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University of Southern California
A brand’s voice, strategy, messaging and visuals combine to form the brand’s image.
Lexico by Oxford defines brand image as “the general impression of a product held by real or potential consumers.”
The human race has always been concerned with what others think of us. Why? For one, we crave acceptance and validation. As children, we appeal to adults through a primal need to receive the necessary care to grow and thrive. In fact, Darwin observed that cuter babies tend to receive better care than those considered less endearing.
As we grow older and enter society - even as early as kindergarten - we begin to observe what others do to gain acceptance and validation and it naturally becomes a competition to earn more favor than our peers. As we enter adulthood and business, that concept is magnified, because now the validation comes from earning consumers’ attention and loyalty, and ultimately their dollar. As we know, companies that are more adept at getting consumers to spend their money with them are the companies that survive.
Defining your brand’s image involves a series of steps to identify the different parts of the overall image. It’s important to do the work to ensure that your image is consistent and effective.
How do companies compete for customers? Psychology.
Think of the brands you use loyally. What initially drew you to those brands? You likely felt that the brand was relatable to you, it excited you, seemed sincere, sophisticated or reliable, or you made some other subconscious association based on the brand’s image. Much like the cuteness of a baby, the image of a brand determines the amount of favor they receive in order to survive.
Brands have taken survival several steps beyond by curating from whom they want to earn favor, i.e. they have identified their target audience. If a brand’s image appeals to you on or near a primal level, chances are that you are the brand’s target audience.
Now, take this concept and apply it to your own brand. While all people are unique and have their own experiences to draw from when choosing brands, there are certain major characteristics that you can use to create categories of potential consumers to appeal to.
Your criteria will depend on the product or service you’re offering as well as what your competition is doing – what works and what doesn’t? Let’s look at a few criteria to help you define your target market.
Your current customer base. Who are your current customers? What are the commonalities between them, and what are the differences? People who have similar buying habits to your current customers may also find value in what you have to offer.
Your competitors.Who are your competitors’ current customers? In order to gain a significant advantage, you’ll want to find a niche that your competitors don’t currently fill. That means that you won’t be trying to appeal to the exact same customer base as your competitors, but taking the information you glean and improving on your competitors’ methodologies.
Your offerings. For your products or services, identify what makes them unique and useful. Why are your offerings beneficial to your customers? Listing these benefits can help you identify who is likely to seek the benefits your brand provides.
Demographics. Your target market can be roughly identified through demographics: age, gender, occupation, income level, education, location, ethnicity, marital and parental status. While these traits are extremely broad, they can help you delineate a wider market that you can then research more deeply to unearth some of the specific traits and needs that your brand can fulfill.
Psychographics. Demographic groups can be broken down into more specific categories based on values, interests, lifestyles, personality traits and more. Psychographics has more to do with lifestyle choices than demographics, which in many cases is not a choice but a set of circumstances.
These characteristics can get you to a point at which you know who you want to market to, but you still need to know how to market to them. Understanding what appeals to your target market will guide the creation of your brand’s image. Will your target market see a need for your product or service? If so, can they afford it? How do they make purchasing decisions, and how do you reach them with your brand’s messaging?
Identifying your target market and how you want to appeal to those consumers will help you when you create your brand’s positioning statement.
Often (incorrectly) used interchangeably with other branding terms, what a brand positioning statement really is can be summed up as a statement that encompasses the following:
Often (incorrectly) used interchangeably with other branding terms, what a brand positioning statement really is can be summed up as a statement that encompasses the following:
Knowing what a brand positioning statement is as well as what it isn’t will help you craft your own. It’s important to keep in mind that your brand positioning statement is typically a single-sentence statement that references the other elements of brand messaging you’ve amassed. The following questions will help you identify what’s most important to say in a brand positioning statement.
Why does your brand exist?
For whom does your brand exist?
What does your brand offer that sets you apart from other brands?
What lasting impression do you want your brand to leave with customers?
Reference your existing brand messaging materials when answering these questions. For example, when answering the question about why your brand exists, refer to your mission statement and describe how your team is going about meeting company goals. You might find yourself reading through external reference material, as well, such as customer reviews. Testimonials, success stories and similar feedback can help you to identify for whom your brand exists.
What does your brand offer that sets you apart from other brands? This question will require some research before answering. Gather information regarding your competitors and what they offer and then refer to your value proposition to make a promise of how you will exceed what your competitors offer. Be sure to include how you’ll keep that promise.
It sounds like a lot, and it is. But you can deliver your brand’s positioning statement in a single sentence using a template such as this one:
“(My brand) is a _A_ company that provides _B_ with _C_ by _D_” in which you fill in the blanks as follows:
So, if you’re a roofing company, your positioning statement might read something like this:
“ABC is a roofing company that provides homeowners and business owners with beautiful, dependable new roofs, roof repairs and reroofs by offering industry-leading warranties, using the highest quality roofing materials and focusing on the ongoing training and development of our expert roofers.”
Once you’ve crafted your brand’s positioning statement, you can use it going forward to guide your content marketing and brand consistency.
Creating a brand image seems like a scientific process, doesn’t it? Well, the fact of the matter is that while these criteria are hugely important to a brand’s marketing strategy, a brand’s image can transcend all of it by appealing to emotion.
Appealing to your target audience requires knowing a few things about what people react to. Take the following categories:
Certain colors can evoke certain emotions from people. What those emotions are will ultimately depend on a person’s individual background and personal experiences, but there are important points to know about the psychological effect of using color in branding.
For example, the color green tends to promote health, peace and growth, while red can elicit feelings of bold excitement. Overall, bright colors typically project a happier image while darker colors can be associated with ruggedness and masculinity.
According to The Crazy Egg, the font style you choose for your logo and other brand assets can influence the way people see your brand. For example, serif fonts tend to exude a serious or traditional tone and can garner feelings of confidence and respect for the brand. In contrast, a sans serif font is typically used to seem more modern, clean and even chic. Script fonts can make your brand seem elegant and sophisticated, while display fonts are fun and whimsical.
The human brain is an amazing organ. Our brains seek patterns in absolutely everything we see, and most of the time we’re not even aware of it. Patterns help us recognize things, and when you follow a consistent pattern in your branding, your brand becomes recognizable and projects an image of trustworthiness.
The bottom line? Consistency is key. Consistency in the color, the font and messaging of your brand make people comfortable, and thus, loyal.
Customers don’t make buying decisions based solely on brand recognition. Predictability is essential in business, both for internal collaborators and external consumers. As stated above, predictability garners comfort and loyalty, because your customers, employees and partners know exactly what to expect from the brand.
It may take a dozen interactions or more for a customer to decide that your brand is the one they trust and prefer. That means that your brand must remain consistent – in your messaging, the quality of your product or service, your brand’s visual identity – and that gives context to your brand as a whole. This process may be a bit slow, but it is completely worth it when you look back at your loyal customer base.
To remain consistent with your brand’s identity, it’s important that you establish a set of guidelines to which everyone involved with your brand adheres to. These guidelines should outline your brand’s imaging, voice, taglines, quality, customer service and all other aspects of successfully managing your brand.
Successful companies use a variety of methods to gain the understanding and cooperation of their employees when it comes to keeping a consistent brand image. Some of these can include the following:
Your brand’s voice is, for all intents and purposes, your brand’s personality. It’s the framework outlining how your brand relates to your audience, customers and partners. Your brand’s voice stands for the strength and position of your company and carries your brand to where you want it to be. It conveys the reason for your brand’s existence as well as the brand’s goals.
The voice of your brand should embody what your brand stands for. Whether that’s friendly and conversational or formal and informational, it should reflect your brand’s desired image without being pushy or “sales-y;” coming on too strong will put you at risk of losing the trust of your audience before you’ve had the chance to really earn it.
Your brand’s content, whether online or physical, should strive to create personalized experiences for consumers while maintaining the brand’s established voice. The following tips can help you form and adhere to your brand’s voice.
Overall, successful branding happens when all of the moving pieces come together in a cohesive, cooperative execution. If you were to ask 50 people to describe your brand, you would want the descriptions to remain fairly consistent across the board. When you’ve achieved that, you’ve successfully created a brand image.
Sources:
https://www.inc.com/guides/2010/06/defining-your-target-market.html
https://grasshopper.com/blog/why-brands-are-lovable-a-crash-course-in-the-psychology-of-branding/
https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/psychology-of-fonts-infographic/
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0001664
https://appliedpsychologydegree.usc.edu/blog/psychology-behind-developing-brand-loyalty/
https://www.clearvoice.com/blog/brand-consistency-why-its-so-important-how-to-achieve-it/
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