Digital platforms and technologies as well as cultural changes and media consumption habits characterizing the digital natives, have influenced the way in which a brand can be built and maintained in this new environment.
The way to build, maintain, and improve a brand goes through a number of stages and guidelines:
Think publicity & social first – Then advertising
The link between a brand and its potential customers should be initially based on engagement and value. Customers’ initial listening to your message will be generated through proper presence on social. Presence. Not campaigns. A brand should strive to produce an ongoing dialog with its customers which usually takes place online and through content.
Different is better than better
Do not try to do better than others. Focus on creative thinking in order to be different. The digital consumer has a rather limited degree of attention and patience, therefore differentiation of your brand should be clear and absolute. Distinction at the product and features level will do a great job for you. If you have not been able to offer a different product, focus on creating differentiation at the level of packaging, marketing or distribution level.
Owning a word or words
Branding in the digital world involves owning a domain, category, or even a term relevant to the target audience.
Credentials / Authenticity
Authenticity is a necessary condition for emotional bonding between consumers and the brand.
Be a Leader
Productive and market creativity may drive you to be leader in your category. Mobility supports the desired differentiation as well as creates customers’ expectations. Better to be a leader – even in a relatively limited category (“the leading Japanese beer” for example).
Try to create a category
The top and most desirable edge in leading is the moment when you create a new category. Even if it initially looks like a niche category. For example, Domino’s Pizza launched a delivery category long before anyone thought there was a demand or a market for it. The idea is to launch a modest initiative and gradually develop it into a more significant category. Digital platforms enable us to address the issue with a very small micro segment and from there to build a significant category.
Brand Name
Should I choose a brand name that describes my service or product, or a creative and cool brand name? Should the brand name convey its category? You should invest creative resources at this stage. A brand name is important in establishing the identity with which the brand will run throughout its life.
On the other hand – contrary to what we were used to in the old offline era – there is no need to invest in creative slogans, because in the digital age, a brand is built through the value it provides to its customers and not by an empty yell / promise (does anybody remember Facebook’s slogan? Or Google’s?).
Singularity/ One of its kind to a unique micro cluster
As early as in its initiation phase, the brand needs to think about the precise target audience to which it will direct its marketing resources. Our recommendation is to think of a segment called – The Passionates.
The people who are passionate about your category are those who will try new products, adopt products, talk about them, read your content, and share it with their online friends. This should be your user profile when you are building your brand.
Distribute an idea not just a product
The digital age requires you to spread an idea, not just a product. Digital marketing is based on relationships, not on a one-way communication. In order to strengthen this method you should base your dialog with the consumer on something that can in time be linked to you.
Talk to people who listen to you
The fiercest marketing competition is on the attention level of the customer. He is exposed to loads of content, ideas, products, and offers. It’s hard to raise your brand above the noise, therefore it is necessary to dedicate resources to locating an audience that will really listen to you, even if it is relatively small. Size does not really matter when your goal is for your captive audience to later grow and spread the word to their friends.
Use the added value of digital
The digital world has brought in its wake additional values that can be relevant to building a brand, which we have not encountered in the old traditional age.
Terms such as SPOQ – Social Proof Of Quality, users involvement, engagement, sharing, exposure cycles, social buying, etc. can be very effective in establishing a successful brand. Take advantage of these promotions for your brand.
Globalism
As you build the brand, think about the world, not just about the local market where you plan to launch your product.
Brand Visualization
One of the characteristics of the native digital generation – the Y and Z generations born to digital – is visual thinking and communication. The new digital aesthetics is based on visualization. Your brand should also think visually and interact with the world accordingly.