Brand Development

What is brand development?

Brand development is the process where you create the concept of your business’ brand. Then, you maintain its consistency and quality. The primary goal is to build and sustain esteem for your brand in your customer’s mind. The most successful brands in the world, like Amazon and Apple, aren’t just logos. Over the years and decades, they have built up an emotional connection with their users. That’s down to brand development.

Brand development and branding

It’s important not to confuse brand development and branding. But, what’s the difference?

Brand development is the concept of the brand, the behind-the-scenes work where you work out what your brand is going to be. Branding is where it becomes a reality. Branding is where you apply your brand development to the way you communicate with your customers.

Strong brand development leads to the end result of better branding. When you put time, thought and effort into the development of your brand, it shines through, showing customers that you care. When they find out who you are, they are more likely to like what they see.

It also leads to more effective branding. Brand development, as we shall see later, involves detailed analysis of your customers, your marketplace and your message. To draw up branding without looking at these things would lead to disastrous results.

The Healthy Back Bag Rebranding – Before vs After: Transitioning a medicinal brand to a fashion brand.

How to develop your brand

Making brand building an ongoing process in your business ensures your branding continues to align with the goals of your business. It also ensures you continue to delight your customers.

Brand development is a challenge that causes you to think more deeply about your customers, your market and where your place is in the wider world.

Here are two things you must consider as you start to define your brand:

• Where do you sit in your marketplace? – Think about your competitors and where your strengths and weaknesses are compared to theirs. Do you beat them on price or service? What is changing in your industry that could leave opportunities open to you?
• Who are your customers? – Do you know who buys your products or uses your services? Why do they buy from you? What do they think about you? When you know what works (or what doesn’t), you can focus on the most effective messages

If you already have a brand for your business, think of how it is working for you and your customers…

What channels perform better than others? What have you done recently that has worked? How could you improve the results?

If you need some expert help, it’s time to talk to March.

Connect Brand Development – Before vs After: Transitioning a financial recruiter to an executive search firm.