How to position your brand competitively

Engaging with potential clients, by word of mouth to know what you are out to offer. How you explain about that in your branding will ensure that you build a strong brand from the outset.

PHOTO | FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • For any business organisation to be able to beat competition, it is important to know the industry and knowing the marketplace. These two go a long way to inform the branding strategy.

Kenya is home to some of the strongest brands in the East and Central Africa region. It is therefore important that new start-ups and up-coming small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) execute strong branding strategies, if they are to thwart the cut-throat competition and clinch a businesswise market share.

Besides the high cost of borrowing in the country, many business organisations are challenged on how to build on their brand’s competitiveness and position it strategically in the market. This is mainly because many SMEs get into the market with the mentality that they will compete with the existing brand giants. However, this is their greatest undoing and sees many businesses exit the market in their third year.

Business branding goes beyond advertising. It is that consistency array of positive marketing factors all put together to influence on your business strategy and impact on the markets.

To identify these factors, there is need for companies dedicate a research team that will constantly research on the market and incorporate these findings into their brand periodically.

For any business organisation to be able to beat competition, it is important to know the industry and knowing the marketplace. These two go a long way to inform the branding strategy.

BRAND BUILDING TIPS

Building a brand is a multi-faceted process that starts with getting clear on your mission and target audience and creating images and words that reflect that. Business leaders should have it in mind that it is not just how a business looks, but what they bring to the table as they continuously become the walking and talking representative of the brand.

Here are some strategies to guide in striking the right note:

TAKE THE CONVERSATION OUT THERE

Engaging with potential clients, by word of mouth to know what you are out to offer. How you explain about that in your branding will ensure that you build a strong brand from the outset.

One of the best ways to do this is by talking with people in your target market to find out their needs, so you can fine-tune your offering and your brand to reflect that.

The feedback that you get from potential market will shape the elements of your branding, as well as, their tag line. Marketing campaigns yield big.

This can be done on social media apps like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and radio, television, road shows, meet and greet in market places, and print media advertising. The point here is to keep the campaign simple, not to bombard the market with so much information.

It is good to always assume that people are hearing your message for the first time.

GET AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

Connecting with the market audiences at an emotional level increases the strength of the brand message. Let audiences know about the brand and company – single out that distinctive feature in the brand and showcase it very well as a key strength. Let customers connect with what having the brand will feel like. Customers love the experience that superb brands have to offer.

BUILD ON GRADUALLY

Once launched, a brand builds on and strengthens over time. So, it is good to remain flexible, but consistent. Business leaders may need to make some nips and tucks over time. When the target audience responds to back, that is when the brand begins to be created.

Focusing on optimal growth, progressively is a sure way of building a brand without running out of capital as an SME.

LISTEN TO THE MARKET

As in most cases, the brand may initially resonate well with a different group of customers, or in a different way, than originally expected. Whether a firm starts off knowing who its customers are, their feedback is always important to know if the branding strategy is right or wrong. For instance, expanding a brand into new markets, if informed by customer demand can be a winning idea.

Similarly, introducing a new flavour in a beverage product or a new scent in a bathing product in can yield more if it is demand-driven — and thus strengthen the brand since a sizeable market share identifies with it. It pays huge to establish a feedback channel to connect with the market. This gives them the opportunity to ‘own’ and identify with the brand, and with time the company may even adopt some brand tag lines from their customers.