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Branding
Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business, large or small, retail or B2B. An effective brand strategy gives you a major edge in increasingly competitive markets. But what exactly does "branding" mean? How does it affect a small business like yours?
Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from your competitors'. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be.
Are you the innovative maverick in your industry? Or the experienced, reliable one? Is your product the high-cost, high-quality option, or the low-cost, high-value option? You can't be both, and you can't be all things to all people. Who you are should be based to some extent on who your target customers want and need you to be.
The foundation of your brand is your logo. Your website, packaging and promotional materials--all of which should integrate your logo--communicate your brand.
Content
Content marketing is all about the creation and distribution of high-quality content that attracts and engages audiences online. Like other traditional forms of marketing, content marketing is typically used to drive customer acquisition, deeper engagement with current customers, and for brand awareness.
The trend in content marketing has grown significantly over the past two decades as audiences have shifted to new media, consuming content in entirely new and savvy ways. This has led to brands big and small developing comprehensive content strategies with allocated marketing budgets.
Generally thought of as being separate from traditional advertising, content marketing is about communicating with customers in a way that adds value, without the sales pitch. The content itself is editorially-minded, and while contextually relevant to a product or service, provides information in the form of entertainment, education, emotional connection, or practical value.
Strategy
First you need to take several steps back to understand the purpose of your brand. To help, we’re sharing our secrets of the branding industry to help your business grow and transform, so by signing up for our exclusive Branding Strategy Primer, you will receive insights on:
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Building the value of your business
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Building brand awareness
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When to reevaluate your brand
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Strategies and assets to strengthen your brand
The information in this primer has been developed by the leaders of BrandExtract, a strategic brand experience firm with years of experience. We are believers in building a strategic, authentic brand for our clients that will last a lifetime. But don’t take our word for it, download the primer for more exclusive brand identity insights
Creativity
Even those of us not in explicitly creative fields must come up with new ideas and insights in order to move ahead. How can we shake up the way we think? Creativity has been pegged to conducive environments, perfect collaborators, personality traits, serendipity, and even spiritual muses. While research psychologists are interested in increasing innovative thinking, clinical psychologists sometimes encourage patients to use artistic expression as a way to confront difficult feelings.
