Apple’s Influence on Brand Culture
The importance of becoming a brand is more important now than in any other time in life. In today’s business climate everyone is forced to become a brand in some way or fashion. We often call this “blame it on Apple” because we see Apple computers as being one of those companies who has changed the industry in so many different levels. They have created the power of being a brand where people don’t just want to own their products but they want to be the type of people who own their products. There’s a fine distinction when you look at that. Also in this day and age of influencer culture people want to relate to the people they buy from, the people they hear from in the media on a more personal level. So being a brand in today’s business climate is not something that you should do it is actually something that you have to do to remain relevant and to naturally attract customers.
Beyond Logos: The Evolution of Branding
What does it really mean to become a brand and to improve your brand? There are a lot of companies who sell things and there are a lot of people who market things but you only become a brand when you have these two things working for you you have recognition of your name and recognition of the visuals that you consistently put in front of people. And all days we only thought of a brand as a name and their logo. Today those are just the mere basics of branding. Today Brandon has taking on a new and higher level set of requirements. Where you have to market, where you have to position yourself to be found in the type of content that you constantly have to deliver to the world has changed.
The Necessity of Branding for All Businesses
We know that there are some businesses out there who do not think that they need to brand in any type away. But we challenge you because the more recognizable your business is are that you are, the more people will be attracted to you, the more trust that they will have, the greater level of rapport you will have with your customer base. So all industries and businesses can benefit from branding. Even if you are a one-man shop you can benefit from branding your company.
So what type of fundamentals of branding should we pay attention to right now?
The number one thing you need to do right now is to all the Internet. With the Internet you have so much power to create a narrative that naturally attracts people to you. Another goal of the Internet and your marketing is to make so much Noris, to post so consistently, to add so much value that when ever anyone thinks about your type of business, the industry you are in, the type of products that that you have in the services that you have that they immediately think of you first and not anyone else. That is how you truly be, influence or in the world.
The Role of Consistency in Building a Brand
Another thing that you need to improve your brand is consistency. How do you need to be consistent to really build your brand? You need to have a story, you need to have a narrative, you need to have a port of you, visuals and things that directly link with your company and the brand that you are trying to build. You also need to pay attention on creating content based on the type of customer that you want. You need to have the type of information that they are looking for and you need to be the type of company or person that they want to do business with. Branding today is all about trust and rapport before anything. People want to know who you are, they want to like you and they want to think on some level that they truly know you.
Leveraging Social Media for Brand Development
Going back to the power of the Internet it gives you the tools to do this on a daily basis. One great way to build your brand is via social media and YouTube. Most business people do not utilize the social media properties properly. Some are only on that because they think they have to be there, others are only trying to sell people the bare minimum but instead you have to think of social media and Internet as a way to build connection and meaning. Take a look at how the biggest companies and the biggest brands and people on the Internet use social media. They use it as a way to connect, when it comes to products they make it so that people can see themselves using those products, when it comes to services the people who promote services positioned himself as true experts who are looking out for your good. If you tell the story correctly and if you mean it you would naturally draw new customers to you.
Identifying and Engaging Your Ideal Customer
Celeste get a little bit more deeply into it. First let’s take a look at the type of business that you have. Who is your ideal customer and what are they interested in? What types of ways can you reach them on a much more meaningful level than you currently are reaching people? Artie any big companies in your industry who are really killing it when it comes to being a brand, having good recognition, having good name recognition and visual recognition. Who are the companies that you want to be like and who you want to replace? Your homework is to become just like them but several notches better. For many of you that might seem out of your reach but the best goals that we create in life always seem a little bit outside of ourselves and that is how we grow. It is not just a game of copycat but success leads blueprints in their left so that we can build similar structures and similar businesses. Use those big companies to motivate you to teach you who you need to become. Use those powerful people who easily attract the following to learn from that is why they are here for you.
Learning from Industry Leaders: A Blueprint for Branding
So you have a lot of information right now but what you really need to do is to take action. You have an idea of who you want to become and what it takes to become that type of person or company but now is the time for implementation. The Harvard school of business once had an article where they research the success rate of graduates of their business school and of various startups and they found that those who got started the quickest at the greatest level of success and they called the speed of implementation. The problem with an article like this one, one that gives you a lot of value, one that tells you the most important secret statuses and that is that the secret is not something that you don’t know it is something that you don’t do, the problem that many of you will have this that you read this article, agree with it then you won’t take any action. If you want to become a bigger brand, more recognizable, if you want to become the type or brand who people look for and learn to trust, you need to start building that P room at of success right now.
Action and Implementation: The Key to Brand Success
So right now we need to come up with a plan, a plan where you will create a schedule of actions that you are going to take to become a much bigger brand. We want to start with things that are within your reach. Learning about the things that are within your reach that will improve your brand means that you need to take a careful look at your company and your finances. What kind of things can you do right now that will help you build your brand into something much bigger and better? What are you doing right now that will help you? What we think you need to focus on is creating a strong narrative of who your company is, how you serve the people, your vision and why people should listen to you. So this is your homework for right now write 1000 words on the above subject matter and go deep with it, make it something meaningful and build up the biggest pictures that you can of what it means to be the top brand in your industry and how you do things a little bit different and better than the rest.
Crafting a Compelling Brand Narrative
Your next course of action is to learn how to market that message to the people because you can have all these great ideas about who you are and who you want to be and how you want people to react to you but it means nothing if you cannot really touch the people. We have already talked about the power of the Internet and social media but now is the time to utilize it. You need to create an Internet marketing plan that includes social media that is about reaching the people. There are three ways to do this in their ways that will cost you money via advertisement and content creation. We suggest that you budget to do both, use the free methods and to do the ones that cost money. When building a brand you really need to hit critical mass as soon as possible, that means paying for advertisement on all the social media properties and spending money with a digital agency or with the graphic artist to create all the little things that you need on social media to make a strong visual impact.
Utilizing Internet Marketing and Social Media
Some businesses are able to expand their brand and their business by offering the best information via free sources. This is why some people do business have podcasts, they have a YouTube channel where they constantly share videos, some companies that create products like to show off the creation process, other companies like to show off their work environment and the culture that they have built. Doing all of these things will help people connect with you and believe in what you do. Remember that we are right in the middle of the strongest do it yourself revolution that has ever exist, we are right in the middle of a media culture where people want to know how things are made and who makes them. There’s so many TV shows that document the creation process and how businesses are run and people love seeing this type of information because what people are looking for more than anything in the information age are what we call the over information age is meaning and connection.
The Power of Storytelling in Brand Development
So the more meaning and connection you can create with your marketing and with your Internet presence the more people you draw to you and the bigger your brand and the bigger your business will automatically become. This is truly the art of marketing and building a brand it is not just about drawing things and people face and telling them to buy it or to use my service it is about giving them meaning and reasoning to do these things. When you create a narrative in this way, when you create a story that they get to share and, they naturally trust you, you naturally build rapport and you naturally become the type of business or person that they want to be associated with in some way.
Implementing Strategies for Long-Term Brand Growth
So please take this information and don’t just read it one time, take time to digest it, allow it to motivate you, allow it to paint huge pictures of who you are going to become as a business and as a brand. More importantly hit the floor running and implement this information as soon as you can because it will make a huge difference in your business life. Not only will it attract more people but it might actually make running your business a lot more interesting, a lot more fun to actually give you as much meaning as you are trying to make other people understand why you are the type of business they should do business with. It has the counter fact making you raise your standards and actually become a better business and not just selling people something that is mythical.