When you hire new team members for your B2B company, you need to know who they are, what their strengths and weaknesses are, how well they’ll work with other team members, and how well they’re going to work for your organization. You never think of bringing on a new team member without knowing anything about them, yet many business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketers never bother getting to know their own business – their brand and who their brand is.
You might have an idea of what kind of organization you want to be, and you may have designed an awesome logo, but do you really know your brand?
What is Your Brand’s Vision and Mission?
Before you can get to work targeting your future prospects you have to know who you are and make sure your brand will appeal to that audience. Your vision statement is your take on the future – where you plan to be in five years. Your mission statement embodies who you are as a brand and a company. Knowing what your business vision and mission are will help position you better to keep your brand on target with your messaging and market strategies. You Have to Know Your Audience
You Have to Know Your Audience
That means not only knowing your prospective target customers, but also your current clients. Are they in line with each other? Knowing your audience is critical – they are who represent value to your brand. Knowing who your audience is will help you develop a strategy that caters to them, which makes them want to be ambassadors. As brand supporters, your audience should inform your brand and give direction to how you operate. If your key audience is seniors looking for security? Your brand should reassure and project responsibility. If your audience is young and impulsive, your brand should be bold and play on that impulsiveness.
Know Your Company Culture
What kind of culture are you trying to create for your company? Does it mesh with your branding? Is your company culture appealing to your target audience? Your company culture isn’t just important to cultivate external audience support, but also to help your team members bond and reaffirm your brand — what kind of working environment are you trying to create? How do you want team members to interact with each other, and how do you want them interacting with other departments? Once you identify your business culture and commit to it as part of your branding, you’ll be in a better position to use those signature qualities to help lead your organization to success.
What is Your Competition’s Branding?
Knowing your competition and their angle will help you develop your unique brand. While your audience provides you with direct input about your brand, your competition provides information in a more indirect way. Who is your competition as a brand? What’s their culture? How can your organization draw inspiration from competitors while also differentiating yourself from them?
Your brand must be consistent and in line with your organization’s culture, but it also has to be unique, and different from your competitors in significant ways or you won’t stand out. It still also needs to accurately represent what you build, sell, or service while fitting in with your industry in order to build an audience that identifies with and supports your brand.
