3 steps to building a successful brand

We live for marketing, so the best way to start our inbound marketing plan is to start by talking about marketing. Yes, we already know, you want to know the 3 steps and do not be disappointed, you are going to know them, but better than knowing them is understanding them, that is why this, our first post, begins talking about marketing, specifically defining it, a while ago the magazine P & M published a news article written by the director of Graduate Programs of the Universidad de la Sabana on strategic brand management there we found a definition that seemed very accurate, the creator, none other than Al Ries : “Marketing is building a brand in the minds of consumers”, so the first thing you have to be clear about to build a successful brand is, what image do you want to project in the mind of your consumer.

I would like to go a little deeper into the importance of this question, since for some it may sound overwhelming to think of a series of attributes that they would like to project, but this is not the time to think about them, I mean, this is not the time to think about logos, slogans, colors and shapes, nor is it the time to start defining what we describe as brand personality, you see, one of the most effective ; and misinterpreted; principles of advertising, is reductionism or many times referred to as: “less is more”, this is the time for reductionism, try to think or create a single thing, ask yourself “what is the first thing that should come to you? the minds of my clients when they hear my name, when they hear the name of my company? “, and once you answer, you will have the most important part of the job done, the first step to build a successful brand, know what you are going for to build.

This process of identifying that unique thing, idea or concept has been approached through the history of marketing in different ways, the greatest advertising agencies have its own way or methodology to identify it, this is what many call positioning, the position you want to achieve in the mind of your consumer and all methodologies agree that if you want a successful brand, that positioning must be one, a single position , a single idea. The first big mistake you can make if you want to build a successful brand is to give equal importance to two attributes of your company; Yes, we know that you may not offer only one service, we know that you may have a wide portfolio of products that solve different needs for different people, but your brand, like the most successful brands in history, was born to live for just one thing, yes you are an entrepreneur you probably already know it.

Recently we found something wonderful that describes the importance of a positioning, it is called project re brief and it was a Google initiative that brought together the advertisers who created the most epic campaigns of all time and faced them with the same brief but in the digital age, what Google was looking for; and achieved; was to demonstrate how the advertising formulas that worked in another decade are still valid now and are the best way to do it, the documentary was recorded in 2012, and we came across it because we wanted to share a case that causes us admiration since it was the creation of a writer, or rather a writer, her name: Paula Green, the brand: Avis, her slogan: “ we try harder ”.

We call this phrase a slogan with the intention of clarity, although this phrase is brilliant and very clearly conveys the position that the brand wants in the minds of its consumers. , the same position could have been reached with another slogan, I would not want at any time to criticize the spectacular brand building work that this unique slogan achieved, simply; with the aim of making the idea that I am trying to present clear; I am going to dare to create other phrases that; regardless of whether they don’t do it as effectively; would also help build that position:

we try harder – we try harder.

effort as a law – effort as law.

we do care – we really care.

we depend on this – we depend on this.

The point that I am making becomes more evident and extraordinary in the following pieces, if you read some lines carefully, you will notice that “ we try harder < / em> ”, it did not start as a slogan, it started as a subtitle, but the ads build around the same position:“ We are the second, if we want to be first we have to do better ”, perhaps this positioning has not been described with these same words and certainly we try harder is a more ingenious way of putting it but the point is that regardless of whether one phrase is smarter than the other, the two build on the same path and that is the second step to building a successful brand, that all your efforts build towards the same place.

Aviso Avis Manifesto 2ism.

Aviso Avis es Sólo el No. 2

Aviso Avis no puede darse el lujo de no ser gentil.

Aviso Avis te necesita, tú no a Avis.

“ We try harder” was written in 1962 and only until 2012 was it replaced by a new slogan that in our opinion reflects a new positioning, why did they change it? Our best theory is that they are no longer seconds, which speaks even better of the work done over the years and also helps us to make clear the third step to build a successful brand : you have to be constant and consistent. You cannot just be constant and not be consistent and you cannot be consistent and not be consistent and there must be a balance between them. Consistency means that building a successful brand is; like any construction; a task that requires an investment and you have to be willing to invest time and / or money in it, a brand is not built overnight, today it can be built quickly, but not overnight.

Consistency, on the other hand, refers to how faithfully you apply what you preach and this must be lived at the corporate level. If you are the fastest, how fast do you respond on your networks? How fast do other people in the company respond? How long are your customer support videos? or at what speed do they reproduce? If you are very consistent, but not constant, the voice of your brand will be lost over time, like that person you loved at 14 but who you no longer know more about. If you are very constant but not coherent, your brand will hardly reach a clear position in the minds of your clients and therefore will hardly reach value, when they hear your name someone could say “I should have hired the slow ones, with them I know what to expect”.

In summary, the three steps to building a successful brand are:

1. Be clear about what image / position you want to create in the mind of your consumer.

2. Focus all efforts on that positioning.

3. Be constant and consistent.

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