Brand Development

Brand Development Explained

Brand development goes further than your company name, logo or website. Brand development is the continuous process of defining, refining, and testing your overall brand strategy.

A strong, well differentiated brand will make growing your business much easier.

But what type of company do you want? Are you planning to grow organically?

Your overall business strategy is the context for your brand development strategy, so that’s the place to start. If you are clear about where you want to take your business, your brand will help you get there.

It is the foundation for your company’s go-to-market approach and long term winning strategy

A companies brand is the feeling that is brought in by the business name, their logo, their theme.  

Particularly how it makes people feel and the emotions it creates.  Brand development is used by many blue chip companies.

Many businesses get into a rut as far as their identity is concerned.  Kind of like hitting a stone wall and reaching the end of the road as far as where the image can lead.

A classic example would be considering the Coca Cola company; a brand that has been running for decades and stayed largely unchanged. 

However the organisation has developed itself and adapted as the years have gone by.

How Do Brands Develop?

Brand development is all about the journey, taking the customers with you.  

As the company and business grow, the customers do follow. As Coca Cola has developed, we all have in a sense been on the journey and been a part of the development.

This has been the emotional journey that we have all been a part of and noticed the brand develop.  The company has remained the same, the product the same, but thebranding has changed.

• Continuity of marketing

Developing does need to be a gradual process.  McDonald’s launched their ‘I’m lovin it’ campaign which was a complete re-brand and a complete change to their old image.  Developing the brand is building and adapting the marketing that is already in place gradually

• Modification of advertising

Like the brand marketing, the advertising needs to keep the same underlying theme; but instead of being a sharp change, does need to be adapted so that the changes are subtle.  This way the customer does not have to buy into a completely fresh brand.

What Does Brand Development Help Define?

• Your Brand Goals – Brand goals outline what your brand aims to deliver for your business.
• Your Brand Purpose – This goes further than money but it is the impact you want to create in the world around you.
• Brand Positioning – Where does your brand sit in the market, are you a market leader or mid market?
• Brand Differentiation – How do you stand out from your competitors?
• Brand Character – This humanises your brand in terms of how your brand relates to your customers.

The most successful businesses develop, deploy, and regularly revisit a comprehensive brand strategy to make purposeful and strategic marketing decisions. They don’t wing it, they planned and implemented it.

Some Tips On How To Develop Your Brand

Here are some tips on how to develop your brand:

• Consider your overall brand strategy
• Identify your target clients
• Research your target clients
• Develop you brand positioning
• Develop your messaging strategy
• Develop your company logo and tagline
• Develop your content marketing strategy
• Develop Your Website
• Develop Your Marketing Toolkit
• Develop Your Social Media Footprint

Brand development is a strategic process of creating and distinguishing your company’s image, products and services from your competitors.

Development includes aligning your brand with your business objectives, communicating your brand to your target market and updating or strengthening your brand as necessary.

Identify Your Clients

Your target market is that specific group of people you want to reach with your brand message.

This is the demographic that is most likely going to buy your products or services. These people have common characteristics that make them naturally attracted to your brand.

The more clearly you can define your target market, the easier it becomes to create a brand that connects with your audience.

The UK has a rich diversity of people, consumers that each want different things.

The UK has a wide diversity of businesses, different industries and different markets.

For this reason, whether your business is targeting the business world or consumer world, it is important to identify your clients.  This will effect your marketing message and give you focus in your marketing.

Get Feedback

Many companies in the UK ask for feedback, this could be through a market research survey or a competition to get a free product.

Feedback from your customers will only help you develop your brand.  Maybe you got it wrong, maybe your marketing agency got it wrong.

Getting feedback from customers could help you re-focus your marketing message so that it is more effective, which should impact your company revenue.

• Do you like our logo?
• Do you like our website?
• Do you like the layout of our shops/restaurants?
• Do you like the variety of the menu?
• What does our brand mean to you?
• If you were CEO of our company, what would your first job be?

There are lots of things you can get feedback on, and sometimes the best feedback comes from children.  They do not overthink their answers and can give you the feedback you have been missing feedback that the expert marketing companies have missed.

Why Do Brands Develop?

If a company is established in its market place, it will have a loyal following of customers that know and understand the business. 

To do a re-brand will leave customers confused and they have to actually buy into the new image (rather than accompanying on the journey as the company adapts and develops.

If a business has had a lot of money and resource being put into establishing it, doing brand marketing.  Then a complete change would basically waste all that building work.

Better to build on the foundation that is already in place; and then modify it subtly to take the image from A to B.

Compare quotes from local branding agencies to boost your brand.

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