Strong and Lasting Brand Development

Developing a solid brand is very challenging, but it is crucial to attain the recognition your company needs for success. To be successful, a brand must become associated with emotions and experiences, not just products. In a previous post, I have stressed my belief that good products and services will speak for themselves. This is the first step toward solid brand development. However, it is also important to get customers to connect with your brand independently of products and services.

Brand Popularity Exemplified

A great example is the Disney brand. For decades, Disney’s brand has enjoyed a level of popularity that goes well beyond their products and services. Images of Disney characters and references to their shows and movies can be found all over pop culture. In fact, other organizations have asked Disney for permission to use images from their brand, such as the government using Bambi for forest fire prevention. The reason the Disney brand has this power is because it connects with the emotions of its customers.

While Disney, admittedly, has it easy due to the nature of their products and services, it is still possible for other businesses to “tug at the heart strings” of their customers, so to speak. My family feels a similar connection to certain consumer electronics manufacturers—Toshiba, for example. Okay, maybe we don’t feel an emotional connection to their products, but we look at them first when doing market research. That is because we trust them to produce stuff that will last.

Connect with your Customers

To begin with, your only method of connecting with your customers is through your products and services, so you must focus on those first. Once perfected, your products and services will start connecting with your customers, building a bridge between them and your brand name. They will begin to associate your brand with positive experiences, and they will look to you for solutions to other problems they may have. If you can solve those problems as well with new products and services, they will connect even further with your brand.

Let’s say that your company produces a killer product. At first, everyone will rave about the product in conversations with friends. They will say, “Check out this product,” rather than, “Check out this company.” If you put out another quality product that these same customers want, then they will start saying, “Check out this company.” If you offer fantastic customer service along with your products, they will say, “Check out this great company. Don’t bother with their competitors.”

A Solid Reputation

Something very much like this happened to Toyota. They developed a superb reputation for reliability and quality. Owners of their cars expected them to last 300,000+ miles with minimal problems. Toyota’s reputation became so secure that even after their competitors began offering significantly longer warranties, Toyota still led the industry in perceived reliability. Toyota customers could tell their friends:

“At Company X, this model is good and that model is horrible. At Toyota, all models are good.”

“Don’t bother with Company Y. They may have a long warranty, but you’ll need it a lot! You’ll never have a problem with a Toyota.”

“Yeah, Company Z’s cars are good, but you need to use special fluids and special parts, and it’s a hassle. Toyotas run great on normal, generic-brand stuff!”

This kind of brand reputation is exactly what a company must develop in order to dominate its market space. It happened with Toyota because customers felt that Toyotas would always be reliable. That fact alone put Toyota at the top of the industry until the unintended acceleration scares of 2009-2010. And even then, it reduced the impact the company felt from those scares, keeping Toyota’s reputation near the top of the industry to this day.

Become Known for your Brand

Like Toyota and Toshiba, your company can develop a reputation that originates from your brand and leads customers to trust all you offer. Like Disney, you can develop an emotional connection with customers. It just takes time, persistence, and a strong dedication to quality. Being known for your values and ethics is also important. At its height, Arthur Anderson’s reputation for ethics was strong enough by itself to bring them customers. Starbucks still maintains a loyal following due to their excellent treatment of their employees. There are many things you can build a reputation on that will make you industry leaders.

The trick is to find your strength and make that strength known. If customers seem to connect most with your company values, market those. If customers associate childhood memories with you, capitalize on that. Figure out what your customers relate to most and work to build it. Don’t exploit it carelessly, but cultivate it with care so that you will maintain social capital. This requires a careful—and often slow—approach to brand development so that you develop lasting customer trust.

What do you think will have customers talking about you for 10  or more years?

Tags: brand development