Opinion: Building a brand strategy - key tips for long term success

Himanshu Arya from Grapes Digital sheds light on brand building as a powerful tool for growth strategy. He suggests various tips on brand building strategies and focusing on brand love to stay in top-of-the-minds of consumers, keeping long term success in mind.

Brand Building is not just a term. It is an amalgamation of values, equity, culture, trust, and leadership a brand possesses. It is the first step in a horde of measures that is essential to communicate about the brand and generate awareness about the services and products. But what exactly brand building is in your words? Strategies incorporated by a brand to bring consumers closer to the brand and provide value for them so that they can understand, feel and experience the brand. 

Marketer often thinks that brand building show short-term effects such as sales increase and better visibility, but I would say it’s even more powerful as a growth strategy because it helps in creating a unique identity for the brand yielding good long term results.

Brand building is crucial to successful marketing, but one cannot build a brand without having a strategy. If one needs to break the clutter and outshine then a strong strategy is crucial for the long-term success of the business. To thrive in a business you must figure out what your company stands for and translate that system of values to your target market.

It’s important to have clear thoughts like - USP of the business, how do you engage with consumers, and as a result, a brand strategy should be created. Having a strong and clear brand value is the pillar on which brands stand tall. 

Be Real & Authentic

The foremost priority a brand should address is sticking to the product ethos and focusing on delivering services to increase brand recall, forgetting about the competitors for a while. For an FMCG company, it could be about taste or quality, or for a consumer durable brand like a smartphone, it could be features. The foremost priority should be to grow our customer base while retaining the older ones. 

The sole purpose of the brand should be to keep your communication clear and to the point. Unarguably, Apple is the most valuable brand in the world today. It didn't happen in a day or two. In today's world when every day there is a new phone launching, Apple stuck to its yearly phone launch policy and the result is in front of us. People queue up waiting for hours just to get hands-on newly launched iPhones. The brand is vocal about the quality of its product and that can be seen in the launch videos.

Be Outspoken Of Your Product Offerings

It’s necessary to make sure that people know who you are and what your brand stands for. In today’s era, where numerous brands are offering similar services and products, it becomes pertinent for a brand to stand out from the crowd. Your uniqueness and the way you sell your offerings to the masses will determine the growth trajectory of the brand. Communicate to your TG and listen to their problems as well. Social listening also helps the brand leap out by allowing you to keep track of the latest trends and customer pain points and use them to your advantage. Recently Ola electric created a lot of buzz for its electric two-wheeler by providing the solution to the range anxiety of customers.

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Trends & Behavior Can’t Be Avoidable

Always believe in doing rather than telling. Nothing is perfect in the market; there's always a scope to improve. Keep an eye on the latest trends and improve upon them. This will help gain influence over your competition. Even after so many digital advancements word of mouth is still one of the most influential marketing tools. People, more likely to opt for a product referred by a friend/family rather than trying out a brand they have no previous experience with.

Understand the nerves of consumers and follow the trends. You can’t build a band like the old days, a cultural movement strategy matters and helps in achieving the name. 

Customer Loyalty Creates Brand Awareness

No matter how much money you spend on advertising but if you are not able to forge an emotional connect with the customer, it's a waste. A brand can only succeed if it can create trust in the minds of people. Customer loyalty not only creates awareness but also attaches to the customers on a personal level. Do not mislead people with false advertisements. Always be authentic to the brand’s mission. Customer satisfaction can't just be a marketing gimmick, the brand should keep customer satisfaction at the top and treat it as an operating principle. The brand promise should be genuine and better than what your competitors are offering.

Let's say for example, even though being a new entrant, Tesla shook the automobile industry. The company created an entirely new business model focusing on customer satisfaction and cutting-edge technology. They treated customers as their real heroes, as a result, the brand benefited from the strategy.

Hence, having a long-term brand strategy helps in achieving sustainable growth. It is the core foundational structure that supports the business. As digital marketers, our job is to enhance the brand value of the business generate a constant flow of leads along with goodwill. A brand is only successful when it is loved by people, so make use of the above techniques and take every step to convert a business into a brand.

This article piece is authored by Himanshu Arya, Founder, and CEO, Grapes Digital