Making a brand unique can be challenging when hundreds of thousands of products line the average retail store’s shelves. There are already so many well-established brands across multiple industries that introducing a new one that consumers want to buy requires a great deal of effort. However, despite the challenges associated with trying to take a slice of market share for your newly-established business, it might be possible when you take some of the following steps:
Step 1: Identify Your Audience
Whether you plan to start a private label wine business, a shoe company, or a business offering makeup, identifying your audience can be the most crucial first step. Without knowing who you’re selling to, you can struggle to develop appropriate branding for your business and marketing materials for the products you’re trying to sell.
Identifying your audience revolves around creating a ‘perfect’ customer. Identify their age, gender, likes and dislikes, and the pain points they have in everyday life. With this information, you might stand a better chance of designing product packaging and marketing materials that pique the curiosity of the very people you’re trying to sell to.
Step 2: Contact Marketing Professionals
You might be an expert in sourcing or creating products you know your customers will love, but marketing them won’t necessarily be your forte. In that case, consider enlisting the services of marketing professionals who can assist with the development of a branding guide and logo.
Marketing experts know how to create standout logos with desirable elements that appeal to your target audience. They also know how to devise standout marketing campaigns using both old and new marketing methods to help your new products stand out from the crowd.
Step 3: Analyze Your Competition
You might assume that what your competition does is none of your business, but they affect you more than you might think. Remember, your competition is likely selling the same products and services as you, with possibly the same customers you’re trying to attract to your own business.
Take time to analyze your competition so you can see what you’re facing. This can involve identifying their strengths and weaknesses so you can look at ways to capitalize on them. For example, if you know that your direct competition’s weakness is a lack of affordable wine, you might capitalize on that by seeking out cost-effective and delicious beverages and marketing them to your target audience.
Step 4: Avoid Common Branding Mistakes
You want to make your brand stand out for all the right reasons, not because you made marketing mistakes. As you work toward establishing a unique brand, explore common branding mistakes so you can be in a solid position to avoid them.
Some of the most common branding faux pas include having no target audience, copying your competition, and having inconsistent online and offline branding. Fortunately, you can avoid many harmful mistakes by hiring marketing teams to assist in the brand creation process.
Creating a unique brand isn’t necessarily about offering a unique product. Instead, it’s about solving a pain point for your customers and creating marketing materials that grab your potential customers’ interest. Whether you’re selling wine, footwear, or a service, you might be in a strong position to stand out by taking the steps above.
