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A company’s branding fundamentals are a critical element of its identity, indicating not only how the organization positions itself but also what sets it apart from the competition. Essentially, a brand is a promise that the company makes to the consumer. That’s why branding is such an essential tool for a business. If the company wants to make a name for itself, its branding fundamentals are crucial. Branding strategy, therefore, is one of the most vital parts of forging a company’s identity.
But what makes for good branding? If you ask advertisers and marketing professionals, they’ll tell you that the most successful brands have a few things in common. Here, 16 members of Forbes Business Council weigh in on the fundamental elements of branding that all new companies should be aware of when designing their strategies.
Forbes Business Council members share branding essentials new entrepreneurs should keep in mind.
Authenticity
A branding fundamental is an authenticity built on a foundation of performance and delivery. If you don’t believe in your own goods and services, then no one will. Regardless of how good the facade is, your customers will eventually see through it. Therefore, the fundamental factor is having a product or service that really delivers, so you can be authentic in promoting the brand. Without this, it’s all smoke and mirrors. – David Ramjohn, AlgEternal Technologies LLC
Honesty
Honesty is vital to building a successful brand. Loyalty is faithfulness to commitments or obligations, and all successful brands have a loyal consumer following. If you are honest with your consumer and yourself about the products or services you are supplying, you build trust which transforms into loyalty with time. – Pamela Furr, Puzzle Box Academy & Kaleidoscope Interventions
Core Values
Core values are the most vital fundamentals of a brand. Many firms get this aspect wrong because they think of branding as a marketing exercise. Effective brands are lived and authentic, with deeply ingrained values unique and specific to the firm. When someone interacts with your brand, these values tell them exactly what to expect from you and how to meet those expectations. – Jeff Berkowitz, Delve
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Strong Messaging
Brand development starts with messaging, which is an art and a science. Follow formulaic messaging components to create a strong message and story that can be shared consistently when selling or talking about a brand. Simultaneously, messaging is not a script. Know the message and brand well enough that you can say “yes, and…” and improvise, allowing the messaging to evolve. – Elissa Baker, Phase2 Health
A Quality Product
Let your product speak for itself. Even if you’re selling something, make sure your product actually works and makes someone’s job easier, not harder. Ensure that no matter what you are offering, there is a robust team to help streamline and customize your product to best adapt to a client’s needs and usage. – Matt Small, Symplicity Corporation
Knowing Your Target Audience
One branding fundamental that’s vital to building a successful brand is identifying your target audience and then creating strategic marketing campaigns that will appeal to it. By utilizing monitoring tools that provide insight and analytics into how your campaigns are performing, you can adjust them accordingly to ensure they are effective – Kelley Higney, Bug Bite Thing
A Customer-First Approach
A customer-first approach is essential. Period! The math is simple. A business’s ability to disrupt and keep pace with technological changes added to evolving customer behavior is the mantra to business success in the current digital age. In order to create value and better propositions, businesses need to ask basic, yet deceptively smart questions. Who? What? How? Why? – Somdutta Singh, Assiduus Global
Customer Service
Over the last four to five years, the branding industry has seen a paradigm shift. Today, we are at a point where there is cutthroat competition, and I believe the only thing that can help a brand stay relevant is impeccable customer service. The customer was always the king, but today, this king has become extremely vocal. The thin line between customer service and customer delight is the way to go! – Ankit Mehta, MMC Convert
Simplicity
Simplicity is a brand fundamental. When a brand does too much, it confuses the audience and also undermines its expertise as a dominant business in a specific niche. Every business should have one major claim to fame, a.k.a. focus so that consumers can quickly identify with and understand the purpose and superiority of the brand/service compared to competitors. – Dandan Zhu, DG Recruit
Relevance
I think being relevant to your audience/avatar/customer is key to success, and you need to really understand their deepest desires and problems before positioning your company’s brand as the solution. What does your company mean to others? What problem are you really solving and why should they pick you over others? Once you have that nailed, you can then brand your company appropriately. – Amir Baluch, MD, Financial Wellness MD
Statement Of Purpose
The critical ingredient to building a brand is for a company to have a clear statement of purpose. This is not a description of what a company does, but why a company does. Too often, we confuse the “what” with the “why,” which undermines authenticity and trust. – Revell Horsey, PocketSuite
A Clear Voice
One fundamental thing to brand building is developing a clear and immediately identifiable voice. This voice, when created with consistency and care, will “speak” for all members of the organization the moment each one of them enters a room. In this way, it is instructive to imagine the company as a corporeal entity in order to ask what would it be “saying” in this immediate context. – Jeff Livingstone, Igia Pharmaceuticals
People’s Experience
My journey in healthcare as a patient is a unique differentiator that I link to the company I chose to work for. A brand is not just created by a product but also by the people who have experienced it in real time to understand the applications of the brand and the utility of the product in a real-life setting. – Kamala Maddali, Deep Lens Inc
The CEO’s Personal Brand
The CEO is a crucial component of any successful branding campaign. Think Jobs, Musk, Zuckerberg—you know their companies. I’ve worked with a lot of brands that don’t like to use their CEO in the media and I don’t understand it. Any CEO must be receptive to speaking with the media, discussing business trends, and thought leadership with reporters. The best publicists know how to leverage the CEO. – Mark Macias, MACIAS PR
Cohesiveness
Cohesiveness on all channels is a key element. A common branding mistake, which often happens to companies as they increase their headcount, is to fumble consistency. The brand look, voice, and tone should flow from platform to platform so a user can easily identify the brand at first glance. This can be done with logo uniformity, harmonic typography, and proper utilization of brand colors. – Mike Sill, Sunday Scaries
Niche Focus
Let’s face it—building a brand is difficult if not impossible for a small company. Branding is typically the domain of national firms. The solution is to focus on a niche. Niches allow you to minimize the universe of people looking for your product or service, which in turn gives you the ability to be seen through multiple channels by the same consumer group. – Joel Slatis, Timesheets.com
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