Brand Visibility

4 Big Questions to Ask About Your Business’ Brand Success

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You have a business and you have a brand – how do you measure the success of either? When speaking about analytics, the numbers that prove we’re doing excellent or failing miserably in business matter a lot. They’re how we fix problems, adjust successes and plan our future.

But sometimes numbers aren’t enough. When it comes to branding, both absolute values and figurative ideas matter. This means asking questions that you can’t answer without hard thought. Much like your SATs, brand success strategies will have an essay portion.

The best way to figuratively assess your brand’s success is with this set of questions first brought up by Ignition Consulting Group founder Tim Williams:

1. What do we do?

Perhaps the most basic measure of branding success is asking the simple question of what you and/or your business do. This should be answered in a simple sentence; for instance “I’m Tamara Collins, event coordinator and speaker.” “Amteck Industries creates steel solutions.”

This simple answer should always be incorporated in your branding. Should your entire branding strategy be so simple? Not necessarily. But consider that the basis of any good brand strategy is to start with the basics and explain in some way your true business purpose.

2. Who do we do it for?

Next, consider your audience – who are they? Are they a general audience or more specific? Do you cater to men over women? Entrepreneurs over working class people? Who you’re marketing to will dictate the focus of your branding, and this also brings into question your success.

How accurately do you represent this audience within your brand? Based on your analytics, who most identifies with your brand? Does this answer match up with who you want to identify with your brand?

3. How do we do it?

Now assess your values, what makes you and/or your business unique and your methodologies. Sometimes how you perform a service is what identifies you as a brand.

Consider Subway – this is a sandwich chain where your food is made in front of you and served immediately when you pay, unlike artisan sandwich restaurants that don’t operate on such a fast-food style of serving. How the food is prepared separates Subway from other restaurants, and you have to find what it factor you have as a brand and utilize it.

When determining success, look at your current branding methods. How much do you focus on what sets you apart?

4. Why do we do it?

Finally, branding should always convey a mission statement – put simply, a sense of purpose. Do you aim to bring a better value to the table, or higher quality products? Did you simply bring your business to life to fill a hole in the market, or is it something you’re passionate about for personal reasons.

Why you do something is extremely important to a savvy consumer. A successful brand building strategy will always tackle this personal, edgy angle because it’s how you can easily connect with customers around the globe.

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How Strongly Should You Rely on Trends in Your Marketing

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It seems like everyone these days wants to get in on one hashtag movement or another. Sometimes this is a good thing, like when hashtags stand for solidarity and social change, but often silly hashtags are trending and everyone wants their 15 seconds of social media fame.

Businesses often feel the same way. They see a hashtag, meme or trend that’s popular and utilize it in their own advertising or marketing campaign. The question is this: is this actually a smart thing to do?

The answer is simultaneously yes and no. Hashtags and trends can be great for your business’ visibility and brand image, but they have to be used intelligently.

The Right Way

There is definitely a right way to use a hashtag or trend. The best way to utilize a trend in marketing is to always think the question “does this trend relate to my brand?” If the answer is yes, it’s then up to you to create a marketing tweet, image, slogan or piece of content that ties the two together in an interesting way.

Consider the now trending film “Sausage Party.” This tongue-in-cheek reference can actually add a dash of humor to a grocery store or meat packaging brand. They create a tweet that contains an image of a variety of sausages, also including the text “Have your own #SausageParty tonight. We’ll bring the buns!”

This humorous use of a current pop culture item and brand relevance sticks out in the minds of others. There’s also a dash of personality here – the business shows it is aware and doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is good in the eyes of consumers who want companies to have a human edge.

The Wrong Way

There are three major mistakes a brand could make with trend marketing – relying on trends too much, misappropriating a trend or not integrating the trend into the brand’s concept.

First, it’s important that a business not make trends and hashtags the cornerstones of their marketing strategies. This looks desperate – occasionally is fine, but doing it too often sends the wrong message.

Second, it’s important to understand the context of a trending topic. Businesses have gotten into hot water before for using hashtags and trends in the wrong way. These trends stand for something serious, a business misuses them and they become the target of bad publicity.

Third, the trend has to be related back to the brand in some way. In the above example, it doesn’t make sense for a furniture store to piggyback off of the same trending movie. They have to find a trend that suits their own business, or find a creative way to tie a trend into their own concept. Using a trend without making this connection is sloppy and the marketing strategy will fail.

All in all, trends need to be used with care. Don’t shy away from using trends in marketing completely, but use them sparingly. Make them count and make them clever.

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