Member Article

How to build your brand

Successfully building a brand is imperative to success. In a business world that is more crowded and saturated than ever before, it is extremely important that your target audience is able to successfully differentiate — and remember — your brand from the rest of the competitors.

But how do you actually go about building and developing that brand you’ve always dreamed of? Perhaps you’re wondering how to get your great idea off the ground, or maybe you’re struggling to set yourself apart from the rest? Here are some tips that might help…

Maintain brand consistency

First thing’s first: Your brand must ensure its unique look and tone of voice is clearly visible to all consumers across all channels. Whether you’re sending emails, promoting something on social media or even opening a physical shop, there must be a clear theme that ties everything together. This is the most effective way of developing a strong brand, as over time consumers become familiar with who you are and what you’re about — almost like getting to know a new friend.

Build a backstory

In much the same way that interacting with a brand should be like hearing from a familiar face, it can also be beneficial to have a strong backstory that underpins your business ethos. This backstory can relate to any number of things — how the idea for your business first came about, your heritage or country of origin etc. — so long as it is strong enough to leave a lasting impression on consumers. At DV Closet, for example, we take huge pride in coming from a Greek background, which is why we decided to collaborate with a designer label based in Greece for our first ever clothing range.

Start streamlining

Too often, brands fail to see the damage they’re self-inflicting by stretching themselves too thinly. Apple didn’t make such a huge name for themselves by doing lots of things to an OK standard: they reinvented themselves by creating two products — the MacBook and the iPod, namely — and making them to an extraordinary standard. Ultimately, consumers will have a much better chance of remembering your brand in the long-term if they can associate it with something of high quality, so if in doubt, don’t be afraid to scale back on what you offer and stick to what you do best.

Learn from your mistakes

As anyone who runs a business will tell you, accidents will happen. Mistakes will be made. But this is a natural part of creating something new from scratch, and so instead of looking upon each mistake as a failure, it should be seen as an opportunity to further strengthen your brand. So perhaps you sent an email to customers that used a different logo to that included on your website and social media channels? Don’t worry: simply look back at the email, identify where you went wrong and make sure the next one you send addresses each point. Without mistakes, how else can we learn?

Conclusion

Following all of these tips will set you on the right path towards being a strong brand that people will remember, and hopefully feel an affinity with. By combining this with a strong product/service, you won’t be far away from seeing success.

Danae Varangis, Founder and CEO of DV Closet

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Elise Ivens-Barnes .