7 Tips on how to create your corporate brand

Every school or indeed, any business, needs to have a corporate identity. Just like every individual has an identity, your business also needs to have one. And it needs to be well branded.

You can build your brand on a tiny or big budget, depending on the target audience you are communicating with.

The major reason why your business needs to have a brand is because your brand is an integral part of your corporate identity.

Your customers need to know you and what you stand for, and it is your corporate identity that communicates this.

Finally, in content and delivery, your brand also needs to have a unique corporate identity. Your logo, images, website and marketing materials, needs to have a uniform and complimentary feel about it in terms of colour.

For instance, GT Bank, AIRTEL, and Nestlé have strong corporate brands due to the effective use of complementary colours.

7 ways to create your brand

1. State your core values

Clearly let your customers know about the values of your company and how this translates into doing business with your company.

Your corporate identity must communicate trust, integrity and credibility in the eyes of your customers.

Customers first buy 'into' your company (i.e, core values, mission and vision) before they buy into what you are selling. Once you are able to create this trust, your corporate brand will gradually become a recognisable and well respected one.

2. Be unique

In the first instance, the only reason why you are in business is to offer a service or sell a product. The only way to stand out from your competitors is to be unique. If you can't do this, then don't compete.

Even though Dell Computers, Hewlett Packard and Apple Plc all compete in the same market, each company is distinctively different in its appeal to their respective customers because of their unique brands.

3. Identify your market

You need to identify the market in which you will be competing.  Identifying your audience is different from identifying your audience. Once you are able to identify your market, you will then be able to seek out your target audience.

Mothercare PLC is a  company that identified a niche in the market by selling baby clothes. The company was then able to attract the expectant mothers as the target audience.

4. Branding via social media

You can brand your company by utilising all the various tools on social media. There are a lot of useful social media applications you can use to create a longer lasting brand.

Many of the major corporate companies use social media tools such as Google plus, ads, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Periscope, to boost their brands.

5. Creating content

You need to create quality content for your customers on a consistent basis. Customers first like to be informed about the benefits they will derive from a service or product, before they make a commitment to buy from you.

A global brand like Walmart creates content on Global corporate responsibility reports, annual reports, company news, events and webcasts, product reviews, etc

6. Engaging your audience

To grow and sustain your brand, it is important that you interface with your customers on a regular basis. This practice will foster a much closer business relationship between your company and your customers. Your customers will be happy to talk to you about your products or service.

Positive customer feedback on how you provided pre customer and after sales service leads to customer satisfaction.

You can engage your customers via the traditional method of suggestion boxes, email correspondence or telephone questionnaires.

Global brands like Virgin, Amazon and Google, all engage their respective customers via various social media platforms and networking groups.

7. Offer a range of products

To have a competitive advantage in your market, your company needs to constantly innovate with new products. By offering customers new products and improving on old ones, it makes your brand stronger and competitive.

At one time, Nokia was one of the recognisable brands globally. Despite its great success, Nokia stopped offering new products and this began to affect its sales and the brand.

In 2008, Nokia enjoyed the 9th position as the most valuable brand in the world. By 2011, the Nokia brand plummeted to the 81st position and in 2016, it dipped to a much lower position. The company was eventually bought over by Microsoft.

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Is competitive advantage still sustainable?

When it comes to competitive advantage, the premise upon which this corporate strategy is based is to create a sustainable competitive advantage over so many other competing products and companies in the market place.

This is a win win situation for customers as firstly, companies rarely enjoy a monopoly in the market these days. And those that still do, is only for a short period of time before other competitors spring up.

Secondly, it certainly affords customers the opportunity to choose which company to patronise and buy from. Nowadays, there is no such thing called brand loyalty, more so  if a customer can source for a better and highly effective product elsewhere.

Thirdly, it also gives customers the opportunity to choose products based on low cost, quality and benefits.

Or, higher costs and services (before and after sales) that makes the product price, benefits and product quality,  a justifiable and affordable one.

So then, it appears that the era of  competitive advantage is over. Customers are much wiser and they shop with intelligence these days.

It follows therefore, that companies that still use sustainable competitive advantage as a strategy, will find that they will now struggle compared to other companies who are quick to evolve and adapt to the changing demands of customers.

Evidently, this was the undoing of Nokia when they were bought over by Microsoft. Simply put, Nokia became too complacent with their corporate strategy. They failed to adapt to the changing needs of the market and move along the same pace as their competitors.

As long as the customer remains king in the market place, companies need to constantly rework their corporate strategy and remain at the top of their game, or fierce competitors will overtake them and run them out of business.

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