A brand is about creating impressions and evoking emotions, but most importantly, its key functions are growing sales and increasing customer loyalty. A brand communicates your company's values both internally to employees and externally to current and potential customers.
Building a strong brand requires understanding customer expectations and preferences. A shared understanding of goals and ways of working also helps employees act in ways that support the brand. When all aspects of the brand are in balance with each other, brand strengthening happens naturally in everyday work.
Here are tips to help you succeed in building a brand:
Why is this important?
Because brand building starts from its core promise — the foundation of your brand. The thinking must begin with why the brand exists. Who does the brand serve? What is special about the brand and why would it be worth customers' time? Behind a successful brand is a genuine desire to speak to the right target audience in a relevant and distinctive way. By crystallising the reason for the business's existence, you sharpen the brand's identity — above all for your customers, but also for yourself and the entire company.
First impression — does it matter?
It absolutely does! Think about yourself. When you meet someone for the first time, you might draw far-reaching conclusions about them in a short space of time. The same applies to your customers' encounters with your company. The first impression is extremely important. When visiting your website, for example, your customer evaluates everything they see and experience within the first few seconds.
The image of the company is formed in the blink of an eye, and the customer has made their interpretation of whether your company is suitable for their needs. Whatever the touchpoint — a website, an email, or a face-to-face encounter — bad associations created by a first impression are difficult to shake off later. Fortunately, good experiences also stick firmly in the mind and tend to attract more positive experiences around them.
Why does the mission matter?
Because it should be crystal clear to your customer what values they are connecting with when buying your company's products. It should be understandable what kinds of experiences or characteristics your company and its products represent.
Artificial, tacked-on ideas tend to reveal themselves, so it's worth leaning only on genuine themes. If the task feels difficult to approach, the mission can be explored through the reasons that originally led to the founding of the company. Or by being transparent about what kinds of things the company is striving to achieve in the long term. Show the values your company believes in and act accordingly.
Read a case study on brand clarification →
What can a unified message achieve?
Maximum benefit! The purpose of communication is to support the company's identity and business. Therefore, the way your company communicates about itself must be in line with what the company represents and aspires to. Communication must also be consistent across all touchpoints, from product descriptions to customer service, and from a Facebook ad to a newsletter. The more seamless and coherent a company's communication is, the more memorable and credible it appears in the customer's eyes.
But don't forget the company's personality. The tone of the company's communication must be unique — one that reflects the company's existence and values in a memorable way. When the brand is clear, bright and individual, it supports the company's business at every stage of the customer journey. Read more about crystallising a brand and creating a brand manual.
How does the customer perspective strengthen a brand?
Because it is an excellent way to get answers to many brand-related questions. Has your company considered, for example, what kinds of feelings it wants to produce for its customers? What feeling does using your company's services reinforce in the customer?
A company can, for example, reinforce feelings of meaningful values in its customers. Using ecological products makes a customer feel responsible, while luxury products can help a customer communicate influence and success about themselves. Put yourself in the customer's position. Think about why you yourself choose the products or services of certain brands. This brings you closer to the things customers want to connect with and what aspects of themselves they want to highlight. Read how to find out what your customers think.
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What role does content play in brand building?
Offer your customers the right kind of interesting content at the right time. Win them over by being guiding and inspiring, and by providing practical tips and inspiring content.
When your customers encounter content that serves them, solves problems, or helps them succeed — such as customer stories or guides — they will happily return to the source of information. In the best case, they become so enthusiastic that they recommend your company to others.
Anyone can be a good content producer, as long as the content is genuinely valuable to the reader and supports the reasons for the company's existence. Content is not produced for the sake of producing content — it must be regular and goal-oriented activity that supports the brand in the same way as everything else you do.
Read more about strategic content planning →
How can employees promote the brand?
Because especially in the long run, a company's employees work for the brand in their everyday activities. Because people trust a person's word considerably more than companies' own communication!
For employees to be able to do this, the organisation's operations must support the fulfilment of brand promises and be part of practical day-to-day activities.
Therefore, communicate to employees what their role is in the bigger picture: everything they do and say affects how the brand is perceived in the eyes of customers. When employees feel their role is important, they are more committed and genuinely strive to work for the company's success.
Why is dialogue with customers important?
From customers, you get valuable feedback on areas for improvement and deepen your customer understanding — but communication also works the other way: by listening to and talking with your customers, you can communicate the value of your brand to them. They feel heard, understood and acknowledged, and at the same time you demonstrate through your own actions what your company stands for. The outcome of successful communication is a mutual sense of trust.
Read a case study on rebranding based on better customer understanding →
Don't take breaks from brand work, because a brand is built continuously. A diamond-polished brand is part of systematic and everyday business development. If you want a deep dive into brand building, explore the topic in our comprehensive guide — what a brand actually is and how you can build and maintain one.