“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”  ~Seth Godin

The brand establishment is an inevitable process. From the moment you enter the market, people start to judge your products and services. How well do they form an opinion of your brand is something that you can control. Branding is essential for a business to generate profits and sustain in the highly competitive industry. The effectiveness of your branding strategy will be responsible for the success or failure of your brand. Although the big players in the industry may be acquiring your desired market share, you need to think creatively to give them a good fight.

Be it personal branding or establishing a brand for your products and services; you need to have a flexible, effective strategy, tailor-made for your business because every industry reacts differently to different products and services.

Read ahead to learn about the must-follow ideas in the branding process which will enhance your brand appeal:

1. Offer value for money

Do you follow a brand guide? Are you planning to invest in manufacturing brand merchandise? Whatever you go for, make sure that all your products and services provide value for money to your consumers. Yes, the quality, design and price of even your promotional merchandise matter significantly in enhancing your brand appeal.

2. Improve your strategy regularly

Are you planning to open a global merchandise store soon? Is it in your five-year branding strategy? Have you looked into it recently? Mark these words: Change is the only constant in life. The strategy that you formulated years ago may not be as effective as you planned it to be now. So, the only plausible solution is to do a comprehensive market study regularly, and accordingly, improve your plans to ensure optimum results. The established brands may be trying out a different approach; learn from them to improve yourself.

3. ROI should be your focus

This is the most critical aspect of a business strategy. Don’t count the number of products sold or services offered; count the profits, instead. Return on investment is what you should be aiming for with your branding strategy. This will help in regulating the quality and cost of your products and services. Although a focus on sales maximisation is advisable over profit maximisation, focus on return on investment wins the race. It keeps a check on your sales as well as your margins; encouraging desirable outcomes. Small neighbourhood equals small profits; however, the percentage of ROI can still be high.

4. Target a niche

Instead of targeting the entire neighbourhood, why not target the niche instead? If you have a compact target area, then you can achieve so much from it, such as opportunities for trial and error (strategies), better quality of products and services and even severe losses can be avoided significantly. Don’t try to eat a bite you cannot swallow!

5. Quality triumphs all

Cost of the product or service, location, availability and many more factors are overlooked if the quality of the product or service can justify it. As already mentioned above, you need to offer your target audience value for money, so are you focusing your branding strategy on achieving this goal? The established organisations are spending loads of money on improving the quality of their products and services, and if you want to compete with them, then level the fighting ground at least. Keep your quality up to the mark and make sure that you have an effective branding strategy, and the profits will flow sooner or later.

Don’t lose heart if your profits are not as much as you imagined when you started the business. Good things take time, and one day you will be satisfied with your growth curve. Just believe in yourself and work towards building a better future for yourself and your family.

“A brand’s strength is built upon its determination to promote its own distinctive values and mission.”  ~
Professor Jean-Noel Kapferer