Whether you work as an independent freelancer or you own a company, you are certainly aware of the importance of branding factors. It is essential that your target audience can identify your services easily.
Although, traditional branding strategies leave little room for the human aspect in the business world. Whether you are looking at the brand promise or the brand perceptions, these are business concepts that rely on a complex branding strategy.
Developing a branding strategy to share your promise with your potential customers, such as through advertising, is no guarantee that your brand will attract new buyers. Whether people have become cynical or they are too used to the marketing language to pay any attention, one thing remains: Branding strategies that are not built on people simply don’t work anymore.
Indeed, people are the core of everywhere brand, and as a result, your potential customers or even your employees are more likely to trust a people-centered branding strategy. In short, it’s time to humanize your brand!
The Karma Behind The Brand
As silly as it may sound, karma, and especially positive karma, is by far the best branding strategy, as seen in a previous article here http://ericabuteau.com/2013/02/15/karma-brands-and-sales-a-note-on-self-preservation/.
Certainly, a good deed, even if it is not connected to the business world but identified as coming from the company, can have positive effects on the company. Imagine a van with a home painter’s contact details lets you through the traffic, and you are immediately positively biased toward this business. It becomes a friendly business, even though you have no idea whether they provide quality results.
Admittedly this example only works if you happen to need your home repainted. But as a general rule of the thumb, people remember good deeds. In short, helping out today might bring you a new customer tomorrow or in a few months’ time.
Communicating Brand Values
There is nothing that says old-fashioned like a static business structure. For instance, employees who work for a brand that describes itself as dynamic, modern, or even friendly – one of the most common branding images – might find it difficult to take the company seriously when the organization remains old-fashioned and/or divided.
Sitting at the desk from 9 to 5 every day without knowing half of the staff around you is not promoting the brand values within the company. As a result, Pingboard has developed an interactive and effective organizational chart – you can find it here https://pingboard.com/org-charts/organizational-design – that promotes cooperative projects.
Every member of the team becomes a valuable individual who can interact with other teams, build a network, and participate in exciting projects. In short, letting your employees feel your brand values is the best way of making a positive impact.
Brand And User Experience
Jakob Nielsen is a Danish consultant who first identified the need for user-friendly designs during the 1990s. While today, the user experience is a key factor of a successful web design or digital solution, Nielsen goes a little further by claiming that UX is the new branding strategy.
This may sound a little on the sci-fi side, however, as most users interact with a business online, Nielsen’s argument makes sense. If you struggle with a website, or you can’t pass an order online, you will automatically form a negative image of the brand. In short, make sure your business is digitally friendly for all.
Photo credit: UX talk
