(Steps to Effective Branding). After more than a decade of working in marketing and branding, as well as teaching branding at the post-secondary level, I’ve learned that successful businesses will always do the following four things:

1. Great brands are dependable.

Across all of their marketing touch points, all strong brands offer a consistent brand message. Apple’s brand theme of “Think Different” is evident in everything company does, for example: The idea of thinking differently is expressed by using white ear buds instead of black ear buds.

2. Great Brands Have Their Own Characteristics

Before making judgments on their company’s brand features such as logos, colors, and typefaces, many small to medium-sized firms overlook their own industry’s competitive landscape. Please identify which of these is Coca-Cola and which is Pepsi.

Coke’s brand color is red, while Pepsi’s is blue for a reason. They aim to stand out in the minds of people who drink cola drinks. Consider the brands your firm is compared to before making branding decisions, and then consider how your brand elements can differ from theirs.

3. Great brands leave a lasting impression

You’ll be on the right track to producing memorable brand experiences for your target market if your brand is consistent and unique. You don’t have to be Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or Apple to effectively market yourself and generate memorable experiences. Consider the Stryve business card: we wanted to convey our brand’s key idea of being “ahead of the curve,” thus our business card was intended to do so in a memorable way.

This was accomplished in four ways:

• The business card was designed to be held vertically while most traditional business cards are held horizontally,
• It is 4 times as thick as a normal business card,
• It has a smooth finish that feels different than traditional business cards, and
• It has rounded edges instead of the traditional square corners.

When we hand out the Stryve business card, these four elements cause someone to pause and take note of it, and the card ends up sticking out in their mind.

4. Great Brands Evoke Emotion

The ultimate goal of successful branding and marketing is to win a consumer’s heart and mind. Which of these commercials appeals to you the most?

Which company would you choose to buy from if you were a small business owner? Grasshopper elicits an emotional response, whereas Rogers plays things safe. There’s a reason the Grasshopper video has over 1.2 million views while the Rogers video only has around 1000. Taking the safe route will frequently result in a brand being forgotten and neglected. Someone will be delighted, joyful, thinking, inspired, or eventually feeling anything if you have great steps to effective branding. You’re doing something wrong if your brand or marketing fails to elicit a response. So, whether you’re launching a new brand, reimagining an existing one, or generating a marketing asset for your existing one, make sure you ask yourself these questions:

 

• Is this in line with our company’s message?
• Is this something that sets us apart from our competitors?
• Is there anything about it that will make our target market remember it?
• Will our target market have an emotional reaction to it?

If you can answer each question with a resounding “YES,” you’re well on your way to superb branding.