If you own a roofing, HVAC, or solar energy business, you understand the importance of an effective marketing strategy to your bottom line. Advertising and marketing experts will tell you that owning a strong and recognizable brand distinguishes your business (including the products and services you sell) from your competition. Without a familiar brand, your business will become lost in the vast landscape of “forgettable” products and services.
One of the most beneficial ways to build your brand is to develop a comprehensive brand strategy incorporating a Brand Style Guide (BSG). A high-quality BSG helps you, as a business owner, avoid branding mistakes that drive away customers (and prospective customers). Working with a reputable marketing professional to develop a customized BSG lets you differentiate your business from your competitors. Now, you hold the edge!
The Importance Of Branding
Personality
A brand is more than just the logo or visual elements (like a particular color scheme) you use for customers to recognize your business. It encompasses the entirety of your business’s identity, from the simple to the complex. A brand reflects your business’s personality. If your business’s brand is not your most valuable asset, it is not strong or distinct enough in today’s fast-paced, ultra-competitive marketplace environment.
Credibility
Ultimately, the trust factor derived from your target audience (your actual and prospective customers) drives your brand’s success. Establishing a reliable brand takes time. However, a concentrated marketing campaign can enhance your brand and expedite the time required to build your brand’s credibility. Many brands have become famous relatively quickly through an intensely focused marketing plan utilizing the right channels.
Identity
Although a brand is “intangible,” it should generate a profound emotional connection with actual and prospective customers. Your brand lacks identity and impact if it does not provide a meaningful association with your business for these stakeholders. A strong brand builds customer loyalty beyond your marketing efforts because it creates fans (customers who rave about your business with word-of-mouth recommendations).
Originality
A successful brand positively differentiates itself from its competitors in the marketplace. The brand name (or even just a visual of the brand colors or other identifiers) immediately stimulates particular emotions and feelings from customers and also people who do not consume the brand’s product or service. The brand name should also stand out from all other competitors, including ones who might produce a superior version of the service or product.
4 Reasons Why An Effective Brand Strategy Matters
(1) A Meaningfully Impactful Brand Strategy Transforms Your Product Or Service From A Mere Commodity To A Living “Organism.”
Breathe life into your brand. Treat it as a human with a personality, feelings, and emotions that connect it to the community. A brand that achieves relevance in the hearts and minds of consumers because it comes across as authentic, almost human-like, attains a special status reserved for very few brands. Your powerful brand has achieved a lovability factor that causes consumers to become enveloped by the entire brand experience.
(2) Achieving A Brand Strategy That Strengthens Your Brand Builds Trust, Loyalty, And Positivity With Existing And New Customers.
Brand loyalty can be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve for most businesses. Why? They don’t know how to connect with consumers emotionally. Consumers are far more likely to purchase a product or service with a strong, positively received brand compared to a weak, negatively perceived, or unfamiliar brand (even if the business provides a comparable or superior product or service versus the strongly branded business).
(3) The Newly Formed (Or Substantively Enhanced) Brand Provides A Platform For Growth Through Broadened Brand Expansion.
Strong, robust brands outlast and outperform the products or services they represent. Indeed, a superior brand may still be identifiable with a particular product or service. However, an instantly recognizable brand transcends the need for an explanation as to what product or service it is marketing. As a consumer, you simply know what the brand means by catching a glimpse of a feature (a color, a design, a logo) associated with the brand.
(4) Your Business’s New Or Enhanced Brand Will Enable You To Dictate Premium Pricing For Your Services Or Products.
How do you know that the price you charge for your services or products reflects an accurate representation of the value of your service or product? As a business owner, you should never price your services or products based primarily (or exclusively) on what amount your competitors charge. Ultimately, you dictate the price for your services or products based on the strength of your brand (and what it means to your customer base).
The Value Of A Brand Style Guide For Your Business
A Brand Style Guide (BSG) unifies verbal and visual branding elements. A BSG serves as an indispensable resource for businesses seeking to establish and strengthen a strong and consistent brand identity. By implementing a targeted yet comprehensive strategy, Art Unlimited works closely with your business to increase brand awareness, generate greater demand for your service or product through brand recognition, drive sales (multiply revenues), and cement your brand as instantly recognizable in your industry and locale.
In truth, a BSG is not optimal for organizations merely looking for immediate lead generation (and nothing more). Instead, a BSG is ideally situated for organizations seeking cohesive branding that yields a quantitatively measurable return on investment (ROI) through added brand awareness and focused growth within their industry. For large or well-established businesses considering a rebrand, a BSG offers particular value. Similarly, smaller but rapidly expanding businesses needing a familiar brand as soon as possible will profit.
Organizations sprinkled across most sectors, including the corporate world, nonprofit and charitable foundations, educational institutions, and government agencies, can benefit from having a BSG. As industries continue shifting marketing strategies from ad-focused to brand-focused, consistent brand awareness is more crucial than ever. No established or emerging business can afford to maintain a weak or negatively perceived brand, especially in this age where information travels at the speed of light through online customer reviews.
To learn more about the Brand Style Guide (BSG) process or to schedule a complimentary introductory marketing consultation, contact Art Unlimited today.
