When creating a brand identity, you’ll want to establish defined guidelines that cover all of the following elements such as name, colors, logo, fonts, design imagery, or a combination to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers from those of other sellers.

From a customer-relationship perspective, having a strong brand is obviously advantageous. Word of mouth is a powerful form of marketing as customers attest their satisfaction and promote the product/ service.. For instance, when Belizeans think of hot sauce, they think of Marie Sharp’s Pepper Sauce. You want to have that kind of immediate, definitive relationship with your buyers as well. At the mentioning of a product customers can identify a brand that meets their stands out in the market.

To succeed in branding you must understand the needs and wants of your customers and prospects. You do this by integrating your brand strategies through your business at every point of public contact. If there’s some other branding characteristic you feel is necessary to define your business, go ahead and add it to your brand guidelines documentation.  The worst thing you could do is to avoid creating these important documents altogether.  Without them, your branding efforts will lack the consistency and direction needed for success.

When initiating the branding process, it can be tempting to add more variables than you truly need.  Clean, simple elements are more likely to be recognized and remembered by consumers, so steer clear of overcomplicating your company’s branded elements.

As mentioned above, part of good branding is establishing a set of guidelines that dictate how you control your company’s image in public — and social media shouldn’t be excluded from this process. A good social brand guidelines document will include specifications on all of the following, among others that may be relevant to your business:

• Who is responsible for updating your social profiles
• How frequently your social profiles will be updated
• What types of content you’ll post about
• How you’ll use imagery in your posts
• What type of “voice” you’ll use when posting- does not refer to recording but the overall tone used to convey the message.

The objectives that a good brand will achieve include: delivering the right message clearly, building customer loyalty, connecting and understanding your target audience. Therefore it makes sense to understand that branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.

A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for attracting and retaining customers intensifies on a daily basis. It’s important to dedicate your marketing efforts to researching, defining, and building your brand as it resides within the hearts and minds of all stakeholders’ experiences and perceptions.