5 Keys to Building a Powerful Brand

What do Coca-Cola, The Home Depot, Apple and Nike share in common?

Well, not much. Except that they’re all powerful brands. Rabada is passionate about building powerful brands. Whether you run a small start up tech company or a two-decade old lawn care business, few things build company value faster and more reliably than an effective brand.

Sometimes eaiser said than done, so let's explore five keys to building a powerful brand:

1. Focus on one brand:

Every business owner and marketing manager has limited touch points with their customer base (not to mention limited resources to invest in each of those touch points). So how do you make the most of each opportunity you have to interact with your customers? Here is what we have found: Focus all of your branding energy and resources on building up a single brand - the name of your company - and don't try to crease separate brand identities for the company and for each of yoru products. Multiple brands will diffuse your energy, lessen your effectiveness and confuse your customer. Think of the last time you heard someone talk about a purchase they made. Did they say, "I just bought an iPad" or did they say, "I just bought an iPad 2, Wi-Fi + 3G, 32GB". They associated their purchase with a single brand because that is how Apple has spent their resources - in building a single brand.

2. Get the URLs:

As you consider your brand and alternative names, make sure you can get the URL (domain name). Bring up a registration services such as GoDaddy.com or Register.com and, as you think of names, check to see if the URL is available. In today's world, this will be critical in building an effective brand.

3. Keep it simple:

Ideally, your name and branding message should be short and memorable. If you considering a name and tag line for a landscaping company, "Rim Rock Lawns - We keep 'em green" would be more desirable than "Jim's Lawn Mowing and Landscaping Company - Anything you need from lawns to flower beds to landscape design". Make sure your name is hard to misspell and hard to mispronounce. You want people to be able to find you in a search engine, and to easily refer you to their friends.

4. Brainstorming by committee can kill your brand:

It’s good to include others and get input from many sources. Be careful before you form a committee though and put your brand to a vote. You’ll likely end up with a least-common-denominator brand that’s bland, uninspired, and is something that everyone can live with instead of something that everyone can remember.

5. Apply your brand consistently:

Execution is everything. You can have the perfect name and message, and screw it up in execution. Consistency of usage and application of your brand is paramount. A company should have a consistent look-and-feel and consistent language and stick to them. For example, do you want to be referred to as Rim Rock Lawns or RR Lawns? Do you wish to be known as “the mean green” or “a lawn's best friend”? You'll find the message in time will become secondary to your committment to consistent execution and application.