Every brand has great potential. But planning and exploiting that potential rely on strategies rather than on good intentions.
Launching a brand is not just about having original insights and choosing a name. It involves both hard work and teamwork, in which all the main pillars should be lined up before going out into the field.
This is just a brief summary of a more complex process that will be particular for each product. Each brand is unique.
Step 1: getting ready
This is a key moment. First, the market should know the internal stakeholders for later understanding the value proposition.
Meetings are organized with the project head to set up certain key concepts, even if they seem evident. What the product is about, what it is for, who it is for, how it is used or consumed, and its benefits.
Here, doubts are clarified, targets are validated and the path is outlined. From this stage, the brand's personality begins to be born, therefore an effective strategy can be designed.
In this stage, an exhaustive study of the market is made to clarify some points:
1) Establishing which the market needs are and how to satisfy them.
2) Comparing with direct competition and similar products.
3) Defining a real and specific niche.
4) Defining potential niches
5) Analyzing products in the market that supplement or substitute ours.
Before working on digital or any kind of visibility, the brand must have a personality. This, with well-defined traits and values (including human ones), connects the brand with the public and distinguishes it from its competitors.
The brand platform is like DNA. It includes all the information, values and aspects that allow it to build its external identity in order to be perceived exactly as wished.
This is essential when planning the communication or marketing strategy and consolidating its position. The platform includes some factors such as mission/vision, values and attributes, personality, value proposal and a tagline.
Any digital marketing strategy's success is based on consumers' and potential users' sound understanding. It is necessary to define the buyer based on specific features such as age, geographic location, cultural background, customs, beliefs, tastes and preferences, qualities and behaviors. The more specific the segments within the target audience, the better. With the buyer definition, we will know which content to offer, the tone, style and what platform to use.
Another key moment is choosing the brand name. The challenge is to find an eye-catching and recognizable name that simultaneously refers effortlessly to what the brand has to offer.
Behind the naming, there is a creative process that requires time, patience and the study of several factors such as the company history.
The name can be a neologism (a new word), an abstract word, an acronym or even a word game. Anything goes, but it should make sense in the long run. A first or last name, a descriptive word, or even a geographic determiner can be used.
Extra: buy internet domains. After the naming process, it is advisable to purchase internet domains. Also, to take and reserve the social media profiles associated with the name immediately afterwards. This ensures an appropriate URL address for the brand when creating the website.
The visual brand identity includes elements that will represent it henceforth. For example, the logo, typography and color palette. Also pictures, illustrations, patterns and iconographies. In short, the entire visual brand extension.
These features are not just created from expressions such as naming and tagline. They should reflect, regularly and consistently, both the brand's personality and concept. Also, they should be adaptable to the media and formats available at launch as well.
Normally, a Brand Manual or Identity Manual is created. It establishes the guidelines on which the brand will be expressed visually to ensure consistency.
Nowadays having a website is vital to really exist in the market.
The website should reflect the brand essence and match the visual identity already established. It should be designed to make it easy for users to get the product and also make their experience enjoyable.
Navigation should be simple and contain key data such as company information, contact, product description, calls to action and above all, an easy and direct way when acquiring the product or service.
From the beginning, it should also be a SEO strategies configured website to start building an ideal, solid and long term web positioning. Ideally, with responsive design that allows great viewing on mobile devices.
A brand's social networks are often its closest contact point with its community. That is why it is fundamental that all content shared through them (including original posts and interactions among users) is part of an overall editorial strategy, reflecting the original message and personality previously assigned to the brand.
Step 3: Creating the digital exposure
In the digital world, a potential audience is almost unlimited. Once the previous stages have been completed and in order to reach this audience, a lead generation, traffic and sales strategy is put together according to the product or service being offered.
An audience analysis will reveal which social networks are best suited to the brand's goals. It is better to have a few well-attended ones, rather than creating more profiles than you can currently handle.
What to publish, when, where and how? Once profiles have been created, the published content must respond to a clear editorial strategy, with goal planning, resources and actions consistent with the company's identity.
An editorial calendar allows us to plan this content in an organized way. Including scheduling publications in advance, managing the interactions generated and determining whether the digital visibility goals have been achieved.
There are several tools available for this purpose, such as Hootsuite. The editorial calendar is a valuable aid for creating valuable content. It involves the whole team so that the content is executed consistently and the launch on social networks flows successfully.
Brands and companies normally face challenges during their first years in the market. However, many of those challenges could have been avoided if more attention had been paid to the early stages. The required discipline and commitment along with professional views and the endless digital age possibilities can certainly build a solid base for the product and help design the best possible situation.