The advantages of going big are too appealing. A big brand tends to be trusted by funding institutions and therefore get to access funding more easily. In addition, they have the resources to hire the best talents and are exposed to a wider customer base.
However, building a big brand is not free of challenges. To get there, you will be required to be aggressive in marketing, deal with competition and keep up with market changes. Big brands also mean more work in managing cash flows, employees, customers and suppliers.
Nevertheless, it is a journey worth taking. If you aspire to build a big brand, here are 7 lessons to follow.
1. Build a powerful brand identity
A brand identity translates to how your brand communicates to outsiders, who you are and what you are associated with. It is what sets you apart from the competition, and attracts people to start doing business with you. Think the name, visual appearance and trademark. All these brought together should create a visual language that is able to cut across different demographics. Ensure your brand identity has the following features:
- It is flexible and able to evolve and grow as the brand grows. For example, Coca-Cola‘s Timeless Brand Identity has grown with the business for over a century.
- It is memorable. For instance, Apple products only bear the logo, and everyone identifies with that logo.
- It is unique and stands out from competitors.
- It can fit in every aspect of the brand, website, packaging and the like.
2. Engage consumers on social media
Statistics show that 1 in 3 customers contact business brands through social media. That is a huge demographic to ignore when building your business empire. Create the best social media customer experience with the following tips:
- Have a team in place to represent your brand’s voice in social media.
- Utilize available tools to better manage and respond to the voluminous complaints, compliments and mentions.
- Create competitive taglines to create interactions with followers. Think Nike’s tagline, Just Do It.
- Use social media influencers, customers love being associated with a brand endorsed by their favorite celebrity.
3. Build a community around your brand
Most people want to be associated with a brand in an authentic and relatable manner. In other words, to have a story and impact together, say, shared brand experience. That is why building a community around your brand is fundamental in creating human connections. How do you do that?
- Donate to a charitable cause with every sale.
- Involve the customers in operations. If, for example, you deal with clothing, consider using your customers as models.
- Sponsor social media pages that add value to the value of your customers. For instance, if you are a diaper company, create a page on parenting.
- Have a mailing list to share important and educational information around your brand.
4. Create SEO content
Having great visibility and searchability on the web search engine is important for your big brand. It is critical in driving traffic, increasing engagement and improving general customer experience. The following tips can help you do SEO for your brand.
- Make use of meta titles and descriptions
- Register your brand with online directories
- Create keyword-rich content for your website
- Utilize Google analytics to track your search engine rankings.
5. Promote through live events
Marketing your brand through live events is a sure way to get new leads, network and increase brand presence. You can approach this by sponsoring another live event or promoting your own live event.
If you are sponsoring another event, ensure you get the word out there of your presence using geo-targeted search, hashtags, social media campaigns and Instagram stories.
If you are promoting your own event, it helps to have a separate website for it, complete with all details such as speakers, ticket page and past testimonials. Tell the people why they need to attend through social media and have free giveaways such as tickets and branded items.
6. Focus on your employees
Your employees are the number one brand ambassadors. In addition, their job satisfaction is critical in driving productivity, commitment and retention. If you want to grow your brand to the next level, it is important to add value to what you offer to your employees. Encourage growth through investing in professional training, allow flexible schedules, recognize outstanding employees and offer competitive perks.
Furthermore, if you decide to expand globally, you will have to address the local labour market adequately, in order to optimize employee satisfaction, and thus their role in establishing the brand identity of your business.
7. Manage your supply chain better
The supply chain for big brands is composed of many facets from sourcing different parts, manufacturing, warehousing, distributing and stocking. Managing a supply chain is no mean feat; each destination has its own costs and logistics to manage. That is why it is important to adopt an agile supply chain management strategy to ensure that supply is not disrupted. To manage supply chain better;
- Consider customer needs and demand to avoid excesses.
- Adapt a customized logistics network for each destination.
- Keep your core competencies in-house and only outsource where necessary.
Conclusion
Building a big brand takes time and money. Use the above tips to carve a name for yourself in the domestic and international markets. In addition, make sure to adopt agile ways of operating your enterprise to allow flexibility when running your business in all respects.
Dave Burrell is a business advisor for several companies in Arkansas and Asia now. He helped many of them create branches in China, Japan, and the Philippines, and have been quite exposed to business-making in those markets. He has experience working in a range of industries and providing technical support in topics such as business growth, market expansion, and product development. Currently, he is also serving as an Expert at Globalization Partner and provides technical advice for its China EOR solutions targeting U.S. International businesses. Burrell is passionate about family, languages, traveling, and reading.
Brand stock photo by Monster Ztudio/Shutterstock
