The Coronavirus pandemic took a serious toll on the economy. Many startups found themselves under pressure to cut budgets and change their routines. However, now that the lockdown is being lifted, startups all over the world need a strong comeback to be able to recover from the damage done by the pandemic. After Coronavirus, the business world is a fragile environment, especially for startups, and one way to survive—and potentially even thrive — that most are unaware of is through branding. Reinforcing your brand is now more important than ever. As a growing startup, you’ll need more than a logo and a catchy slogan to be fortified in a post-pandemic world.
With a reliable and all-inclusive method like the Brand-Centric Strategy, you’ll be able to fortify all your marketing channels from content marketing, to advertising campaigns and customer experience. A focus on your brand can help you reinforce your identity, and protect your company from any potential regression through the following three aspect aspects :
1. Maintaining Consistency Is Key
Consistently is not only important, but it’s an essential key to successful branding. It shapes the way consumers think about your company and your products. A consistent, unified message can be achieved through a strategy that guides both visual and verbal communication. A brand’s consistency is more important nowadays since people are distracted by world events that occupy a lot of mind space. It also helps your brand remain recognizable and memorable. Find what defines your startup as a business and the feelings you want to invoke in your customers and build on them over time to reinforce your brand. It is essential to say focused and not wander far away from your brand’s core when conveying messages. Using your brand vision as a filter is one effective way to stay consistent.
There are many examples of successful brands whose consistency helped keeping a substantial presence. Springboard, for instance, an online platform for learning digital skills like data science and business analytics, is an excellent illustration of a consistent brand. Since its beginnings in 2019, the company has always delivered its message in a way that is aligned with its vision. On their website, app, and social media pages, you can see for example the consistent use of the colors and shapes through all the visual elements as part of a well-designed identity system.
2. Building A Community
As people suddenly found themselves quarantined in their homes, feelings of loneliness and isolation took over. Many people turned to technology and social media to feel less alone and more connected to the world. Communities are needed now more than ever. For businesses, building a community can be crucial to their success. However, having a community is not merely accumulating a number of users on a website or application, but rather having a special connection with your customers. Your relationship with them shouldn’t end when they leave the site or close the app. You can create a prolonged relationship with your clients via social media, newsletters, or online forums. You can build this community of fans by nurturing a human connection and developing trust with your audience.
The perks of having a brand community don’t stop at increasing the number of your customers and generating more leads.
- Information and feedback: Forums are a prodigious source of information, new ideas, and feedback. Your customers can help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your products and brainstorm new suggestions. In one or another, communicating with your customers will help you produce more profitable products.
- Brand Ambassadors: When you provide a space for your customers where they can express themselves freely, they will eventually become loyal to your brand. You might even have brand evangelists who will fervently promote your brand and your products to their friends and families.
- Direct Communication: If your forum or social media page is widespread and easily accessible, your community can give you many PR opportunities. For example, you can ask your customers to attend your webinar.
When executed correctly, building a community for your brand has no downside. In fact, many companies out there are using it to reinforce their brand. Again Springboard, for example, has a strong presence on all popular social media platforms, and customers can go from their website to their social media pages through a direct link. It serves as a way to meet their consumer needs and building trust.
On the other, companies with a weak social media presence, such as SmartenSpaces, decrease their chance of solidifying their identity in the market.
3. Having A Brand Vision
This is the most crucial component of your branding. Communicating your brand’s vision clearly is not a separate step, but it’s something that should be present in all your marketing channels. Using this vision as a filter is what turns an audience into fans and fans into loyal customers. Unlike what many people advocate for, branding isn’t just visuals. In fact, those can be seen simply as only branding efforts. What truly makes a difference in reinforcing your brand is your vision’s visibility and its presence in all your marketing channels.
You want to make sure that customers know why you’re in business and what it is that you deliver. Do this by translating your vision into a meaningful customer experience that rewards those who chose to buy from your startup.
Behind every brand, there is a story. Utilizing your vision in branding not only helps you stay present but enables you to bring the future of your business into focus.
Your brand vision should be short, memorable, and designed to inspire your audience and to reflect your central ideology.
Reinforcing your brand in a world that has been through tremendous changes is not an easy progress. You need to combine your team efforts and put them into branding. In the end, your brand is not what you say it is; it’s what people say it is, and unfortunately, even big corporations are not immune to poor branding in these tragic circumstances.
However, through a Brand-Centric Strategy, you will be able to deliver a consistent message and pay attention to your customers’ needs by using your company’s vision as a filter through your marketing channels.
It is now more important than ever to adapt to a strategy that will protect your brand from any sudden shifts.
Originally published at https://www.uniqium.com on June 22, 2020.
