There’s a well-known quote from Scott Cook that’s done the rounds on social media: “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is—it is what consumers tell each other it is”. Companies like Apple, McDonalds and Coca-Cola didn’t just make a name for themselves based on the quality of their products. All of them have built powerful brands with memorable imagery that promises comfort and enjoyment to their customers.
No matter how large or small your business is, memorable branding creates an emotional connection with potential customers that allows warm and positive feelings to develop.
A brand is far more than a name or a logo. It’s an experience represented by images and feelings, a total of perceptions and experiences that the public has of your product.
At the heart of every successful brand is a brand strategy. This is the values, the identity, the voice and the vibe you bring. It’s what underpins the way you present yourself to the world and your message to the marketplace. Brand strategies build recognition and awareness, attract your target demographics and generate brand loyalty and repeat business. A brand strategy is a document that defines your brand’s place in the market and gives you a jumping-off point with details like visuals, brand personas and positioning statements.
As a full-service creative marketing agency that has helped many purpose-driven brands to succeed, Anchor Digital knows a lot about memorable branding. If you’re looking for the right ingredients for a strong branding strategy, we can help you find them.
What Makes A Branding Strategy Memorable?
Have you ever wondered why some brands capture and hold the public’s attention while others fail to make much of an impression? There are a lot of elements that go into a memorable branding strategy—some physical and tangible, some more emotional. These details include:
Strong core values
Customers can easily spot insincerity. Your core values are the beliefs that you stand for as a business, and they should drive all that you do. They’re the basis of your brand story, ideas and decision-making process, and the ideals that everyone in the company, including the leaders, should strive for. How do your brand values align with your customer’s values, and how can you uphold them in your messaging?
Purpose
Separate from your values but driven by them all the same, consider your brand’s purpose and how it dovetails with the needs of your customers. Your brand’s purpose should answer the most important question of all: why your brand exists.
Voice and tone
Different brands have different voices and tones depending on who they’re aiming to appeal to and what they offer. Your brand voice will set the tone for all forms of communication, including copywriting, social media posts and press releases. Keeping a consistent brand voice across all channels gives you a distinct identity and helps consumers build trust in your brand. Examples include Apple’s confident and direct approach, DuoLingo’s playful and humorous approach and Harley-Davidson’s seasoned, slightly gruff motorcycle veteran attitude.
Brand story
Crafting a compelling brand story is an effective way to help your brand stand out in the marketplace and make sure they remember you. Brand stories help audiences feel more connected with you, highlighting the challenges you’ve faced along the way and the adversities you’ve overcome.
How to Create a Memorable Branding Strategy
Both your brand and your branding strategy should be memorable. Some tips for standing out and creating a memorable brand and online strategy include:
Know your target demographic
It might sound obvious, but building a strong brand identity and strategy starts with understanding the demographics of people looking for products like yours. This involves researching and gathering data on your target market based on factors like age, gender and income level, as well as interests, values and lifestyles.
Decide how you want to be perceived
Knowing who you are, what you stand for and how you want to present yourself to the world helps you create a memorable brand identity. This is not just what you offer but what you represent and how you want customers to feel about you.
Create a memorable business name
A memorable brand starts with a memorable name, and many of the world’s biggest brands have simple, easy-to-remember names: Apple, Dove, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, MasterCard, and the list goes on. Make sure your name is easy to spell and pronounce, and be careful of double meanings or negative connotations.
Create a unique value proposition (UVP)
A clear, unique value proposition is important for determining why users should choose your brand over others. If your brand is too similar to other companies in the same space, it’s easy to fade into the background. A unique value proposition explains the benefits of your product, how it solves customer’s problems and why people should buy from you rather than your competitors.
Use a branded style guide to keep it consistent
A style guide includes all the important elements that make up your brand identity and gives you a reference point for consistency. A style guide should contain information about who you are as a brand, your top unique selling propositions (USPs), your dos and don’ts and brand assets like your colour palettes, typefaces and illustrations.
What Can Make Branding Strategies Forgettable?
A forgettable brand leads to low sales and wasted marketing efforts. Some things that make a brand strategy forgettable include:
Lack of a compelling story
Brands that focus solely on the products they sell or the services they deliver fall by the wayside in favour of the ones that work on connecting emotionally with their audience.
Lack of consistency
If customers are getting mixed messages across different channels or platforms, it weakens your brand identity and undercuts your ability to create an emotional connection. If your brand sounds like a different person across different channels or your in-store experience doesn’t match your online presence, any impression it does make isn’t a good one.
Lack of authenticity
A brand that’s too slick, too polished and too generic—that has the same buzzwords or branding that could apply to any other brand—won’t stand out.
Playing it too safe
Being afraid to take risks or lacking something that sets you apart can backfire on you as a brand, causing you to fade into the background.
Complexity and jargon
When a brand’s messaging is too complicated or uses too much technical language, it’s easy for customers to overlook the brand for a more straightforward one.
Get Your Brand Noticed With Anchor Digital
Whether you already have a rock-solid identity or you need to build it from the ground up, Anchor Digital can help with our branding strategy services. We’ll help you create a brand identity that reflects your story, values and goals and keeps your voice consistent across every medium.
Our brand identity and strategy services include research into your target demographics, the design of a memorable brand logo and assets, nailing down your tone of voice and finding the right communication channels. Not to mention working with you on a solid strategy for memorable branding. To find out more, contact the Anchor team.
