is never “done.” There are steps to brand development, but great brands revisit their brand development constantly – and everything they do is informed by the brand they want to maintain.
Your brand is your business’s personality, and it’s always in development.
Why is Brand Development Important?
The art of branding hits every facet of a business, from customer interactions to employee relationships. The way a brand is viewed amongst its employees is equally important to the way customers view them.
A healthy company starts from the inside with a positive culture. An organization’s overall brand tone of voice extends to everyday customers and encourages them to keep returning.
Instead of creating a series of marketing campaigns without any sense of identity, take the time to develop your brand.
The Brand Development Process:
Determine what you are branding
You can brand almost anything. The most common things are a person, a company, a product or a service. A critical part of the branding process is determining exactly what you are branding, positioning the brand, what you are promising with your brand, your story, and your elements and style. This process can be overwhelming, but with the help of a marketing team, you can make it happen.
Research your target market
Marketing research into your target market is critical for effective brand development. It is a step that many startups overlook because they think they know their audience. The reality is that, professional market research will give you critical insights into who the target is, what they like/dislike, what their challenges are, and how you can help them. As I have been doing this for 30 years, not ONE marketing company has ever properly realized their target audience upon the first meeting.
Compile your brand definition
The next step is developing a clear brand definition. This definition can be in the form of a story or statement that clearly reflects what your brand is all about. Your marketing team will help you define what you are offering, how your target audience will benefit from it, what guarantees you offer, and what your unique selling proposition (USP) is. Remember to ask the question, what can this digital brand do or stand for that no other brand can say?
Create your name, tagline and logo
Giving your company a name, a tagline and a logo is the fun part of brand development. But, it is not something you should do without careful thought. Your marketing team can help you determine what name, tagline and logo will resonate with your audience. Nike’s Just Do It! has become a staple of a strong statement just as “It’s Finger Lickin Good” or “Just like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is there”.
Launch the brand
With all the elements in place, it is time to launch the brand. That means creating your first products, offering your services, or making a name for yourself. It could mean many things to many brands like digital campaigns, radio spots, drip campaigns, demographic targeting, print or even showing up at tradeshows. On the surface that sounds easy, but there are many moving gears that need to align to keep the marketing moving forward. The good news is that with all the prep work you did before, your launch will have a great foundation.
Manage the brand
With good up-front work, your brand launch will be successful, gaining momentum as you provide consistent digital service and quality. Even with a successful launch, you will still need to manage your brand going forward. That is why you need a dedicated team, always monitoring your company’s reputation, doing continuing research, and updating the brand as the market evolves. This step is one that is most ignored when things are running well, but is most important.