Branding in Review; Rejuvenating Your Image in the New Year

Refresh Your Branding, Refresh Your Business

Another year coming to a close and another opportunity to reflect. Whether 2016 has been a success or a disappointment, a new year represents a fresh chance to regenerate. For many businesses, the festive season provides the breathing room to begin analysing. What went right in the 12 months prior and what needs to change in order for the company to thrive? Before we all start getting bogged down with all the intricacies and technicalities that come with any business, one of the most meaningful changes that we can all make is to our image. Reputation and how your clients see you has a considerable influence on whether they commit to doing business with you.

Examining the Success of Some of the Best

The world’s big brands commit huge sums every year to carefully nurturing their brand. The way they are perceived plays a huge part in the success of their products and services. By now you have probably seen someone sporting a pair of Beats headphones, or are at least aware of them. Well their strategy was not to highlight the features of the product, but to focus on how their brand was marketed. Any sound engineer worth their salt could explain to you why in terms of sound quality, there are far more cost-effective options on the market (and they sound better too!). However, the company’s marketing approach focused on celebrity endorsements and music videos.

Even without a market leading product or a competitive price, positioning of the Beats headphones is what drove their growth. The same can be said for Apple. The price disparity when comparing the technical specifications of the latest Macbook with a Windows PC of a similar spec is remarkable (at least £400), but it is the brand name and what that represents which keeps consumers going back. Now, we can’t all afford to have famous names sporting our products whenever a camera lays eyes on them, but clever product placement and developing your image can be far more effective than sinking your budget into R&D.

Building Your Brand and Where to Start

Regardless of whether you have already built up a decent reputation for yourself or you are just getting started, the whole process of branding requires constant pruning and attention. Of course, growing it results in more leads and ideally more sales. Neglecting it and developing a bad image can harm your business for the year to come. Depending on the severity, for even longer than that.

The first aspect which we should be targeting is the first impression that we make. If you have a physical store, then the natural issue to address is the store front and how it’s presented. If you operate online, then your website is likely to be the first thing a potential client will see. We can apply some of the same logic behind human psychology and how we form a first impression and then apply it here. First up is the visual impression. When you attend a meeting, you are probably expecting to meet someone in a clean and tidy suit. If you meet someone wearing board shirts and a surfer’s t-shirt, how do you think this would affect your first impression of them?

The image that you give off needs to be tailored to your audience. If you are trying to sell surfboards, then the analogy above may make complete sense. Generally this would help you to form a positive opinion. However, if you operate in manufacturing, then the same cannot be said. From your logo, to your website, to any promotional material you hand out, the whole design needs to be consistent and relevant towards the audience you are targeting. People may struggle to remember the name of your company, but a memorable and well-designed logo can stick long in the memory.

Locate the Success of the Competition and Build from There

Without prior experience of branding and the whole concept of reputation management, one of the best ways to get the ball rolling is to analyse the approach that some of your rivals take. Simply copying their strategy will severely harm your brand. However learning from what works for them can be adapted and applied to your own business model. Perhaps their fancy new website has proved a hit and driven down their bounce rate online. Or maybe a complete re-brand of their logo and promotional efforts has triggered some excitement around their business.

As with anything in the business industry, we are all looking to avoid stagnation. That means we get left behind our rivals. If things are starting to head in that direction, then it is important to look at the strategy you have. Identify which parts have worked and which are simply consuming too much of your time. Investing a moderate sum into professional graphic design to refresh your logo and promotional content is more likely to end up paying off compared to wasting thousands of hours following leads that have shown very little results in the past year.

Trust is Hard to Build in Person, Let Alone Online

The final part of reputation which I want to touch upon is this whole idea of trust. Whenever we exchange our hard-earned money for goods in store, there are a whole host of factors which influence why we feel comfortable handing over our cash. From the appearance of the store to the brand name above the door, when we feel like we trust a company, we are more likely to part with our money. If we like their product too, we may even become loyal to the brand. That is exactly the kind of customer every business wants.

Re-creating this in your physical store and even more so online, can be time consuming. But the value at the end of the road can be considerable. However, while in store, a customer can get a general feel for your business. Whether simply through the staff on hand or the surrounding environment. The same cannot be said online. With so many websites, a myriad of different customers and only a few verified ways of proving that your goods are not going to a ‘Nigerian Prince’, building trust online is crucial to its success.

Once again, the first thing that will start to build their trust is how their site appears. If it looks like it was put together quickly, then customers are more likely to head to your competitors. Next up they will probably look for reviews, whether on your site, or on Google or Trustpilot. Because of this, it’s important to encourage your customers to let others know about why they choose you. It could be the difference in securing that sale. Finally, ensure your site is encrypted (meaning https://) is at the beginning. Without that, your customer’s money is at risk of being intercepted before it even lands in your bank account.

Getting Started…

Branding is a long and almost thankless task. There are very few ways to measure success of your reputation building other than sales figures at months end. But it is important to remember that good branding sticks in the memory. If your business is memorable, that is going to lead to more sales further down the line. You can find plenty more detailed resources online, but a parting point to reiterate is that first impressions are everything. If the first thing your potential client sees appears dull, runs slow and is ultimately frustrating to use, then it only takes a click or a few strides to go and check out what your competitor is doing.

If business has been getting a bit stale in 2016, then we can help to get your re-brand underway. With a dedicated graphic design team on hand, we can supply you with bespoke logo designs, high quality printed leaflets and custom exhibition stands, exactly what is needed to make a professional and impressive first impression. For more details on the service we provide, please get in touch by calling 01733 232000 or send an e-mail to sales@go-displays.co.uk.