Your brand is not just your logo. Your brand is not even your product or service offering. What really sums up a brand, is the entire experience that creates an emotional engagement, ultimately leading to brand loyalty.
Think about this.
- A person first hears about your brand, perhaps through an advertisement or through word of mouth. This is the first connection they have with your brand. Is it strong?
- This person decides to research your business online, quickly checking out your website or Facebook page. Are they consistent? Do these channels align with each other to tell one strong story about your brand?
- This person then decides to take action by calling your business. Who answers the phone? What tone of voice do they have? Are they selling your brand story? Are they drawing customers in?
- This person visits your store. Do they feel a connection between what they saw on your website, who they spoke to over the phone and what they are now seeing in store?
- They make a purchase. Is your paperwork and packaging consistent with your branding?
- Let’s say this person has a problem and needs after sales service. Is this service consistent with the service they received to make the first sale?
Brands are built by experiences. If people behave good experiences, they will tell other people (good!). If people have bad experiences, they will tell even more people (bad!).
You may not have the best product or the best service to offer compared to your competitors, but if you create the best brand experience, you’ll have customers coming back again and again.