The main goal of a strong brand is to position your business as the leader in your industry. What does that mean?

To become the leader in your industry, in your market, you need to create brand awareness, brand acceptance, and brand preference.

BRAND AWARENESS

To create Brand awareness you must create a brand identity that will be memorable and connect emotionally with potential clients.

BRAND ACCEPTANCE

To create Brand Acceptance your branding and its messaging must leave prospective clients with an expectation of emotional gratification.

BRAND PREFERENCE

To create Brand preference your product/services must deliver quality and performance that will leave clients with a sense of emotional gratification.

But let’s not forget…EVERYTHING STARTS WITH THE CLIENT

Let me to give you an example.

One day, let’s call him John, is leaving the gym only to realize that his running shoes have seen better days and it is time to get a new pair… this stage is called … product acceptance. John accepted that he needs a new pair of running shoes.

John does his research and goes on-line to see the different brands out there. There are many brands. Based on the many commercials and the “Just Do it” tag line, the brand NIKE stands out for him… that is called Brand Awareness.

Before John decided that NIKE is the way go, he will research Nike Brand.

He likes what he reads, his friends wear Nike and they rave about them. He accepts Nike as the brand he will most likely get…and just like that he reaches the  Brand Acceptance stage.

John looked at all the different brands and likes what Nike is promising. From all the brands he looked at Nike promises the greatest emotional gratification. And that is Brand Preference.

So how does you product/service becomes Brand?

Let’s look at the progress of PRODUCT – COMMODITY – BRAND

Any new product or service is called a true product/service. It is a one of a kind product/service introduced to the market. Most of the time “true product / service” doesn’t stay a true product for long… competition always moves in fast.

Many competing products lead to see the product as commodity. It is no longer a one of a kind.

When you are able to differentiate the product by altering the product attributes, in the minds of consumers, it becomes a brand.

You can see that creating a strong brand identity is not just about the logo, business cards, flyers, social media, or just about website. it is about all of it and more. It is not good enough to find a great graphic designer who will create an amazing logo. That amazing logo may be completely wrong for what your business promises and to whom it promises it to.

In the next part of this 4 part blog we will look at how our brain works and which part of our brain is really in charge of the decisions we make and why.

We will show you that branding is not just about the creative tactics, it is completely based on science.

For more banding conversation, let’s connect!

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