Everyone can own a brand, but can everyone build an exceptional brand?
A brand is
1. Discover Yourself
You can only build on what you've discovered. A simple way to arriving at your uniqueness is take a conscious analysis at the intersection of your passion, potential and personality. Your passion is an area of:
- Interest
- Obsession and
- Overbearing obsession
that you have towards something or to do something. Your passion gives you clue to your potential- which is an inherent ability, capacity or endowment. Invariably this is one of your tools of power in its raw form.
Your personality is the creative combination of traits, qualities, characters, likes and dislikes that makes you exceptionally unique. It helps you decode your natural habitat, how you function as a unique individual.
2. Be heard Continuously
Faith comes by hearing (first appearance) and hearing (continuous appearance)...but then what they hear you talk often helps to establish your brand. What's your message?
3. If you must be believed, you have to show up believably. When content is established and verified packaging is allowed.
4. Skill and delivery is not the same. Every skill needs a system to deliver. You can be gifted and depressed if you don't know how to create or attach yourself within a system. Talent is never enough!
5. Speak with a brand Strategist...
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Come to think of it, no brand is exactly alike even if it is created by the same person in the same niche; something is definitely different. Nevertheless, going a mile further to make your brand beat others would not do you any bad.
You might be wondering, what exactly do I have to do to make sure my brand is exceptional? What are the qualities of an exceptional brand? What plans do I make for me to achieve an exceptional brand? Not to worry, that's why we are here to let you know what you should know.
Back to my initial question, what happens if everyone peradventure has an exceptional brand? (It looks like I am answering the question with a question).
Let's make an instance;
If there is a competition on probably a science project and everyone brings forth their exhibition. Do you know that everyone has decided to do something special, something different, something they think is unique? However, only one person will win; in fact, there will be a ranking. Now the whole mechanism is that one exceptional exhibition beats the other exceptional exhibitions.
Therefore, you should not just have the mindset of building an exceptional brand among other brands, what you should be driving at is building an exceptional brand among other exceptional brands.
So that drives me an answer that, everyone and anyone can build an exceptional brand. You can build an exceptional brand and I can also build an exceptional brand; and even over other exceptional brands.
You might be wondering how this is possible, it is quite simple. What if everyone decides to read this article, does that not mean they can be exceptional?
Of course, they can.
As long as they put in the effort and navigate what works for them based on this context.
But if everyone becomes exceptional, what can you do about the competition? This is where your inner self will have to work the more and only you can find that secret; a secret shouldn't be told anyway. My major point is, that while you are here to know how to build an exceptional brand, you should have the mindset of building a brand that is exceptional over other exceptional brands.
There are a lot of secrets one can adopt to build an exceptional brand, especially when technological advancement is a major contributing factor. They are the core areas and they are more Principles that must be followed to achieve the main goal.
1. The Brand Energy
It might look like I am using more scientific terms.
Not to confuse you, Principles are just a part of science that arrives at a result, hence, the most suitable in this context.
The Brand energy covers a lot: the branding itself, the purpose and vision of the brand, the value of the brand and most importantly how the service of the brand is likely to be perceived by prospects.
When I see an item from a popular brand like Jumia, I will surely know it is from them. Truth is, they didn't just get there in a snap. They started from somewhere. In a nutshell, for a brand to be exceptional, your brand must emit positive energy from the scratch.
• The Branding: the branding itself is what will earn people's trust.
What can your brand provide?
Quite times, brand owners tend to focus on just offering services without satisfying the intent of their prospects. Some just want to be visible without minding the quality of their service, it shouldn't be so.
There are a lot of solutions to people's problems and being in a competition, you only have the option to make them stay. Instead of talking about what your brand can offer, focus on how your brand can solve its solutions. By this, you achieve sales on your side and you earn their trust.
Another thing is having standards while displaying your brand. Set some principles that would not be to the brand's detriment. While you are being flexible on satisfying the prospects, it should not affect the brand negative.
• Purpose/Vision of the brand
It was difficult for me to decide which would come first between this point and the previous one; I leave that for you to decide upon.
Without a purpose or vision for your brand, you will drive at nothing. The vision is the glaring part of the brand and most of the time, it is what earns you your spark unto which you become exceptional. Setting a goal or vision or knowing the purpose attached to your brand will help you to be able to set tasks and build whatever you will like to build when the resources become available.
• How your brand is perceived: This is similar to earning your prospects' trust. You have to do whatever you can or even go out of your way to earn that trust. This trust can earn you a lifetime attachment and opportunities.
So tell me, if building a website for your brand will make people's minds rest? Why not do it
People are cautious and this is why they prefer to patronise the well-known brand.
For instance, if not including ads on your blog website will earn you trust, why not do that? I can affirm that there are some blog websites I will not open because of their ridiculous user interface, never. Some people are also like that.
What does your brand say?
The logo, the infographics, and the visuals, are they attractive? Are they fascinating? Can they make people more inquisitive?
Listen with your eyes, leverage the use of reports and reviews, and watch what your competitors are doing to maintain the perception they already established of their prospects.
2. The Magnitude of Relationships
The significance of relationships cannot be overemphasized: online and offline.
• Networking
Sometimes what a brand just needs as a step-up is just networking.
For example, I have a friend that owns a clothing brand and I must commend her networking style. At church, and parties, you will find her there. Trying to network with people and also displaying her worth. There was a particular party where she danced and danced, just to make sure she got people's attention which she eventually did. At the end of the day, she got a lot of people approaching her and asking her questions; some wanted to be her friend.
This doesn’t mean everyone should go to parties to network or meet people. Different things work for different people. As a matter of fact, as an introvert, that will never work for me. However, I still need to network. The way individuals will achieve this is personal and much thought should be given to it.
One more thing, you don’t just network with your prospects, but with your competitors as well.
Like they say, ‘Keep your enemies close’
Well, it is not like I am painting your competitors as your enemies but keeping them close will make you know what they know and know what they don’t know.
• Partnership
Trying partnership is another way to ensure your brand is involved in relationships. The advantage of this cannot be overemphasized.
You have to go out of your way to be creative and present the creativity to other brands that could serve as a great influence on your brand.
I mean who does not want to feature in a creative and highly promising concept? No one!
For instance, you are a fashion blogger. You can partner with a big brand and write a few articles for them which can bring prospects to your blog or site.
As a fashion brand, you can partner with a make-up and photography brand to gain prospects.
All way na way, be wise!
• Volunteering
This is quite similar to a partnership, the difference is that results might not be visible almost immediately but it is still very effective. You can represent your brand yourself. When people see you in about ten places, they want to know what you do.
That’s it, people like to know things even if it doesn’t concern them.
So your job as a brand owner is to represent your brand (a reason why personal branding is very important) by volunteering which earns you visibility and in turn, can make people want to come to you.
• Social media
In this age, not leveraging social media is like wasting efforts, you might not even be to do well as you wish to.
Social media is one of the greatest tools to use to build an exceptional brand. You have to study the internet, know the best platform for your brand, know when people are available, make research on where you can easily find your desired prospects, be consistent and that is basically it.
• Entertainment
Be sure to keep a lively relationship.
You don’t have to be all serious about what your brand offers all the time, sometimes go out of your way and make your prospects happy. Entertain them, make them gain what they would not be able to acquire somewhere else. Sometimes it might mean giving back to them, however, not to your own detriment. Keep them close by doing something that can retain their attention, remember how people love fun.
What you gain from this cannot be taken for likely, you might even discover new things that will make your brand get better.
3. The Law of Dynamism
Not mentioning this can jeopardise every other thing I have mentioned.
Remember, everything is changing almost every day, so, while keeping up with your work, and leveraging every resource you have, be vigilant.
Keep up to date with trends and feed your prospects continuously with new things.
The truth is seeing the same thing every time might disinterest some prospects. While you are also trying to be dynamic about your brand, remember, that your brand must be remembered for one unique thing.
Your brand name and description must constantly emit how dynamic it is. For instance, The First Bank of Nigeria was the first bank to introduce a fingerprints ATM before other banks did.
Being able to create something new and creative will constantly earn you prospects without much stress. This is because a prospect trust can gain you ten prospects' trust, that is how it works and it will continue like that.
Like I said earlier, ‘A secret is not meant to be told’.
Well, since the three points highlighted have already been discussed, it is no longer a secret. Hence, you need one major secret that will support other points. The fourth secret is your 'Spark'. Only you can find it and that is what makes you stand out among other exceptional brands.
Have you ever wondered the difference between GUCCI and Balenciaga as fashion brands; the thing is they have different sparks. The spark is what makes you strike a balance among all the three secrets.
