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Inspiration Vs Copying: How To Create a Unique Brand When Launching A New Business
It can be difficult to know where to start when launching your new business. The origin of a business idea always stems from the want to sell a service or product to the public that doesn’t already exist, but where do you go from there?
Business owners need to get their ideas out there as quickly as possible. On top of this, it is important to clearly promote what your company does. So, how does one go about accomplishing these tasks?
The answer lies in branding. In this article, we talk about how to create a unique brand for your new business, all without copying other leading companies.
What is Branding?
In its most simple form, branding can be considered as a form of recognition. It is how you present your business to the general public and become noticed. The best brands will be able to relay what service they provide just by sight or mention.
You can find branding everywhere. The mere mention of an app or food product will conjure images or tastes in your mind. That is what successful branding can achieve. The best way to find out about branding is by looking at the existing market.
Researching Brands
When looking at certain products or business providers, you can instantly identify their brand from its logo or association. For example, a social media app needs to make its logo a key part of its brand because this is what customers are mostly likely to see when looking for an app to use on their phone. Therefore, a social media company will benefit from clearly incorporating their name into their own logo so that customers can recognize them at a glance.
You can take some of these principles and apply them to what we want from our own brand. It isn’t copying when you research other brands. Consider it more as searching for inspiration. So, where should you start?
Looks Are Everything
Branding boils down to what the general public will recognize and can retain. With this in mind, you can clearly see how art affects the public’s perception of a business. A bright, eye-catching logo is a good place to start; however, it all depends on what type of business you are promoting. If your business sells soft drinks to a young demographic, the colorful and in your face approach is well-suited; whereas, a professional law firm will want to find something more sophisticated.
These small brand choices can change how your customers react to your business. In other words, how you present yourself artistically is key. If you are not sure about how to build your brand imagery you can use a branding design website, Tailor Brands is good option. These platforms use machine learning to design all aspects of your brand such as logos, websites, business cards and merch.
Focus on Your Target Audience
Now that you know where to begin, how does one decide how to brand themselves? By looking at the example above, you can see how our target audience can help determine these choices. Find out what your key demographic is, and what other brands they use that offer something similar to you. It isn’t copying, per se’, rather getting a feel for the market, or finding inspiration. You can use a tool like Google Analytics to get this data.
Once you have a good sample size, you are then equipped to start designing a brand of your own based on what you want to provide.
Be Specific
The next step to branding your business is pinpointing the main priority of your business. It is common for a business to offer two, three or even four key services. As your business grows, you can get involved in other projects and find other avenues to make money.
While it may be beneficial to branch out in a financial sense, it can make branding difficult. Identify what your key service is and anchor your branding around that one factor. This specificity will reduce confusion among your target audience and make your goals more clear. You will need to promote your other services, but that is best left to your marketing team. Speaking of which…
Marketing Your Brand
Once your research is complete, and you are confident in how you want to present yourself, it is time to get the message out there. Marketing falls into several categories. The first of which is choosing what you need to do to get your message across. Again, a good place to start is by looking to your competition. You don’t want to share the exact same space, rather find out where they place their ads and develop your strategy from there.
If you are targeting a younger demographic, you may want to run viral ad campaigns or market yourself online. The older demographic is more likely to receive their marketing from T.V ads, or posters.
The next step in marketing your brand is highlighting your purpose. You need to tell your customers what you can do for them. It is easier to do this with older marketing techniques, like T.V or radio ads, so make sure this type of marketing is informative and to the point.
When it comes to viral marketing, you can be a bit vaguer. The idea behind viral campaigns is to create hype and pose questions. They force your customers to come to you. Therefore, offer a place that answers these questions. Make sure you feature links to your site in any online marketing materials. There has been many successful examples of viral marketing campaigns in recent years, and you can look to these for inspiration. Then all you need to do is specifically target your market.
With a T.V advert, you may need to start concocting slogans, hiring actors of a similar demographic to those of your target audience and find out what programs they are likely to be watching, and then slip your ad in there.
You can follow these principles when marketing online. If you are marketing a soft drink, you can place it in association with sporting channels or with gamers. Find out where your key demographic is and bring your brand to them.
In summary, where you place your marketing can greatly improve your branding with minimal effort.
Be Unique
It sounds a lot easier that it actually is, but try to make your brand as unique as possible. You don’t look at other companies to copy their business model, far from it. New businesses should look at the competition to discover what these companies are lacking.
When you take inspiration from these places, you are seeking to find a niche’, something that your business can provide that is being neglected by others on the market. You should always put the factor that separates your business front and center. Let your audience know what you do that other companies can’t. Again, this step comes from research.
Conclusion
Creating a unique brand for your new business is a step by step process that mainly requires that you look to other leading competitors.
Your main focus should always be looking to fill a gap in the market. Find out what your audience needs and how best to bring it to them. Most of the hard work has already been done, you just need to plant yourself in the space and bring something new.
Meet The Author:
As a woman making her way to the top of the corporate ladder, Ella Woodward has the expertise and business knowledge to guide readers through the latest developments in the fast-paced business, financial and investment spaces. She has the contacts, instincts and insight to discover the latest deals, trades and organisations that are worth your time. Being in constant demand, she’s made this blog as a resource for you to see a small selection of the work she’s done over the years.
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