Last year over $190 billion was spent on advertising in the United States. When approaching a branding campaign for your business, this dollar amount may make you feel like a tiny drop in an enormous ocean.
But don’t get discouraged just yet. There are still ways you can stand out.
A brand isn’t just a logo or tagline. It’s the overall perception of a product and company in the consumer’s mind.
It’s also the way a person remembers your product, and the reason they come back over and over.
Changing the perception people have of you seems like a daunting task. However, there are ways you can change your brand positioning to increase exposure and refine the way consumers see you.
Let’s look at 7 tactics to help get you where you want to be.
1. Understand Your Target Audience
Before you get started on your branding campaign, you have to know exactly who you’re trying to reach. It doesn’t make sense to move forward without this information.
However, it’s not good enough to know the basics about your customers. You need to go further.
You need to find out what your audience’s interests are. What products do they use and what activities do they engage in? All this helps you create a persona for your brand and appropriately position yourself.
Social media is a great way to gather this kind of information. What does your customer like on Facebook? What are they tweeting about? You can also use surveys to gather more detailed information on customer behavior.
2. Establish a Voice for Your Brand
A big part of good brand positioning is establishing a voice or persona for your company. This is the personality your brand displays to the public, so put a lot of thought into it. Ask yourself how you want a person to feel when they see one of your ads.
A great thing about creating a voice is that you have the freedom to sound any way you want. Obviously, the persona you create depends heavily on your target audience, but you have room to be creative.
When thinking about your voice, consider your business philosophy. What principles do you hold dear and how are they woven into your business operations?
What type of person works for you? What do your logo and website say about your business? All these elements should be aligned with a common voice so you create a solid persona and vibe throughout your brand.
3. Your Product’s History
It’s a good idea to use your primary, core product to establish your brand’s reputation. This is likely the product that was the foundation of your business in the beginning.
A great brand positioning tactic is to tell a story about this product. This helps form a bond with your target audience. It also creates a connection that a consumer feels every time they think of you.
If you have a long history in the industry, telling your story helps establish trust and longevity. This results in better customer loyalty.
Your story also makes your business newsworthy. You’ll get exposure through social media when people have something to learn about your brand.
4. Create a Good Tagline
A good tagline works to create a vision of your product for your customers and boost your brand positioning. A tagline needs to remain in-line with your overall voice and get across a concise but impactful message to people.
Remember to always keep your tagline short and to the point. When thinking about a tagline, ask yourself what your brand and company stand for. This goes back to your business philosophy.
You should also consider the purpose your product serves and why a consumer needs it. All these things help define what you need people to know when they see your tagline.
5. Know Your Competitors
If you’re going to compete in an overwhelming marketing environment, it’s essential you know what your competitors are doing with their own brand positioning. Knowing what other businesses in your industry are doing also spawns new ideas.
Once you identify who your top competitors are, look at their branding and write a list of strengths and weaknesses. This way you can get a clear picture of what they’re doing better than you.
You should also take a detailed look at your competitor’s product. How is it different than yours? Are there things you offer that they can’t and vice versa?
If you see differences or advantages in your product, highlight those elements in your marketing campaign.
6. Emotionally Connect with Consumers
When a person connects emotionally to a product or brand, they’re more likely to buy it. You need to find a trigger and use it to evoke an emotional response through your advertising.
A website and blog is a great place to do this. You can use engaging content to create an emotional connection and also form a little mystery surrounding your product.
Create blog articles that don’t just promote your brand, but inform and engage your audience. Talk about lifestyles and ideas that your target audience will connect with. This shows them that you’re not just about selling a product.
When a person connects with content on your site, blog or on social media, this engagement sticks with them. The next time they think about or see your product, this emotional response returns.
7. Consistency
Brand positioning suffers when a consumer receives a different message about your product from different sources. This goes back to threading your voice through every element of your marketing campaign.
You absolutely must be consistent with your message if you want to avoid confusing the consumer. Your product will cease being compelling and any connection a consumer once had will be severed.
Everything from the content on your site to your logo, to customer service, needs to be aligned. Doing so not only forms a long-lasting connection, it also instills trust in your customers.
Get Noticed with Strong Brand Positioning
Whether you’re creating a new brand from scratch or want to refine an existing identity, correctly positioning yourself is essential for higher conversion. In today’s highly-competitive marketing landscape, you can’t afford to blend in. You have to stand out.
EraserFarm is an agency driven by unbiased, human emotion and provides a wide range of advertising solutions in the Tampa area and beyond. Contact us today to learn more.